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 After a string of runner-up placings, Team Toyota Kyushu ace Yu Mitsuya took his second win Oct. 3 at the Omuta Road Race 10 Miler , site of the annual Fukuoka Prefectural Road Championships. Mitsuya easily handled the competition, runner-up Shuji Yoshikawa (Team Kyudenko) finishing 16 seconds back. Defending champion Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) was only 10th in 49:04. In the women's 5 km, Kenyan Sally Chepyego (Team Kyudenko) outkicked Fukuoka University's Rina Hidaki for the win in a modest 16:23. Local boy Atsushi Yamasaki (Omuta H.S.) took the high school boys' 10 km in 32:59. 2010 Fukuoka Prefectural Road Championships Omuta, Fukuoka, 10/3/2010 click here for complete results Men's 10 Miler 1. Yu Mitsuya (Team Toyota Kyushu) - 48:23 2. Shuji Yoshikawa (Team Kyudenko) - 48:39 3. Ryuji Watanabe (Team Toyota Kyushu) - 48:42 4. Teruo Taneno (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 48:48 5. Hayato Ideue (Team Toyota Kyushu) - 48:48 6. Yuki Oshikawa (Tea...

by Brett Larner Fresh back from New Zealand where she was spotted at Rikuren's marathon training camp by JRN reader Jason Lawrence, 3000 m, 5000 m and half marathon national record holder Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) ran a solo 31:57 10 km course record at the 61st Kanaguri Hai Tamana Road Race in Kumamoto on Mar. 7 to become the first woman to break 32 minutes in the 25 years that the women's 10 km has been part of the event. Running alone and unpressured with her nearest competition nearly a minute behind, Fukushi's time would have put her 4th in last week's much-heralded World's Best 10 km in San Juan, Puerto Rico and is the latest sign that she is back to her best. Last year's winner Hiroko Miyauchi (Team Kyocera) finished 2nd in 32:43, while Mika Okunaga (Team Kyudenko) was 3rd in 33:29 in a tuneup for next week's Nagoya International Women's Marathon. The course record also fell in the high school boys' 10 km, where Kenyan students took the...