japan running news

While the girls' race was a blowout by 2022 champ Nagano Higashi H.S. , the boys' race at Sunday's National High School Ekiden was a tense battle of turnover that saw all of the final top four teams take a stab at leading. 2023 3rd-placer Yachiyo Shoin H.S. handled the first 2 of the 7 stages in the 42.195 km race, with lead runner Rui Suzuki delivering a bold run on the 10.0 km First Stage that produced the fastest-ever time by a Japanese runner on the stage, 28:43, and put Yachiyo Shoin 29 seconds out front. Last year's Fifth Stage CR breaker Tetsu Suzuki ran Yachiyo Shoin down to put 2023 champ Saku Chosei H.S. into 1st on the 8.1075 km Third Stage, but Genta Sugano of last year's 8th-placer Sendai Ikuei H.S. had other plans and took the lead on the 8.0875 km Fourth Stage. Smiling and fist pumping to the crowd almost the entire way, Taketo Tsukada of last year's 6th-placer Omuta H.S. moved up from 3rd to 1st by 2 seconds over Saku Chosei on the 3.0 k...

Two corporate men's teams based in Saga have gotten fresh reinforcements for their quests to make it to the New Year Ekiden national championships in Gunma on New Year's Day. Togami Denki has recruited two new members, while Hiramatsu Byoin has brought in four. Both teams will be spending the year building themselves up in hopes of scoring a hard-to-come-by ticket north come the new year. New to Togami Denki, which has qualified for the last three years, are Kokushikan University graduate Kazuya Mishiro , 22, and Saga native Taiki Ueda , 19, a grad of Tosu Kogyo H.S. Mishiro, who has Hakone Ekiden experience to his name, has a reputation for pushing through when things get hard, is enthusiastic about his new team. "I want to be part of the action right from my first year," he says. Always stable in his races, Ueda said, "To start off I want to improve on the track and roads and get closer to some of the senior guys on the team in ability." Hiramatsu Byo...

an editorial from the Rikujo Tsushin site The Yachiyo Kogyo corporation has announced that it will be shutting down its men's ekiden team at the end of the fiscal year because, with an eye toward the company's future, it needs to reallocate resources elsewhere. Yachiyo Kogyo manufactures resin parts and replacement parts for use in car components and systems like fuel tanks and sun roofs. Its total revenue adds up to  157.2 billion yen [~$1.37 billion USD]  annually, with its fuel tank segment making up 44.3 billion yen [~$386 million USD]  or roughly 28% of its revenue. The trend in the automotive world is clearly toward electric vehicles. In Germany and the U.K., sales of new gasoline or diesel-powered automobiles will be banned as of 2030. California will do the same by 2035, with France following suit by 2040. China's plans call for only hybrid vehicles by 2035. Comparing the manufacture of electric vehicles and internal combustion engine vehicles, the number of pa...

25 teams from 11 prefectures took part in the 70th anniversary running of the 5-stage, 73.7 km Towada Hachimantai Ekiden on Aug. 7. Saitama's Yachiyo Kogyo corporate team scored its first-ever victory in 3:50:00. ND Software took 2nd and Subaru 3rd, with two-time defending champion Yakult falling to 4th. Kazuno T&F Assoc. was the top local team at 10th overall. The race began at 8:00 a.m. on the shores of Lake Towada in Aomori. Mid-race temperatures around 30 degrees were recorded in Kazuno, but despite the heat and strong sunlight the athletes on each team gave it their best to ensure their tasuki would make it to the next runner. On the tough and hilly 13.6 km First Stage Yachiyo Kogyo's Abiyot Abinet took an early lead. Yakult rookie Yuji Asaishi was only 7th. On the downhill 13.4 km Second Stage Yakult's Bernard Kimani ran the fastest time on the stage to move into 3rd, but Yachiyo Kogyo's Takahiro Yagihara ran a strong stage 3rd-best time to maint...

http://mainichi.jp/area/saitama/news/20150617ddlk11040159000c.html translated by Brett Larner 86 students from Sasayama's Mizutomi Municipal Kindergarten learned about how to run faster in a "Footrace Classroom" session June 16 with 24 members of the Honda and Yachiyo Kogyo corporate teams along with athletes from Musashino Gakuin University .  Local track and field association chairman Tsuneo Hoshi organized the session in partnership with the three elite teams, hoping both to promote interaction with local businesses like Honda and Yachiyo Kogyo and "to let children know how much fun it is to run."  Monthly sessions at local kindergartens and schools are planned through next February.  Honda team manager Shoji Imabori helped the Mizutomi kindergarteners learn the ropes as he called out to them while they ran together with the athletes, telling them, "Big arm swing!  Push off from the ground firmly!  Look straight ahead and give it all your strengt...

http://www.iaaf.org/competitions/iaaf-label-road-races/news/cheroben-chelimo-ceske-budejovice-half-marath Team Yachiyo Kogyo sub-63 men Shota Kai and Kenta Kitazawa also ran, Kai finishing 8th in 1:07:20 and Kitazawa 9th in 1:10:16, narrowly beating women's winner Rose Chelimo (Kenya).  Click here for complete results .