japan running news

At the Tokai University Time Trials meet June 8 at Tokai's Shonan Campus Field in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, Kazuto Iizawa , 23, of the Sumitomo Denko corporate team, ran 3:35.62 for 1500 m, the second-fastest time ever by a Japanese man. His time improved on his already all-time Japanese #2 3:35.77 from the May 12 Kinami Memorial Meet and missed the 3:35.42 national record held by Kazuki Kawamura , 26, by just 0.20. Including the PB he ran his senior year at Tokai, it was Iizawa's third time coming in at all-time Japanese #2. "It felt like my legs completely locked up with 30 m to go," he said post-race. "It's really disappointing." His coach at Sumitomo Denko, Yasuyuki Watanabe , was positive about Iizawa's performance, saying, "That was really close. He'll get the NR next time." The race happened on Watanabe's 51st birthday. "I'd wanted to give Coach Watanabe the NR as a birthday present," joked Iizawa. Next on his sch...

After falling out of the top 10 for the first time in 3 years to 13th at this year's Hakone Ekiden, Waseda University is set to name Olympian, former GMO corporate head coach and Waseda alum Katsuhiko Hanada , 50, as its new head coach. Former head coach Yutaka Sagara , 41, is expected to remain on as head coach. Under the new arrangement Waseda hopes to regain its former stature. Having left GMO at the end of March, Hanada is already overseeing Waseda team training at the university's Tokorozawa campus in Saitama. Asked about his role, Sagara commented, "Nothing has been finalized yet." But according to an involved source, the decision about Hanada is final and only a few last details are still under discussion. Hanada ran well at the Hakone Ekiden during his collegiate years and was part of Waseda's winning team his third year at the school. After joining the S&B corporate team, he competed on the track at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and 2000 Sydney Olympi...

Future Hakone Ekiden stars and current corporate league coaches Yasuyuki Watanabe and Daisuke Isomatsu on the 10.0 km First Stage of the 1991 National High School Ekiden Championships.

Waseda University tries to stop Yamanashi Gakuin University from winning a third-straight Izumo Ekiden at its 1993 edition.

Waseda University , the University of Oregon of Japanese athletics, dominates Day One of the 1995 Hakone Ekiden.

Future Waseda University and Sumitomo Denko corporate team head coach Yasuyuki Watanabe 's final run on the Hakone Ekiden Second Stage, taking Waseda from 9th to 1st.

Stephen Mayaka was the first Kenyan high school runner in Japan and the first to go the complete route from high school to university and on into the corporate running world. Now a Japanese citizen, married to a former World Championships-level Japanese marathoner and head coach of Obirin University’s track and field team, Mayaka is a mentor to Kenyan athletes both across Japan and back in Kenya. JRN interviewed Mayaka just before New Year, 2010 for an article for Running Times magazine. Part One: Discovery, High School and University Could you talk a bit about your personal history? How were you selected to come to Japan? I first came to Japan in 1990, in December. I came here to test myself. When I was in Kenya I ran in the Kenyan Secondary School Championships. I was the top at cross-country. There was a Japanese there, the one who introduced Samuel Wanjiru to Sendai Ikuei [High School], Mr. Kobayashi. He had spotted me, and before, Joseph Otwori , who came from the same...

Indoor track is pretty much non-existant in Japan, but in the last few years more Japanese athletes have been heading to the States after ekiden season to give it a go and coming back with national records. Two more records fell at Friday's David Hemery Valentine Invitational in Boston. First up, in his indoor debut 20-year-old Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko) ran 13:27.81 to break the indoor 5000 m national record set five years ago in New York by Suguru Osako by 0.19. Endo was one of Japan's all-time best high schoolers. Now in his second year in the corporate leagues after opting to skip university he is coached by Yasuyuki Watanabe , Osako's former coach at Waseda University. Also in the same race, Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu) was 6th in 13:47.64. Three hours later, Riko Matsuzaki (Sekisui Kagaku) ran 9:00.86 in the women's 3000 m, taking 0.53 off the national record set way back in 1999 by Akiko Kawashima at the Maebashi World Indoor Championships. Matsuzaki is...

https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20170411-00000009-sph-spo translated by Brett Larner Long distance runner Hyuga Endo , 18, joined the Sumitomo Denko corporate team this month after graduating from Fukushima's Gakuho Ishikawa H.S.  Endo won the National Sports Festival 3000 m his first year of high school and the 5000 m both his second and third years.  A leading candidate to become the star of the next generation, Endo has suppressed the desire to run the Hakone Ekiden and instead chosen to go the corporate road in a quest "to win a medal" at the Tokyo Olympics.  Sumitomo Denko head coach Yasuyuki Watanabe , 43, is planning in the long-term, saying, "I want him to have a long career." Wearing a brand-new suit, Endo took part in the company's entrance ceremony for new employees.  "I'm glad that's over," he laughed afterward. Thanks to a phenomenal last kick, Endo was undefeated at the National Sports Festival all three years of h...

http://www.sankei.com/west/news/150524/wst1505240046-n1.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Holder of the 13:19.00 collegiate national record for 5000 m, Kensuke Takezawa (Team Sumitomo Denko) won Sunday's Kansai Corporate Track and Field Championships men's 5000 m in 13:59.67 with a surge over the last 300 m.  Having just come off a long season off due to an Achilles tendon injury Takezawa nodded as he said, "I'm almost back.  I've grown since last year." Starting this spring, Takezawa's former coach at Waseda University, Yasuyuki Watanabe , has joined the Sumitomo Denko team as head coach, reunited the pair.  A member of the 2008 Beijing Olympics team, Takezawa, still just 28,  was optimistic of making a full comeback as he said, "Coach Watanabe understands me better than anybody.  Having him around changes my mentality."  Translator's note: Two weeks ago Takezawa ran 13:37.89 for 4th at the Golden Games in Nobeoka meet, h...

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2015/04/07/kiji/K20150407010124520.html translated by Brett Larner At a Sumitomo Denko men's corporate team press conference in Osaka, Yasuyuki Watanabe , 41, who took over as the team's head coach at the start of this month, vowed to make eliminating injury among the athletes under his guidance one of the key themes of his tenure as head coach.  Having seen his own career cut short by an Achilles tendon injury while still in his 20s, Watanabe told the media that he wants to tailor his coaching to suit the needs and abilities of the individual athletes, saying, "In Japan we train on the roads and run a lot of races.  It is critical that we reduce the risk of injury to nearly zero.  I want to make it so that athletes can train 365 days a year."  Sumitomo Denko president Masayoshi Matsumoto commented, "Ekidens are interesting but not a worldwide event.  Japan has become like the Galapagos."  Matsumoto indicated his ...

by Brett Larner Former national high school champion teammates Koki Takada (Waseda Univ.) and Takashi Ichida (Daito Bunka Univ.) ran Sunday's United Airlines NYC Half with support from JRN, their last time running together before Ichida's graduation at the end of the month. With bests of 1:02:02 and 1:02:03 from last November's Ageo City Half Marathon, both were aiming for mid to high 1:01 times and went out with the lead pack running that pace through the hills of Central Park in the first half of the course. But when the pace quickened heading down 7th Avenue into the city neither could keep up with the change, first Ichida and then Takada slipping away from the front quartet led by last year's 3rd-placer Stephen Sambu (Kenya) and then from the mostly American chase pack including Boston Marathon winner Meb Keflezighi and World Half Marathon bronze medalist Dathan Ritzenhein . Down almost 10 seconds on Takada at one point, Ichida fought his way back with ...

by Brett Larner Takashi Ichida (Daito Bunka Univ.) and Koki Takada (Waseda Univ.) at Riverside State Park, New York, on Mar. 13. For the fourth year, the top two Japanese collegiate finishers from November's super-deep Ageo City Half Marathon have been invited to run the United Airlines NYC Half as part of a collaboration set up by JRN between the Ageo city government and the New York Road Runners.  At the 2013 Ageo Half Takashi Ichida (Daito Bunka University) won a five-way sprint finish in 1:02:36 to pick up his place at the 2014 NYC Half.  A stride behind him, Koki Takada (Waseda University), was the third collegiate finisher, ripping of his bib number in anger at missing out on the chance to run in a big race overseas. A year later, Ichida and Takada were again head-to-head in Ageo, working together to push the pace and drop their competition one by one.  In another sprint finish Takada got the win this time in a PB 1:02:02 with Ichida right behind in a PB...

http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/etc/20150309-OHT1T50100.html http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/feature/hakone/20150309-OHT1T50174.html translated and edited by Brett Larner On March 9 Waseda University held a press conference at its Shinjuku campus in Tokyo to announce the transfer of leadership at the end of the month from ekiden team head coach Yasuyuki Watanabe , 41, to incoming head coach Yutaka Sagara , 34.  Watanabe, who spent 12 years leading Waseda including one year as assistant coach, had a light and relaxed expression as he said, "I did all I had to do, and that's why I am stepping down now." Watanabe developed two Waseda runners, 2008 Olympian Kensuke Takezawa (now 28, Team Sumitomo Denko) and 2013 World Championships team member Suguru Osako (now 23, resigning from Team Nissin Shokuhin at the end of this month) into world-class athletes, and under his leadership in the 2010-11 season Waseda achieved an unprecedented triple crown of course record wins at a...

http://www.minpo.jp/news/detail/2015020320750 translated by Brett Larner Waseda University ekiden team assistant coach Yutaka Sagara , 34, a native of Koriyama, Fukushima and a Waseda alumnus, is set to take take over as the team's head coach.  The formal announcement of his inauguration is expected to take place within the current fiscal year. Yasuyuki Watanabe , 41, has served as head coach of the Waseda ekiden team since 2004, but in December last year he announced that he would retire as coach at the end of the fiscal year in March.  According to a source connected to the team, Sagara was tapped based on favorable evaluations of his co-leadership of the team in tandem with Watanabe. Sagara was born in Koriyama.  After graduating from Asaka H.S. he entered Waseda University's school of human sciences, scoring some success as an athlete in the 3000 mSC.  His first year he ran the Hakone Ekiden's uphill Fifth Stage, and as a third year he ran the downhill S...

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2014/12/01/kiji/K20141201009384320.html translated and edited by Brett Larner On Dec. 1 Waseda University announced that ekiden head coach Yasuyuki Watanabe , 41, will retire at the end of his contract in March next year.  His successor has not yet been determined. One of Waseda's most famous alumni, Watanabe had spectacular success during his running career there, winning Hakone Ekiden stages three times including a classic Second Stage battle against Kenyan Stephen Mayaka (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.).  In April, 2003 he was named assistant coach of Waseda's ekiden program and a year later in April, 2004 was promoted to head coach.  In that capacity he set about restoring the fallen Waseda to its former glory.  Under his leadership Waseda finished 2nd at the 2008 Hakone Ekiden, and in the 2010-2011 season it scored a rare triple crown, winning the Izumo Ekiden, National University Ekiden and Hakone Ekiden and becoming the ...

by Brett Larner I was asked to give a speech at the welcoming reception the night before this year’s Ageo City Half Marathon about the JRN-arranged invite for the top two Japanese university finishers in Ageo to run March’s NYC Half Marathon. Guests in the audience included Ageo mayor Minoru Shimamura , KGRR chairman and Hakone Ekiden race director Yoshiyuki Aoba , Waseda University head coach Yasuyuki Watanabe and other Hakone university teams’ head coaches, and 1999 World Championships marathon silver medalist Ari Ichihashi . I decided not to prepare anything and just freestyle it. This is a translation of what I can remember saying. Good evening everybody. If you ever have to give a speech in a foreign language I would advise against drinking sake beforehand. The words don’t come out right. I’m not that strong with honorific language, so if I say things in a rude way I apologize in advance. That is not my intention. To begin with, congratulations to Mayor Shimamura and e...

http://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/sports/201309/0006363197.shtml translated by Brett Larner A favorite of athletes from junior high to the corporate leagues, Hyogo prefecture's Himeji Castle Road Race is set to be discontinued after February's 54th running.  With a new Himeji Castle World Heritage Site Marathon set to be launched in 2015, the 10-miler's race organization committee will be dismantled and the event's long history of hosting many of the country's best athletes will come to an end. According to the Hyogo Prefecture Track and Field Association's 50th anniversary commemorative magazine, in 1948 there was a move to inaugurate a series of 10-mile road races in January in all the major cities of the country, but in 1960 the series came to a halt.  With Hyogo's event having been held at Himeji Castle since 1954 and having already developed a reputation as a fast course, it was relaunched in 1961 as the first Himeji Castle Road Race with a certified ...

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2012/12/25/kiji/K20121225004849190.html http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20121225-OHT1T00207.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner In a Dec. 25 interview about the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden , Waseda University junior Suguru Osako , Japan's #1 collegiate runner and one of the brightest hopes of Japanese men's distance running, revealed that he will join the 2012 national champion Nissin Shokuhin team following his graduation in 2014.  Osako's long list of achievements includes the 2011 National University Championships 1500 m title, the 2011 World University Games 10000 m gold medal, and the Asian junior half marathon record.  He chose the Nissin team, he said, "because they are going to give me the freedom to do what I want to do."  According to Waseda head coach Yasuyuki Watanabe , Osako plans to move to Portland, Oregon to be coached by one of marathon legend  Toshihiko Seko 's great rivals, American Albe...

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20121210/ath12121017570005-n1.html translated and edited by Brett Larner additional source articles linked within translation On Dec. 16 the sixteen-man rosters were released for the twenty university teams competing at the 89th running of the two-day, ten-stage, 217.9 km Hakone Ekiden on Jan. 2 and 3.  The same evening, the head coaches appeared at a public event in Ebisu, Tokyo to discuss their teams' conditions, plans and their expectations for what looks to be an intensely competitive edition of the historic event.  Comments from the coaches of the top tier of teams: Yasuyuki   Watanabe , Waseda University 3rd, 2012 National University Ekiden Championships 6th, 2012 Izumo Ekiden 4th, 2012 Hakone Ekiden Course record wins at 2010 Izumo Ekiden, 2010 National University Ekiden Championships and 2011 Hakone Ekiden I want to put together a running order that forces our opponents to fight when they don't want to.  The m...