japan running news

The  Tokyo Marathon  announced some withdrawals and additions to the field for next week's race today. Names are as below with reasons given on the Tokyo Marathon website : Men's Marathon Withdrawals Suguru Osako (Japan/Nike) - declines to participate Benard Koech (Kenya/Kyudenko) - in poor condition Hidekazu Hijikata (Japan/Asahi Kasei) - injury Tadashi Isshiki (Japan/NTT Nishi Nihon) - injury Takumi Oishi (Japan/Suzuki) - injury Keigo Yano (Japan/Kao) - injury Tatsuro Oyazaki (Japan/Shindengen) - injury Men's Marathon Additions Hiroaki Furukawa (Japan/Tokyo University Grad School) - 2:16:14 (Kumamoto 2024) Women's Marathon Withdrawals Brigid Kosgei (Kenya) - in poor condition Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia) - in poor condition Men's Wheelchair Withdrawals Jin Hua (China) - injury Women's Wheelchair Withdrawals Eden Rainbow-Cooper (Great Britain) - injury Women's Wheelchair Additions Yen Hoang (U.S.A.) © 2025 Brett Larner , all rights reserved

Three Japanese athletes ran Sunday's Tartan Ottawa International Marathon in an effort to score qualifying marks for the 2023 MGC Race, Japan's marathon trials for the 2024 Paris Olympics. In the men's race, Yuta Shimoda (GMO) and Takumi Oishi (Suzuki) went with the leaders all the way until eventual winner Andualem Shiferaw (Ethiopia) made his move before 30 km. Shiferaw, the favorite with a best of 2:05:52, was stellar over the second half, going 1:03:52 / 1:02:12 to set a new course record 2:06:04 for the win. When Shiferaw attacked, Oishi, coached by 2010 Ottawa winner Arata Fujiwara , immediately dropped off, ultimately finishing 8th in 2:15:50. Shimoda, who ran 2:08:35 at March's Tokyo Marathon and needed to run 2:11:25 here to qualify for the trials, hung on to 3rd, overtaken by Abdi Ali Gelchu (Bahrain) and dropping to 4th at one point but running down Leonard Langat (Kenya) just before the finish to retake 3rd. Yamaguchi went out in a pack of 6 women that...

Running with support from JRN, Takumi Oishi and Haruka Yamaguchi will be making their Canadian debuts at Sunday's Tartan Ottawa International Marathon . Japan's Olympic marathon trials are the hardest marathon in the world to qualify for, and both Oishi and Yamaguchi will be going for times that will help put them in position to make the September 2023 trials race. The auto-qualifier times for races outside Japan, 2:08:00 for men and 2:24:00, are pretty ambitious, but with an option for qualifying via a two-race average of 2:10:00 for men and 2:28:00 for women both Oishi and Yamaguchi will be aiming to get under those times in Ottawa before hitting a second race next winter. Oishi, a graduate of Josai University , was 4th on the Eighth Stage at the 2018 Hakone Ekiden. He now runs for the Suzuki corporate team alongside 2021 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Michael Githae . His coach at Suzuki is Arata Fujiwara , who won Ottawa in 2010 in 2:09:34, the first man to brea...