japan running news

Having scored its 3rd-straight Hakone Ekiden win this past January, Aoyama Gakuin University spent the Golden Week spring holidays training on the Myoko Plateau in Niigata from May 2-6. Along with the champion men's ekiden team, the first 2 members of AGU's new women's long distance team Nodoka Ashida and Kairi Ikeno , and AGU alumni and 2026 New Year Ekiden champion GMO team members Yuya Yoshida and Asahi Kuroda also took part in the training camp. Depending on the day's training schedule, mileage at the camp was over 50 km a day. AGU men's captain Kaito Nakamura confidently said, "This Golden Week training camp is where we lay the foundations for our 4th-straight Hakone title." A lot of people spend Golden Week on vacation, but the AGU ekiden team spent their time working hard on Myoko's rolling land amid the sprouting leaves of spring. On the 2nd day of the camp, May 3, team members woke up at 5:00 a.m. to do their warmup. The team assembled a...

After the Osaka International Women's Marathon and Osaka Half Marathon last weekend Japan's winter road season rolls on with 3 big races Sunday. The Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon has a good field up front in the women's race with 5 runners, Eilish McColgan , Dolphine Omare , Isobel Batt-Doyle , Charlotte Purdue and Yuka Ando , with sub-1:09 bests and the debut of #1 collegiate runner Sarah Wanjiru of Daito Bunka University . 3 men in Marugame have recent sub-60 times, Emmanuel Maru , Richard Etir and Kotaro Shinohara leading the way. Shinohara was one of 2 Japanese men to break 60 at Marugame last year and missed the NR by 3 seconds in 59:30. After a 42:53 CR on his 15.3 km leg at the New Year Ekiden on Jan.1, 45:06 pace for 10 miles, he's looking to pick up at least another 4 seconds this time around. 14 other men in the field are at the 60-minute level, and Chuo University 's sub-28 10000 m runner Yamato Hamaguchi is making a highly anticip...

The Feb. 1 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon is coming in hot this year with what's got to be a shot at the 2:04:55 Japanese NR. Up front is the king of this year's Hakone Ekiden, collegiate marathon NR holder Asahi Kuroda of 2026 Hakone champ Aoyama Gakuin University . Last year at Beppu-Oita AGU's Hiroki Wakabayashi ran a 2:06:07 debut to break the collegiate marathon record. 3 weeks later Kuroda bettered that with a 2:06:05 in his debut in Osaka. He comes in fresh off the greatest run in Hakone history, taking 2 minutes off Wakabayashi's CR for the massive uphill Fifth Stage in a run that Letsrun.com estimated was worth a 57:30-58:00 half marathon. Make of that what you will, if you accept 58:00 that's worth sub-2:02 in the marathon. Call it 59:00 and you're still talking sub-2:04. Can he possibly live up to the hype? Beppu-Oita is basically not that kind of race, but looking at the rest of the front end of the field they've got to be thinking that way. 2:...

  The 47th Kanagawa Half Marathon took place Sunday in Yokohama on a course starting and finishing outside the Nissin Oil Group's Isogo factory. First across the finish line was the winner of December's Fukuoka International Half Marathon and Aoyama Gakuin University  alumnus  Yuya Yoshida  (GMO), who clocked 1:02:12. Aoyama Gakuin 3rd-year  Shunya Udagawa  was next in a 1:02:20 PB, with Yusei Tomita  of Nihon University  3rd in 1:02:20 and  Yumiki Kunigo  setting a Heisei Kokusai University  school record 1:02:24 for 4th. Last year's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon runner-up Yuta Shimoda , another Aoyama Gakuin graduate running for GMO, ran 1:02:43. Fresh off a 32:08 win in last week's Katsuta Marathon 10 km, Hakuho Joshi H.S.  3rd-year Jecinta Nyokabi  won the women's 10 km here too in 31:53. Elsewhere, Jun Kojima  of Ryutsu Keizai University  won the Moriya Half Marathon in Ibaraki in 1:03:48. Kana Numata ...

  At this weekend's Summer Night Run Festival in CHUO track meet at Chuo University 's Tama campus, Chuo 1st-year Kaisei Okada ran 7:55.41 for 3000 m, the 4th-fastest Japanese U20 time ever. A rebranded version of the Chuo University Time Trials series, the Summer Night Run Festival featured top junior high school and high school athletes and members of Aoyama Gakuin University 's 2024 Hakone Ekiden champion team, with Chuo team members and alumni running as pacers. The third heat of 3000 m included AGU's Asahi Kuroda , Shota Shiode and Shunya Udagawa . Okada won, his 7:55.41 being his first time under 8 minutes, with 2nd-year teammate Hayate Honma also cracking 8 minutes in 7:58.65 for 2nd. Kuroda was 3rd in 8:02.83, with AGU 1st-year Hikaru Ogawara 5th in 8:05.81. Okada graduated from Kyoto's Rakunan H.S. , home of national record setters like Keita Sato , Ryuji Miura , Yoshihide Kiryu and Toshinari Takaoka . His 2nd year of high school he was 12th in the 50...

Day two of the 103rd Kanto Regionals meet took place Friday at Tokyo's National Stadium and other facilities. The 1500 m was the only mid or long-distance final on the program, and in the D1 women's final 4th-yr Yuiri Ogata (Nittai Univ.) scored a dominant win with a 4:19.08 PB that put her 2 1/2 seconds up on 2nd-placer Yui Yoshii (Daito Bunka Univ.). 4th-yr Hiroto Takamura (Nittai Univ.) won the D1 men's title in 3:45.65, with 2nd-yr Ryoto Aoki (Rikkyo Univ.) taking the top spot in a strategic D2 men's final in 3:52.93. D2 men also had a round of 5000 m qualifiers on the program. Kenyans took the top four spots in Heat 1 led by newcomer Brian Kiptoo (Reitaku Univ.) in 13:50.47, with Hakone Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University 4th-yr Kota Nakaya outrunning Hakone champ Aoyama Gakuin University 1st-yr Sota Orita for 1st in the slower Heat 2, 14:04.47 to 14:04.95. The final happens Sunday alongside the D1 men's and women's races. In other noteworthy per...

The bar was raised again for the Hakone Ekiden's 100th running on Jan. 1-2. Wednesday night at the Meiji-Aoyama Gakuin-Rikkyo-Chuo-Hosei pentangular MARCH Taikosen 10000 m meet in Machida, Tokyo, hosts Aoyama Gakuin University dominated with 10 of its members running new sub-29 PBs, 6 of them going sub-28:30. AGU 4th-year Issei Sato led the way with a meet record 28:11.00 to win the fastest heat, 2nd-year Asahi Kuroda following up great runs at both the Izumo and National University ekidens with a 28:15.82 PB for 3rd and 4th-year Genta Kuramoto just getting under 28:20 with a 28:19.31 PB for 4th. 2023 Hakone runner-up Chuo University and some of the other teams that just ran the Ageo City Half Marathon on Sunday had a lighter presence, but 2 Chuo runners did go sub-28:30, 4th-year Jin Yuasa taking 2nd behind Sato in a PB 28:12.17, and 3rd-year Haruki Abe running a 28:26.58 PB for 6th. The fastest finishers from Rikkyo University and Hosei University both clocked PBs, R...