japan running news

2026 Hakone Ekiden champion Aoyama Gakuin University held a press conference Apr. 4 at its Sagamihara campus announcing that it was adding a women's ekiden team to its track and field program. In its first year the team has only 2 members, Nodoka Ashida of Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. , and Kairi Ikeno of Suma Gakuen H.S . The team's head coach will be Susumu Hara , who coached the AGU men to their second Hakone threepeat this year and had a hand in the GMO corporate team's first-ever New Year Ekiden win. At the press conference he talked about the reasons for launching a women's team, and the harsh realities facing women's track and field. AGU is the undisputed leader in the evolution of the university men's ekiden circuit, but adding a women's team represents a new challenge. Hara cited 3 objectives in expanding the AGU program: "creating an environment where female athletes can balance competition and life events," "expanding the opportunities...

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...

On Mar. 28 the Wacoal women's corporate team announced that women-only marathon national record holder and Tokyo Olympics marathon 8th-placer Mao Ichiyama , 24, and head coach Tadayuki Nagayama , 62, will quit the team at the end of this month. At the same time, 2021 National Corporate Women's Ekiden runner-up Shiseido  announced that both Ichiyama and Nagayama will join its lineup beginning in April. Born in Izumi, Kagoshima, Ichiyama joined Wacoal in 2016 after graduating from high school. Following the Tokyo Olympics, in December last year Ichiyama announced that she had gotten married with men's marathon national record holder Kengo Suzuki (Fujitsu). Translator's note: The relocation to the Shiseido team puts Ichiyama close enough to the Fujitsu team's base in Chiba that she and Suzuki would be able to live together. With Wacoal she has been based in Kyoto, a roughly four-hour trip each way. As the women's and men's winners of the first Japan Marathon ...

 On Dec. 22 the Wacoal women's corporate team announced that former 5000 m and half marathon national record holder Kayoko Fukushi  will retire after two final races in January, the National Women's Ekiden on Jan. 16 and the Osaka Half Marathon on Jan. 30. A four-time Olympian, Fukushi won the bronze medal in the marathon at the 2013 Moscow World Championships and is a two-time winner of the Osaka International Women's Marathon. Her debut marathon in Osaka in 2008 remains one of the wildest and most memorable in elite marathoning history. In a handwritten statement Fukushi wrote, "For these 22 years on the Wacoal team I've been nuts about running. I met a lot of people...there've been a lot of tears and a lot of laughs...so many different things every day. It really was an interesting career! Thanks to all of you who've supported me over the years. I really am grateful, from the heart. I'm going to run these last two races just like I always have, a...

The Mar. 8 Nagoya Women's Marathon is really the last chance for Japanese women to make the 2020 Sapporo Olympic marathon team. At last September's MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials the top two put themselves on the team for sure. 3rd-placer Rei Ohara (Tenmaya) was provisionally on the team unless someone ran 2:22:22 or better at one of the three main winter Japanese women's marathons. Last month in Osaka , MGC 4th-placer Mizuki Matsuda (Denso) did just that, running 2:21:47 for the win. So, the task now in Nagoya, the last of the three chances to steal a spot, is for someone to run 2:21:46. Yuka Ando (Wacoal) is the only Japanese woman in the race who has done it before, running  2:21:36 in her debut there three years ago. She hasn't been anywhere near that since then, but with a change to the Wacoal corporate team last year she seems to be going in the right direction. Wacoal also has its other two heavy hitters on the list, four-time Olympian Kayoko Fu...

Mao Ichiyama age: 22 sponsor: Wacoal graduated from: Izumi Chuo H.S. best time inside MGC window: 2:24:33, 7th, 2019 Tokyo Marathon PB: 2:24:33, 7th, 2019 Tokyo Marathon other PBs: 5000 m: 15:24.17 (2017) 10000 m: 31:49.01 (2017) half marathon: 1:08:49 (2019) marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019) 15th, 2019 London Marathon, 2:27:27 7th, 2019 Tokyo Marathon, 2:24:33 other major results: 1st, 2019 Hakodate Half Marathon, 1:08:49 – PB 6th, 2019 National Women’s Ekiden Ninth Stage (10.0 km), 32:12 3rd, 2018 National Corporate Women’s Ekiden First Stage (7.0 km), 22:20 1st, 2018 National Corporate Women’s Ekiden Qualifier Third Stage (10.7 km), 34:23 19th, 2018 World Half Marathon Championships, 1:11:02 3rd, 2017 Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, 1:09:14 39th, 2017 World Cross Country Championships, 35:53 The next big thing? Part of the Wacoal group with MGC Race qualifiers Kayoko Fukushi and Yuka Ando , Ichiyama took to the longer distanc...

Yuka Ando age: 25 sponsor: Wacoal graduated from: Toyokawa H.S. best time inside MGC window: 2:26:47, 13th, 2019 London Marathon PB: 2:21:36, 2nd, 2017 Nagoya Women’s Marathon other PBs: 5000 m: 15:32.67 (2015) 10000 m: 31:58.71 (2016) half marathon: 1:09:47 (2019) marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019) 13th, 2019 London Marathon, 2:26:47 3rd, 2018 Osaka International Women’s Marathon, 2:27:37 17th, 2017 London World Championships Marathon, 2:31:31 other major results: 2nd, 2019 Hakodate Half Marathon, 1:09:47 – PB 1st, 2019 Niigata Half Marathon, 1:10:34 3rd, 2017 Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon, 1:12:12 10th, 2016 World Half Marathon Championships, 1:10:36 Another star runner from Toyokawa H.S. , after graduating Ando bounced around through a series of corporate teams before landing at Suzuki Hamamatsu AC . There she found a coach who encouraged her to run the way that felt natural to her, with her arms almost straight down at her sides. The ...

It's one month to go until what's bound to be the best marathon of 2019, Japan's 2020 Tokyo Olympics marathon trials, the Sept. 15  Marathon Grand Championship Race . Up to now Japan has typically picked its Olympic and World Championships marathon teams based on performances in a series of specific races, primarily the Fukuoka International Marathon, Tokyo Marathon and Lake Biwa Marathon for men, and the Saitama International Marathon, Osaka International Women's Marathon and Nagoya Women's Marathon for women. This time around they're going with a U.S.-style one-shot trials race, the MGC Race . People had a nearly two-year window from August, 2017 to April this year to hit tough standards to qualify. Only 34 men and 15 women made it, and after withdrawals for the Doha World Championships the MGC Race's final entry list is just 31 men and 12 women. Swedish Athletics Federation official Lorenzo Nesi called it "the most difficult marathon race ever...

MGC Race finalist Mao Ichiyama (22, Wacoal) took 22 seconds off her PB to win the Hakodate Half Marathon in 1:08:49, moving up to all-Japanese #8 in the record books. Also MGC Race-bound, her teammate Yuka Ando , 25, was 2nd in 1:09:47 to give the Wacoal team a 1-2 finish. Men's MGC Race finalist Ryu Takaku (26, Yakult) was the top Japanese man overall at 2nd in 1:02:43. The Wacoal team seems to thrive at northern latitudes. Ichiyama secured her place at the MGC Race at April's London Marathon. "I've been feeling better and better since London and I want to keep taking chunks off my time," Ichiyama said. Ando was cool and professional after having been beaten by her younger teammate by 58 seconds. In June she had suffered a bit from overtraining, but, she said, "I'm doing the workouts in our training camp and bit by bit things are getting more responsive." Along with Ichiyama and Ando, the Wacoal team also has veteran half marathon national ...

On Feb. 1 the Wacoal women's corporate team announced that 2017 London World Championships team member Yuka Ando , 24, has joined its organization. Ando previously ran for the Suzuki Hamamatsu AC team. Known for her unique "ninja running" style with minimal upper body motion and arms held almost straight down at her sides, Ando ran 2:21:36 at the 2017 Nagoya Women's Marathon to become the fourth-fastest Japanese woman ever and break the debut marathon national record. She placed only an unremarkable 17th at the World Championships later that year, but with a 2:27:37 at the 2018 Osaka International Women's Marathon she qualified for September's MGC Race, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics marathon trials event. The Suzuki Hamamatsu AC team has undergone repeated coaching staff changes in recent years. In her new environment alongside half marathon national record holder Kayoko Fukushi Ando will now be able to target the Tokyo Olympics. source article: https://...

On Jan. 28 the Wacoal corporate team posted an update on its website about the condition of Kayoko Fukushi , 36, following her DNF at Sunday's Osaka International Women's Marathon . Running her first marathon since the Rio Olympics, Fukushi fell 12.6 km into the race. Bleeding from her head and knees she got up and continued the race in order to qualify for the Sept. 15 MGC Race 2020 Tokyo Olympic marathon trials, but near 35 km she finally dropped out. On the Wacoal website it said that an MRI and examination had found, "only cuts and bruises on both knees, her right forehead and right elbow. There was no damage to any bones, and it is expected to take only one week for her to fully recover." With regard to MGC qualification the statement said, "Once she has recovered from her injuries, after talking the situation over with her we will be actively looking at her running the Mar. 10 Nagoya Women's Marathon." If Fukushi runs it will be a major addit...

On Oct. 24 it was learned that 1996 Atlanta Olympics marathoner and former 10000 m Japanese national record holder Izumi Maki died of breast cancer Oct. 18 at her home in Mino, Osaka. She was 49 years old. Her coach during her days at the Globally and Wacoal corporate teams, Nobuyuki Fujita , 78, said that he last saw Maki in July at a reunion event for Wacoal alumni. "She didn't seem well at the time," he recalled. "I had heard that she was anti-cancer drug treatment, but it is still a shock." Hisakazu Hirose , 53, assistant coach to Maki in those days and currently head coach of the Iwatani Sangyo team, visited to mourn her death on the day she passed away. Hirose last saw her in March, but at that time, he said, "She seemed totally normal. She wasn't the sort of person who would have just given up. When I saw her after she passed away it looked as though she was only sleeping, that if you called out to her she would answer. I couldn't bel...

In one of the wildest elite-level ekidens in memory, half marathon national record holder Kayoko Fukushi ran her best race in almost 3 years to anchor the Wacoal team to the win at the Princess Ekiden , the qualifying race for next month's National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships. The field of 27 teams raced 6 stages totaling 42.195 km for one of 14 spots at Nationals alongside last year's top 8. Things were complicated by the disqualification of 2017 national champion Universal Entertainment , which found itself back at the Princess Ekiden to requalify. Sayaka Sato got things off to a good start for Sekisui Kagaku , winning the 7.0 km First Stage in 22:36 just off the CR. 4 seconds back was Shiori Yano , whose Canon AC Kyushu team missed Nationals by a minute last year. and another 5 seconds behind was Miku Daido of the debuting Iwatani Sangyo team. Coached by marathon national record holder Mizuki Noguchi 's former coach Hisakazu Hirose , Iwatani ...

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2017/09/jefferey-eggleston-6555-japans-mao-ichiyama-7350-win-rock-n-roll-virginia-beach-half-marathon/ Ichiyama digging in to DQ post-race in Virginia Beach. Photo c/o Jeffrey Eggleston.

by Brett Larner Sunday's National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships kick off a busy string of championship road relays across Japan, with no less than eight major events in five weeks.  The Dec. 16 race in Sendai is the peak of the year for corporate-league women, with the country's top marathoners and track runners from twenty-nine teams squaring off over a six-stage, 42.195 km course.  TBS will broadcast the ekiden live nationwide beginning at 11:50 a.m. local time.  It should be possible for overseas viewers to use Keyhole TV to catch the race, but JRN will also offer live coverage via Twitter @JRNLive . The favorites look to be evenly divided between the three national divisions.   Team Universal Entertainment  won the East Japan regional qualifier last month by 3 1/2 minutes over defending national champion Team Daiichi Seimei  and comes to Nationals seeded #1.  A major factor in Universal's performance was a win on East Japan's longest...

http://www.shikoku-np.co.jp/sports/local/20121029000154 translated and edited by Brett Larner At the Oct. 28 West Japan Corporate Women's Ekiden , a six-stage, 42.195 km race beginning in front of City Hall in Munakata, Fukuoka, Team Wacoal set a new course record of 2:17:38 to take its first West Japan win.  One week ahead of her planned appearance at the New York City Marathon, Kayoko Fukushi  set a new course record on the 10.2 km Third Stage, passing eleven opponents to give Wacoal a lead that was never cracked.  Team Daihatsu was 2nd in 2:18:43, with Athens Olympics women's marathon gold medalist Mizuki Noguchi -led Team Sysmex 3rd in 2:19:23. The West Japan Corporate Women's Ekiden served as the regional qualifier for December's National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships in Miyagi.  The top five teams in West Japan were guaranteed to qualify, with any teams clearing 2:23 also picking up places on the start line at the National Championships.  Tw...

by Brett Larner Note: Start lists will be added when available. The 30th anniversary National Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden Championships take place this Sunday, Dec. 19. It's fitting that the anniversary edition, the last to be held on the historic Gifu course before the race's move north to Sendai next year, is slated to mark the return of the great Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex) to the national stage. Noguchi, the marathon national record holder and 2004 Athens Olympics marathon gold medalist, has been out of competition since an injury in the summer of 2008 prevented her from defending her title in Beijing. Finally racing again earlier this fall in the regional qualifier ekidens, she helped Sysmex to qualify for Nationals for the first time. Start lists have not yet been confirmed but Noguchi's presence on the entry list has been used heavily to promote Sunday's race across the country. 10000 m national record holder and former marathon national record holder Yoko ...

by Brett Larner Kenyan star Philes Ongori (Team Hokuren) got the 25th anniversary Fukui Super Ladies' Ekiden started in style with a stage record performance on the 6 km 1st leg. After a conservative first kilometer in which she matched paces with fellow Kenyan Danielle Philomena Cheyech (Team Uniqlo) and top university woman Kazue Kojima (Ritsumeikan Univ.), Ongori sped away to clock 18:28, breaking the 12 year-old record by 7 seconds. Cheyech attempted to follow and initially opened a comfortable gap, but the gritty Kojima returned for a sprint finish in which Cheyech prevailed by only a stride, timed at 19:11 to Kojima's 19:12. Hokuren's lead looked formidable as the team ran on course record pace through the end of the 4th stage, but despite a strong showing as anchor at last week's East Japan Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden 5th leg runner Saori Nejo ran into trouble and lost ground to the chasers. Surprisingly, the team that was running her down was not 10-time cha...

http://beijing2008.nikkansports.com/athletics/f-sp-tp0-20080122-310478.html translated by Brett Larner Every step of Fukushi's run will be closely observed. The most dominant Japanese track runner, Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) has chosen the Beijing Olympics-qualifying Osaka International Women's Marathon this Sunday for her debut marathon. Fukushi has been sequestered at a secret training camp in preparation for this eagerly-anticipated debut. Defending champion Yumiko Hara (Team Kyocera), who had a difficult time in last year's World Championships marathon, will be running. Last year's 3rd place finisher Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC) and 2006 Vienna Marathon winner Tomo Morimoto (Team Tenmaya) are also on the start list. Foreign competitors include Sydney Olympics silver medalist Lidia Simon and 2:21:30 runner Constantina Tomescu-Dita, both of whom hail from Romania. Osaka World Championships marathon bronze medalist Reiko Tosa (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) has alread...