japan running news

by Brett Larner Following up on last year's record-setting race , the Yaizu Minato Half Marathon returned for the 25th anniversary of its unique pair marathon university championship format with some of Japan's best university teams scoring the top two of their three members in the race.   Meiji University , one of the potential favorites for the 2013-14 ekiden season, took the team title in 2:09:43 as Tomoyasu Matsui  and Shin Kimura  went 1-2 a second apart in 1:04:51 and 1:04:52.  2012 Izumo Ekiden course record-setter Aoyama Gakuin University  was 2nd in 2:10:30 with all three of its runners making the top ten, with 2012 National University Ekiden course record-setter Komazawa University  3rd in 2:10:56 despite not getting anyone into the top five.   Shota Kai  of 2013 Hakone Ekiden winner Nittai University  was 3rd overall, but Nittai did not make the team podium. 28th Yaizu Minato Half Marathon 25th National University Pair Marath...

by Brett Larner Kawauchi on the podium. Despite windy conditions, times were fast across the board at the  27th Yaizu Minato Half Marathon  in Shizuoka prefecture, a race deep in university competition.  The top three men cracked the fourteen-year-old course record of 1:03:54, two of them in the university division including winner Yusuke Ota (Nittai Univ.) who set a new overall CR of 1:03:42,  Meiji University 's winning team set a record for the combined times of the top two runners from the school in Yaizu's unique National University Pair Marathon Championships division, and just a week after a loss in a 10-miler against Toyo University ace Yuta Shitara , marathoner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) came up 2nd overall again with a new general division course record of 1:03:48. Kawauchi's participation was unannounced, and when he appeared on the start line a murmur among the university runners quickly grew into an ovation from t...