japan running news

Running the Hofu Yomiuri Marathon 's 50th anniversary edition the year she turned 40, Hisae Yoshimatsu (Shunan City Hall) soloed a 2:39:22 to pick up her eighth Hofu win and extend her legacy as the winningest champion in Hofu history. Going out on mid-2:39 pace in the first 5 km, Yoshimatsu picked it up to mid-2:38 and stayed that way until the final kilometers, when she slowed slightly. At 2:39:22 she was over 7 minutes ahead of runner-up Mikiko Ota (KSS RC), in a class of her own. Next up she will run March's Tokyo Marathon. The men's race was closer right until the end, with a pack of nine plus two pacers going through halfway in 1:05:01 and staying together until Kenyans Matthew Kiprotich and Paul Kiprop broke free at 30 km. At first Shinichi Yamashita (Takigahara SDF Base) was the only Japanese man to try to go with them, but Taiki Yoshimura (Asahi Kasei) quickly rolled up to regain contact with the two leaders by 34 km and then drop Kiprop by 35. Kiprot...

The 34th Lake Saroma 100 km Ultramarathon took place June 30 on the northern shores of Hokkaido. In the women's 100 km  Mai Fujisawa (Excel AC) ran 7:32:50 for her fourth Lake Saroma title with a margin of victory of over six minutes. In the men's race  Tatsuya Itagaki  (Tokinosumika) ran 6:25:52 to win Lake Saroma for the third time, two years after his last victory. Runner-up Yasuyuki Nakamura (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) was just 37 seconds behind, with world champion Hideaki Yamauchi  (Hamamatsu Hotniks) another six minutes back. Between Lake Saroma's 100 km and 50 km divisions a total of 3770 people started the race, with 2861 finishing. In the 100 km division 3281 people started of which 2435 finished, a finishing rate of 74.2%. 34th Lake Saroma 100 km Ultramarathon Yubetsu, Hokkaido, 6/30/19 Women's 100 km 1. Mai Fujisawa - 7:32:50 2. Mikiko Ota - 7:38:53 3. Konoka Azumi - 7:53:48 Men's 100 km 1. Tatsuya Itagaki - 6:25:52 2. Yasuyuki Nakamura - ...

Two weeks to the day after running 2:10:53 at the Fukuoka International Marathon, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) wrapped his 2017 with a win, running one of the few negative splits of his career to win the Hofu Yomiuri Marathon for the third time in 2:10:03. Women's winner Misako Kato (Kyudenko), a 1:09:49 half marathon, soloed an almost perfectly paced 2:28:12 to take 3 minutes off her PB and 7 1/2 minutes off the course record. Further back, Rio Paralympics T12 marathon silver medalist  Misato Michishita  broke the own world record in her category with a time of 2:56:14. Watch a complete replay of the race here. Pacers Taiga Ito and Melaku Abera , both of whom ran Fukuoka alongside Kawauchi, were tasked with taking the field out in 3:06/km, 2:10:48 pace. Pre-race Kawauchi told JRN, "If they'd run 3:04 I ccoul definitely, 100%, go faster than I did in Fukuoka. In cold and windy conditions things went in his favor in the early going with 5 and 10 km sp...

2015 Hofu Yomiuri Marathon winner Arata Fujiwara (Toyama T&F Assoc.) and 2012 / 2014 winner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) return to lead the field for the Dec. 17 edition of the race. Fujiwara comes in three weeks after a win at the Tsukuba Marathon, which itself came just four weeks after a course record win at the Toyama Marathon. Kawauchi cuts it even closer, running both Fukuoka and Hofu as usual but adding a third marathon, the Jan. 1 Marshfield New Year's Day Marathon, just two weeks later. The pair's main competition comes from the Toshinari Takaoka -coached Hiroki Kadota (Kanebo) and former Hakone Ekiden star Tadashi Isshiki (GMO). At least three other members of the elite field will be emulating the past champs' high-volume racing, Tatsunori Hamasaki (Nanjo City Hall) having run the Oct. 15 Buenos Aires Marathon in Argentina, Shogo Kanezane (Chugoku Denryoku) the Nov. 26 Asian Marathon Championships in Dongguan, China, and Yusuke Tobimatsu ...

by Brett Larner 橋本くん、優勝おめでとう！！ pic.twitter.com/Qmm0jm5ZvI — くにちゃん (@Kunie0206) December 18, 2016 In just his second marathon, 2016 Aoyama Gakuin University graduate Ryo Hashimoto (Team GMO Athletes) ran a PB of over three minutes to win the Hofu Yomiuri Marathon in 2:11:20.  Pacers took the race through 25 km at a relatively steadily pace on target for around 2:11:45.  With their departure at 26 km Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) repeated his big play from the Fukuoka International Marathon two weeks ago, throwing in a hard surge and opening a gap of 10 seconds over the rest of the field.  Hashimoto and Taiki Yoshimura (Team Asahi Kasei) were the only two to try to follow, and by 30 km they had started to close the gap. pic.twitter.com/WnsJeY1YX9 — ペコ (@ayespeko) December 18, 2016 Hashimoto passed Kawauchi near 32 km, splitting 15:05 from 30 to 35 km as he pulled away.  It was a pace he couldn't sustain but enough to guarantee him the win with ...

by Brett Larner photos by @rikujolove The race for the Rio Olympic team just got a little more interesting.  Down for the count in the marathon with no successful performances since his 2:09:31 at the 2012 Fukuoka International Marathon, 2:07:48 Olympian Arata Fujiwara (Miki House) came to the Dec. 20 Hofu Yomiuri Marathon off an unexpected pair of low-key marathon wins this fall saying that he hoped to run 2:10 to 2:11 as a step toward a shot at the Rio team at February's Tokyo Marathon.  Defending champion Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) was also back, two weeks after an exhausting 2:12:48 in his own unsuccessful bid for Rio in Fukuoka and saying that he would only be going for a time better than his year-best 2:12:13 from Zurich in April.  Longtime rivals and friends who have had an enormous impact on Japanese marathoning from outside the corporate leagues, Fujiwara and Kawauchi stood on the starting line 3-3 against each other in the marathon. 2013 Hofu...

by Brett Larner In what was really and truly probably the last noteworthy ekiden of the season, course records fell Feb. 17 in two of the three divisions at the 37th Chunichi Hamanako Isshu Ekiden at Lake Hamana in Shizuoka.  Despite the absence of aces Martin Mathathi  and Yusei Nakao , the Suzuki Hamamatsu AC  team had no trouble winning the 53.5 km men's race, clocking 2:42:49 to runner-up Teikyo University 's 2:44:15.  Suzuki men took three of the five stages, with 2010-11 steeplechase national champion Tsuyoshi Takeda setting a course record of 29:12 for the 9.6 km Fourth Stage. In the six-stage, 42.0 km high school boys' race, 2012 National High School Ekiden runner-up Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.  ran 2:07:38 to set a new overall course record thanks to four of its runners scoring stage bests.  Fourth man Yuki Hirota , running the same 9.6 km course as Takeda in the men's race, set a new high school division record of 28:44, almost 30 seconds better th...

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/other/athletic/marathon/osaka/2012/headlines/20121125-00000004-spnavi-spo.html http://www.daily.co.jp/newsflash/general/2012/11/25/0005553103.shtml translated and edited by Brett Larner In their second editions the Osaka Marathon and Kobe Marathon moved to the same day, Nov. 25, meaning that one greater metropolitan area held two large-scale marathons simultaneously with combined fields of 50,000. In Osaka, men's winner Serod Batochir  (Mongola) ran 2:11:52 to set a new course record.  The top Japanese finisher, Yasuyuki Nakamura  (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC), was 2nd in a PB 2:15:37, while half-marathon national record holder Atsushi Sato  (Team Chugoku Denryoku) was 3rd in 2:16:26.  Defending men's champion  Elijah Sang  (Kenya) faded badly after running the first part of the race in the lead pack, finishing 8th in 2:33:33. Defending women's champion Lidia Simon  (Romania) won in 2:33:12 by more than one minute ...