japan running news

  Six more people picked up qualifying spots for next year's MGC Race at yesterday's Hokkaido Marathon in Sapporo, guaranteeing themselves places at Japan's 2028 Los Angeles Olympics marathon trials. In the men's race, Hibiki Yoshida tried to break away from the massive lead group at 30 km, opening a 25-second lead between there and 35 km before getting cut down by the chase trio of Jin Yuasa , Ken Tansho and Masato Arao . All three stayed together until the very end, Yuasa showing the same kind of closing speed he had in winning 2025 Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon and pulling away to win in 2:10:46. The debuting Tansho was next in 2:10:55, with Arao, 6th at last year's Sydney Marathon in an excellent 2:07:42, 3rd here in 2:10:59. By clearing 2:12:00 all three picked up MGC qualifying spots, freeing them up to go overseas next spring. Continuing a great season, Soka University 's Shoki Yamaguchi was 4th in 2:11:47, missing out on trials qualification but bea...

We're back from a short summer break. A week and a half out from the first race of the season's four World Marathon Majors races, here's a look at Japanese athletes scheduled to run. Everything right now is about qualifying for the MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to be held in the fall of 2027 in Nagoya. The JAAF makes no mistake about wanting to keep its top people racing domestically where it can get a share of revenue from the TV broadcast and race operations, so anyone who decides to race overseas has to do it in a WA platinum label race and hit either 2:06:30 or 2:23:30, regardless of place, course or weather if they want to make the trials. At the same time concessions are make for domestic races, like for example the late-August Hokkaido Marathon where up to 3 men and 3 women can qualify if they go 2:12:00 or 2:32:00. As a result, you get things like last year where amateur runner Yudai Fukuda made the trials by finishing 3rd Jap...

photo © 2025 Victah Sailer/Photo Run, all rights reserved On Jan. 8 the Edion women's corporate team announced that Ai Hosoda , 30, will retire at the end of March this year. The Tokyo Marathon will be her last race. At Nagano Higashi H.S. Hosoda ran in the National High School Ekiden her 2nd and 3rd years. During her 3rd year at Nittai University she won both the 5000 m and 10000 m at the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, going on to win the bronze medal in the 10000 m at the World University Games in her 4th year at Nittai. After graduating she joined the Daihatsu corporate team, debuting at the 2019 Nagoya Women's Marathon in 2:29:27. 2 years later she transferred to Edion. She qualified for the Paris Olympics marathon trials at the 2022 Nagoya Women's Marathon and finished 3rd in the trials in the fall of 2023, but was later bumped down to Olympic alternate after another athlete ran a faster time. Instead of the Olympics, Hosoda ran the 2024 Ber...

photo © 2025 Victah Sailer/PhotoRun, all rights reserved On Sept. 9 Ai Hosoda (29, Edion), who became the first Japanese athlete to qualify for the MGC Race Los Angeles Olympics marathon trials when she finished 6th at last month's Sydney Marathon , updated her Instagram story to thank everyone who has congratulated her. She posted pictures of cakes decorated with messages of congratulations, bouquets of flowers, and pictures that people had drawn. "I'm happy that everyone celebrated with me," she wrote. "Even the hotel staff gave me flowers. Thank you all very much." Hosoda ran 2:23:27 for 6th at the Sydney Marathon. That cleared the JAAF's criteria for the Olympic marathon trials, sub-2:23:30, making Hosoda the first athlete female or male to score a place on the starting line of the trials race expected to be held the fall of 2027. Right after the race on Aug. 31 she posted, "I finally got to run in the country I always wanted to visit the most....

photo © 2025 Victah Sailer/PhotoRun, all rights reserved Last weekend's Sydney Marathon featured one breakthrough performance that was kind of low in the mix. Running his first marathon outside Japan, 25-year-old Masato Arao negative split a 2:07:42 PB, moving up fast over the last 10 km to pass Eliud Kipchoge and finish 6th. With the Sydney course estimated to be about 2 minutes slow with tough hills in the early going, that meant Arao's run was about equal in quality to all-time Japanese #5, the only better marathon by a Japanese man outside Japan being Yohei Ikeda 's 2:05:12 for 6th in Berlin last fall. It was a pretty amazing breakthrough for someone who never made his college team's starting varsity lineup and a year ago was working full-time in his hometown and running for fun. Born and raised way up north in Yamagata, Arao showed a bit of promise at Sakata Minami H.S. , running the First Stage at the National High School Ekiden his first year in 2016 and maki...

Dark horse Masato Arao and Paris Olympics marathon team alternate Ai Hosoda took the top Japanese spots in the TCS Sydney Marathon 's first edition as part of the Abbott World Marathon Majors, both finishing 6th. Ranked 20th in the field, Arao, who this time last year was working a full-time job after not getting a corporate team contract post-college, came to Sydney for his international debut with the A-goal of making top 10 off a 1:30:50 win at the hilly Ome 30 km in February and an almost 10-minute PB of 2:08:05 in his second marathon at Tokyo in February. After driving the course and seeing the major hills in the first 15 km he opted out of going with the lead group, deciding to stick with the 2nd group on 2:08 pace until things leveled out after 15 km and seeing how it went. As it turned out the lead group with all the big names was a lot slower than planned, never more than a minute ahead of the 2nd group including Arao, Kento Kikutani , Kosei Machida and Australians Haft...

https://www.athletics.com.au/news/kipchoge-leads-unprecedented-mens-field-at-2025-tcs-sydney-marathon/

https://www.athletics.com.au/news/historic-elite-female-field-set-to-descend-on-iconic-tcs-sydney-marathon-course-in-2025/ Paris Olympics women's marathon alternate Ai Hosoda  is scheduled to run in Sydney.

Three major road races around the world had Japanese athletes in their fields this weekend. Kensuke Horio (Kyudenko) was first up at the 20th anniversary Sydney Marathon in Australia. With a 2:08:25 in Tokyo this spring still wearing the Toyota  uniform Horio needed to run 2:11:35 or better to qualify for next September's MGC Race Olympic marathon trials, a tougher task than it sounds on Sydney's technical course. After starting off at 2:06:10 pace Horio ran every 5 km slower than the one before except for the section from 25 to 30 km. He ultimately ended up 9th in 2:20:07, missing both the time and his pre-race goal of a top 6 finish. Moses Kibet won in 2:07:03, he and the next three runners all breaking Yuta Shitara 's 2:07:50 Australian all-comers record. Tigist Girma Getachew won the women's race in 2:25:10. At the Copenhagen Half Marathon in Denmark, 1:00:38 man Yusuke Tamura (Kurosaki Harima) lasted through 10 km on NR pace before slowing, splitting 28:12/3...

Aiming to make it back to the Hakone Ekiden for the first time in 12 years, on Apr. 6 Asia University held a press conference in Tokyo to announce the addition of Rio Olympics marathoner Satoru Sasaki , 35, to its coaching staff. "I can feel that expectations of me are very high," Sasaki said. "But it's my hope that I can use that as fuel in helping get Asia back to Hakone." Having retired after last December's Fukuoka International Marathon, Sasaki joined the staff at Asia, the 2006 Hakone champion, on Apr. 1 at the start of the academic year. After leaving the Asahi Kasei  corporate team and relocating from its base in Nobeoka, Miyazaki, Sasaki moved into the team dormitory on Apr. 2 to start living with the athletes. "There are a lot of student athletes here who are running very well, and the times they are chasing in training are high quality," he commented on his impressions of the current Asia team. "What's left is to think with the...

Despite warm and windy conditions the Blackmores Sydney Marathon saw new course records in both its men's and women's races. Felix Kiprotich (Kenya) led the way in the men's race with the first-ever sub-2:10 clocking on Sydney's challengingly hilly and twisting course, breaking away from a group including Michael Kunyuga (Kenya) and Satoru Sasaki (Asahi Kasei) for the win in 2:09:49. The top three all broke the course record. Sasaki, a Rio Olympian in the marathon who failed to qualify for today's MGC Race 2020 Olympic trials, could take extra satisfaction from having been 26 seconds faster than MGC winner Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) on a far tougher course. "I was aiming to win," Sasaki told JRN post-race, "but the course was really twisty and it was hard to run. It would have been nice to be a bit faster, but given my current situation and the problems I've had since Lake Biwa last year I think this put me back on my feet and will help me ...

Tomohiro Tanigawa age: 30 sponsor: Konica Minolta graduated from: Kumamoto Kogyo H.S., Takushoku University best time inside MGC window: 2:12:02, 3rd, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon PB: 2:11:39, 2nd, 2015 Nagano Marathon other PBs: 5000 m: 13:51.09 (2013) 10000 m: 28:24.31 (2013) half marathon: 1:02:18 (2013) marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019): 3rd, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon, 2:12:02 28th, 2018 Beppu-Oita Marathon, 2:18:33 other major results: 5th, 2019 New Year Ekiden Seventh Stage (15.5 km), 46:28 4th, 2018 East Japan Corporate Ekiden Seventh Stage (12.9 km), 38:12 1st, 2016 Sydney Marathon, 2:12:13 Tanigawa is the only athlete male or female in the MGC Race to have never broken the 2020 Olympics marathon qualifying time standard. He did win the gold label Sydney Marathon in 2016, equivalent to having cleared the standard, but his PB of 2:11:39 from 2015 is just shy of the 2:11:30 time standard. Tanigawa graduated from Takushoku University,...

Following within 24 hours of Yuki Kawauchi 's win at the BMW Oslo Marathon and Yuta Shitara 's national record at the Usti nad Labem Half Marathon , Shota Hattori (Honda) made it an overseas hat trick for men from Japan's Saitama prefecture when he won the Sydney Marathon in 2:15:16. Having debuted at February's Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon with a 2:14:19 for 2nd, Hattori outlasted Ethiopian Werkuneh Seyoum Aboye , Kenyan Sammy Kigen Korir (Kenya) and compatriot Ryoma Takeuchi (Hitachi Butsuryu) to become the third-straight Japanese men's Sydney champ, winning by a margin of 20 seconds over Aboye. Congratulations to Shota Hattori, male winner of the Blackmores Marathon – with a time of 02:15:16. #SydneyRunningFestival pic.twitter.com/R47w8TCG2X — SydneyRunFestival (@officialbsrf) September 17, 2017 No Japanese women made the podium in the marathon, but in the accompanying half marathon both the men's and women's races saw Japanese runners-up. I...

by Brett Larner Japanese athletes scored three overseas road race wins Sunday.  In Australia, Tomohiro Tanigawa (Team Konica Minolta) and Kei Katanashi (Komazawa Univ.) doubled at the Sydney Marathon , Tanigawa outlasting the field in the men's marathon to score a second-straight win for Japanese men and Katanishi soloing his way to the half marathon title.  At Portugal's Sport Zone Porto Half Marathon , Nao Isaka (Team Hitachi) followed up with a win in the women's race, running down #1-ranked Martha Akeno (Kenya) to win in 1:12:12.   Hiroshi Ichida (Team Asahi Kasei) was the top Japanese man in Porto, 9th overall in 1:04:01, while Yusei Nakao (Smiley Angel AC) was a DNF after coming down with a fever during his flight to Porto.  At the Czech Republic's Usti Nad Labem Half Marathon , last year's Sydney Half women's winner Kikuyo Tsuzaki (Team Noritz) equalled Ichida's performance, 9th in 1:13:26 with teammate Misato Horie 39 seconds back in 11th....

http://news.goo.ne.jp/article/mainichi_region/region/mainichi_region-20160201ddlk40050396000c.html translated by Brett Larner Appearing at an event in Kurosaki as part of a campaign to revitalize the area through better health, London Olympics men's marathon 6th-placer Kentaro Nakamoto and other members of the local Yasukawa Denki corporate team spoke on the theme of "From Kurosaki to the World."  "My goal is to make the Rio Olympics," Nakamoto said with determination. The event took place in the Yasukawa Denki Headquarters Auditorium.  Appearing alongside Nakamoto were 2015 Sydney Marathon winner Hisanori Kitajima and 2012 Fukuoka International Marathon 5th-placer Bunta Kuroki , a graduate of Tsutsui Elementary School.  The trio spoke about the appeal of the marathon, their training, and their future goals. All three plan to run March's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, which will serve as the final Olympic selection race.  Nakamoto commented, "T...

by Brett Larner Japanese athletes were in action abroad on three continents over the weekend.  The biggest result came at the Netherlands' Dam tot Damloop 10-Miler, where Risa Takenaka (Team Shiseido), winner of July's Gold Coast Airport Marathon, ran 52:56 on the point-to-point course to finish 12 seconds ahead of the national record set 8 1/2 years ago by Mai Endo (Team Nihon ChemiCon) in Kasumigaura. 2015 Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon winner Hisanori Kitajima (Team Yasukawa Denki) won again at the Sydney Marathon, outkicking Nobeoka 3rd-placer Hiroki Yamagishi (Team Hitachi Butsuryu) by three seconds for the win in 2:12:44.  Former Hakone Ekiden uphill superstar Ryuji Kashiwabara (Team Fujitsu) made a surprisingly low-key but distinctly lackluster marathon debut in Sydney, running 2:20:44 for 7th just ahead of independent Saeki Makino , an off-and-on training partner of Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) best-known for his frontrunning at the last two Honolulu...

by Brett Larner Races in Australia, the U.S.A. and the Netherlands on Sunday featured Japanese corporate league athletes.  At the Sydney Marathon, both the men's and women's races saw the top two broke the existing records for a challenging course full of hills and turns.  In the men's race, Ethiopia's Gebo Gameda shook free of compatriot Seboka Dibaba Tola to break Yuki Kawauchi 's 2:11:52 course record, Gameda getting the new record in 2:11:18 with Tola just squeezing under Kawauchi's time in 2:11:48.  Kenyan Benjamin Koloum Kiptoo likewise shook off track and half marathon star Tsuyoshi Ugachi of two-time New Year Ekiden national champion team Konica Minolta for 3rd in 2:12:08.  Ugachi ran a PB of around a minute for 4th in 2:12:18, a decent time given the course and one that puts him 22nd among Japanese men for the year.  It is widely thought in Japan that Ugachi's dynamic and aggressive form will make it hard for him to find the marathon succes...

http://www.sydneyrunningfestival.com.au/general/news/kenyan-willy-koitile-wins-2013-blackmores-sydney-marathon

by Brett Larner photo by Adrian Miles Lining up for his sixth marathon of the year after a late Friday night flight, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) turned in his second win in three weeks as he set a 2:11:52 course record to lead a Japanese sweep at the Sept. 16 Sydney Marathon. Just three weeks after winning the hot and humid Hokkaido Marathon in 2:18:38 , Kawauchi set off in a small lead pack on pace to break the 2:14:12 Sydney course record set back in 1994.  Splitting 1:06:08 for the first half, he soon dropped Kenyan Felix Kandie  and was on his own as he pushed on to run a negative split despite the challenging nature of the Sydney course which some estimates put at two to three minutes slow .  Kawauchi crossed the line with a margin of more than four minutes over Kandie, his time of 2:11:52 taking nearly two and a half minutes off the course record and the third-best time of his career.  Next up Kawauchi will run October's World Half Marathon Championsh...