japan running news

  The winner of Tokyo's Year End Half Marathon in 2019,  Andy Buchanan  ran a crafty race to beat four sub-61 Japanese men and the debuting Australian  Isaac Heyne  at the Gold Coast Half Marathon . Smiling most of the way, Heyne led on 2:59/km pace through the turnaround point just before 11 km before Koki Kamata  took over. From there it was a series of turnovers that took the lead group down to just Heyne, favorite Shunsuke Shikama , 2:06 marathoner Daisuke Doi , and Buchanan. All of them made moves in the last 2 km, but Buchanan made the definitive one in the last km, pulling away to win in a PB 1:02:20. After falling slightly behind, Heyne fought back for 2nd in 1:02:22 with Doi getting Shikama on the line for 3rd, both clocking 1:02:25. Four other Japanese men including 2:05 marathoner Kenya Sonota  made the top 10. The women's race started out as a trio with Australians Leanne Pompeani  and Jessica Stenson , and two-time winner  Sara H...

Tokyo Kokusai University made history Sunday night at Kanagawa’s Sagamihara Gion Stadium, winning the Kanto Region Qualifier for November’s National University Ekiden to make the national championship ekiden for the first time. One of the wave of new programs to break onto the Hakone scene in recent years, won by a margin of just 13 seconds for the combined times of its eight runners in four heats of 10000 m, downing major established schools like Meiji University , Waseda University and Nittai University to take the top spot. A big part of that was first-year Vincent Yegon , who won the most competitive heat in 28:04.56 to give Tokyo Kokusai an edge on cumulative time. But with a margin of more than 2:40 over the final qualifying team, 5th-place Chuo Gakuin University , the rest of the team pulled its weight and would have almost certainly qualified even without the boost from Yegon. Chuo University was the unlucky 6th-placer at less than 18 seconds behind Chuo Gakuin, abou...

http://mainichi.jp/articles/20151215/ddl/k10/050/142000c http://www.jomo-news.co.jp/ns/2714501114405686/news.html http://www.jomo-news.co.jp/ns/8814501067456492/news.html translated and edited by Brett Larner The 23rd National Junior High School Ekiden Championships took place Dec. 13 at the Seminar Park Cross Country Course in Yamaguchi.  48 boys' and girls' teams competed, the prefectural champion school from each of Japan's 47 prefectures plus a second team from hosts Yamaguchi prefecture. Maebashi Fujimi J.H.S. of Gunma prefecture scored its first-ever win in the six-stage, 18.0 km boys' race in 56:37, beating rivals Ohtawara J.H.S. of Tochigi prefecture by 15 seconds.  Following Nakanojo J.H.S. in 1998 and 2000 and Yoshioka J.H.S. in 2009 Maebashi Fujimi became just the fourth school from Gunma to win the national title.  Captain Daiki Arai , 3rd year, said, "I'm so happy it's like a dream.  In long distance running it's really easy to...