japan running news

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/1787609.html translated by Brett Larner The organizers of the Mar. 12 Nagoya Women's Marathon , a selection race for this summer's London World Championships women's marathon team, announced on Mar. 4 that last year's 3rd-placer Rei Ohara (Team Tenmaya), 2013 World Championships marathon silver medalist Valeria Straneo (Italy) and 2016 National Corporate Half Marathon champion Miho Shimizu (Team Hokuren) have all withdrawn from the race.  Ohara has suffered a fracture of the fifth metatarsal of her left foot, with Straneo and Shimizu out with unspecified injuries.

by Brett Larner The Nagoya Women's Marathon is the largest women-only marathon in the world, with 19,112 finishers last year.  It was also the deepest elite women's marathon in the world next to the Rio Olympics, with more women sub-2:27 than in Rio and only three fewer under 2:30.  Many of the main people who made it what it was last year are set to return, led by course record holder and two-time defending champion Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain) who comes back to Nagoya as an Olympic silver medalist.  Japan's Rei Ohara (Team Tenmaya), Mao Kiyota (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC), Reia Iwade (Team Noritz), Sayaka Kuwahara (Team Sekisui Kagaku) and Shiho Takechi (Team Yamada Denki) all ran sub-2:26 PBs in Nagoya last year, Ohara's 2:23:30 just missing her a place on the Rio Olympic team.  Ohara is Kirwa's closest competition, but with a nearly two-minute difference in their recent half marathon wins Ohara will have a very tough battle facing her to stay in contact.  At sta...

by Brett Larner The day Japanese marathon fans have been waiting for for years finally arrived as half-marathon national record holder Kayoko Fukushi  (Team Wacoal) finally stepped up to inherit the legacy of Olympic gold medalists Naoko Takahashi  and Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex) with a bronze medal in the women's marathon on the hot opening day of the 2013 Moscow World Championships, tough in the heat as the favorites faded. Noguchi, making a long-awaited comeback to world-level competition, was a DNF in the rough conditions, but third team member Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu) ran a solid and steady race to take 4th. Both Fukushi and Noguchi went with the fast early pace set by Italy's Valeria Straneo , but by 10 km Noguchi, running her first world-level marathon since her 2004 gold in Athens, could not keep up.  Fukushi stayed at the back of the lead pack as the numbers dwindled from eight to seven to four.  Kizaki stayed in the second pack for the first qu...