japan running news

http://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/sports/article/20130422000135 translated and edited by Brett Larner On Apr. 22 the organizers of the Biwako University Ekiden , held each November between Nagahama and Otsu along the west coast of Lake Biwa, announced that the event has been suspended.  With Biwako to have served as the 75th anniversary edition of the Kansai Region University Ekiden Championships this year, a move to an alternate course in the Tango peninsula north of Kyoto is being examined. With various locations having staged the Kansai championships over the years, the Biwako University Ekiden became the host event in 2005, expanding the championships' scale by bringing together invited schools from the Tokai, Chugoku, Shikoku and Kyushu regions along with the best of Kansai to battle for the title of #1 in Western Japan. With an eight-year history, last year 21 schools competed over Biwako's eight-stage, 83.6 km course. Following difficulties in achieving the event's or...

by Brett Larner The bulk of the regional university championship track meets took place the weekend of May 14-15, including Tokyo's highly competitive Kanto Regional University T&F Championships. The most noteworthy result of the weekend, however, came at the small Chugoku-Shikoku Regionals, where first-year Aya Takayanagi (Matsuyama Univ.) set a new national junior and national collegiate record in the women's 3000 mSC. Takayanagi, coached by Keiichi Murai , the husband of two-time World Championships marathon medalist Reiko Tosa , ran 10:21.41 to set the pair of new marks, and excellent start to her university career. The Kanto region is the site of the toughest men's racing in Japan, and the 10000 m is always the highlight of the meet. This year did not disappoint as junior Tsubasa Hayakawa (Tokai Univ.) overcame strong winds to beat defending champion Benjamin Gandu (Kenya/Nihon Univ.) for the win in a PB of 28:41.26 in the Div. 1 race. Hayakawa ran a patient...

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...