japan running news

https://www.athleticsintegrity.org/disciplinary-process/provisional-suspensions-in-force The AIU announced today that Kenyan-born Bahraini Eunice Jepkirui Kirwa has been provisionally suspended for a positive test for EPO. Prior to disappearing at the end of 2017 after winning the Macao International Marathon  Kirwa was a familiar face in Japan, winning all seven of her races there between 2015 and 2017, taking 2nd in another in 2013, and medaling at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, 2015 Beijing World Championships and 2016 Rio Olympics. It was notable that despite her string of international medals Kirwa never ran the big European and American races after hitting that level, her only appearance in the World Marathon Majors a DNF at the 2014 Boston Marathon and her only times running the biggest European marathons coming in 2012 and 2013 in Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt, all in the 2:21-2:23 range and making the top three twice. Details of Kirwa's case are still forthc...

by Brett Larner Yesterday it was announced that Russian Albina Mayorova has received a four-year suspension after testing positive for elevated testosterone . Mayorova was a four-time winner of Japan's major women's marathons and a regular at the Tokyo Marathon. Her suspension follows that of a number of other Eastern European women to have won Japanese marathons in the last ten years, including Inga Abitova , Tatiana Aryasova , Mariya Konovalova , and Tetiana Gamera-Shmyrko , all five represented by Russian agent Andrey Baranov and his Spartanik agency . What impact have these and other women from former Soviet nations had on the domestic Japanese women's marathon circuit? Below is a list of every time one has finished in the top three in one of Japan's five main women's marathons in the last 20 years plus other results by those who later tested positive. During this period, women from former Soviet nations have won Japanese marathons 21 times. Of those, thir...

by Brett Larner The 4th-place finish by Volha Mazuronak of Belarus at last weekend's London Marathon turned heads around the world.  Her time of 2:23:54 may become a national record pending the annulment of times run by Belarussian Alexsandra Duliba following January's announcement of Duliba's suspension on biological passport violations.  New York Road Runners professional athlete consultant David Monti was quick to point out Mazuronak's splits , a 1:13:19 first half, 1:10:35 second half and 7:08 for the final 2.195 km split from 40 km to the finish, the fastest closing split in the London women's field and on a par with or better than the 6th through 10th-place men there.  Mara Yamauchi , the second-fastest British woman ever in the marathon, wrote an analysis noting the similarity between Mazuronak's splits and those in a 2012 JRN analysis of performances by Eastern European women represented by Russian Andrey Baranov and his Spartanik agency. B...

by Brett Larner Back during my time at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, at the urging of Dr. David Bodznick I attended a lecture by the great Harvard University neurobiologist Dr. Edward Kravitz on social interaction and competitive behavior between lobsters, and its underlying biochemistry.  "Aggression is a nearly universal feature of the behavior of social animals," Dr. Kravitz said .  He explained how lobsters have a complex social hierarchy based on individual interactions, how when two lobsters meet for the first time they go through a ritualistic series of increasingly aggressive fight behaviors to establish a winner and a loser.  Once that dichotomy is established it doesn't change.  The winner remembers that it is a winner, the loser that it is a loser, they don't forget that relationship, and those roles affect their future chances of winning and losing against other lobsters.  "Memory of status lasts longer in losers of fights than ...

http://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1031964/ukraine-bans-three-time-osaka-international-ladies-marathon-champion-for-four-years Tetiana (Gamera) Shmyrko was yet another athlete managed by Andrey Baranov to have received a doping ban following a win at a Japanese marathon, joining last year's Nagoya Women's Marathon winner Mariya Konovalova and 2011 Tokyo Marathon winner Tatyana Aryasova among others.  Shmyrko's Osaka wins cost Japan's Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) and Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) home-soil wins, in Akaba's case in her final race before retiring, as well as taking victory from Jelena Prokopcuka (Latvia) this year.

by Brett Larner Two-time defending champion Tetiana Gamera ran a 2:22:09 Ukrainian national record to win a third-straight Osaka International Women's Marathon in the race's 34-year history.  Gamera went to the front heading out of the park around Osaka's Nagai Stadium and onto the roads before 5 km, challenged only by the last woman to win Osaka before her, 2012 champ Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya).  In that race Shigetomo ran 2:23:23, more than 30 seconds up on Gamera's 2:23:58 best from her 2013 win, but without a sub-2:30 from Shigetomo since then the odds did not look to be in her favor. Shigetomo and Gamera pushed the pace to near 2:22-flat while a chase pack of eight led by 38-year-old Jelena Prokopcuka (Latvia) and 39-year-old Mari Ozaki (Team Noritz) ran closer to 2:24-25 pace.  With a sub-2:22:30 requirement for auto selection to the 2015 Beijing World Championships team Shigetomo and Gamera hit the half in 1:11:15, but at the 180' turn just after ...

by Brett Larner The Osaka International Women's Marathon holds its 34th running Sunday, with two-time winner Tetiana Gamera (Ukraine) going for a third-straight win and Japanese women going for places on the 2015 Beijing World Championships team.  Gamera's best of 2:23:58 came in Osaka two years ago, and with the withdrawal of Kenyan Margaret Agai it means that if Gamera is anywhere near the same shape this time then her main competition is likely to be 38-year-old Jelena Prokopcuka (Latvia) whose best of 2:22:56 also came in Osaka a decade ago but is still running strong with a 2:24:07 in Nagoya last spring. Japanese women are facing a sub-2:22:30 requirement for Beijing representation, more realistic than the laughable sub-2:06:30 requirement for men but still a time no Japanese woman has run since 2007.  Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya) has the fastest time since then with a 2:23:23 in Osaka three years ago, but with nothing under 2:30 since then there's not much r...

by Brett Larner With a month to go the organizers of the Osaka International Women's Marathon have announced the elite field for their 34th running on Jan. 25.  Two-time winner Tetiana Gamera (Ukraine) returns to try to become the second woman in event history to win three-straight races, facing challenges from 2012 winner Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya), 2:23 Kenyan Margaret Agai , veterans Jelena Prokopcuka (Latvia) and Mari Ozaki (Team Noritz) and more.  The promising Yuko Watanabe (Team Edion) leads the younger talent along with the debuting Chieko Kido (Canon AC Kyushu), a member of the bronze medal-winning Japanese women's team at this year's Copenhagen World Half Marathon Championships, in search of a place on the 2015 Beijing World Championships team.  Of special interest are former national team-level corporate league runners Remi Nakazato (unattached) and Azusa Nojiri (Hiratsuka Lease), both pursuing their own routes outside the system. 34th Osaka In...

by Brett Larner Marathons are often surprisingly unpredictable, but while there were a couple of big surprises at the 33rd edition of the Osaka International Women's Marathon , what was most surprising was how predictable three of the big results were. One surprise was how aggressively Poland's Karolina Jarzynska  took the race out.  With a best of just 2:26:45, Jarzynska pushed the first half through in 1:11:30 and by 30 km had a lead of 12 seconds as she clocked a 1:42:22 split.  Not too surprisingly, she tied up in the final 12 km and dropped to 3rd but was rewarded for taking her shot with a new PB of 2:26:31, just short of a new national record. Two of the predictable elements came from the two women who ran her down.  For the third time, Ukrainian national record holder and defending champion Tetiana Gamera-Shmyrko  rocked the Osaka course with the fastest second half and final 2.195 km in the field to take her second Osaka win, coming from 42 second...

by Brett Larner Sunday's Osaka International Women's Marathon features an interesting showdown between the race's last three winners, defending champion Tetiana Gamera-Shmyrko (Ukraine), all-time Japanese #9 Risa Shigetomo  (Team Tenmaya), and, in her final race before retiring from the jitsugyodan corporate system, Yukiko Akaba  (Team Hokuren). Gamera-Shmyrko won last year's Osaka over future World Championships bronze medalist Kayoko Fukushi  (Team Wacoal) in a PB 2:23:58 with the kind of miraculously fast second half she and other Eastern European women have produced in recent years, especially at Japanese marathons.  Since then she was a DNF at November's New York City Marathon, where Shigetomo was 11th in 2:31:54.  Shigetomo has never run well in a marathon since her 2:23:23 win at Osaka in 2012, but she has been on top of her game this ekiden season most recently with a 31:50 win on the Jan. 12 National Women's Ekiden's 10 km anchor stage.  ...

by Brett Larner The organizers of the 33rd edition of the Osaka International Women's Marathon on Jan. 26, 2014, have announced their elite field.  With places on the 2014 Asian Games team at stake, national record holder, Athens Olympics gold medalist and 2003 Osaka winner Mizuki Noguchi  (Team Sysmex) leads the way along with fellow late-career greats Mari Ozaki (Team Nortiz) and 2011 Osaka winner  Yukiko Akaba  (Team Hokuren), the latter of whom has already announced her retirement following Osaka.  Noguchi was on the entry list the last two years only to pull out shortly before the race and run March's Nagoya International Women's Marathon instead, so whether she actually starts remains to be seen. Yuko Watanabe (Team Edion) tops the younger set after showing great potential in Osaka last year, with  Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya) on the roster after struggling in all her marathons since winning Osaka in 2012 in a solid 2:23:23.  Promising de...

by Brett Larner London Olympics marathon 5th-place Tetyana Gamera-Shmyrko  (Ukraine) once again put on a show of her astounding finishing speed, running down race leader Kayoko Fukushi  (Team Wacoal) in the final km to break her best for the third time in the last year as she won the 2013 Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2:23:58.  Fukushi managed a PB of 2:24:21 for 2nd, just missing the Federation's sub-2:24 requirement for a guaranteed place on the Moscow World Championships team, with 25-year-old Yuko Watanabe  (Team Edion) coming through with a 3 1/2 minute best for 3rd in 2:25:56. A cold and sunny day and the carrot provided by the Federation's time goal meant a quick race.  After a rocky and erratic start the pace settled into a steady mid-to-low-2:23 groove, with Gamera-Shmyrko, Fukushi, Watanabe, 10000 m national record holder Yoko Shibui (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) and, in her first marathon since giving birth, Mari Ozaki (Team Noritz) ma...

by Brett Larner Update: Yurika Nakamura  (Team Tenmaya)  Mizuki Noguchi  (Team Sysmex) and Madoka Ogi  (Team Juhachi Ginko) have all withdrawn . The first major Japanese marathon of the year takes place this Sunday with the Osaka International Women's Marathon.  A small, elite-only event with an accompanying mass-participation half marathon, Osaka Women's is the second of three chances for Japanese women to make the 2013 World Championships team on home ground.  The race will be broadcast live by Fuji TV starting at noon and should be available to international viewers by using Keyhole TV .  JRN will also once again cover the race live on Twitter . Last year the Japanese federation declared ambitious standards for the World Championships team, sub-2:08 for men and sub-2:24 for women.  Last year's Osaka Women's winner Risa Shigetomo  (Team Tenmaya) did it, but only fourteen Japanese women have ever cleared that standard and only two in t...

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20121218/ath12121816390000-n1.html translated and edited by Brett Larner On Dec. 18 the organizing committee of the Jan. 27 Osaka International Women's Marathon announced the domestic and international elite fields for next year's Moscow World Championships selection race edition. Osaka will be an historic showdown between Japan's #1 long distance woman Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal), marathon national record holder and Athens Olympics marathon gold medalist Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex), and 10000 m national record and former marathon national record holder Yoko Shibui (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo). Others in the field include three-time World Championships team member Mari Ozaki (Team Noritz), Beijing Olympian Yurika Nakamura (Team Tenmaya), 2011 Tokyo Marathon winner Noriko Higuchi (Team Wacoal) and London Olympics marathon 5th-place finisher Tetyana Gamera-Shmyrko (Ukraine). Noguchi was scheduled to run the 2012 Osaka Intern...

http://www.iaaf.org/Mini/CROS12/News/NewsDetail.aspx?id=63532

http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/general/track/news/20120204k0000m050008000c.html http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2012/02/04/kiji/K20120204002563870.html http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20120203-OHT1T00147.htm http://www.47news.jp/sports/localsports/2012/02/post_20120204110414.html translated and edited by Brett Larner On Feb. 3 Rikuren announced the invited athlete list for the Feb. 12 Chiba International Cross-Country Meet.  Headlining the senior 8 km and 12 km lists are women's 5000 m national champion Megumi Kinukawa  (Mizuno) and men's 10000 m national champion Yuki Sato  (Team Nissin Shokuhin), along with others kicking off a season they hope will lead to the Olympics on the track.  Top university talent in the senior men's 12 km include Hakone Ekiden stars Suguru Osako  (Waseda University) and Ikuto Yufu  (Komazawa Univ.).  The women's 8 km also features Ukrainian Tetiana Gamera-Shmyrko , the runner-up at last weekend's...

by Brett Larner After heavy pre-race favorite Kayoko Fukushi  (Team Wacoal) faltered soon into the second half of the Jan. 29 Osaka International Women's Marathon , second-time marathoner Risa Shigetomo  (Team Tenmaya) was there to pick up the pieces as she took eight minutes off her debut time from last year's London Marathon to win in 2:23:23, the fastest time by a Japanese woman since Mizuki Noguchi 's 2:21:37 course record at the Nov., 2007 Tokyo International Women's Marathon.   Shigetomo's performance puts her as the leading contender for a spot on the Olympic team with one selection race to go, and barring a slew of spectacular runs at the Mar. 11 Nagoya Women's Marathon she is likely to become the fourth-straight Tenmaya runner to make an Olympic team.  Ukrainian Tetiana Gamera-Shmyrko  and former pro XC skiier Azusa Nojiri  (Team Daiichi Seimei) also ran well, both running new PBs under 2:25 to take 2nd and 3rd after Gamera-Shmyrko ran a solid ne...