japan running news

Sunday is the Princess Ekiden , the official qualifying race for November's Queens Ekiden, the season-ending national championship race for corporate women's teams. The top 8 placers at last year's Queens Ekiden, Sekisui Kagaku , Japan Post , Panasonic , Shiseido , Daihatsu , Daiichi Seimei , Tenmaya and Iwatani Sangyo , auto-qualified for 2024, leaving the rest of the league's teams to line up in Fukuoka at the Princess Ekiden in hopes of joining them. 30 teams will compete for 16 places at the Queens Ekiden, each with a team of 6 running a total of 42.195 km. TBS is broadcasting the race live starting at 11:50, with streaming on Youtube. 16th at Queens last year, Kyudenko has scratched from Sunday's race due to athlete injuries preventing them from having enough people ready to run. 22nd at Queens, Yamada Holdings is also out because it couldn't field 6 runners, one reason being the transfer of one of its star runners, Sakiho Tsutsui , to Universal Entertai...

The Princess Ekiden , the official qualifying race for November's Queens Ekiden national corporate women's championships, happens Sunday in rural Fukuoka. 31 teams of 6 women will be racing 42.195 km in pursuit of 16 places at Queens alongside the top tier of podium placers from last year's national championships. TBS will be streaming the race live on Youtube starting at 12:10 p.m., and if you've got a VPN you should be all set. Live results will be posted here . There's a general sense that Japanese women aren't where they used to be, but counter to that trend are a lot of new women's ekiden teams trying to get off the ground. Along with some of the long-established powers like past national champions Universal Entertainment , Tenmaya and Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo , there are relatively young teams like Nitori , Senko and Tokyo Metro trying to qualify for the first time, and newcomers like Bears Camellia making their debuts. Next year expect to see at leas...

Yoshio Koide , 79, coach of 2000 Sydney Olympics women's marathon gold medalist and former world record holder Naoko Takahashi , retired from his position as head of the Sakura AC at the end of March. Koide's coaching contract with the Universal Entertainment corporate team likewise ran out at the end of March, and he did not renew it. Koide commented, "On the 15th I turn 80. This is a good time to step down and let someone younger take over." In the summer of 2015 Koide underwent heart surgery while at a training camp in the United States, and since then he has been in and out of the hospital. His age was also simply starting to have an effect. "I love the race more than anything else," he said. "I'm sorry to leave, but taking care of my body is simply more important." Koide graduated from Juntendo University. As a high school coach he led the Funabashi Municipal H.S. team to the National High School Ekiden Championships title in 19...

It's a busy weekend ahead on the track and the roads at home and abroad. Saturday and Sunday's Nittai University Time Trials feature 10000 m national record holder Kota Murayama (Asahi Kasei) in the 5000 m A-heat, where he hopes to run a season best time ahead of a return next month to the track where he set the national record at the Hachioji Long Distance Meet. Half marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara (Honda) is also entered in the 10000 m A-heat along with pretty much the entire Honda roster, in Shitara's case a tuneup for November's Ageo City Half Marathon. There's also a fast 3000 m on deck Sunday at the Sumitomo Cup meet in Hyogo, where wunderkind Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko) is going for time with pacing from Ethiopian Yeneblo Biyazen (Yachiyo Kogyo) and Kenyan John Maina (Fujitsu). One of Japan's top current men on the track, Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu) is entered both there and in the Nittai 5000 m. Saturday's Heisei Kokusai Univer...

At a meeting in Osaka the National Corporate Federation's board of directors put on hold the Universal Entertainment women's team's suspension from competing in ekidens organized by the Federation. Universal Entertainment won last November's National Corporate Women's Ekiden, but when one team member was later found to have committed a doping violation the Federation voted in July to strip the team of its title and suspend it from competition. As one of the conditions for its suspension to be lifted, on Sept. 15 Universal Entertainment submitted to the Federation plans for the steps it would take to prevent a recurrence of the incident. The Federation will investigate the measures and situation at the team next week, and if the anti-doping measures can be confirmed it will fully lift the suspension. If the suspension is lifted the Universal Entertainment team is expected to compete in the Oct. 21 National Corporate Women's Ekiden Qualifier in Fukuoka. If i...

by Shoko Egawa Egawa is an investigate journalist who made her name doing early work on the Aum death cult. Here she looks at the situation surrounding 2005 Helsinki World Championships marathon team member Yumiko Hara , who blamed a string of arrests for shoplifting on an eating disorder she claims to have developed as a result of the psychological trauma of the strict dietary and weight restrictions her corporate league coach put upon her. "The weight restrictions were severe, way beyond what any other team did, and it was especially hard to take because I was the only they were being applied to. At meals the head coach told me, 'Eat this. Don't eat this.' I was weighed repeatedly throughout the day to the point that I was afraid to drink water because I thought my weight would increase by the amount of the water." Earlier this summer former marathon national team member Yumiko Hara underwent questioning under Maebashi District Court Ota Branch judge Ma...

For more background on this story read previous story #1 , story #2 , and story #3 . Case Number: 2017-005 Athlete Name: Moeno Nakamura Sport: Athletics Based on the decision of the Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA) Hearing Panel, the Disciplinary Panel has made the following ruling in the case described below. Hearing Panel Decision  The JADA Hearing Panel is comprised of members selected by the Disciplinary Panel chairperson in accordance with JADA Rule 8.3.2. In the case in question, the Hearing Panel made the recommendations below based on a hearing session held on May 30, 2018, and on supplementary evidentiary documentation received thereafter. Decision A violation of Rule 2.1 was found to have occurred. In accordance with Rules 9 and 10.8, all individual results from the period covering the date the testing sample was taken and the beginning of the provisional suspension period, including those at the 37th National Corporate Women's Ekiden, will be annull...

A statement by Koichiro Nishikawa , chairperson of the Japan Industrial Track and Field Association At the 37th National Corporate Women's Ekiden organized by the Japan Industrial Track and Field Association (JITA), a prohibited substance was detected in a sample taken from Moeno Nakamura , at the time a member of the Universal Entertainment team, in an in-competition drug test. After receiving notification of this result, in accordance with the recommendations of the Japan Anti-Doping Agency disciplinary panel, Nakamura was suspended for one year and three months beginning Nov. 26, 2017. As the JITA not only do we hold anti-doping education sessions for athletes and coaches in partnership with the Japan Association of Athletics Federations and clearly specify that our events must be carried out in strict accordance with anti-doping regulations, but as the JITA chairperson I have personally given strong emphasis to the importance of "Clean Sport." In spite of these...

On July 19 the Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA) announced that distance runner Moeno Nakamura , 28, a former member of the Universal Entertainment women's ekiden team, had tested positive for the muscle tone-improving steroid metenolone during in-competition testing at last November's National Corporate Women's Ekiden, which Universal Entertainment won. As a result of the positive test Nakamura, who has already left the team, will be suspended for one year and three months and have her result at the ekiden annulled. According to the JADA announcement, two months before the ekiden Nakamura underwent surgical treatment for a gynecological condition. Subsequent injections she received included the prohibited substance. JADA accepted her explanation that these were for post-operative therapeutic purposes but ruled her negligent in not having told her doctor that she was an athlete and in not confirming the contents of the injections. In a statement released through Univer...

On July 18 it was learned from several sources connected with the situation that a member of the 2017 National Corporate Women's Ekiden champion team Universal Entertainment who left the team at the end of last season tested positive for a banned substance in a doping test carried out at the ekiden. Universal Entertainment won the national championship race, its second-ever title and first in five years. But because the athlete's result will be annulled the team will also be stripped of its title, an unprecedented situation in the ekiden's history. According to an involved source, before the race the athlete took her own personal medicine which included the prohibited substance. The athlete denied having taking the medicine in order to enhance her performance. Team management claimed the athlete had not informed then that she was taking it, and that the situation was the result of her personal carelessness. The Universal Entertainment team was founded under the name ...

Accused of shoplifting 380 yen [~$3.50 USD] worth of candy from a supermarket in Ota, Gunma in February while under probation in another shoplifting case, former World Championships marathoner Yumiko Hara , 36, now a restaurant worker, underwent questioning in her second trial at Maebashi District Ota Branch Court under judge Masaya Okuyama . Crying as she spoke, Hara confessed to having shoplifted as an elementary school student. She said that as an athlete she had developed an eating disorder due to the strict weight restrictions and had resorted to stealing food. Even after retiring, she said, "I would throw up food after eating it." "I was always hungry, always felt thirsty," Hara said of her time as an athlete. "They put severe restrictions on my weight that went way beyond what any other university or corporate team would do." She said that after joining the corporate leagues her coach would take her wallet away from her at training camps so t...

2012 national champions Universal Entertainment returned to the top Sunday in Sendai, running down breakaway leader Panasonic late in the race to win the 2017 National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships . Panasonic was an unexpected highlight, winning the first three stages and building a 42-second lead by the start of the 3.6 km Fourth Stage, the race's shortest leg. There Panasonic's Chiaki Tobe struggled, losing ground to Universal Entertainment, defending national champ Japan Post , and Shiseido , who drew within 10 seconds. On the 10.0 km Fifth Stage Universal's Moeno Nakamura , a member of its 2012 national champion squad, took her time closing on Panasonic's Shiori Morita , not fully closing the gap until exactly halfway through the stage and then pushing ahead to open a 12-second lead of her own. Behind her, marathon university national record holder Sairi Maeda  of the Daihatsu team delivered what was no doubt the run of the day, making a supe...

by Brett Larner The women's championship ekiden season came to a close at Sunday's Kita-Kyushu Invitational Women's Ekiden in Fukuoka.  Cancelled last year due to heavy snow, Kita-Kyushu pits the country's top high school, university and pro women's teams against each other over a short five-stage, 32.8 km course, the long 11.7 km anchor stage split in two for the high school division. With both divisions running together it was a close race throughout.  Running without star marathoner Eri Hayakawa , the Toto corporate team led almost the entire race.  Its opening pair Hana Omori and Shuru Bulo built a 36-lead over 2016 National High School Ekiden champion and 2015 high school division winner Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S., with its nearest corporate league competition Universal Entertainment almost a minute behind. Universal's third runner Mai Shinozuka cut that down to 19 seconds, Osaka Kunei's Ayako Murao coming even closer at just 8 seconds ...

by Brett Larner National championship ekiden season got off to a good start at Sunday's National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships , where two-time defending champion Team Denso led seven teams under the 2:16:12 course record it set last year on the way to its third-straight win with new records on four of the 42.195 km course's six stages. Denso's Yuki Mitsunobu led off, missing the First Stage record by 1 second as she handed off just behind Ayumi Sakaida (Team Daihatsu).  Denso's next two runners Naoko Koizumi and Yuka Takashima scored records on their stages to give their team a lead that was never broken despite new Fourth and Fifth Stage records by rivals Sally Chepyego (Team Kyudenko) and Risa Yokoe (Team Toyota Jidoshokki).  Denso anchor Nami Hashimoto was the only stage winner not to tie or set an individual record but her 21:26 for the 6.795 km Sixth Stage was more than enough to maintain Denso's lead of almost a minute over Toyota Ji...

by Brett Larner While the university women's ekiden circuit continues to expand , the corporate women's calendar faced another cutback this year.  From roughly a half dozen corporate league regions, each of which holds a separate New Year Ekiden national corporate men's championships qualifying ekiden in November, corporate women's teams had already seen their regional qualifiers compressed to three qualifying races, West Japan, Central Japan and East Japan.  This year those three races were further combined into a single qualifying race in Munakata, Fukuoka with 24 teams competing for 14 "princess" places at next month's National Corporate Women's Ekiden alongside the seeded top 8 "queens" from last year's Nationals. From the East Japan region, Universal Entertainment took the top position in 2:17:02 for 42.195 km in 6 stages, leading from the Second Stage to the end with stage bests from second runner Tomoka Kimura and fifth run...

http://www.sankei.com/sports/news/141103/spo1411030028-n1.html translated and edited by Brett Larner At the Nov. 3 East Japan Corporate Ekiden from Saitama to Kumagaya Sports Park Field, Konica Minolta won its third-straight and eighth overall title in the 7-stage, 77.5 km men's race in 3:49:34.  Universal Entertainment likewise won a third-straight title in 6-stage, 42.195 km women's race in 2:18:36. Konica Minolta took the lead on the Second Stage thanks to rookie Keita Shitara , with Fifth Stage winner Hiroyuki Yamamoto opening a major lead.  Nissin Shokuhin was 2nd, with Honda 3rd.  Nanyo City Hall beat the classic Kanebo team for 13th, the last qualifying position for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden national corporate men's championships. In the women's race, Universal Entertainment anchor Mizuho Nasukawa shook off Daiichi Seimei' s Sakiko Matsumi for the win after the pair started almost even.  Daiichi Seimei took 2nd, with Panasonic 3rd.  The to...

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20140131-00000030-nksports-spo http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2014/01/31/kiji/K20140131007493260.html http://mainichi.jp/sports/news/20140201k0000m050027000c.html translated and edited by Brett Larner A 2012 London Olympian and 5th in last year's Moscow World Championships 10000 m, Hitomi Niiya  (25), announced her retirement Jan. 31 at a press conference at her sponsor Universal Entertainment's head office in Ariake, Tokyo.  With regard to her early retirement at just age 25, Niiya gave the diagnosis of plantar fasciitis in her right foot in November, 2012 as her main reason.  "When I found out the situation with my foot I was so relieved," she said.  "At that moment I thought, 'Now I can get down off this stage and finally quit this sport.'  When they asked if I wanted to keep running to the point of needing surgery my answer came out immediately."  At that point she made the decision that the foll...

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2014/01/25/kiji/K20140125007456230.html translated and edited by Brett Larner photo by Mika Tokairin On Jan. 25 a representative of Moscow World Championships women's 10000 m 5th-placer Hitomi Niiya  (25, Team Universal Entertainment) announced Niiya's retirement.  A press conference to explain the decision is scheduled for Jan. 31. Born in Okayama, as a student at Kojokan H.S. she won her stage at the National High School Ekiden Championships three years in a row.  In 2006 she joined the Toyota Jidoshoki corporate team, and the following year at age 18 won the first Tokyo Marathon.  In 2011 she  left Toyota Jidoshokki to remain with coach Yoshio Koide  when the team moved from Chiba to Aichi, qualifying as an independent for the Daegu World Championships where she made the final in the 5000 m .  After joining the Universal Entertainment team she won the 2012 National Championships 5000 m , and at th...

by Brett Larner The month-long national championship ekiden season starts Sunday in Sendai with the 33rd running of the National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships .  Twenty-seven corporate league women's teams from across the country will compete over the six-stage, 42.195 km course in front of a nationwide audience courtesy of TBS' live broadcast starting at 11:50 a.m. Japan time. Last year's winner Team Universal Entertainment  returns as one of the favorites, taking the Nov. 3 East Japan regional qualifier by more than two minutes over 2011 national champion Team Daiichi Seimei  even without its star runner, Moscow World Championships 10000 m 5th-placer  Hitomi Niiya .  Niiya, still recovering from an injury that has kept her out of competition since Moscow, is on Universal's roster for tomorrow's national championships, and if she runs they may be close to unbeatable. Last year's runner-up Team Denso  may be its strongest competition.  L...

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/e-japan/aichi/news/20131111-OYT8T01064.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner Having helped lead Toyokawa H.S. to its first-ever National High School Ekiden Championships title , women's long-distance runner Nanaka Izawa  (Sr., Juntendo Univ.) has signed a contract to join the 2012 national champion Universal Entertainment corporate league team following her graduation next spring.  At Universal she will also receive coaching from the legendary coach of Sydney Olympics women's marathon gold medalist and former world record holder Naoko Takahashi , the Universal-affiliated Sakura AC's Yoshio Koide .  Currently doing student teacher work back at Toyokawa, Izawa showed her resolve as she said, "My future is in the marathon, and the Tokyo Olympics are my goal." At the National High School Ekiden Championships Izawa ran the Third Stage as a first-year, the Second Stage as a second-year, and the ace First Stage as a third-year, winnin...