japan running news

31 corporate women's teams were in Fukuoka this weekend to go for the 16 remaining spots at November's Queens Ekiden, the corporate women's national championship race. 19-year-old China Nakagawa was a revelation on the opening leg as she took down the leadoff runners from the bigger teams to put Hitachi out front, but on the next stage steepler Manami Nishiyama put Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo out front with a stage-winning 10:57 for 3.6 km. A brilliant run from Nanaka Izawa (Starts) on the first of the race's two long stages interrupted Mitsui Sumitomo's lead, but when Mitsui Sumitomo's Tabitha Njeri outkicked Starts' Esther Wambui it was all Mitsui the rest of the way. Stage-winning runs from last two runners Wakana Kabasawa and Anna Matsuda were enough to give Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo the win in 2:15:53, 48 seconds under the old course record set by Shiseido in 2021 when Kabasawa was a member of that team. Starts ended up a distant 2nd in 2:18:04, with Ten...

Winner of the 2016 Gold Coast Marathon and 4th in the 3000 m steeplechase at the 2011 Asian Championships, Sysmex corporate team athlete Misato Horie has retired following her run at the Feb. 2 Hyogo Prefecture Ekiden. Born in 1987, Horie's best achievement at Seiryo H.S. was making the Kinki Region championships. But after entering Mukogawa Joshi University and starting to run the 3000 m steeplechase she grew into one of Japan's top athletes with an 8th-place finish at the 2008 National Championships. After graduating she joined the Noritz corporate team, where she was 2nd at the 2011 National Championships in what was at the time an all-time Japanese #6 mark of 10:02.24. That put her on the team for that year's Asian Championships, where she placed 4th. 2 years later she took 6th at the 2013 Asian Championships. From 2015 on Horie focused on road racing, winning the 2016 Gold Coast Marathon in a then-CR 2:26:40 and following up with her career PB of 2:25:44 for 2nd ...

The 2023 National High School Ekiden champion Kamimura Gakuen H.S. girls ended their season with another win, taking 1st at the 35th Kitakyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden Sunday in Fukuoka. Running against corporate league competition like 2023 Queens Ekiden winner Sekisui Kagaku and high school Nationals 3rd and 4th placers Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. and Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. , Kamimura Gakuen got off to a slow start when leading runner Rina Kurokami was only 13th on her stage and 24 seconds off the lead. But having delivered Kamimura Gakuen the national title last month with an incredible anchor stage run, its second runner Caroline Kariba showed again that she's a budding international-level talent, chopping 18 seconds off the 3.8 km Second Stage CR, an amazing 47 seconds fastest than the previous record by a high school athlete. That was enough to put Kamimura Gakuen out front by 18 seconds over the Kyocera corporate team and 42 seconds ahead of Kunei Joshi Gakuin. Its...

In one of the wildest elite-level ekidens in memory, half marathon national record holder Kayoko Fukushi ran her best race in almost 3 years to anchor the Wacoal team to the win at the Princess Ekiden , the qualifying race for next month's National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships. The field of 27 teams raced 6 stages totaling 42.195 km for one of 14 spots at Nationals alongside last year's top 8. Things were complicated by the disqualification of 2017 national champion Universal Entertainment , which found itself back at the Princess Ekiden to requalify. Sayaka Sato got things off to a good start for Sekisui Kagaku , winning the 7.0 km First Stage in 22:36 just off the CR. 4 seconds back was Shiori Yano , whose Canon AC Kyushu team missed Nationals by a minute last year. and another 5 seconds behind was Miku Daido of the debuting Iwatani Sangyo team. Coached by marathon national record holder Mizuki Noguchi 's former coach Hisakazu Hirose , Iwatani ...

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20160414-00000528-san-spo translated by Brett Larner On April 14 it was learned that Athens Olympics women's marathon gold medalist and national record holder Mizuki Noguchi (37, Team Sysmex) is retiring from competition.  A press conference to formally announce her retirement will take place April 15 in Kobe.  In March Noguchi ran the Nagoya Women's Marathon, saying, "This will be my last shot at the Olympics."  She finished 23rd in 2:33:54. Noguchi graduated from Uji Yamada H.S. in Mie.  She ran her first marathon in 2002, winning the silver medal at the Paris World Championships a year later.  In 2004 she won the gold medal at the Athens Olympics and in 2005 set the Japanese national record of 2:19:12 at the Berlin Marathon, a record that still has not been broken.  She remains the Berlin course record holder.

by Brett Larner Sunday's National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships kick off a busy string of championship road relays across Japan, with no less than eight major events in five weeks.  The Dec. 16 race in Sendai is the peak of the year for corporate-league women, with the country's top marathoners and track runners from twenty-nine teams squaring off over a six-stage, 42.195 km course.  TBS will broadcast the ekiden live nationwide beginning at 11:50 a.m. local time.  It should be possible for overseas viewers to use Keyhole TV to catch the race, but JRN will also offer live coverage via Twitter @JRNLive . The favorites look to be evenly divided between the three national divisions.   Team Universal Entertainment  won the East Japan regional qualifier last month by 3 1/2 minutes over defending national champion Team Daiichi Seimei  and comes to Nationals seeded #1.  A major factor in Universal's performance was a win on East Japan's longest...

http://sankei.jp.msn.com/sports/news/111001/oth11100118140010-n1.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner Having taken national record holder Mizuki Noguchi  to a marathon gold medal at the Athens Olympics, Nobuyuki Fujita  (70) retired as advisor to the Sysmex corporate women's team on Sept. 30.  Fujita retired as head coach at Sysmex last October and has served in an advisory role since then.  Fujita's departure leaves head coach Hisakazu Hirose  in the leadership role at Sysmex.  According to Sysmex officials, Fujita had the option to renew his contract but after one year as an advisor opted instead for retirement. Fujita has been a leader in Japanese distance running since 1968, helping to develop Olympians including Atlanta women's marathoner Izumi Maki  and Noguchi.  Athletes he has coach have set Japanese national records at distances ranging from 400 m to the marathon. Fujita intends to focus upon the Fujita Running Academy progra...

by Brett Larner Note: Start lists will be added when available. The 30th anniversary National Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden Championships take place this Sunday, Dec. 19. It's fitting that the anniversary edition, the last to be held on the historic Gifu course before the race's move north to Sendai next year, is slated to mark the return of the great Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex) to the national stage. Noguchi, the marathon national record holder and 2004 Athens Olympics marathon gold medalist, has been out of competition since an injury in the summer of 2008 prevented her from defending her title in Beijing. Finally racing again earlier this fall in the regional qualifier ekidens, she helped Sysmex to qualify for Nationals for the first time. Start lists have not yet been confirmed but Noguchi's presence on the entry list has been used heavily to promote Sunday's race across the country. 10000 m national record holder and former marathon national record holder Yoko ...

by Brett Larner Megumi Seike (Team Sysmex) won the half marathon competition at the Nov. 30 Shanghai International Marathon, running a PB of 1:10:15 to outclass her competitors. For Seike, a teammate of marathon great Mizuki Noguchi, it was the best result in a year which saw her make her overseas debut when she ran on the Japanese national team at March's World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh, Scotland. A longer article detailing the marathon results is available here . Photo by Eugene Hoshiko. Click here for additional pictures of Seike in Shanghai.

http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2008021200792 translated by Brett Larner The Kumamoto 30 km Road Race reported on Feb. 12 that Athens Olympics women's marathon gold medalist Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex) has withdrawn from this year's race, to be held Feb. 24 in Kumamoto. Noguchi won November's Tokyo International Women's Marathon in a course record time, almost certainly securing a spot on the Beijing Olympic team. She is now training in Kunming, China to prepare for a 30 km world record attempt in Kumamoto. Team Sysmex coach Nobuyuki Fujita commented, "We entered Kumamoto specifically as a world record attempt, but Mizuki's training since the Interprefectural Ekiden in January hasn't been good enough to get up to that level. Instead, she's switched the focus of her training to the All-Japan Jitsugyodan Half Marathon in March and the Sendai Half Marathon in May."

http://www.daily.co.jp/newsflash/2008/01/14/0000800805.shtml http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20080115-OHT1T00078.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner Having taken a big step toward the Beijing Olympics with her victory at last year's Tokyo International Women's Marathon, Mizuki Noguchi of Team Sysmex addressed the media at her Kyoto hotel a day after her stage best anchor run in the 26th Interprefectural Women's Ekiden . Speaking in front of a crowd of 300, Noguchi told the press, "If I am selected for the Olympic marathon team I will show the world that although I am small I can do it." Noguchi received additional motivation to show the world what she can do when Sysmex president Hisashi Ietsugu announced that Sysmex will give her a significant financial bonus in the event of a successful defense of her gold medal. Referring to Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia who won gold medals in the men's marathon at the 1960 Rome and 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Ietsugu ...

http://beijing2008.nikkansports.com/athletics/f-sp-tp0-20080107-304344.html http://www.daily.co.jp/tigers/2008/01/08/0000793924.shtml translated and edited by Brett Larner Athens Olympics women's marathon gold medalist Mizuki Noguchi (29, Team Sysmex) returned on Jan. 7 from a training camp on the island of Amami Oshima in southern Kagoshima Prefecture, landing at Osaka Airport. At the camp she focused on cross-country running. "At first I had a bit of a sore throat, but I was able to complete the training menu," Noguchi told reporters at the airport. She visited a shrine near the camp on New Year's Day, where she prayed "with a clear and empty mind" at the start of the Olympic year.* While training on Jan. 6, Noguchi encountered Hanshin Tigers pitcher Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi (39) at a track where both were doing solo workouts. After watching Noguchi practice, Shimoyanagi shook his head and commented, "I'm glad I decided to become a baseball player....

http://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/article.php?mid=P2007120600102&genre=L1&area=K10 http://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/article.php?mid=P2007122500021&genre=L1&area=K10 translated by Brett Larner Athens Olympics women`s marathon gold medallist Mizuki Noguchi (29, Team Sysmex) confirmed on Dec. 5 that she will run for Mie Prefecture in next month`s 26th All-Japan Interprefectural Women`s Ekiden, sponsored by Japan Rikuren, The Kyoto Newspaper Group, and NHK. The ekiden will be held in Kyoto on Jan. 13. Noguchi is scheduled to run the 10 km anchor stage in her first appearance at this ekiden in 7 years. Noguchi first appeared in the Interprefectural Women`s Ekiden at the 14th edition of the race in 1996 during her days as a student at Uji Yamada Vocational High School, competing for Mie Prefecture for 6 straight years. Under the ekiden`s old `Hometown Rule,` prefectural teams were allowed to field runners who lived elsewhere if such runners were originally from the prefecture. Runners who f...