japan running news

Bumped by a local election from its usual date at the beginning of September to the same day as the Berlin Marathon, the Volksbank Muenster Marathon saw its most competitive men's race ever. With pacers assigned to go 3:04/km with a halfway split of 1:04:30-45, the lead men went through 5 km way ahead of that in 15:02 and 15 km in 45:17. Running his first race in Europe and hoping for a low-2:10 improvement to his 2:10:49 PB in Tokyo this year, Ryuichi Yoshioka , stayed tucked into the lead pack at that point, but Taiki Suzuki , with a 2:11:51 PB from Tokyo and fresh from altitude training in Kenya in hopes of 2:09, was already starting to lose touch. Yoshioka rolled with the lead group through halfway in 1:03:55 on CR pace, but when a break came just before 30 km he was dropped. Most of the people ahead of him ended up running PBs, no small achievement with relatively windy conditions, and for the first time in the race's 23-year history 3 men ended up going under 2:10. Kenya...

  In his debut at the Ome 30 km Road Race Sunday in western Tokyo, Masato Arao (ND Software) won in 1:30:50. En route he split 15:04, 30:10, 45:46 and 1:01:14 while running in the lead pack, but breaking away on a hilly section of the course he was alone by the time he hit 25 km in 1:16:00. Unthreatened the rest of the way, he soloed the last 5 km to take the win. Arao went to Sakata Minami H.S. in Yamagata and Toyo University . After graduating he moved back to Yamagata and started working full-time while continuing to run races as an amateur. In September he ran a PB of 1:02:53 for 2nd at the Ichinoseki International Half Marathon. That attracted the interest of the ND Software corporate team, which he joined on Jan. 1 this year. He ran the anchor stage for the Yamagata team at the National Men's Ekiden on Jan. 19. In 2nd was his ND Software teammate Taiki Suzuki in 1:31:53. Ryo Kuchimachi (Subaru) was 3rd in 1:32:14. Moe Shimizu (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) won the women's ...

With the deadline for qualification for the Oct. 15 MGC Race Olympic marathon trials coming right up, at Sunday's Tartan Ottawa International Marathon eleven Japanese men took a last shot at joining the 67 men and 29 women to have already qualified. Depending on how fast they had already run inside the qualifying window each of the eleven had an individual qualifying standard to run, ranging from 2:08:00 to 2:11:30. But with the difficulties of doubling after having already raced in February or March, long international travel, and hot conditions in the last half hour of the race, none succeeded in hitting their qualifying mark. Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Soft) and Ryo Osaki (Komori Corp.), who both ran 2:08 earlier this year and needed to run in the 2:11 range to make it, and 2:10 runner Chihiro Ono (GMO) lasted the longest, Takeuchi still on track at 35 km and Osaki and Ono right on the cusp at 30 km. But like winner Yihunilign Adane (Ethiopia), who dropped from 2:06 pace at 30 km t...

11 Japanese men are running Sunday's Tartan Ottawa International Marathon , the last race worldwide where Japanese athletes can qualify for October's MGC Race Olympic marathon trials before the May 31 deadline. Streaming starts at 6:30 a.m. local time on May 28, with the race kicking off at 7:00. Leaderboard and tracking are here , with the race app here . Four pacing groups are currently planned in Ottawa, the lead group going after last year's 2:06:04 CR, one group at 2:08:00 pace, one at 2:09:30, and one at 2:15:00. The Japanese men, who need to either run 2:08:00 or faster or have two races averaging 2:10:00 or better inside the qualifying window, will be split between the 2nd and 3rd groups. 67 men have already qualified, and if all goes well in Ottawa that number could end up over 70. A guide to the 11 runners and their target times is here . The complete elite men's field is here , and the women's field here . © 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

The deadline for Japanese athletes to qualify for the MGC Race , Japan's Olympic marathon trials happening Oct. 15 in Tokyo, is May 31. Up to this point 67 men and 29 women have hit the tough qualifying standards that make the MGC Race the hardest marathon in the world to get into. That looks set to be the final number of women, but 11 men will be taking their last shot at making the cut at the May 28 Tartan Ottawa International Marathon . To get in they'll have to either walk away from Ottawa with an average of 2:10:00 or better between what they run there and one other race since the qualifying window opened on Nov. 1, 2021, or run 2:08:00 or faster in Ottawa. The 11 runners break down into four groups. At the top end, Ryo Osaki , Ryoma Takeuchi and Junnosuke Matsuo can all afford to run slower than what they already have in order to hit the 2:10:00 average. Osaki and Takeuchi both have a 2:08 race to their names inside the qualifying window and only need to run 2:11, but t...

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...

With the traditionally season-opening Oda Memorial Meet coming a week late this year the outdoor track season got started with two main time trial meets Saturday. Runners from the Toenec corporate team dominated Aichi's Chukyo University Saturday Time Trials, with Daichi Takeuchi following up his runner-up finish at last month's Inuyama 10 km with a win in 13:42.57 over Kenyan Nicholas Kiplimo (Aichi Seiko). His teammate Daiji Kawai returned from a 2:10:50 at Lake Biwa to take 3rd in 13:51.52. The B-heat was also decently quick, winner Ryusei Takahashi (Aichi Seiko) just dipping under 14 minutes in 13:59.00. Usually maxing out at 3000 m at this point in the season, this time around Tokyo's Setagaya Time Trials featured both women's and men's 5000 m and even a men's 10000 m. Kenyan Grace Kimanzi (Starts) won the women's 5000 m in 15:43.53, with Hakone Ekiden Fifth Stage winner Yuhei Urano (Koku Gakuin Univ.) taking the fastest men's heat in 13:...