japan running news

  For everyone not running yesterday's 10000 m National Championships , where the Asahi Kasei corporate team dominated the men's race with four out of four men sub-28 including winner Jun Kasai , 27:17.46, the grand dame of Japan's long distance time trial circuit was happening on AK's home ground in Miyazaki at the Golden Games in Nobeoka . Not including kids' races, a total of 74 women and 227 men ran in 14 heats of 5000 m, with a packed-in crowd of fans lining the track beating on metal sponsor boards with batons. It's a pretty awesome meet, and memorable performances included: National champion Kamimura Gakuen H.S. standout Caroline Kariba continued to kill it in the second month of her corporate league career, winning the 5000 m A-heat in 15:00.95 in a race where 3 out of the top 4 including her ran PBs. National champion Meijo University seemed flat at this point in the season, with none of its people under 16 minutes and star Nanase Tanimoto leading ...

Temperatures in the single digits and strong winds held back people's chances of qualifying for next year's World Championships, but they couldn't stop this year's Hachioji Long Distance meet from delivering a piece of history. In the fastest of the meet's seven heats of 10,000 m,  Evans Keitany  (Toyota Boshoku) ran 27:28.25 for the win, edging 2nd-placer James Muoki  (Konica Minolta) by 0.24 seconds and 3rd-placer Samwel Masai  (Kanebo) by 0.52.  Behind them another 18 men broke 28 minutes for a total of 21, breaking the record of 20 set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. 8 of the 21 men were Japanese, with Tatsuhiko Ito  (Honda) taking the top Japanese spot at 4th in 27:30.69 and Tomoki Ota (Toyota) breaking through with a 27:33.13 PB for 5th. National record holder Akira Aizawa  (Asahi Kasei) was 20th in 27:58.35. And it didn't stop there. In the final heat marathoner Hiroto Inoue  (Mitsubishi Juko) ran a 13-second PB of 27:43.17 for the win, lea...

The team that brought Japan's greatest race into the modern era with its historic 2012 sub-3 min/km win, Toyo University came out swinging to win Day One of the 2018 Hakone Ekiden . Intensely popular with fans, Toyo has struggled this season with its entire senior class out with injury. With its fate in the hands of its younger members Toyo 1st-year Kazuya Nishiyama , freshly 19 in November, stepped up and took control of the race with both hands. Midway through the fast First Stage Nishiyama surged hard to go out front alone, 2017 World University Games half marathon gold medalist Kei Katanishi (Komazawa Univ.) and relative unknown Yuhei Urano (Koku Gakuin Univ.) the only ones to try to go with him. Nishiyama covered the 21.3 km stage in 1:02:16, equivalent to a 1:01:40 half marathon, with Urano and Katanishi around 15 seconds back. 3-time defending champ Aoyama Gakuin University was 25 seconds behind in 5th at the first exchange, 2017 Izumo Ekiden winner Tokai University ...