japan running news

Taisuke Kodama and Kunimitsu Ito run Japan's first two sub-2:08 marathons at the 1986 Beijing Marathon.

On Jan. 23 the JFE Steel men's corporate team announced the hiring of former Kanebo head coach Kumimitsu Ito , 63, as its new head coach effective Feb. 1. During his days as an athlete Ito was named to the 1980 Moscow Olympic team prior to Japan's boycott of the Games. At the 1986 Beijing Marathon he ran 2:07:57 for 2nd, breaking the then-national record along with winner Taisuke Kodama . As a coach he led Toshinari Takaoka to set the current Japanese national record of 2:06:16 in the marathon. Takaoka later succeeded him as head coach at Kanebo. JFE Steel's roster features 12 athletes including Kenyan Charles Ndirangu , a graduate of Sera H.S. , and Yudai Okamoto , an Okayama Kogyo H.S. and   Chuo Gakuin University graduate. This season the team failed to qualify for the New Year Ekiden national championships for the first time in 42 years. Hired as head coach in 2014, Takashi Matsuyama , 44, will step down from his position on Jan. 31. source article:   http://w...

Currently reading Why Does Japanese Marathoning Suck Now? by Toshimi Oriyama , a newly-published book in which the last seven Japanese men's marathon national record holders, Shigeru Soh (2:09:06, 1978), Toshihiko Seko (2:08:38, 1983), Takeyuki Nakayama (2:08:15, 1985), Taisuke Kodama (2:07:35, 1986), Takayuki Inubushi (2:06:57, 1999), Atsushi Fujita (2:06:51, 2000) and Toshinari Takaoka (2:06:16, 2002), and, in an afterward,  Yuki Kawauchi , talk about their eras, the current situation and its future outlook.  It includes the record holders' training logs for the four months leading up to each of their seven national records.  Essential reading for anyone with Japanese literacy.  A translation would be the definitive English-language work on Japanese distance running, Rashomon to The Last Samurai .  Solid gold.

by Brett Larner photo courtesy of Remo System Arata Fujiwara will be the best Japanese man to have ever run the ING New York City Marathon. That’s a safe statement to make considering that the best Japanese marathoners are never able to run New York due to the demands of the regional corporate ekiden qualifiers held in early November. But Fujiwara had dreamed of running New York since his high school days in Nagasaki, and he found his own solution for the dilemma of not being able to run: despite being one of Japan’s best current marathoners, with a 2:08:40 PB, two runner-up spots at Tokyo and a 3rd at Fukuoka that put him into the Berlin World Championships, he quit his corporate team cold this spring in order to be free to race where and when he wanted. And that meant New York. First off the bat in his new solo career was a dry run, May’s Ottawa Marathon, a race with the same time difference from Japan as New York and a similar course, hilly with a combination of sharp curves and lo...

http://www.iaaf.org/LRR09/news/newsid=54705.html Japanese men in Beijing: 8. Masashi Hayashi - 2:12:39 11. Tomonori Onitsuka - 2:13:00 12. Masaki Shimoju - 2:13:08 14. Koichi Sakai - 2:14:29 Click here for complete results.

http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/general/track/news/20090203k0000m050063000c.html translated by Brett Larner Team Aichi Seiko of Tokai, Aichi Prefecture, has announced that head coach and former 10000 m and marathon national record holder Takeyuki Nakayama, 49, will be resigning his position as head coach at the end of this season. Nakayama will be replaced by former marathon national record holder Taisuke Kodama, 50, who will take over effective April 1st. As a runner for Team Asahi Kasei, Kodama won the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon and Beijing International Marathon, going on to coach Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki and Asahi Kasei's women's team following the end of his competitve running. Nakayama became head coach of Team Aichi Seiko in 2004 and served for five years, leading the team to the New Year Ekiden four times. His plans following his retirement are currently undecided.