japan running news

by Brett Larner Click photo for video highlights. 2011 Hakone Ekiden champion Waseda University's star sophomore Suguru Osako , the Asian junior area record holder for the half marathon, won his first world title on the second day of the 2011 World University Games as he ran a season-best 28:42.83 to take the men's 10000 m.  Russian Sergey Rybin  took the race out at a blistering speed, clocking 2:44.13 for the first 1000 m and going through halfway in 13:53.21.  The pace burned most of the competition before Rybin began to slow.  By 8000 m Rybin was running slower than 3:00 / km, and, staggering after being passed by Osako on the last lap, he dropped out with less than 200 m to go.  The 20-year-old Osako, who ran most of the race with 26-year-old South African  Stephen Mokoka , executed a long kick over the last 400 m to win by more than ten seconds.  Mokoka took silver, with 26-year-old Moroccan Ahmed Tamri  picking up bronze in 29...

by Brett Larner Entry lists are up for the 2011 Oda Memorial Track and Field Meet on Apr. 29 in Hiroshima, one of the big meets on the spring Japanese calendar. This year's meet features an extra round of distance events with separate 5000 m qualifier heats for the World University Games 5000 m teams alongside the regular open 5000 m heats. The university men's 5000 m may be the most exciting race of the day, with 2011 Hakone Ekiden champion Waseda University fielding big guns Shota Hiraga , Suguru Osako , Yuki Yagi and Yo Yazawa and rival Meiji University its ace Tetsuya Yoroizaka along with star first-year recruits Yuki Arimura and Genki Yagisawa . #1-ranked first-year Kazuto Nishiike will be debuting for Hosei University, while 2010 Kanto Regional 5000 m champion Taku Fujimoto (Kokushikan Univ.) will tune up to defend his title at May's Kanto Regionals. Like Waseda, Ritsumeikan University will be putting all its best people into the university women's 5000 m...

by Brett Larner Entry lists are up for one of Japan's biggest spring meets, the Apr. 23-24 Hyogo Relay Carnival. With the cancellation of many of the spring's half marathons after last month's disasters, this year's meet features an exceptionally deep level of talent, particularly at the university level where the men's and women's 10000 m will serve as selection races for the half marathon team for this year's World University Games. The men's Grand Prix 10000 m has an all-star lineup led by two sub-27 men, Japanese all-comers record holder Josephat Ndambiri (Kenya/Team Komori Corp.) and '07 World Championships 10000 m bronze medalist and 10 mile junior world record holder Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC). Lining up against them are '08 World XC Jr. champion Ibrahim Jeilan (Ethiopia/Team Honda), '11 World XC runner-up Paul Tanui (Kenya/Team Kyudenko), sub-28 men Masato Kihara (Team Kanebo), Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko), ...

by Brett Larner #316 Tatsuro Okazaki leads half marathon Asian jr. area record holder Suguru Osako, #315, in the 1500 m on Apr. 2 at Tokyo's National Stadium. Click here for more pictures courtesy of WESC. Even as road races continue to be cancelled in the wake of last month's earthquake and tsunami, track season got underway this weekend with a handful of competitive meets across the country. Among highlights of the distance events: At the Mar. 30 Kokushikan University Time Trials in Tama, Tokyo, women's 10000 m junior national record holder Megumi Kinukawa (Team Mizuno) returned from a long layoff due to injury to run 15:46.58 , the lone woman in a men's 5000 m. 2011 Hakone Ekiden winners Waseda University dominated the distance events at the Tokyo Six University Meet at the National Stadium on Apr. 2. Seniors Yo Yazawa and Yuki Yagi went 1-2 in the 5000 m, clocking 14:03.04 and 14:15.73. Sophomores Kohei Kudo and Noriki Tazawa likewise went 1-2 in the 300...

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/e-japan/nagano/news/20110117-OYT8T01097.htm http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2011/01/17/kiji/K20110117000067200.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Saku Chosei H.S. head coach Hayashi Morozumi , 44, announced Jan. 17 that in April he will take over as head coach of his alma mater, 2011 Hakone Ekiden 4th-place Tokai University. Morozumi will replace current Tokai coach Toshihiro Arai , 58, who coached Morozumi during Morozumi's student days and asked him to be his replacement. Morozumi told reporters, "My goal is not just to do well at the Hakone Ekiden but to produce Olympians." Morozumi graduated from Tokai Dai-San Prep H.S. before running for Tokai University where he competed in the Hakone Ekiden all four years. He later ran professionally for the Nissan and Daiei teams. Morozumi has been head coach at Saku Chosei since 1995 and brought the school its first National High School Ekiden Championships title in 2008 along with twelve t...

by Brett Larner Kashiwabara for the win. Click to enlarge photo. For the third-straight year Toyo University 's Ryuji Kashiwabara was the deciding factor on day one of Japan's biggest race, the Hakone Ekiden. Starting the 23.4 km, nearly 900 m climbing Fifth Stage in 3rd place 2:54 behind leader Hideki Inomata of rival Waseda University , Kashiwabara ended up 27 seconds ahead, giving Toyo the win as the team broke the five-stage, 108.0 km Day One course record by over a minute to finish in 5:29:50. Kashiwabara, who was been injured most of the year, missed his own course record by less than a minute but still finished faster than any other runner ever has, winning the stage in 1:17:53. Inomata, in his first and last Hakone, brought Waseda home in 2nd in 5:30:17, likewise clearing the old course record held by Yamanashi Gakuin University for eight years. With seven men holding sub-29 minute 10000 m PBs each Toyo and Waseda were already the best two university teams Japan h...

by Brett Larner If you’re a distance running fan then it is nearly time for the best two days of the year: the 87th annual Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden . A ten-stage, 217.9 km university championship race spread over two days with a live nationwide TV broadcast that attracts domestic viewership ratings of over 30%, Hakone is a cultural institution in Japan and features the most gripping and dramatic racing of the year. There’s good and bad in that, but for now at least we’ll focus on the good. Overseas viewers have the chance to watch Nihon TV’s Hakone broadcast online via Keyhole TV, available here . It’s not perfect, but in the absence of an overseas broadcast or official webcast it’s the only chance you have to be part of it if you live outside Japan. The broadcast begins at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on both Jan. 2 and 3 with the race starting at 8:00 a.m. and lasting until around 2:00 p.m. For those on the west coast of North America that means the race begins at 3:00 p.m. on Jan. 1 and goes...

by Brett Larner Arata Fujiwara photo by Brett Larner This is the second of JRN's four-part year-end review. Click here to read the second part , a ranking of the top 10 Japanese women of 2010. Look for the third and fourth parts, the top 10 Japanese men and women of 2001-2010 and a look at the history and future of Japanese marathoning, early in the new year. To be honest, the Japanese man of the year should probably be either Shota Iizuka , the Chuo University first-year whose 4x100 m anchor leg at May's Kanto Regionals was heard 'round the world and who went on to win 200 m gold at the World Jr. Track and Field Championships, or Ichiro Suzuki , whose running abilities were critical in him scoring his tenth consecutive year of 200 major league hits, but as a distance running site JRN can only give them their due before turning to the long distance runners. Contrary to appearances, 2010 was an improvement over 2009. For the second year in a row only one man broke 2:1...

by Brett Larner As the year is winding down Japan's distance runners, all the way from junior high school to the jitsugyodan corporate world, are gearing up for the national championship ekidens. It's a quirk of the system that the biggest of them all, the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden , is a regional university men's event for the Kanto area around Tokyo. Twenty teams, ten men per school, each man running one of ten stages roughly a half marathon in distance over the course of two days all with a live national broadcast with 30% viewership ratings and millions more lining the course. It's hard to overstate how important and popular it is and how captivating to watch. The 2011 Hakone Ekiden entry lists were released today and overall the field shows unparalleled quality. 45 men hold 10000 m PBs under 29 minutes, 2 of them under 28, with a raft of others holding noteworthy marks at 5000 m, 20 km and the half marathon. Takushoku University 's Kenyan first-years John Maina a...

by Brett Larner photos by Daniel Seite Suguru Osako, 2010 Ageo City Half Marathon winner. Waseda University first-year Suguru Osako ran his biggest performance yet Nov. 21 at the Ageo City Half Marathon, winning his half marathon debut in a new junior national record and junior Asian record of 1:01:47. Running in perfect conditions the 19 year-old Osako, who holds a 5000 m PB of 13:47.29 and a 10000 m PB of 28:35.75, battled it out with Kenyan Cosmas Ondiba (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) for 16 km ahead of a large chase pack before dropping a hard surge with 5 km to go and pulling away for the win with the largest margin of victory in Ageo history, 57 seconds. Following the race he told the Yomiuri newspaper , "That didn't feel like it was very long at all." Cosmas Ondiba (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) leads Osako and 3000 mSC national record holder Yoshitaka Iwamizu (Team Fujitsu) at 3 km. Osako became only the third man to break 1:02 at Ageo and the fastest-ever Japanese runner to...

by Brett Larner Sophomore Shota Hiraga brings Waseda University in for a course record win at the 2010 Izumo Ekiden. With starting temperatures an unseasonable 27 degrees, Waseda University head coach Yasuyuki Watanabe finally put it together Oct. 11 with the biggest success of his career, a sleek and scintillating course record win at the 22nd Izumo Ekiden . Despite a slight edge on paper over rivals Komazawa University and Nittai University , Watanabe's history of drilling talented squads into the ground and arriving at important races in tatters stood against Waseda's chances. The fears of another blowup were groundless. All six Waseda runners, juniors Yo Yazawa and Yuki Yagi , sophomore Saku Chosei HS grads Hiroyuki Sasaki and Shota Hiraga and star frosh recruits and 2010 World Jr. Championships teammates Suguru Osako and Fuminori Shikata ran perfectly, the first time in recent memory that can be said of a Waseda team. Yazawa pushed Kenyan Cosmas Ondiba (Yamanashi ...

http://www.iaaf.org/WJC10/news/kind=108/newsid=57503.html 2010 World Junior Championships - Top Results click here for complete results Men's 10000 m 1. Dennis Chepkongin Masai (KEN) - 27:53.88 - PB 2. Gebretsadik Abraha (ETH) - 28:03.45 - PB 3. Paul Kipchumba Lonyangata (KEN) - 28:14.55 - PB ----- 8. Suguru Osako (JPN) - 29:40.14 (ranked 3rd pre-race) 9. Fuminori Shikata (JPN) - 29:47.87 (ranked 5th pre-race) In other results from the second day of competition: Manami Mashita made the second round in the women's 800 m while teammate Ayaka Yokose missed the cutoff. Although Junki Yanagisawa recorded a season best, both he and Keitaro Sato failed to move past the first round in the men's 400 m. Miho Shingu was more successful, making the next round in the women's 400 m. Both Takumi Kuki and Ryo Onabuta advanced through the first round of the men's 100 m. Nodoka Seka likewise advanced in the women's 100 m, but teammate Akane Ishida was a DNS. Women's ...

by Brett Larner The 2010 World Junior Championships in athletics begin tomorrow, July 19, in Moncton, Canada and Japan is sending a solid team with more realistic medal chances than its senior teams typically have at the World Championships level. Japan's best chance for a gold medal may be in the women's 10000 m race walk, where Kumiko Okada 's PB of 45:23.83 is well over a minute better than her closest rival Chiaki Asada . Be this as it may, the lion's share of the attention is likely to be on Japan's other legitimate gold medal contender, sprinter Shota Iizuka in the men's 200 m. Iizuka, a first-year at Chuo University, gained international attention in May thanks to a Youtube video of his stunning anchor leg for Chuo in the men's 4 x 100 m relay at the Kanto Regional University Championships. In that world-class performance Iizuka singlehandedly gave Chuo a one-second margin of victory and the national collegiate record of 38.54. Iizuka went on to win ...