japan running news

interview by Mika Tokairin and Tsuguki Matsuda translated by Mika Tokairin and Brett Larner Arata Fujiwara  was a relative unknown when he ran the 2008 Tokyo Marathon , but his 2nd place finish in 2:08:40 made his name both domestically and worldwide. He fell five seconds short of being named to the Beijing Olympics team but made the Berlin World Championships thanks to a 2:09:47 at the Fukuoka International Marathon later that year. In this interview for the first time Fujiwara talked to JRN in detail about his now-famous 2008 Tokyo Marathon run, his thoughts and feelings before, during and after the race. What can you say about your first marathon? You really slowed down a lot. It was at Biwako [Lake Biwa] in March, 2007. That time I had stomach problems and blisters. Without them I would have won. (laughs) But I got a lot of confidence out of that race. Problems like blisters are easy to understand, you know? It’s not like if you don’t have enough stamina or a large...

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20140220-OHT1T00082.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner A representative of Kentaro Nakamoto  (Team Yasukawa Denki), 5th in the Moscow World Championships marathon and 6th in the London Olympics marathon, announced on Feb. 20 that he has withdrawn from the Feb. 23 Tokyo Marathon, a selection race for this fall's Asian Games marathon in South Korea.  According to the team spokesperson, Nakamoto caught the flu in early February and has not fully recovered.  He is not entered in the final Asian Games selection race, the Mar. 2 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, meaning that Nakamoto will not be able to run the marathon at the Asian Games. Also withdrawing are 2013 10000 m national champion and London Olympian Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin), former Aoyama Gakuin University captain Takehiro Deki (Team Chugoku Denryoku) and 2008 Tokyo winner Viktor Rothlin (Switzerland).

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20131113/ath13111318250000-n1.html translated and edited by Brett Larner On Nov. 13 the organizers of the Dec. 1 Fukuoka International Marathon announced that 2008 Tokyo Marathon winner Viktor Rothlin  (Switzerland), American Andrew Carlson and 2013 Gold Coast Airport Marathon runner-up Taiga Ito  (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) have all withdrawn from the race due to training setbacks.

by Brett Larner The Fukuoka International Marathon has released the entry list for its 67th running on Dec. 1 and it's a familiar story line: one marquee African athlete and a half-dozen other foreign athletes in range of the best Japanese men on the list.  Even more so this year, with its top-end list of seven names identical to last year's field save for the substitution of Ethiopian great Gebre Gebremariam  for Ethiopian greater Haile Gebreselassie .  Gebremariam gets the official number one seed from Fukuoka organizers due to his heavily aided 2:04:53 from the 2011 Boston Marathon with no note on the entry list of that time being aided, but with a legitimate best of only 2:08:00 from the 2011 New York City Marathon he has just the sixth-fastest PB in the field.  The true top seed goes to bib #21, defending champion Joseph Gitau  (Kenya/Team JFE Steel), the only man in the field with a genuine sub-2:07 to his name.  Joining him again are last year's 3...

by Brett Larner 2:07:48 marathoner and London Olympian Arata Fujiwara  (Miki House) is one of seven Japanese athletes running next week’s Great North Run half marathon in the U.K. with support from JRN. Out of competition with injury since a memorable run at last December’s Fukuoka International Marathon, the Great North Run will be Fujiwara’s first race of 2013. On Sept. 3 JRN met up with Fujiwara at his training base in St. Moritz, Switzerland. While doing a 33 km trail run together starting at 1772 m and peaking at 2755 m, we chatted about his current condition and plans for the upcoming season. Are you an E.L.O. fan?  That's what I was listening to the whole way up here. "Mr. Blue Sky" came on just before the train pulled into St. Moritz station, appropriately enough. No, I don't really know them.  I've been listening to a lot of early Pink Floyd lately. How long have you been up here? About a month. I needed to get away and focus for a while. ...

by Brett Larner A cold northern wind kept the 68th running of the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon slower than planned, but Kenyan winner Vincent Kipruto 's 2:08:34 meant the race stayed tight and exciting until the last corner of the track, where Kipruto outkicked Ethiopian Tariku Jufar  to take it by 3 seconds.  Longtime Japan resident James Mwangi  (Team NTN) was 3rd in 2:08:48 in his final race before moving back to Kenya, while 2010 Tokyo Marathon winner Masakazu Fujiwara  (Team Honda) cleared 2:09 for the first time since his 2003 debut and collegiate national record 2:08:12, taking 4th in 2:08:51 and getting on to the short list for the Moscow World Championships team. Twin pacers  Kota  and  Kenta Otani  (Team JFE Steel) tried to get things going over the first 15 km, but accompanied only by the debuting  Shinobu Kubota  (Komazawa Univ.) they were left looking over their shoulders until they finished their stint up front.  T...

http://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZZO45177410Q2A820C1000000/ translated by Brett Larner -  published by Nikkei 8/22/12 follow Fujiwara on Twitter For men's marathoner Arata Fujiwara (Miki House), the London Olympics ended with a 45th-place finish in 2:19:11, 11 minutes and 10 seconds slower that winner Stephen Kiprotich (Uganda).  Defeated by the sudden dissolution of his speed after 30 km, how does Fujiwara now analyze his performance? Beginning July 5, I trained for a month at 1700 m elevation in St. Moritz (Switzerland) before travelling to London on Aug. 4.  There was no need for any more hard workouts, so all I had to do was just wait for the big race on the 12th without worrying about it.  I think now that I should have been more careful about the process of coming down from altitude and re-acclimatizing to sea level. If you train at altitude one product is that your cardiovascular system and whatnot get stronger. When you come down to sea level it f...

by Brett Larner Fujiwara and Rothlin after their mutual DNF at the 2010 New York City Marathon. London Olympics marathoner Arata Fujiwara (Miki House) went head-to-head against longtime rival and friend Viktor Rothlin (Switzerland) on Rothlin's home ground at the Swiss Ageriseelauf 14.138 km  on July 21.  Rothlin, who set the still-standing Tokyo Marathon course record of 2:07:23 to win the 2008 Tokyo Marathon ahead of Fujiwara's breakthrough 2:08:40 2nd-place, came out ahead again after losing to Fujiwara at this year's Tokyo Marathon.  Rothlin clocked 41:41 to Fujiwara's 41:42, suggesting the pair may be close again in the main event just three weeks away.  Eritrean Abraham Tadesse was well back in 3rd in 42:42. A day later and a lifetime further north, 2011 National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships runner-up Team Panasonic members Akiko Matsuyama and Yukari Abe made their European debuts at the Great North 10k in Gateshead, U.K.  Running on c...

by Brett Larner all photos by Dr. Helmut Winter Update: Last year's 4th place finisher Yoshinori Oda (Team Toyota) has withdrawn with lower back pain problems. The most anticipated Japanese marathon in years is here.  The second of three Japanese men's selection races for the London Olympics, the 2012 Tokyo Marathon looks set to get them back on track with the fast times that have dried up since Beijing.  The women's race is competitive despite an almost total absence of elite Japanese women, and former marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie is slated to try for what would undoubtedly be his final Olympic appearance. It's going to be a big day, and the weather looks good at this stage. You can follow along with Nihon TV's broadcast via Keyhole TV or via JRN's live Twitter commentary @JRNLive , both beginning at 9:00 a.m. Japan time on Sunday. Going for 2:25, Eri Okubo (Second Wind AC). Looking first at the women's race, it seems s...

by Brett Larner The organizers of the 2012 Tokyo Marathon have announced the elite men's and women's fields for the Feb. 26 Olympic-year race, and on both sides the fields are the best since the Tokyo Marathon began in 2007.  Former world record holder Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia) lines up alongside last year's winner Hailu Mekonnen (Ethiopia), 2010 winner Masakazu Fujiwara  (Team Honda), 2008 winner Viktor Rothlin  (Switzerland), 2:05 man Jafred Chirchir Kipchumba  (Kenya), 2:06 runners  Gilbert Kipruto Kirwa  (Kenya) and Michael Kipkorir  (Kenya), top-ranked Japanese man Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref.) and more.  For the Japanese men a spot or two on the London Olympic team is at stake, and vying for an Olympic ticket along with past winner Fujiwara and fan favorite Kawauchi are last year's 4th-placer Yoshinori Oda  (Team Toyota), two-time Tokyo runner-up Arata Fujiwara  (Tokyo T&F Assoc.), 2009 3rd-placer Kazuhiro Maeda ...

by Brett Larner Arata Fujiwara faces the Japanese media immediately post-race. Alongside the high-profile withdrawal of world record holder Haile Gebrselassie and low-profile withdrawal of 2010 European champion Viktor Rothlin from yesterday's ING New York City Marathon, Arata Fujiwara suffered his first-ever DNF at any distance as he pulled out of the marathon at the 35 km point . Throughout the first half of the race Fujiwara ran comfortably in the lead pack through the moderately-paced 1:05:20 first half, the slowest of any marathon he has ever run. Approaching the Queensboro Bridge he abruptly experienced sharp, stabbing pain in his lower left abdomen, something more serious than a simple cramp. "That was the worst pain I've felt since my first marathon," a dejected Fujiwara told Japanese media following the race. The pain intensified into spasms which forced Fujiwara to bend forward, disrupting his balance and leg motion and causing him to slip from the lead p...

by Brett Larner click here for race photos The Men`s Race Mekubo Mogusu of Yamanashi Gakuin University successfully defended his title at the 2008 Sapporo International Half Marathon, winning in a time of 1:00:52. Mogusu, in peak shape after a recent 10000 m PB of 27:27 and a half marathon course record at the Kanto University Championships, set out hard and gapped the entire field within the first 100 m. Only Chuo Gakuin University senior Masato Kihara pursued Mogusu, hanging behind the course record holder through the first 4 km. It was a familiar pattern as Kihara had also pursued Mogusu at last year`s Yosenkai 20 km road race and this year`s Hakone Ekiden 2nd stage. Although Mogusu showed signs of maturity in his running during 2007 after two years of spectacular failures, in Sapporo he fell victim to a fatal flaw he has displayed time and again, an inability to cope with competitors running near him. While he claimed afterwards to have been pursuing a world record, Mogusu respond...

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/olympic/2008/news/track/marathon/news/20080528-OYT1T00424.htm http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/beijing2008/athletics/news/20080527-OHT1T00073.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner Rikuren announced on May 26 that this year`s Sapporo International Half Marathon , to be held June 16, will feature all three members of Japan`s Beijing Olympic men`s marathon team, namely Atsushi Sato (30) and Tsuyoshi Ogata (35) (Team Chugoku Denryoku), and Satoshi Osaki (31) (Team NTT Nishi Nihon). It will be the first time Sapporo has been used as an Olympic test event and the first time in 16 years that all members of a Japanese Olympic marathon team have competed against each other in a single race. The list of invited foreign runners includes Osaka World Championships bronze medalist and 2008 Tokyo Marathon winner Viktor Rothlin (Switzerland), 2-time Olympic marathon medalist Erick Wainaina (Kenya) and Atlanta Olympics silver medalist Lee Bong Ju (South Korea). Returning is Kenya...

http://www.iaaf.org/news/kind=100/newsid=44715.html

http://journal.mycom.co.jp/articles/2008/02/18/tm03/index.html http://www.chunichi.co.jp/article/sports/news/CK2008021802088341.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Click names for photos from the post-race press conference. "I'm very happy to have won in the land of the marathon, Japan. Setting a PB by a minute was also not bad. The secret of why I always race well in Japan is that I use made-in-Japan shoes." -- Viktor Rothlin , winner, 2:07:23 (PB, NR) "This was my first race after being injured. My time was so-so. The cheering along the course was fantastic, though. Thank you to everyone who supported me." -- Claudia Dreher , women's winner, 2:35:35 "The pacemakers were fast but I just wanted to go with them as far as I could even though everything after 30 km was a new world for me. When I was training for this race I tried a lot of different things, but I've figured out what works the best for me and what doesn't. In practice I also ...