japan running news

The JAAF-certified Takanezawa Genki Up Half Marathon , popular with runners locally and from across the country, is being discontinued indefinitely due to demolition work in preparation for construction of the new Takanezawa Town Hall. After much discussion the event organizing committee decided that the demolition of existing facilities used for things like baggage storage and changing rooms for the race make it impossible to stage the race properly. Options for alternative facilities in the town were explored, but none met all the criteria for conducting the race with adequate safety and security. As such, we ask for your understanding of the decision to cancel the race. We intend to bring the race back following the completion of the new Town Hall building in 2028, so we hope that you come join us again then. Takanezawa Genki Up Half Marathon Organizing Committee source article: https://www.takanezawa-genki-uprun.com/info/259 translated by Brett Larner

In our post-Hakone Ekiden analysis of this year's record-breaking race we wrote that winner Aoyama Gakuin University head coach Susumu Hara excels at developing depth of quality and can usually fill gaps caused by graduation. It's a sign of how much depth he has that his B- and C-squad runners occupied podium places at two fast half marathons just a week after Hakone. The Takanezawa Genki-Up Half Marathon in Tochigi is the usual destination for AGU benchwarmers and has seen some breakthrough performances from future A-squad stars. Local independent Ryuichi Yoshioka got the win in 1:03:00, but AGU runners took the next 6 spots, all under 1:03:40, led by Riku Anjima and Daiki Sasaki in 1:03:04 and 1:03:06. And they weren't even the fastest AGU people in action. At the rebranded Tokyo New Year Half Marathon , previously the Hi-Tech Half, Kaito Nakamura and Kyosuke Hiramatsu went head-to-head with former 10000 m NR holder Kota Murayama from the GMO corporate team. ...

2020 Olympic marathon trials winner Shogo Nakamura (27, Fujitsu) ran a course record 1:01:40 to win the Jan. 12 Takanezawa Genki Up Half Marathon in Tochigi. His time bettered his 2016 PB of 1:01:53 by 13 seconds. "I ran pretty much according to plan," he commented afterward. Nakamura's sponsor team Fujitsu finished 17th at November's East Japan Corporate Ekiden, failing to qualify for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden national championships. As a result, Takanezawa was his first race of the Olympic year. Alongside him were members of 2020 Hakone Ekiden champion Aoyama Gakuin University , runner-up Tokai University and other top collegiate programs. Most fielded 3rd-year and younger team members who didn't make this year's Hakone lineups, giving them valuable experience for the buildup to next year's 97th running. Next up Nakamura plans to run in the Mar. 29 World Half Marathon Championships. His coach Hiroaki Oyagi , 61, commented, "At the World H...

The National Women's Ekiden was the weekend's biggest race, but across the country four half marathons saw decently competitive men's action. At Tochigi's Takanezawa Genki Up Half Marathon , as in the last few years Hakone Ekiden runner-up Aoyama Gakuin University ran its B-team of Hakone non-starters, this year with company from the team that beat it, Tokai University . AGU swept the top ten, first-year Takayuki Iida taking the top spot in 1:03:10 with teammate Shuya Iwami also getting under 64 minutes. Tokai seemed to treat the day more as a workout, but head coach Hayashi Morozumi , 52, took the chance to get in on the action too,  running the 10 km division in 43:04. In Tokyo, the High Tech Half Marathon celebrated its 20th running with the edition of a marathon division. Independent Hideyuki Ikegami (Aminosaurus) won the men's half in 1:05:08. Club runner Eri Suzuki (Noshiro Yamamoto T&F Assoc.) ran the fastest women's time of the weekend,...

As championship ekiden season wraps up Japan’s athletes have started the transition to the winter road season, with four decently competitive half marathons highlighting the first half of January. At the hilly Okukuma Half Marathon , locally-based Africans Jeremiah Thuku Karemi (Toyota Kyushu) and Melaku Abera (Kurosaki Harima) duked it out one-on-one, Karemi through in a series of surges in the last 5 km before breaking away decisively with 1 km to go. Crossing the finish line in 1:01:48, Karemi took nearly two minutes off the course record with Abera just under 62 for 2nd. 2nd on the Hakone Ekiden’s Seventh Stage less than two weeks ago, Masanori Sumida (Nittai Univ.) outran corporate league competition Taku Fujimoto (Toyota) and Shohei Kurata (GMO) to take the top Japanese spot at 4th in 1:03:11. Spending most of the race behind a pack led by 2015 National Univeristy Half Marathon champion Tadashi Isshiki (GMO) and 2:07:39 marathoner Masato Imai (Toyota Kyushu), Yuki Ka...

by Brett Larner Following the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden and Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden , the year's first full weekend of road racing included at least four major half marathons across the country. きょう、げんきあっぷはーふまらそんはしりました! たいむべすとでました! pic.twitter.com/2fcLzcZCB1 — Stanley (@stanleysiteki) January 8, 2017 At Tochigi's Takanezawa Genki Up Half Marathon , Kenyan Stanley Siteki , a Tokyo Kokusai University teammate of Hakone anchor stage "phantom winner" Akito Terui , outran Hakone champion Aoyama Gakuin University 's alternates and B-team memeber to win in 1:03:20.   Last year's Takanezawa winner Aritaka Kajiwara was 4th in 1:03:45, exactly a minute slower than his 2016 course record. In Tokyo, the High-Tech Half Marathon , a rebranded version of the popular Mari Tanigawa Half Marathon, saw former JR Higashi Nihon runner Shusei Ohashi win the men's race in 1:05:29.   Eri Suzuki , at 5th the top Japanese woman in last month's Honolulu Marathon , ...

by Brett Larner additional results coming shortly The 2016 road race reason got started early in Japan with at least four quality half marathons and one of the world's biggest marathons all happening Sunday.  Aritaka Kajiwara , a former teammate of Yuki Kawauchi 's on the Hakone Ekiden's Kanto Region Select Team who quit the Press Kogyo corporate team mid-fall to go independent, ran a 1:02:45 course record to win Tochigi's Takanezawa Half Marathon by a second over Kinari Ikeda , an alternate for last week's Hakone Ekiden champion Aoyama Gakuin University who broke 1:03 for the first time.  Aoyama Gakuin first-year Homare Morita made a quality half marathon debut in 1:03:01 for 3rd, Ikeda and Morita reassuring Aoyama Gakuin that it has the depth to maintain a solid lineup after four of this year's winning members graduate in March. Further south in Oita, former course record holder Fumihiro Maruyama (Asahi Kasei) ran solo to repeat his 2010 Oita City Ha...