japan running news

The Paris Paralympics wrapped up with another trio of bronze medals by Japanese athletes. In Friday's T52 men's 100 m final, Tomoki Sato held off Canada's Anthony Bouchard and Mexico's Salvador Hernandez Mondragon by 0.11 for bronze in 17.44 (+1.6). Tomoya Ito and Tatsuya Ito were 7th and 8th in 17.67 and 17.91, with Belgian Maxime Carabin winning gold in 16.70. In Sunday's marathons, Tomoki Suzuki lost out to China's Hua Jin in the race for T54 men's silver, Jin getting there first in 1:31:19 and Suzuki 4 seconds back in 1:31:23 for bronze. But both were far behind gold medalist Marcel Hug of Switzerland, who had a dominant run in 1:27:39 for the win. Ryota Yoshida clocked 1:37:15 for 8th. Wakako Tsuchida and Tsubasa Kina were off their best in the T54 women's race, Tsuchida 6th in 1:52:39 and Kina 12th in 2:04:53. In the T12 women's marathon, Paralympic and world record holder Misato Michishita lost both records to Moroccans Fatima Ez...

  The Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon took place Oct. 15 alongside the Marathon Grand Championship Olympic marathon trials, starting and finishing at Tokyo's National Stadium. In the men's race, Evans Keitany (Toyota Boshoku) ran down leader Bedan Karoki (Toyota) and holding off Benard Kimeli (Fujitsu) to take the win in 1:01:10. In his first pro season Aoyama Gakuin University graduate Kotaro Kondo (SG Holdings) was the top Japanese finisher in 1:01:26. In the women's race, Gladys Chepkurui (Kenya) broke the course record with a 1:08:03 for the win. Dolphine Nyaboke Omare (U.S.E.) was also under the old CR in 1:08:13 for 2nd. The top Japanese woman was Natsuki Ogawa (Suzuki AC) in 1:14:34 for 4th. Tomoki Suzuki won the men's wheelchair race in 43:40, with Tsubasa Kina winning a photo finish with Wakako Tsuchida in the women's race, both athletes clocked at 52:45. Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon Tokyo, 15 Oct. 2023 complete results Men 1. Evans Keitany (Toyota Bo...

Scheduled to happen in parallel with the MGC Race Paris Olympic marathon trials, the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon has announced the elite fields for its second running Oct. 15. Straight from this spring's Barcelona Half Marathon, Gladys Chepkurui and Charles Langat are the top internationals coming in from abroad at 1:05:46 and 58:53. Chepkurui's only real competition is Japan-based Dolphine Omare , winner at last year's National Corporate Half Marathon in 1:07:56. Langat has more serious competition from Japan-based Alexander Mutiso , 58:48 at last year's RAK Half among others, and another five in the mid-to-high 59-minute range. Sub-27:20 10000 m runners Evans Keitany , Jonathan Ndiku and Timothy Kibet should also factor in. Given that the race will happen at the same time as the Olympic marathon trials there aren't a lot of high-level Japanese athletes in the race. The top woman in Mao Kiyota , 1:11:18 at this race last year, with Toyo University 's Kazuki...

On a windier than usual race morning the 2023 Gold Coast Marathon was kind of a throwback to ancient pre-pandemic history, 2019 to be specific. In the women's race, 2019 winner Rodah Jepkorir Tanui was the last woman left standing after a CR-pace 1:12:19 first half, fading the least in the strong headwinds after the turnaround point near 36.5 km and coming to the line in 2:27:10, 46 seconds better than when she won last time. 2018 winner Ruth Chebitok lost touch with Tanui around 25 km but held on for 2nd in 2:28:17. In 3rd, Australian Genevieve Gregson moved up through the field after a more conservative 1:14:19 first half, executing her debut perfectly with a 5-second negative split to finish in 2:28:33. In her first race since 2019, two-time world champion and two-time winner of both the Chicago and Berlin marathons Florence Kiplagat was 6th in 2:36:29. "I wished only to finish," she told JRN. "This was a start to again have something to my name." Top Jap...

Running through the lush green of the city, 8000 people ran the June 4 Sendai International Half Marathon , double the number in last year's corona-limited comeback edition. In the men's race, a trio of international athletes, Joseph Karanja , Charles Kamau and Benard Kimeli , led early and battled over the last 5 km. Nearing the track for the finish, Karanja broke free to win in 1:01:49. It was his first victory in Sendai. Running the women's race for the first time, Tokyo Olympics marathon 8th-placer Mao Ichiyama won in 1:11:38. Masayuki Higuchi and Tsubasa Kina won the men's and women's wheelchair divisions. Sendai International Half Marathon Sendai, Miyagi, 4 June 2023 complete results Women 1. Mao Ichiyama - 1:11:38 2. Sakiho Tsutsui - 1:12:04 3. Joan Kipkemoi - 1:12:33 4. Chiharu Ikeda - 1:12:53 5. Hikari Onishi - 1:13:10 6. Nanami Aoki - 1:13:52 7. Rinka Hida - 1:14:21 8. Yumeno Yamazaki - 1:14:28 9. Eriko Otsuka - 1:15:01 10. Shihoka Kato - 1:15:07 Men 1...

https://goldcoastmarathon.com.au/2023/06/02/2023-gold-coast-marathon-elite-field-reveal/

The Tokyo Marathon delivered on quality and exciting races, if not the record-breaking depth its entry lists promised. Swiss power duo Manuela Schar and Marcel Hug broke the course records in the wheelchair races, Schar soloing a 1:36:43 CR to win the women's race by more than 6 minutes over Japanese NR holder Tsubasa Kina . Hug worked together with Japanese men's NR holder Tomoki Suzuki for the first 25 km before hammering on the bridge over the Sumida River just before 30 km to put him away. Hug opened more than 3 1/2 minutes on Suzuki from there to the finish, winning in a new CR of 1:20:57. Based in Japan since 2010, first at Aomori Yamada H.S. and then at the Starts corporate team, Rosemary Wanjiru came to the Tokyo Marathon women's race ranked #2 in the field after a 2:18:00 debut for 2nd in Berlin last fall. Running a lead quartet with Ethiopians Tsehay Gemechu , Worknesh Edesa and last year's runner-up Ashete Bekere , Wanjiru was calm and relaxed until th...

Riding the wave of the massive results at last weekend’s Osaka Marathon, the Tokyo Marathon is back this Sunday with what looks set to be the deepest-ever men’s marathon and strong women’s and wheelchair races in the works. Conditions are looking ideal, with the current forecast predicting temperatures of 8˚C at the start rising to 9˚C by the finish, cloud cover, and gentle 2 m/s winds. Fuji TV’s international broadcast will be available worldwide , with leaderboard and athlete tracking here . In the men’s race, an incredible 56 men on the entry list have run sub-2:10 since 2020. The deepest-ever marathon, the 2021 Lake Biwa Marathon, produced 42 sub-2:10 performances. Given that Osaka last week had 32 recent sub-2:10 runners on its list and produced 35 sub-2:10s on a tougher course than Tokyo’s, expect things to go big. With a 2:03:36 in 2019 in Berlin, 2021 London winner Sisay Lemma is the only one in the field to have run sub-2:04. But after a sub-par year in 2022 he’s vulnerable...

Tokyo Paralympics women's T12 marathon gold medalist and world record holder Misato Michishita (Mitsui Sumitomo) broke her own Asian area record to win the 5000 m on the first day of this weekend's National Para Track and Field Championships , just down the road in Kobe from the National Championships and U20 National Championships in Osaka. Running 18:31.72 with help from guide runner Megumi Kawaguchi , Michishita took over 17 seconds off her old record and over a minute off her own meet record to win by more than 2 minutes. T11 class Asian record holder Natsumi Inouchi (Mizuho FG) also took over a minute off the 5000 m meet record in her division, winning in 21:02.24. Wheelchair athlete Tsubasa Kina (Ryukyu Sports) won the T53/54 class in 12:22.22. The next day she was back in the 1500 m, where she was 2nd by 0.26 sec to NR holder Wakako Tsuchida (Willraise) 3:32.38 to 3:32.64. The meet record also went in the T12 men's 5000 m, with Asian record holder Tadashi Horiko...

The Tokyo Marathon returned to the streets of the nation's capital Sunday with both a mass participation field of 20,000 and a world-class elite race for the first time in three years. Three of the four divisions in the race had the world record holder in their respective category, and all three put in dominant performances to take the win.  Men's wheelchair marathon world record holder and double Paralympic gold medalist Marcel Hug  of Switzerland soloed a 1:22:16 to beat Japanese national record holder Tomoki Suzuki  by almost 7 minutes. Men's marathon world record holder Eliud Kipchoge  delivered one of the best performances of his career, taking command before all the pacers had dropped and pushing through headwinds over the final kilometers to win in 2:02:40, the 3rd-fastest record-legal time ever, fastest on Japanese soil, and fastest so far this year. And that despite a wrong turn when the police guide escort went the wrong way on a new section of course near...

Bigger things are happening in the world right now, but this Sunday the  Tokyo Marathon  returns to the streets with a full-sized elite and mass participation field for the first time since 2019. World record holders Brigid Kosgei  and Eliud Kipchoge  are there to lead it, broadcast live in 160 countries worldwide starting at 9:00 a.m. local Japan time with JRN's Brett Larner  on the commentary once again. Follow the leaderboard here , with athlete tracking here . For the second time in its history Tokyo has a significant course change this year, the addition of a new out-and-back toward Ueno just before 10 km and an equivalent cut from the final out-and-back toward Shinagawa. Not counting the triangular turnaround at Asakusa, that means Tokyo has gone from one 180˚ turn on the original course to two on the interim course to three on this course, something that will impact its overall quality and especially so for the wheelchair marathoners. The women's wheelch...

After coming up empty-handed last month in the Sapporo Olympic marathons, Japan scored three marathon medals on the streets of Tokyo proper at today's final day of the Tokyo Paralympic Games . The T54 men's wheelchair marathon was the first race off the line, followed ten minutes later by the T54 women's wheelchair marathon and another ten minutes later by the men's and women's T12/T46 marathons. As cold rain started to pour down just as the race began, Swiss favorite Marcel Hug  went head-to-heat with surprise challenger Yong Zhang  of China in the T54 men's race. The pair steadily built a lead over the rest of the field until Hug, showing frustration at Zhang's refusal to lead, broke away on the series of hills just after 40 km to take gold in 1:24:02 to Zhang's 1:24:22. American Daniel Romanchuk  took the top spot in the chase pack, beating Canada's Brent Lakatos , who had trouble on a corner and lost ground early in the race, by 13 seconds for br...

Japan will field a team of 20 women and 26 men for track and field competition at the Tokyo Paralympics, spanning most of the Paralympics' duration with a daily schedule from Aug. 27 to Sept. 5.  The complete schedule can be found here . Many of Japan's medal chances come in the marathon, including women's T12 world record holder Misato Michishita  and veteran Wakako Tsuchiya  in the T54 class, and Shinya Wada  in the men's T11 class and Tsutomu Nagata  in the men's T46 class. A breakdown of who's who on the Japanese team: Women 100 m Kaede Maegawa - T63 Momoka Muraoka - T54 Mana Sasaki - T13 Uran Sawada - T12 Chiaki Takada - T11 Saki Takakuwa - T64 Yuka Takamatsu - T38 200 m Sae Tsuji - T47 400 m Mana Sasaki - T13 Yuka Takamatsu - T38 Ayumi Takemura - T38 Aimi Toyama - T20 Sae Tsuji - T47 1500 m Anju Furuya - T20 Sayaka Makita - T20 Moeko Yamamoto - T20 Marathon Yumiko Fujii - T12 Tsubasa Kina - T54 Misato Michishita - T12 Mihoko Nishijima - T12 Wakako Ts...