japan running news

In the absence of a full Ethiopian U20 contingent after visa issues, the U20 women's squad led the way for the Japanese team at this year's World Cross Country Championships with a team bronze medal. Yui Onotora had the best individual Japanese placing across any of the day's races at 14th to lead Japan's U20 women, with scoring members Wakana Fukuyama , Mona Utsunomiya and Mei Hosomi all making the top 30. But with Ethiopian women going 1-2-5 they would surely have knocked Japan out of the medals if they'd been able to field a full team. Led by Haruki Niizuma in 15th, the U20 men had the next-best Japanese team placing at 6th, although they also benefitted by one place from the lack of a full Ethiopian team. Junsei Murakami was the only other Japanese runner in the race to make top 30, finishing 21st. The mixed relay team of Takumi Shiobara , Yuzu Nishide , Kiyoto Ono and Momoa Yamada was 10th out of 15, while the senior men took 12th led by Ryuto Igawa in...

Following the track 5000 m held last weekend to pick the lineup for the U20 teams at January's Tallahassee World Cross Country Championships, the JAAF has announced its complete team lineup . The senior men's team features sub-28 runners Ryuto Igawa and Daiki Ozawa , with 31-minute women Momoka Kawaguchi and Wakana Itsuki lead the senior women's squad. The U20 men's team features 6 sub-14 high schoolers led by Haruki Niizuma with a 13:35.33 best, while at 15:27.28 Mei Hosomi leads a U20 women's team made up of a mix of high school runners, collegiate athletes and corporate leaguers. The complete team lineup with track 5000 m / 10000 m bests: Senior Men's 10 km Ryuto Igawa (Asahi Kasei) - 27:39.05 Daiki Ozawa (Fujitsu) - 27:55.74 Hiroto Yoshioka (Juntendo Univ.) - 28:08.02 Yuma Shimoo (NTN) - 28:27.52 Senior Women's 10 km Momoka Kawaguchi (Uniqlo) - 31:57.81 Wakana Itsuki (Kraftia) - 31:58.59 Sora Shinozakura (Yokohama T&F Assoc.) - 32:24.50 Mitsu ...

For the second time in a month Australians Andy Buchanan , Isaac Heyne , Sam Clifford , Ryan Gregson and Brett Robinson faced off against a big group of 60-61 minute Japanese men pulled in from a big February half marathon, and for the 2nd year in a row Buchanan outkicked them all for the win at the China Airlines Gold Coast Half Marathon . Robinson, 3rd at last month's Launceston Half Marathon , got things moving with a fast start that put the race on pace to go just over 60 minutes, well under Pat Carroll 's 1:01:11 Australian all-comers record that Launceston winner Teruki Shimada missed by just 1 second. Yuma Nishizawa , 1:00:29 at February's National Corporate Half Marathon where most of the Japanese men in the field ran, took over to keep it moving, then handed over to Launceston runner-up Isaac Heyne . Heyne did most of the work the rest of the way, the pace gradually slowing and incrementing over Carroll's record, until a move from 2:07 marathoner Naoya Sakud...

Fresh off the announcement of the elite fields for the ASICS Gold Coast Marathon come the fields for the China Airlines Gold Coast Half Marathon a day earlier on July 5. The top 3 Australian women from the June 1 Launceston Half Marathon , CR breaker Jessica Stenson , Caitlin Adams and Sarah Klein , are back together, with domestic competition Leanne Pompeani and Tara Palm and a group mostly from this year's National Corporate Half Marathon led by Yuri Mitsune , Wakana Itsuki and Aiwa Sakaguchi . The main domestic protagonists from Launceston, Isaac Heyne , Brett Robinson , Liam Boudin , Sam Clifford , Andy Buchanan and Ryan Gregson , are all on the Gold Coast too, but where they faced a group from the Marugame Half in Launceston this time it's a massive National Corporate Half contingent led by sub-61 men Yuma Nishizawa , Hideyuki Tanaka and Yoshiki Oshiro . 2:05 marathoner Kenya Sonota is also on the list, quietly down near the bottom of the elite field with only a 1...

Entry lists are out for the Feb. 11 N ational Corporate Half Marathon and 10 km Championships in Yamaguchi. The third big half marathon in 3 weeks following Osaka and Marugame, entries are thin on the women's side with no recent sub-1:10 entrants in the half. Rinka Hida (Daiichi Seimei) has the best recent time at 1:10:10 from Osaka last year, with Ikumi Fukura (Otsuka Seiyaku) and Wakana Itsuki (Kyudenko) both coming in under 1:10:30. Momoka Kawaguchi (Uniqlo) is the best in women's 10 km with a track 10000 m best of 31:57.81. Last year's 3rd-placer Ryota Kondo (Mitsubishi Juko) is one of four men on the list with recent bests under 1:01, his 1:00:32 having come at last year's National Corporate Half along with those from Keijiro Mogi (Asahi Kasei) and Takashi Nanba (Toenec). 2:06 marathoner Kazuya Nishiyama (Toyota) is also in the mix with a 1:00:41 here two years ago. Shunsuke Shikama (Logisteed) and New Year Ekiden First Stage winner Naoki Ota (Yakult) ha...

Outdoor track season gets moving this weekend with at least three competitive meets across the country. The Hokuriku Region Corporate Championships in Niigata and Chugoku Corporate Time Trials in Hiroshima are solidly in the second tier, but the main event happens Saturday in Kumamoto at the Kanaguri Memorial Meet . Streaming of Kanaguri starts at 15:30 local time above, with the main races happening later in the evening. Meet schedule and start lists here . Both the men's and women's 1500 m feature three of Japan's all-time top five. The men's race is slightly stronger, with NR holder Kazuki Kawamura (Toenec), all-time #3 Nanami Arai (Honda) and #4 Ryuji Miura (Juntendo Univ.). The women's race has NR holder Nozomi Tanaka (New Balance), #3 Ran Urabe (Sekisui Kagaku) and #5 Yume Goto (Uniqlo). Two others in the Japanese men's 1500 m all-time top ten, #6 Keita Sato (Komazawa Univ.) and #10 Yuta Bando (Fujitsu), are opting for the 5000 m. Just back from...

The Princess Ekiden , the official qualifying race for the Nov. 27 National Corporate Women's Ekiden, happened Sunday in Munakata, Fukuoka, 31 teams racing 42.195 km in 6 stages to pick up one of the 16 places available at Nationals. It was an unusually dynamic ekiden; except for Fourth Stage winner Teresiah Muthoni (Daiso), every woman who ran the fastest time on her stage did it while taking the overall lead, and 4 of those 5 were from different teams. Up front, Panasonic anchor Sora Shinozakura pulled off a brilliant last-second come-from-behind win to take 1st in 2:18:06. Panasonic was never out of the top 4, 2nd runner Nanami Watanabe taking the lead before the team dropped back again. Shinozakura started the 6.695 km anchor leg in 3rd, 24 seconds behind leader Momoka Hanafusa of the Kyudenko team, and steadily cut down the distance to 1st. It looked like she might run out of road before she got there, but with a hard surge from 400 m out she flew past Hanafusa to take t...

Like the National University Track and Field Championships two weeks ago, this long weekend's National Corporate Track and Field Championships come at a funny point in the season, after two months of road season base training in Hokkaido and right at the start of ekiden and overseas marathon season. Half the country is in Berlin this weekend and another chunk is at the new Okukuma Ekiden , a raced backed by Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University head coach Susumu Hara that brings together top high school, university and corporate league men's teams. But a lot of corporate leaguers will be lining up in Gifu for Corporate Nationals. Day 1 is being streamed live above starting at 15:25 Friday local time. The main events start at 15:30 with the first-round heats of the men's 100 m, featuring past 4x100 m national relay team members Shuhei Tada (Sumitomo Denko), Ryuichiro Sakai (Osaka Gas) and Shota Iizuka (Mizuno). The junior women's 3000 m at 16:30 has a pret...

by Brett Larner videos by Ekiden News The weekend's main domestic action came at the National University Individual Track and Field Championships , a smaller counterpart to September's National University Track and Field Championships held each year at Kanagawa's Shonan BMW Stadium.  In distance highlights, 2015 Kanto Regionals women's 10000 m runner-up Fuyuka Kimura (Daito Bunka Univ.) narrowly outkicked local rival Kotoe Chaya (Nittai Univ.) for the win in 15:56.89, Chaya just back in 15:57.01 for 2nd.  Wakana Itsuki (Fukuoka Univ.) made it a truly national race with a 15:58.30 for 3rd.  Hikaru Nakamura (Kyoto Koka Joshi Univ.) led a central/western Japan sweep of the women's 1500 m, winning in 4:26.32.  Anju Takamizawa (Matsuyama Univ.) scored a meet record 10:08.40 to win the women's 3000 mSC by a wide margin. The men's 5000 m was almost a time trial for 2015 Hakone Ekiden champion Aoyama Gakuin University , AGU runners taking 7 of the top ...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20140112-1243077.html http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20140112-1243078.html http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20140112-1243079.html http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20140113-OHT1T00039.htm translated and edited with additional background information by Brett Larner At the 15th Tanigawa Mari Half Marathon , Jan. 12 along the Arakawa River in northern Tokyo, unknown university runner Hideyuki Ikegami  (20, 2nd-yr., Kyoto Kyoiku Univ.) ran 1:03:09, opening a massive lead over defending champion  Yuki Kawauchi  (26, Saitama Pref. Gov't) and 2012 winner Kazuyoshi Tokumoto  (Team Monteroza) to take the win. Around 10 km he attacked with a series of surges before pulling away to run the final 10 km alone. Thinking, "What do you know, Kawauchi's mortal after all," Ikegami broke the finish line tape with a lead of 1:08, his time a PB by more t...

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20130210/ath13021015250001-n1.html http://www.saga-s.co.jp/news/saga_sports.0.2395607.article.html translated and edited by Brett Larner 2009 double 1500 m and 5000 m national champion Yuichiro Ueno (Team S&B) easily won the Feb. 10 Karatsu 10-Mile Road Race in Karatsu, Saga, beating Kenyan sub-60 half marathoner Mekubo Mogusu (Team Nissin Shokuhin) while looking relaxed and fresh. Indifferently evaluating his winning time of 46:56, Ueno said, "I just ran at the pace I had planned." A member of the historic S&B corporate team set to disband at the end of March, Ueno will run his final race in the S&B uniform at the Mar. 17 National Corporate Half Marathon Championships in Yamaguchi. He called his performance in Karatsu "just a training run" for the half, looking confident as he said, "I'm in the middle of doing really hard training, so the time I ran today says I should do great in the half too....