japan running news

by Brett Larner The Great North Run celebrated three-part history Sunday, with the great Mary Keitany breaking marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe 's course record and Mo Farah bringing home the first British men's win in 29 years to set the stage for the millionth finisher in GNR history, the first race in the world to hit that mark. In beautiful conditions with a comfortable tailwind heavy favorite Keitany soloed the race the entire way on track for Radcliffe's 1:05:40 record, only appearing to falter near the end.  Bearing down in the home straight she looked to hit the line dead on, but when official results were posted it was announced that she had made it by a second with a new record of 1:05:39.  Nearly a kilometer back, the U.K.'s Gemma Steel was shockingly strong, going head-to-head with London Olympics gold medalist Tiki Gelana , Commonwealth Games silver medalist Caroline Kilel and two-time World Championships gold medalist Edna Kiplaga...

2014 Copenhagen World Half Marathon team members Masato Kikuchi (Team Konica Minolta) and Risa Takenaka (Team Shiseido) lead the best-ever Japanese contingent at Sunday's Great North Run half marathon, appearing with support from JRN. 2014 Great North Run Newcastle, U.K., 9/7/14 click here for complete entry list Men Mike Kigen (Kenya) - 59:58 Mo Farah (Great Britain) - 1:00:10a / 1:00:59 Mark Kiptoo (Keya) - 1:00:29 Ezrah Sang (Kenya) - 1:01:03 Stephen Kiprotich (Uganda) - 1:01:15 Masato Kikuchi (Japan/Team Konica Minolta) - 1:01:17 Paulo Roberto de Almeida Paula (Brazil) - 1:02:30 Thomas Ayeko (Uganda) - 1:02:32 Keisuke Tanaka (Japan/Team Fujitsu) - 1:02:38 Hiroaki Sano (Japan/Team Honda) - 1:02:40 Sho Matsueda (Japan/Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) - 1:02:41 Ian Hudspith (Great Britain) - 1:02:53 Tariku Bekele (Ethiopia) - 1:02:59 Jonathan Mellor (Great Britain) - 1:02:59 Takamitsu Hashimoto (Japan/Team Komori Corp.) - 1:03:13 Luis Feiteira (Portugal) - 1...

by Brett Larner photos by rikujolove 2014 Copenhagen World Half Marathon Japanese national team members Masato Kikuchi (Team Konica Minolta) and Risa Takenaka (Team Shiseido) will join London Olympics and Moscow World Championships 5000 m and 10000 m double gold medalist Mo Farah (GBR), London and Moscow marathon gold medalist Stephen Kiprotich (Uganda), Daegu and Moscow World Championships marathon gold medalist Edna Kiplagat (Kenya), Birmingham World Half Marathon gold medalist Mary Keitany (Kenya) and others at the Sept. 7 Great North Run half marathon in Newcastle, U.K. Kikuchi, formerly captain of Meiji University 's Hakone Ekiden team, has broken 62 minutes for the half marathon three times so far this year including a 1:01:17 PB for 2nd at February's National Corporate Half Marathon Championships and a 1:01:23 at March's Copenhagen World Half Marathon, where he was the only athlete born outside Africa to make the top 25.  Takenaka, a former captain of N...

by Brett Larner The record-breaking 2009 Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, the deepest 20 km road race in history . The Kanto Regional University Athletics Federation has released the entry lists for the Oct. 15 Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai , a 20 km university men's road race qualifier for the Jan. 1-2 Hakone Ekiden.  Outside the Olympics the two-day, twenty-team, ten-stage Hakone relay is road racing's biggest spectacle, an event with viewership in the tens of millions and the kind of popular enthusiasm the World Marathon Majors dream of.  Of all the things obscured behind the cultural insularity of the Japanese running system Hakone is the biggest loss to the sport as a whole, a gripping, high-level race that never lets up over the course of twelve hours and which, with superb production values, could give clues on how to popularize road racing among non-runners worldwide if it were accessible overseas. The top ten universities at each year's Hakone are seeded for the following y...

by Brett Larner Four significant men's track meets took place around Tokyo over the weekend. At the Apr. 9 Setagaya Time Trials meet, Team Kanebo's new Ethiopian ringer Asefa Fekele had a good debut with an 8:05.37 win in the 3000 m just steps ahead of Komazawa University's Wataru Ueno who clocked 8:05.96. 3rd placer Daisuke Shimizu (Team Kanebo) was far back of the pair in 8:09.67. Nihon University's Shuto Kojima likewise had a narrow win over distance specialist Takehiro Deki (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) in the Setagaya Time Trials 5000 m, 14:05.28 to Deki's 14:05.56. At the largest of the four meets, the Five University Meet held Apr. 10 at Heisei Kokusai University, the performance of the day came in the open Premium 3000 m, where Kenyan Bitan Karoki (Team S&B) ran 7:49.43 for the win over teammate Yusuke Hasegawa (Team S&B), who ran 8:05.36 in his pro debut. Senior Takamitsu Hashimoto (Josai Univ.) was the top university runner, 3rd in 8:09.62. Raci...