japan running news

With Thursday's Diamond League meet making for a busy weekend for race organizers, Stockholm Marathon saw Ethiopia's Sahlesilassie Nigussie break the three year old course record and had a near miss on scoring its first-ever Japanese winner in the year of Idaten . Running on 2:08 pace in a pack of five until the long climb and descent of the Vasterbron bridge, Nigussie broke away on the flatter section into downtown after the bridge and strode on unchallenged to win in 2:10:10, 48 seconds under the old record. Tafese Delegen was next in 2:11:40 to make it an Ethiopian 1-2, with Kenya's Gilbert Yego 3rd in 2:11:58. In the women's race a lead group of six including last year's local winner Mikaela Larsson , Ethiopian Aberash Fayesa , Japan's Yoshiko Sakamoto and three other Swedish runners stayed together until almost 20 km. Running with support from JRN in her first serious marathon outside Japan, Haruka Yamaguchi was 30 seconds back in 7th when Fayes...

Record-breaking temperatures around 30 degrees prevented the kinds of times organizers hoped a new course would deliver for the Stockholm Marathon 's 40th running, with Mikaela Larsson (Sweden) and Lawi Kiptui (Kenya) proving the toughest in the heat with wins in 2:40:28 and 2:13:30. Defending women's champ Konjit Tilahun Biruk was part of an Ethiopian trio that went out on 2:35 pace, Larsson holding back with seven-time winner Isabellah Andersson (Sweden) at a slightly more conservative 2:37 pace. The front group soon stalled, and just past 15 km the Sweden pair made contact. For the next 10 km the new lead group stuck together, but as the race wore on the heat proved too much and they dropped away one by one. By 30 km Larsson had a clear lead and ran on alone to take the top spot in front of a delighted home crowd inside Stockholm's 1912 Olympic Stadium. Beji Bekelu (Ethiopia) held on to 2nd in 2:43:55, but Andersson was run down by another Swedish runner, C...

Amateur winners of two of the world's biggest marathons, 2016 Osaka Marathon champ Yoshiko Sakamoto (YWC) and 2018 Boston Marathon winner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) return to Sweden to run the Stockholm Marathon for the second year in a row this Saturday with support from JRN. For its 40th running Stockholm features a new course designed to cut most of the hills out of the first half of the race, but with temperatures expected to peak at 27C the quality elite field may not be able to take full advantage of the new configuration. 5th last year, Sakamoto is fresh off a 2:35:40 PB at February's Tokyo Marathon. She faces defending champion Konjit Tilahun Biruk (Ethiopia), seven-time winner Isabellah Andersson (Sweden) and #1-ranked Kumeshi Sichala (Ethiopia), the only woman in the field with a current sub-2:30 time. The 2:28:24 event record set way back in 1988 by the great Grete Waitz (Norway) will be a stretch, but however fast it goes Sakamoto hopes to ...

There’s a woman in her 30s who has been breaking marathon course records left and right. A native of Saga, her name is Hiroko Yoshitomi (34, Memolead). In the last year she has broken course records at three domestic marathons including a 2:33:57 at March’s Saga Sakura Marathon. “In terms of my age, I’ve still got years left to be breaking records,” Yoshitomi says. “If you approach your running in terms of that kind of thinking then it’s totally natural that the times are going to come.” At one point she had thought about retiring this season, but for now she’s determined to push on. Tokyo-based running Industry conglomerate Rbies recently launched the Marathon Challenge Cup (MCC) series, a grouping of 33 domestic marathons across the country. In the 2017 season 19 of those member races saw a total of 23 new course records. The only person to set multiple new course records was Yoshitomi. Along with these records, at December’s Honolulu Marathon, February’s Tokyo Marathon and Apri...

Abrha Milaw and formerly Japan-based Konjit Tilahun Biruk scored an Ethiopian double at the 2017 ASICS Stockholm Marathon , both pulling away from packs late in the race to win in 2:11:36 and 2:35:45. (video highlights above) The men's race went out hotter than planned, going through the mostly downhill and flat first 5 km in 15:10 and the uphill-heavy next 5 km in 15:20, mid-2:08 pace on a course with a 2:10:58 record. Things calmed down over the next 10 km, putting the front end of the group at 1:04:56 at halfway, but with a slight surge up front on a gentle downhill leading to the halfway mark Japanese favorite Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) began to drift off the back of the pack. By 25 km he was over 10 seconds behind and backwardly mobile as the race progressed. Another surge coming off the large bridge near 34 km broke up the remaining pack, Milaw putting more than 30 seconds on 2nd-place Samuel Getachew (Ethiopia) by 40 km and cruising in unchallenged...

Fresh from a men's course record of 2:10:58 at last year's race, the ASICS Stockholm Marathon looks ready for an update to that time on Saturday. Ethiopian-born Shumi Dechasa (Bahrain) leads the field on paper, his best time in the last three years a 2:07:20 at the 2015 Tokyo Marathon followed up by a 5th-place finish at the 2015 Beijing World Championships. He hasn't raced in the two years since then, leaving a question mark by his name. #2-ranked John Kemboi (Kenya) has a 2:08:56 PB from the 2015 Frankfurt Marathon, but in his only race since then, last summer's Gold Coast Airport Marathon, he was a DNF. In that race Yuki Kawauchi (Japan/ Saitama Pref. Gov't) was 2nd in 2:09:01, putting him at 3rd in the field. Dechasa and Kawauchi have raced twice before, Dechasa beating Kawauchi by over a minute at the 2013 Seoul International Marathon and by more than 3 minutes at the 2014 Hamburg Marathon. A win over Dechasa would be a major boost to Kawauchi's cha...

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2017/03/19/kiji/20170319s00056000211000c.html https://www.daily.co.jp/general/2017/03/19/0010014104.shtml translated and edited by Brett Larner photo by Tsukasa Kawarai Fresh from being named to the London World Championships men's marathon team on Friday, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) ran the first race of his London buildup Sunday at the Kuki Half Marathon , winning by a massive margin in a course record 1:05:03.  The site of his unofficial half-marathon-in-a-suit world record in its first edition last year, the Kuki Half Marathon is Kawauchi's hometown race.  With a course change sending the race past his alma mater Washinomiya J.H.S. this year, Kawauchi ran wearing his junior high school-era uniform.  "It was a headwind the whole way," he laughed about his time, almost three minutes slower than his PB.  "Now isn't the time to push it. I feel good." Having declared that the World Championshi...

by Brett Larner 2014 Incheon Asian Games marathoner Eri Hayakawa (Team Toto) ran Sunday's Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Half Marathon, finishing 3rd in 1:14:10 behind American Rio Olympics marathoners Shalane Flanagan and Amy Cragg .  Japan's Eri Okubo ran into trouble early at Saturday's Stockholm Marathon, dropping out just halfway through the race.  Okubo started slow, averaging around 4:00/km through 15 km, before dropping to slower than 6:00/km through 20 km and then dropping out.  Jane Moraa Onyangi (Kenya) won the women's race in 2:31:46, with countryman Stanley Kipchirchir Koech taking the men's race in 2:10:58. Ai Utsunomiya (Team Miyazaki Ginko) had more success in the Czech Republic, finishing 4th in the women's race at the Mattoni České Budějovice Half Marathon in 1:13:57.  Ashete Bekere (Ethiopia) won in 1:10:40.  Two of Japan's better male athletes, London Olympian Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) and 2016 National XC Champi...

Former Berlin Marathon race director Horst Milde  of German Road Races sent this link to a story about the great Shizo Kanaguri 's fabled Stockholm Olympics run. http://www.germanroadraces.de/24-1-30156-stockholm-14-july-jubilee-marathon-1912-.html Kanaguri's great-grandson Yoshiaki Kurado  will run this weekend's Stockholm Marathon on the 100th anniversary of the Stockholm Olympics marathon.  Click below for the German-language version of the story. http://www.germanroadraces.de/24-0-30157-stockholm-14-july-jubilee-marathon-1912-.html

2011 Stockholm Marathon Stockholm, Sweden, 5/28/11 click here for complete results Men 1. Shumi Gerbaba (Ethiopia) - 2:14:07 2. Dominic Pius Ondoro (Kenya) - 2:14:23 3. Kenneth Korir (Kenya) - 2:15:09 Women 1. Isabellah Andersson (Kenya/Sweden) - 2:37:28 2. Eri Okubo (Second Wind AC) - 2:38:58 3. Irina Permitina (Russia) - 2:39:44