japan running news

Amos Kurgat and Loice Chemnung soloed new course records to win Sunday's Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon , with Paralympians Tomoki Suzuki and Wakako Tsuchida winning the wheelchair races. A late addition to the field, Kurgat took off and immediately left it behind, going through 10 km in 27:48 and never looking back. Although he slowed on the uphill back up to Tokyo's National Stadium in the last 5 km, Kurgat was never in danger and won easily in a course record 59:52, 18 seconds under the old record set by Vincent Kipkemoi in the race's 1st edition two years ago. Bedan Karoki was the first runner to break from the chase pack, taking 2nd in 1:00:38. The next four runners came into the stadium together, with last year's Ageo City Half winner Paul Kuira having the kick to take 3rd in 1:00:49. The top Japanese man at February's Tokyo Marathon in 2:06:31, Yusuke Nishiyama was the first Japanese man across the line here too, just off his PB in 1:01:13 for 8th. Chemnu...

The Paris Paralympics wrapped up with another trio of bronze medals by Japanese athletes. In Friday's T52 men's 100 m final, Tomoki Sato held off Canada's Anthony Bouchard and Mexico's Salvador Hernandez Mondragon by 0.11 for bronze in 17.44 (+1.6). Tomoya Ito and Tatsuya Ito were 7th and 8th in 17.67 and 17.91, with Belgian Maxime Carabin winning gold in 16.70. In Sunday's marathons, Tomoki Suzuki lost out to China's Hua Jin in the race for T54 men's silver, Jin getting there first in 1:31:19 and Suzuki 4 seconds back in 1:31:23 for bronze. But both were far behind gold medalist Marcel Hug of Switzerland, who had a dominant run in 1:27:39 for the win. Ryota Yoshida clocked 1:37:15 for 8th. Wakako Tsuchida and Tsubasa Kina were off their best in the T54 women's race, Tsuchida 6th in 1:52:39 and Kina 12th in 2:04:53. In the T12 women's marathon, Paralympic and world record holder Misato Michishita lost both records to Moroccans Fatima Ez...

The Tokyo Marathon is back for its 2024 race with deep fields of ten sub-2:20 women and eleven sub-2:05 men led by 2023 winners Rosemary Wanjiru and Chalu Deso Gelmisa , 2023 world champions  Amane Beriso Shankule and Victor Kiplangat , and top-ranked Sifan Hassan and Eliud Kipchoge . Last year's top three wheelchair women Manuel Schar , Tsubasa Kina and Madison de Rosario all return, with men's 2nd and 3rd-placers Tomoki Suzuki and Sho Watanabe both back in the absence of winner Marcel Hug . Hassan is the only one of the top five-ranked women who hasn't run Tokyo before, but that's probably not going to give her much of a competitive disadvantage. Budapest gold medalist Amane is her toughest competition on paper, but while Wanjiru was only 6th in Budapest the possibility of a late-race battle between any combination of Hassan, Amane and Wanjiru is pretty exciting. Tokyo doesn't count in Olympic team qualification for women, so it's a slight surprise tha...

  The Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon took place Oct. 15 alongside the Marathon Grand Championship Olympic marathon trials, starting and finishing at Tokyo's National Stadium. In the men's race, Evans Keitany (Toyota Boshoku) ran down leader Bedan Karoki (Toyota) and holding off Benard Kimeli (Fujitsu) to take the win in 1:01:10. In his first pro season Aoyama Gakuin University graduate Kotaro Kondo (SG Holdings) was the top Japanese finisher in 1:01:26. In the women's race, Gladys Chepkurui (Kenya) broke the course record with a 1:08:03 for the win. Dolphine Nyaboke Omare (U.S.E.) was also under the old CR in 1:08:13 for 2nd. The top Japanese woman was Natsuki Ogawa (Suzuki AC) in 1:14:34 for 4th. Tomoki Suzuki won the men's wheelchair race in 43:40, with Tsubasa Kina winning a photo finish with Wakako Tsuchida in the women's race, both athletes clocked at 52:45. Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon Tokyo, 15 Oct. 2023 complete results Men 1. Evans Keitany (Toyota Bo...

Scheduled to happen in parallel with the MGC Race Paris Olympic marathon trials, the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon has announced the elite fields for its second running Oct. 15. Straight from this spring's Barcelona Half Marathon, Gladys Chepkurui and Charles Langat are the top internationals coming in from abroad at 1:05:46 and 58:53. Chepkurui's only real competition is Japan-based Dolphine Omare , winner at last year's National Corporate Half Marathon in 1:07:56. Langat has more serious competition from Japan-based Alexander Mutiso , 58:48 at last year's RAK Half among others, and another five in the mid-to-high 59-minute range. Sub-27:20 10000 m runners Evans Keitany , Jonathan Ndiku and Timothy Kibet should also factor in. Given that the race will happen at the same time as the Olympic marathon trials there aren't a lot of high-level Japanese athletes in the race. The top woman in Mao Kiyota , 1:11:18 at this race last year, with Toyo University 's Kazuki...

Tokyo Paralympics women's T12 marathon gold medalist and world record holder Misato Michishita (Mitsui Sumitomo) broke her own Asian area record to win the 5000 m on the first day of this weekend's National Para Track and Field Championships , just down the road in Kobe from the National Championships and U20 National Championships in Osaka. Running 18:31.72 with help from guide runner Megumi Kawaguchi , Michishita took over 17 seconds off her old record and over a minute off her own meet record to win by more than 2 minutes. T11 class Asian record holder Natsumi Inouchi (Mizuho FG) also took over a minute off the 5000 m meet record in her division, winning in 21:02.24. Wheelchair athlete Tsubasa Kina (Ryukyu Sports) won the T53/54 class in 12:22.22. The next day she was back in the 1500 m, where she was 2nd by 0.26 sec to NR holder Wakako Tsuchida (Willraise) 3:32.38 to 3:32.64. The meet record also went in the T12 men's 5000 m, with Asian record holder Tadashi Horiko...

The Sendai International Half Marathon returned Sunday for the first time in 3 years, with a field limited to 4000 instead of its regular size of 10,000+ and a wave start to reduce crowd density. Running her first race since the Tokyo Olympics marathon and her first race in supershoes, Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) won the women's race in 1:09:08, exactly tying her PB. Her teammates Natsumi Matsushita and Yuna Daito were 2nd and 3rd, making it a Tenmaya sweep of the podium. In the men's race, world all-time #4 Alexander Mutiso (ND Software) just edged Andrew Lorot (Subaru) to score his second Sendai win, catching Lorot on the track after Lorot took a wrong turn at its entrance. Both runners clocked 1:01:08. Naoki Koyama (Honda) was 3rd in 1:02:07. Tomoki Suzuki (Toyota) won the men's wheelchair race in 46:02, with Wakako Tsuchida (Willraise) taking the women's race in 54:36. Another Tokyo Olympic marathoner also returned to competition, as Yuma Hattori (Toyota) ran...

Bigger things are happening in the world right now, but this Sunday the  Tokyo Marathon  returns to the streets with a full-sized elite and mass participation field for the first time since 2019. World record holders Brigid Kosgei  and Eliud Kipchoge  are there to lead it, broadcast live in 160 countries worldwide starting at 9:00 a.m. local Japan time with JRN's Brett Larner  on the commentary once again. Follow the leaderboard here , with athlete tracking here . For the second time in its history Tokyo has a significant course change this year, the addition of a new out-and-back toward Ueno just before 10 km and an equivalent cut from the final out-and-back toward Shinagawa. Not counting the triangular turnaround at Asakusa, that means Tokyo has gone from one 180˚ turn on the original course to two on the interim course to three on this course, something that will impact its overall quality and especially so for the wheelchair marathoners. The women's wheelch...

After coming up empty-handed last month in the Sapporo Olympic marathons, Japan scored three marathon medals on the streets of Tokyo proper at today's final day of the Tokyo Paralympic Games . The T54 men's wheelchair marathon was the first race off the line, followed ten minutes later by the T54 women's wheelchair marathon and another ten minutes later by the men's and women's T12/T46 marathons. As cold rain started to pour down just as the race began, Swiss favorite Marcel Hug  went head-to-heat with surprise challenger Yong Zhang  of China in the T54 men's race. The pair steadily built a lead over the rest of the field until Hug, showing frustration at Zhang's refusal to lead, broke away on the series of hills just after 40 km to take gold in 1:24:02 to Zhang's 1:24:22. American Daniel Romanchuk  took the top spot in the chase pack, beating Canada's Brent Lakatos , who had trouble on a corner and lost ground early in the race, by 13 seconds for br...

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sept. 8-18 click here for complete schedule click here for detailed field listing Men Hajimu Ashida - T47 Long Jump, 4 x 100 m Relay Masayuki Higuchi - T54 800 m, 1500 m, 5000 m Kota Hokinoue - T54 Marathon Koso Kubo - T54 5000 m, Marathon Hitoshi Matsunaga - T53 400 m, 800 m Yoshifumi Nagao - T54 100 m, 400 m Akikazu Noda - T52 400 m, 1500 m Toshie Oi - F53 Shot Put Keita Sato - T44 100 m, 4 x 100 m Relay Tomoki Sato - T52 400 m, 1500 m Masazumi Soejima - T54 Marathon Toru Suzuki - T44 High Jump, 4 x 100 m Relay Tomoki Tagawa - T47 100 m, 4 x 100 m Relay Hirokazu Ueyonabaru - T52 100 m, 400 m, 1500 m Atsushi Yamamoto - T42 100 m, Long Jump, 4 x 100 m Relay Hiroyuki Yamamoto - T54 Marathon Women Haruka Kitaura - T34 100 m, 400 m Yuka Kiyama - T52 100 m, 400 m Kaede Maekawa - T42 100 m, Long Jump Maya Nakanishi - T44 100 m, Long Jump Kazumi Nakayama - T53 400 m, 800 m, 1500 m Hitomi Onishi - T42 100 m, Long Jump Chiaki Takada - T11 10...

by Brett Larner 2015 Beijing World Championships marathon silver medalist Helah Kiprop (Kenya) delivered the outstanding performance of the 10th Tokyo Marathon , doing all she could to try to deliver a performance that would score her the win in the Abbott World Marathon Majors.  Leading a pack including two-time world champion Edna Kiplagat (Kenya), fellow AWMM title contenders Birhane Dibaba (Ethiopia) and Aberu Kebede (Ethiopia) and three other Ethiopians through halfway in 1:10:41, Kiprop kept it even and ground down the others, never really accelerating or losing pace on the hills in the last 6 km but dropping the competition one by one. All alone by 40 km it looked like she might take down the fastest marathon ever run by a woman on Japanese soil, Mizuki Noguchi 's 2:21:18 in Osaka in 2003, but despite coming up just short Kiprop succeeded in taking nearly a minute off the course record as she won in 2:21:27.  Runner-up Amane Gobena (Ethiopia), a frequent face i...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20141215-1409335.html http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20141215-1409308.html translated and edited by Brett Larner click here for complete results Eri Suzuki ran a PB 2:47:00 for 9th as the top woman among the 13,000 Japanese finishers at the 42nd JAL Honolulu Marathon on Dec. 14, her second year in a row taking top Japanese honors in Honolulu.  Exhausted just after finishing, she managed to say, "The crowd support along the course was wonderful and kept me going."  Having run well again in Honolulu she was satisfied with her results, saying, "I met both of my goals of being the first Japanese woman and breaking my PB." Joyce Chepkirui (Kenya) won the women's race in 2:30:23.  In the men's race, Wilson Chebet (Kenya) took the top spot in 2:15:35, with Taku Harada the fastest Japanese man at 7th overall in 2:27:26.  In the wheelchair race, Wakako Tsuchida wo...

A press release from the NYRR: New York, September 19, 2012 — Two-time champion Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil and three-time Olympian Kayoko Fukushi of Japan will add fierce competition to the already stacked men’s and women’s fields in the 2012 ING New York City Marathon. Joining Gomes dos Santos in the men’s race will be Olympic marathoners Abderrahime Bouramdane of Morocco and Great Britain’s Scott Overall . 2011 runner-up Buzunesh Deba of Ethiopia and national record-holders Valeria Straneo of Italy and Adriana Da Silva of Brazil will add to the women’s field, it was announced today by New York Road Runners president and CEO Mary Wittenberg. 2011 winner Masazumi Soejima of Japan and runner-up Shelly Woods of Great Britain were announced for the men’s and women’s wheelchair races. Nationally, the telecast will be available on ESPN2, online at WatchESPN.com, and—for fans who receive their video subscription from an affiliated provider—on smartphones and tablets vi...

http://www.topics.or.jp/worldNews/worldSports/2010/04/2010041901000933.html translated and edited by Brett Larner At the 114th Boston Marathon on April 19th, Beijing Olympics marathoner Yurika Nakamura (Team Tenmaya) finished 7th overall with a time of 2:30:40. Teyba Erkesso (Ethiopia) won in 2:26:11, while Robert Cheruiyot (Kenya) set a course record 2:05:52 in his first Boston win. Since the Beijing Olympics Nakamura has focused on her track speed, meaning Boston was her first marathon in one year and eight months. Nakamura led most of the first half of the race but fell behind the leaders when Erkesso and two other Ethiopians surged away at 20 km. Last year's winner Salina Kosgei (Kenya) was 3rd. Men's 60+ world record holder Yoshihisa Hosaka (Natural Foods AC) had a disappointing day, 2nd in his age group in 2:56:30. In the wheelchair race Wakako Tsuchida took her 4th straight title in 1:43:32, while Kota Hokinoue was the top Japanese man, 3rd in 1:27:05.