japan running news

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110616-OHT1T00176.htm?from=related http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110616-OHT1T00235.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner On June 16 Rikuren announced the elite field for the July 3 Sapporo International Half Marathon . Headlining the race are 2010 World Half Marathon women's champion Florence Jebet Kiplagat (Kenya) and 2010 Asian Games men's marathon gold medalist Youngjun Ji (Korea). Defending champions Cyrus Njui (Kenya/Team Hitachi Cable) and Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC) and 2009 Sapporo winner Gideon Ngatuny (Kenya/Team Nissin Shokuhin) will also return . At the top of the domestic men's field are three members of the Japanese team for this summer's Daegu World Championships marathon, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.), Yoshinori Oda (Team Toyota) and Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki). Also in the women's race is 10000 m national record holder Yoko Shibui (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo). The p...

by Brett Larner Update: Reader vilagoiberia just sent me a link to this video of the last 6.5 km of Kawauchi's run. Dreams come true - Yuki Kawauchi Losing its biggest stories one by one with the withdrawal of world record holder Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia), defending champion Masakazu Fujiwara (Team Honda), debuting Kenyan star Gideon Ngatuny (Team Nissin Shokuhin) and debuting former university Hakone Ekiden star Hideaki Date (Team Chugoku Denryoku), in its fifth edition the Tokyo Marathon got something else entirely. With the day dawning with ideal conditions, 7 degrees, light partial cloud cover and gentle winds, everyone knew the race would be fast. 19 year old pacer Bitan Karoki (Kenya/Team S&B), who ran a course record 27:52 a day earlier in the senior men's 10k at the Fukuoka International XC Meet, took the race out slightly ahead of schedule, splitting 14:56 for the downhill first 5 km and 14:59 for the next. 15 km went by in 44:49, 20 km in 59:53...

by Brett Larner Update 2/26: Hideaki Date (Team Chugoku Denryoku) is also out. Quite a shame. Update 2/25: Along with Gebrselassie, defending champion Masakazu Fujiwara (Team Honda) is out of Tokyo after coming down with a fever. 2007 Tokyo runner-up Tomoyuki Sato (Team Asahi Kasei) is injured and will also DNS. It's Tokyo Marathon week. This is the second of JRN's two-part preview of this year's fifth edition, to be held this Sunday, Feb. 27. Click here for part one , our women's preview, and look for additional articles and info as the week goes along. This year's race will be broadcast live on Fuji TV beginning at 9 a.m. Japan time. Overseas viewers should be able to watch online via Keyhole TV . Some viewers experienced trouble with Keyhole for last week's Yokohama International Women's Marathon but it appears to be working fine as of this writing, so make sure you have downloaded the current version of the player to increase your chances. In any ca...

by Brett Larner 2010 national champions Team Nissin Shokuhin have announced that the team's star, 2008 Kenyan XC national champion Gideon Ngatuny , will run his marathon debut at the Feb. 27 Tokyo Marathon . Ngatuny, who holds a half marathon best of 59:50 and a 10000 m best of 27:01.83, has in the last two years progressively moved up in distance, with wins at the 2008 and 2009 Nagoya Half Marathon and the 2009 Sapporo International Half Marathon and a turn as a pacemaker at the 2010 London Marathon. Ngatuny joins world record holder Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia), 2010 double Sapporo International Half Marathon and Hokkaido Marathon winner Cyrus Njui (Kenya/Team Hitachi Cable) and New Year Ekiden Fifth Stage winner Keita Akiba (Team Komori Corp.) among the athletes to have already publicly declared their participation in what looks to be the highest-level Tokyo Marathon field to date. Gideon Ngatuny - Kenya born 10/10/86 half marathon: 59:50 (Nagoya, 2009) 10000 m: 27:01.83 (T...

http://www.hokkaido-np.co.jp/news/sports/248520.html translated and edited by Brett Larner click link above for video highlights The 2010 Hokkaido Marathon took place Aug. 29 in Sapporo, Hokkaido under exceptionally hot and humid conditions with 27 degree temperatures and 70% humidity at the start. Two-time World Championships marathoner Yumiko Hara (Team Universal Entertainment) won the women's race in 2:34:12 in her debut wearing the Universal uniform after a year of inactivity following her sudden departure from former sponsor Team Kyocera. Kenyan Cyrus Njui (Team Hitachi Cable), winner of last month's Sapporo Half Marathon, won the men's race in 2:11:22, his debut over the marathon distance and the second-fastest time ever recorded in Hokkaido. Njui broke away from leader Mekubo Mogusu (Kenya/Team Aidem) at 38 km to seal the win in an outstanding time for the Hokkaido course. General division entrant Harun Njoroge (Kenya/Team Komori Corp.) likewise overtook the fad...

by Brett Larner Each year the Hokkaido Marathon in Japan's northernmost major city of Sapporo is the first elite race on the worldwide fall marathon season calendar. Although it rarely has overseas elites, Hokkaido showcases much of Japan's up-and-coming talent and some of the better Japan-based Africans. This year's race takes place this Sunday, Aug. 29. The race will be broadcast live on Fuji TV starting at noon, a broadcast which overseas viewers can watch for free by clicking here . Additionally, this year for the first time Hokkaido will sponsor a 5-hour official webcast via Ustream. Check the Hokkaido Marathon website closer to race date for more information. The men's race features the return of defending champion Daniel Njenga (Kenya/Team Yakult). The veteran Njenga may have slipped from the ranks of the world's top-tier marathoners but his world record-pace surge in the middle of last year's race showed that he still has the ability to compete and win...

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20100806-OHT1T00315.htm http://www.hokkaido-np.co.jp/news/sports/245211.html translated and edited by Brett Larner On Aug. 6 the organizing committee of the 2010 Hokkaido Marathon , scheduled for Aug. 29 in Sapporo, Hokkaido, released the names of this year's invited athletes. Defending men's champion Daniel Njenga (Team Yakult) returns to face 2008 winner Masaru Takamizawa (Saku Chosei H.S. AC). The pair will be challenged by this year's Sapporo International Half Marathon winner Silas Njui (Team Hitachi Cable) in his marathon debut, and former Hakone Ekiden star Mekubo Mogusu (Team Aidem) who dropped out of his marathon debut at last December's Fukuoka International Marathon. The women's race features 2008 winner Yukari Sahaku (Team Universal Ent.) along with teammates Mizuho Nasukawa , the 2009 Tokyo Marathon winner, and Yumiko Hara , the 2007 Osaka International Women's Marathon winner. The Hokkaido Marathon is...

by Brett Larner With a new 1:30 p.m. start time due no doubt to the exigencies of live television broadcast, sunny, humid and windy conditions with temperatures of 29 degrees greeted runners at the start of the 53rd Sapporo International Half Marathon on July 4. 2006 men's champion Cyrus Njui (Kenya/Team Hitachi Cable) and 2008 women's winner Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC) came out on top again, winning over the likes of 2009 World Championships marathon gold medalist Abel Kirui (Kenya), 2:05 marathoner Vincent Kipruto (Kenya) and course record holder Mekubo Mogusu (Kenya/Team Aidem) in Njui's case and defending champion Yurika Nakamura (Team Tenmaya) in Kano's. Njui ran a race both controlled and aggressive, at the head of the pack from start to finish but gradually building his win. A conservative 14:28 split over the downhill first 5 km gave way to a 14:22 on the flat from 5 to 10 km. Njui remained at the head of the pack as the group whittled down to four Kenyans...

by Brett Larner On a warm and windy day, 2007 World Championships 10000 m bronze medalist and 10 mile junior world record holder Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) performed up to expectations in his half marathon debut at the May 9 Sendai International Half Marathon . Already on his own after a quick 14:03 first 5 km, Mathathi ran a solo race. He was consistent through 15 km, clocking 14:04 from 5 to 10 km and 14:07 from 10 to 15 km, on pace at that stage to run 59:24. Only after 15 km did he slow, dropping to a 14:30 split from 15 to 20 km. Mathathi finished in 59:48, just 5 seconds off Samuel Wanjiru's 5 year-old course and Japanese all-comers record. His outstanding debut was a prelude to a planned marathon debut in the upcoming winter season. Still yet to regain his university form, runner-up Mekubo Mogusu (Kenya/Team Aidem) was nearly 2 minutes behind in 1:01:34. The top Japanese runner, Osamu Ibata (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) was another 2 minutes back in 1:03:39, fi...

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/100214/spg1002141840005-n1.htm translated by Brett Larner At the 50th anniversary Karatsu 10-Mile Road Race on Feb. 14, 2008 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon winner Tomoya Adachi (Team Asahi Kasei) took 1st in an excellent time of 47:01. Re-entering the track in a tight pack for a final lap at the end of the race, Adachi outkicked last year's runner-up Cyrus Njui (Kenya/Team Hitachi Cable) and Akihiko Tsumurai (Team Mazda) for his first Karatsu win. First-time winner Adachi commented, "I ran with a margin to spare. 47 minutes was my target time," indicating that the run had gone according to plan. In the early stages Adachi was relaxed, looking around at the others up front. With 3 km to go he took charge, leading the pack all the way back to the track for the finish. Adachi plans to run the Feb. 28 Tokyo Marathon and ran Karatsu as a final tune-up. But even though it was a tune-up, Adachi says, "If I had a chance to win I wanted to go ...

by Brett Larner click here for race photos Just a week after qualifying for the World Championships on the track in their respective countries, Kenyan Gideon Ngatuny (Team Nissin Shokuhin) and Japanese Yurika Nakamura (Team Tenmaya) took their first wins at a humid Sapporo International Half Marathon . Japan's World Championships marathon favorites had mixed results but mostly finished far down the field in their last major race before August's big target day. Ngatuny, who was 2nd in the 10000 m at the Kenyan National Championships last weekend to seize a place on the Kenyan national team, staged a man-to-man battle against three-time champion and course record holder Mekubo Mogusu (Team Aidem), who was running his first significant race since a car accident in February left his coach comatose. Initially accompanied by university ace Daniel Gitau (Nihon Univ.), Ngatuny and Mogusu pushed each other through the first 2 km in 5:17. It was too much for Gitau who swiftly folded and...

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/sp20090211a1.html Team Nissan's Silas Jui finished 2nd at the Karatsu 10-Miler on Feb. 8. Nissan is unlikely to be the only company to eliminate its sports teams in the current economic environment.

http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/nsp/item/76204 translated by Brett Larner Photo courtesy of Rikuren. Long distance track ace Yu Mitsuya (Team Toyota Kyushu) won the 49th Karatsu 10 Mile Road Race on Feb. 8 with the kind of finish Japanese marathon fans love to see. Entering the stadium with just 300 m left to go on the track, Mitsuya outkicked Kenyan leader and 2007 Karatsu winner Silas Jui (Team Nissan) to win by 6 seconds after dueling over the last 6 km of the race. Mitsuya raised his hands triumphantly as he broke the finish tape, smashing through the first gate on the road to his debut marathon. "I think Silas had a cold or something, but we'll see each other again in the [Kumanichi] 30 km race. That's where I really want to win," a sweaty Mitsuya commented afterwards, looking toward his first 30 km race with eager eyes. This 10 mile race and the Feb. 22 Kumanichi 30 km Road Race are part of his development plan for a planned marathon debut next year, a series of t...

by Brett Larner Japanese 3000 m, 5000 m and half marathon national record holder Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) provided the standout performance of the third meet in the Hokuren Distance Challenge series, held June 11 in Fukugawa, Hokkaido. Fukushi overcame problems she has faced since her memorable marathon debut in January to win the 10000 m in an Olympic A-standard time of 31:30.94. It was a last-chance attempt by Fukushi to make the Olympic-qualifying National Track and Field Championships 10000 m on June 27 and was a commanding solo performance, with 2nd-place finisher Satoe Matsumoto (Team Nihon ChemiCon) far behind in 32:31.43. An interview after the race quoted Fukushi saying, "I`m a bit late getting on board, so it was a good run." Fukushi also revealed that while preparing for the Fukugawa meet at a training camp in Chitose, Hokkaido, her training included screaming while running. The women`s 10000 m at the Nationals now looks set to be a dream matchup, with Fukush...