japan running news

This weekend coach Masato Yokota  is publishing half marathon national record holder Hitomi Niiya 's complete training diary for the 3 months+ leading up to this past January's  Aramco Houston Half Marathon  where Niiya   ran 1:06:38, at that point the fastest time ever by a woman born outside of Kenya or Ethiopia, for the win. This is part two, covering November, 2019. Read part one, October, here . So how did you like the first month of training? I was really happy to see that so many more people than I expected enjoyed reading about it. I read every question that people left in the replies. At some point I'll answer them all, so if you have questions please feel free to leave them in the comment section. Today is the second of three installments of Niiya's training from after the World Championships, covering Oct. 1, 2019 to setting the Japanese national record at the Houston Half on Jan. 19. This covers November's training. Compared to October it gets mo...

by Ryo Ota On Jan. 21 Tsuyoshi Ugachi (32, Konica Minolta) returned from the Jan. 19 Aramco Houston Half Marathon in Texas, U.S.A., where he paced Hitomi Niiya (31, Sekisui Kagaku) to the win in a 1:06:38 Japanese national record. Ugachi earned praise for his perfect pacing work, which pushed Niiya to take 48 seconds off the former national record of 1:07:26 set 14 years ago by Kayoko Fukushi (37, Wacoal). "Coach Yokota called me up and said, 'We'd really like it if you'd help her get the Japanese record,'" Ugachi said. "I've known Niiya since high school, so I think my name must have come up not just as someone who could set the pace but as someone who could give her a feeling of security and peace of mind to reduce stress during the race." Ugachi has been known for his pure guts racing since his days at Komazawa University , where he played a big role in its 2008 Hakone Ekiden win. He has spent the last ten years at the famed  Konica...

Akinobu Murasawa age: 28 sponsor: Nissin Shokuhin graduated from: Saku Chosei H.S., Tokai University best time inside MGC window: 2:09:47, 14th, 2018 Tokyo Marathon PB: 2:09:47, 14th, 2018 Tokyo Marathon other PBs: 5000 m: 13:34.85 (2011) 10000 m: 27:50.59 (2012) 20 km: 59:08 (2009) marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019) 18th, 2018 Frankfurt Marathon, 2:15:41 14th, 2018 Tokyo Marathon, 2:09:47 – PB 1st, 2017 Hokkaido Marathon, 2:14:48 other major results: 25th, 2019 Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon, 1:04:32 34th, 2019 New Year Ekiden Third Stage (13.6 km), 40:25 28th, 2017 Lake Biwa Marathon, 2:17:51 5th, 2017 Karatsu 10-Miler, 46:46 8th, 2016 National Championships 10000 m, 28:29.10 5th, 2015 National Championships 10000 m, 28:39.39 9th, 2014 Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler, 46:40 – PB 3rd, 2012 Hakone Ekiden Second Stage (23.2 km), 1:08:14 1st, 2011 Hakone Ekiden Second Stage (23.2 km), 1:06:52 2nd, 2010 Hakone Ekiden Second Stage (23.2 km), 1:08:08...

Fujitsu and Asahi Kasei led the first round of qualifiers for the New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships, winning Saturday's East Japan and Kyushu regional corporate ekidens. Starting in 7th, Fujitsu took the lead in the East Japan race thanks to a stage-winning run from second man Hiroki Matsueda and never looked back, its final margin of victory over the 7-stage, 76.9 km course standing at 46 seconds over runner-up Kanebo . Racing for the first time since his 4th-place 2:08:16 finish at September's Berlin Marathon, Fujitsu's Shogo Nakamura had a strong run on the 9.5 km Fourth Stage, finishing 2nd on time in 27:59 behind fellow Komazawa Unviersity graduate Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Konica Minolta). 6th at the final exchange, last year's East Japan winner Honda moved up to 4th thanks to a stage-winning run from anchor and half marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara . Shitara was the only runner to break 38 minutes for the 12.9 km Seventh...

Most of Japan's distance runners retreat north to Hokkaido for the summer to escape the heat and put in mileage for ekiden season. The four-part Hokuren Distance Challenge series gives them the chance to add some quality into the mix, whether for chasing standards, padding their resumes, or general development. The main focus of the first part of the 2018 series, held in the town of Abashiri, was on 10000 m for women and 5000 m for men. In cold and rain times weren't especially fast, Minami Yamanouchi (Kyocera) continuing a solid first season in the corporate leagues with a win in the women's 10000 m A-heat in 32:35.74 and Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku) taking the B-heat in 32:55.13. Women also had the option for 3000 m, with Marta Mokaya (Oita Tomei H.S.) beating Ann Karindi (Toyota Jidoshokki) 8:56.40 to 8:59.12. Kenyan Nicholas Kosimbei (Toyota) fronted the men's 5000 m A-heat in 13:33.97, with Kazuki Tamura (Sumitomo Denko) taking the top Japanese spot at ...

On Jan. 16 the organizers of the Feb. 18 Kumamoto-jo Marathon announced the elite field of 21 women and men for the 62nd running of the accompanying Kanaguri Kinen Kumanichi 30 km Road Race. Rio de Janeiro Olympics women's marathoner Mai Ito (Otsuka Seiyaku), 2012 Kumanichi men's champion Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Konica Minolta) 2018 Hakone Ekiden MVP Keisuke Hayashi (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) top the entry lists. Seven corporate league men are on the entry list, which features Ugachi's teammate Gen Hachisuka (Konica Minolta), 28:15 10000 m runner Masato Terauchi (Aichi Seiko) and 2012 runner-up Y uki Oshikawa (Toyota Kyushu). Along with eight university men will also be in the race including two of the runners responsible for Toyo Univesity 's 2018 Hakone Ekiden Day One win, Shuji Yamamoto and Akira Aizawa , and local Kyushu Gakuin H.S. graduate Shota Nakagawa (Nittai Univ.). The women's field consists of six athletes including Ito. 2016 runner-up Mami Onuki (Sysm...

by Brett Larner For its 70th edition the Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon has wheeled out another quality field of top-level domestic elites peppered with an international seasoning to meet IAAF labelling requirements.  Like the United States' Houston Half Marathon, Marugame is a surprisingly fast race where many run lifetime bests they never approach again, enough of them to set world records for depth .  For Japanese men this year it serves as one of the selection races for the 2016 World Half Marathon team while for the women it's simply a day at the races. Five athletes with recent sub-70 marks make up the top tier in the women's race.  2014 Asian Games gold medalist Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain) leads the way with a best of 1:08:31, followed closely by Diane Nukuri (Burundi) and the top female Japanese half marathoner of 2015, Rei Ohara (Team Tenmaya).  Just under the 70-minute mark with PBs at December's Sanyo Ladies' Half are the promising Yuka An...

http://mainichi.jp/sports/news/20151104k0000m050015000c.html translated and edited by Brett Larner 朝チャン！ 東日本実業団駅伝 「いつも追いかけている仕事の警視庁。この日ばかりは必死で逃げます！」←思わず笑ってしまった(^O^) pic.twitter.com/nKLg7mMNcs — ku_min (@kunkun_san) November 3, 2015 Running from the Saitama Prefectural Government offices to Kumagaya Sports Park Field, 27 corporate men's teams raced the 56th running of the seven-stage, 77.5 km East Japan Corporate Ekiden on Nov. 3.  The local Honda team won for the first time in 3:47:09 after anchor Yuki Matsumura made up a 52-second deficit to run down leader Nissin Shokuhin .  Nissin Shokuhin finished 2nd for the fourth year in a row, with DeNA taking 3rd and Konica Minolta , in search of a fourth-straight win, finishing on 4th.  The top 15 teams qualified for the 60th running of the New Year Ekiden national corporate men's championships on Jan. 1.  The new ND Software team was the 16th finisher, just missing making its New Year Ekiden debut by 3 second...

by Brett Larner Japan's major mid-summer distance series, the Hokuren Distance Challenge kicked off later than usual this week with meets in the towns of Shibetsu and Fukagawa on the northern island of Hokkaido, where distance runners from high school to pro head in the summer to escape the heat and put in mileage for the fall ekiden season. At the series-opening Shibetsu Meet, the biggest news came in the men's 5000 m A-heat.  Last December Fukushima 10th-grader Hyuga Endo (Gakuho Ishikawa H.S.) exploded into the news with a 13:58.93, the fastest-ever 5000 m by a Japanese 16-year-old.  Now an 11th-grader but still 16 for another month, in Shibetsu Endo smashed his own record with a 13:50.51 PB to finish just behind 2014 Asian Games marathon silver medalist Kohei Matsumura (Team Mitsubishi HPS), the 9th-best time ever by a Japanese high schooler and 2nd-best by an under-18 Japanese runner.  Hilsawat Mamiyo Nuguse (Ethiopia/Team Yasukawa Denki), a newcomer to the Ja...

by Brett Larner The first big 10000 m on the Japanese track calendar, this weekend's Hyogo Relay Carnival is geared up to be a shot at World Championships entry standards and World University Games national team places.  The Grand Prix men's 10000 m features sub-27 world-level medalists Kenyans Paul Tanui (Team Kyudenko) and Bedan Karoki (DeNA RC) and four others with sub-27:30 bests to pull the top Japanese men along to clear the 27:45.00 Beijing standard.  The only man to do it so far, Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Team Asahi Kasei) with a 27:38.99 last November in Hachioji, is not in the race, but two others who have cleared that time before, Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Team Konica Minolta) and Chihiro Miyawaki (Team Toyota) are, along with young stars who have come close like Kenta Murayama (Team Asahi Kasei) and Keita Shitara (Team Konica Minolta).  Especially worth watching is Masato Kikuchi (Team Konica Minolta), who tied the 20 km national record earlier this year on the way...

by Brett Larner It's a great luxury to get to watch a live marathon broadcast with no commercials, but that's just what you get with the 70th edition of the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon this Sunday.  Japan's first IAAF gold label race, Biwako as it is called here features a live ad-free nationwide broadcast on NHK starting at 12:15 p.m. Japan time with the race kicking off at 12:30.  Overseas viewers can follow @JRNLive for live coverage throughout the race if NHK is not available in your area. And what does the race hold?  It's the last of the selection races for the Japanese team for the Beijing World Championships.  At Tokyo last week the Federation seemed to have backed off its sub-2:06:30 requirement for auto team selection, with more talk about the top Japanese position in the selection races and deserving praise for the 2:07:39 scored in Tokyo by Masato Imai (Team Toyota Kyushu).  Imai is a clear favorite to make the team, with Fukuoka's top Japane...

by Brett Larner The Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon , universally called Biwako for short in Japan, celebrates its 70th running this year, with a place at the Beijing World Championships up for any Japanese man who decides to run sub-2:06:30.  For its anniversary year race Biwako brings back defending champion Bazu Worku (Ethiopia) and 2012 winner Samuel Ndungu (Kenya) to face the likes of 2:06 man Eric Ndiema (Kenya), Mongolian national record holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Team NTN), 2:08:55 runner Jose Antonio Uribe (Mexico), 2014 European champion Daniele Meucci (Italy) and many more from around the world in one of the most international fields in Biwako history. On the domestic front, with a 2:08:00 best Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko), a rare Japanese athlete to have been at the top of the Japanese scene all the way from high school through a solid marathon career, goes in ranked #1 despite a weak 2014, twins Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta) and Yuko Matsumiya (Team...

by Brett Larner photo credits at bottom click here for race highlights video courtesy of broadcaster KBC Former world record holder Patrick Makau (Kenya) ran what he needed to score the win in his return to the marathon today in Fukuoka , sitting back in the pack throughout the race before dropping the competition in the last 4 km to win in 2:08:22.  But the star of the show did not hail from Kenya, or Africa, or Japan. At the pre-race press conference the top group of contenders were asked what percent confidence they had that they could win.  Favorite Makau said 90%.  2012 Fukuoka winner Joseph Gitau (Kenya/Team JFE Steel) replied 82%.  Last year's winner Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) said 50%, a suggestion of things to come.  Japanese top two Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) and Masakazu Fujiwara (Team Honda) gave only 50% and 20% estimates.  Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Mongolia/Team NTN), who beat Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. ...

by Brett Larner For its first running following the launch of the new mass-participation Fukuoka Marathon on Nov. 9, the hallowed Fukuoka International Marathon has pulled in former world record holder Patrick Makau (Kenya) to make a go at a comeback against 2013 winner Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) and surprise 2012 winner Joseph Gitau (Kenya/Team JFE Steel) in its 68th edition on Dec. 7.  Until this summer Makau hadn't run at quality over any distance since 2012, but a sub-28 road 10k in the U.S.A. in August suggests he has been getting back toward full fitness, something he'll need to bring to compete against Mathathi and Gitau.  2:06:24 Ethiopian Raji Assefa is a potential darkhorse, #2 on paper but without a good marathon to his name since running his PB in 2012. Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki), 6th in the London Olympics and 5th in the Moscow World Championships, leads the domestic hopes alongside 2:08 Moscow teammate Masakazu Fujiwara (T...