japan running news

by Brett Larner Looking set to take its first Grand Tour Kyushu title since 2009, the Fukuoka Prefecture team spent the fifth of the Tour's eight days widening its lead over two-time defending champion Miyazaki Prefecture from 13 to 21 minutes thanks to wins on three of the day's five stages including new stage records by Second Stage runner Masato Imai and anchor Teruo Taneno . Yoshikazu Kawazoe was the only Miyazaki runner to stem the tide, winning the Third Stage to put Miyazaki back ahead of the Nagasaki Prefecture team in 2nd. A surprise came on the day's opening stage, where former Juntendo University captain Yuki Nanba , now teaching at a high school back home in Tomei, Oita but famous for breaking down with a huge lead on his stage late in his senior-year Hakone Ekiden and staggering his way in to the handoff, cracked the course record by 3 seconds to set a new mark of 52:55 for the 17.4 km stage. Miyazaki came out hard on Day Six, winning the first five ...

by Brett Larner Japan's #1 marathoner, London Olympics 6th-placer Kentaro Nakamoto , returned to the roads Oct. 30 with the Fukuoka Prefecture  team on the third day of the Grand Tour Kyushu 2012 , an eight-day, 50-stage, 732.2 km ekiden around Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu. After dominating on the traditional 72-stage, 1056.6 km course in 2010 and at last year's scaled-back 60th running, Miyazaki Prefecture  got off to a strong start on Day One, finishing the day with an 84-second lead over Fukuoka and a lead of more than 2 1/2 minutes over Nagasaki Prefecture  thanks to large part to Third and Fourth Stage wins by rookie pro  Tetsuya Yoroizaka  and Kazuya Deguchi . 2009 winner Fukuoka fought back on Day Two, winning four of the six stages and opening a nearly 2 minute lead on Miyazaki with Nagasaki another 5+ minutes back.  Miyazaki's lone stage win of the day came thanks to 2011 World Championships marathon 7th-place finisher Hiro...

Sayagatani Time Trials Sayagatani Field, Kitakyushu, 6/4/11 click here for complete results Men's 5000 m Heat 10 1. Desta Alemu (Ethiopia/Team Yasukawa Denki) - 13:54.05 2. Masayuki Obata (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 13:54.63 3. Takahiro Mori (Team Asahi Kasei) - 13:57.69 4. Shuji Yoshikawa (Team Kyudenko) - 14:00.11 5. Hiroki Kubota (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 14:03.57 6. Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 14:04.31 7. Kenichi Kita (Team Kyudenko) - 14:05.10 8. Takanori Ide (Team Kyudenko) - 14:06.17 9. Bunta Kuroki (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 14:10.95 10. Hiroki Ishida (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) - 14:12.59

http://kumanichi.com/lsports/kiji/20110210001.shtml translated by Brett Larner On Feb. 9 the organizers of the 55th edition of the world's most competitive 30 km race, the Kumanichi 30 km Road Race scheduled for Feb. 27 in Kumamoto, Kyushu, announced the 13 athletes in this year's elite field. Known as "The Gateway to the Marathon," Kumanichi typically invites young corporate and university runners still in their 20's to get their first experience of longer distance. 2nd by just one second at this year's New Year Ekiden, Team Fujitsu sends two men to try to follow team leader Atsushi Fujita 's win at last year's Kumanichi. Shoji Akutsu won the New Year Ekiden's Sixth Stage, while Shota Yamaguchi was 5th on the competitive Third Stage. New Year Ekiden winner Team Toyota will field Takamasa Uchida , while 3rd place Team Nissin Shokuhin is sending Kenichi Jiromaru . Two of the strong Team Kanebo's youngest members, Tomoyuki Morita and Hiroki Ka...

2010 Kyushu Isshu Ekiden Day Two click here for complete results from Day Two Stage Best Performances First Stage (9.4 km) - Kyohei Nishi (Miyazaki Pref.) - 28:26 Second Stage (12.2 km) - Takahiro Mori (Miyazaki Pref.) - 37:29 Third Stage (15.3 km) - Kenji Takeuchi (Fukuoka Pref.) - 45:36 Fourth Stage (14.2 km) - Tomoya Adachi (Miyazaki Pref.) - 42:53 Fifth Stage (11.3 km) - Kazuya Ishida (Fukuoka Pref.) - 34:32 Sixth Stage (11.5 km) - Yoichi Watanabe (Nagasaki Pref.) - 35:21 Top Team Performances - 73.9 km 1. Miyazaki Pref. - 3:46:13 2. Fukuoka Pref. - 3:46:52 3. Nagasaki Pref. - 3:49:59 4. Kagoshima Pref. - 3:54:53 5. Oita Pref. - 3:56:27 Current Team Standings After Two Days - 169.1 km 1. Miyazaki Pref. - 8:34:27 2. Fukuoka Pref. - 8:40:41 3. Nagasaki Pref. - 8:43:44 4. Oita Pref. - 8:58:54 5. Kagoshima Pref. - 8:59:25 (c) 2010 Brett Larner all rights reserved

by Brett Larner April 1 marks the start of the Japanese fiscal and academic year. This year's round of university graduates and transfers from other teams are now settling in to their new homes around the country. Below is a list of many of the best new men joining corporate teams this season. Click for a larger version. 2010 New Year Ekiden national champion Team Nissin Shokuhin picks up a major score in 2010 World XC Junior Men's winner Caleb Ndiku (Kenya), a replacement for Olympian Julius Gitahi (Kenya). It will be interesting to see how Ndiku fares compared to the team's current #1 Kenyan, Gideon Ngatuny . Nissin rescues Komazawa Univ. grad Hideyuki Anzai from the disbanded Team JAL Ground Service. Team Honda likewise picks up a World XC Junior Men's champion, 2008 winner Ibrahim Jelian (Ethiopia), and a JAL survivor, Ryosuke Fukuyama , and should maintain its spot near the top of the hierarchy. Perennially strong Team Asahi Kasei lands two top recruits, Ko...