japan running news

http://www.wyff4.com/article/russian-marathon-runner-mayorova-banned-for-doping/9549591 Albina Mayorova won the 2005 and 2006 Nagano Marathon, the 2012 Nagoya Women's Marathon , and the 2013 Yokohama International Women's Marathon . The runners-up in Nagoya and Yokohama were  Yoshimi Ozaki and Azusa Nojiri , both of whom had been coached by 1991 Tokyo World Championships silver medalist Sachiko Yamashita . Ozaki, the 2009 Berlin World Championships silver medalist, made the London Olympic team in Nagoya. A victory there might have put her in more of  a winner's mindset going into the Olympic Games, where she ran badly . After not making the London Olympics Nojiri left the Daiichi Seimei corporate team to go the private sponsor route. A win in Yokohama would have had an enormous impact on her sponsorship opportunities and could have led to her running for Japan at the 2014 Asian Games. At the time of Mayorova's Nagoya win over five years ago, JRN wrote : Russia...

http://www.sankei.com/column/news/150313/clm1503130008-n1.html translated by Brett Larner An editorial by prominent sportswriter Tadashi Imamura on the JAAF's decision to exclude Yokohama International Women's Marathon winner Tomomi Tanaka (Team Daiichi Seimei), coached by Sachiko Yamashita , 1991 World Championships marathon silver medalist and one of the only female coaches in Japan, in favor of Osaka International Women's Marathon 3rd-placer Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya), coached by Yutaka Taketomi , one of the JAAF executives in charge of the national marathoning program. It's often said that you can make a plausible argument for anything.  I was reminded of those words when I saw the outcome of the selection process used to select the World Championships marathon teams announced on March 11.  The three women chosen for the team were led by Sairi Maeda who a couple of days ago ran an excellent time of 2:22:48 for 3rd and top Japanese honors at the Nagoya W...

by Brett Larner Two-time National Corporate Half Marathon champion Tomomi Tanaka (Team Daiichi Seimei) continued her transition to the marathon today, following up on her 2:26:05 debut for 5th in Nagoya in March with a 2:26:57 win over London Olympics gold medalist Tiki Gelana (Ethiopia) and others at the final running of the short-lived Yokohama International Women's Marathon . The race started close to target pace with a 16:56 opening 5 km split, but from there to 10 km the Kenyan pacer Purity Cherotich lost control, running 16:35, sub-2:20 pace, and dropping all but independent Azusa Nojiri (Hiratsuka Lease) and debuting 19-year-old Reia Iwade (Team Noritz).  With a 20-second lead over Tanaka and formerly Japan-based Kenyans Philes Ongori and Caroline Rotich both Nojiri and Iwade let go and coasted, returning to a more sensible pace with a 16:57 for the next 5 km.  Rotich soon closed the gap and went by the leading Japanese pair, Nojiri letting her go but Iwade t...

by Brett Larner It's one of the busiest weekends of the year across Japan, with three major road races, regional championship corporate ekiden action, two big track meets and even some overseas collegiates. The biggest race on the schedule is Sunday's Ageo City Half Marathon in Ageo, Saitama, a local race used by coaches of university teams bound for Japan's most prestigious sporting event, January's Hakone Ekiden, to pare down their rosters to the final candidates for their Hakone lineups.  As a result Ageo regularly features jaw-dropping numbers, with close to 200 going under 1:06 and 4~500 under 1:10.  In a program put together by JRN, for the last three years the NYC Half Marathon has invited the top two Japanese collegiates in Ageo to its race in March, and in 2013 the invite had a measurable impact.  In its first 25 years Ageo saw 36 people break 1:03.  At last year's 26th running 18 more runners, all Japanese collegiates, broke 1:03. Defending champ...

http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/etc/20141024-OHT1T50300.html translated by Brett Larner On Oct. 24 it was announced that plans are in their final stages for a successor event to the Yokohama International Women's Marathon , facing its final running on Nov. 16, to be held in Saitama beginning next year.  The new event is planned as a joint operation between the Saitama metropolitan and Saitama prefectural governments with a course beginning and ending at Saitama Super Arena.  With a cherished history as a selection race for Olympic and World Championships teams, the women's marathon will be born again in Saitama. According to a Saitama metropolitan government official, the new event's first running is planned for mid-November, 2015.  The proposal for the race to begin and end at Saitama Super Arena is the current favorite, with the course passing Saitama Stadium, the Saitama Prefectural Government offices and Saitama City Hall.  The JAAF has also weighed in, sayin...

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20141022/ath14102221220003-n1.html translated and edited by Brett Larner On Oct. 22 the organizers of the Nov. 16 Yokohama International Women's Marathon revealed that the event, jointly operated by the JAAF and the Asahi Newspaper group, will be discontinued after this year's sixth running due to ongoing financial difficulties with the race.  As a continuation of the former Tokyo International Women's Marathon it played an important role in establishing the prosperity of Japanese women's distance running over its 36-year history, a history on which the curtain is now set to fall after this year's race. Established in 1979 to encourage the participation and development of female athletes, the Tokyo International Women's Marathon was the first women-only marathon in the world to be officially certified by the IAAF and led directly to the introduction of a women's marathon to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.  It laid the ...

by Brett Larner The 6th running of the Yokohama International Women's Marathon brings in a good field headed by formerly Japan-based London Olympic marathon gold medalist Tiki Gelana (Ethiopia), lending credibility to its struggle to remain relevant.  The equally formerly Japan-based Philes Ongori (Kenya) tops a trio of 2:23 women including Caroline Rotich (Kenya) and Olena Shurkhno (Ukraine) who should give Gelana a swing of it, with Marisa Barros (Portugal), 2014 Nagano Marathon winner Alina Prokopeva (Russia), Irvette Van Zyl (South Africa) and, welcomed back to Yokohama again after her drug suspension, Zivile Balciunaite (Lithuania), rounding out the international field in Yokohama's usual boutique style. The Japanese field is thin, with only three or four contenders for the top ten.  Independent 2014 Hokkaido Marathon winner Azusa Nojiri (Hiratsuka Lease) is the top Japanese woman on paper, but the better bet to factor into the race is her former teammate To...

http://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/sports/201404/0006869505.shtml translated by Brett Larner 19-Year-Old Big Hope Reia Iwade (Team Noritz) Riding the Wave to Hyogo Relay Carnival Grand Prix Women's 10000 m Just 19, Iwade will be showing off her best stuff on home ground in Hyogo prefecture this weekend.  In her first year in the corporate leagues she went through tremendous growth that took her all the way to March's World Half Marathon Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark.  Ahead of her first serious 10000 m, Iwade is strongly motivated as she says, "I want to earn the right to wear the Rising Sun again as soon as possible." Iwade was born in Mie prefecture.  She was the star runner at Aichi prefecture's Toyokawa H.S. , and after graduating she joined Hyogo's Noritz corporate team where she began to make an impact on the ekiden circuit.  A few days after her 19th birthday, at December's Sanyo Women's Road Race half marathon she ran a Japanese juni...

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2014/02/18/kiji/K20140218007615820.html translated and edited by Brett Larner The Daihatsu women's corporate team, based in Ikeda, Osaka, announced on Feb. 18 that 2011 Daegu World Championships marathoner Remi Nakazato  (25) will quit the team at the end of the month to become an amateur runner.  According to Daihatsu, the decision to leave the team was Nakazato's.  She plans to be based in her native Gunma Prefecture. A graduate of Ota Shogyo High School in Gunma, Nakazato finished 12th in her debut marathon at the 2010 Nagoya International Women's Marathon.  At the 2011 Yokohama International Women's Marathon she was 2nd, going on to finish 10th at the Daegu World Championships and running her PB of 2:24:28 the following spring back in Nagoya.  She finished only 10th at last year's Yokohama.

http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/fourth-japanese-marathon-victory-for-mayorova

http://www.iaaf.org/news/preview/mayorova-ongari-kalmer-yokohama-marathon A shame that none of the hometown athletes are deemed to be threats.  JRN will cover the race live via Twitter @JRNLive starting at noon on Sunday, Nov. 16.  Overseas viewers may be able to catch TV Asahi's live broadcast via Keyhole TV . Yokohama International Women's Marathon Elite Field Yokohama, Kanagawa, 11/17/13 click here for complete field listing 22. Yumiko Hara (AASP Running Club) - 2:23:48 (Osaka Int'l 2007) 1. Albina Mayorova (Russia) - 2:23:52 (Nagoya Women's 2012) 2. Philes Ongori (Kenya) - 2:24:20 (Rotterdam 2011) 11. Remi Nakazato (Team Daihatsu) - 2:24:28 (Nagoya Women's 2012) 3. Jessica Augusto (Portugal) - 2:24:33 (London 2011) 12. Azusa Nojiri (Hiratsuka Lease) - 2:24:57 (Osaka Int'l 2012) 13. Mizuho Nasukawa (Team Univ. Ent.) - 2:25:38 (Tokyo 2009) 14. Eri Okubo (Miki House) - 2:26:08 (Tokyo 2012) 5. Tetyana Filonyuk (Ukraine) - 2:26:24 (Ro...

by Brett Larner The organizers of the Nov. 17 Yokohama International Women's Marathon have released this year's elite field and it is looking pretty okay.  2012 Nagoya Women's Marathon winner Albina Mayorova  (Russia) is back in Japan for more and leads the way among the internationals with her 2:23:52 best from Nagoya, joined at the 2:24 level by Yamanashi Gakuin graduate and longtime Hokuren corporate team member  Philes Ongori  (Kenya) and Jessica Augusto  (Portugal).  Top Japanese elite Remi Nakazato  (Team Daihatsu) with a best of 2:24:28 is something of a question mark after bailing on last month's Berlin Marathon. Should she falter, #3-ranked domestic woman Mizuho Nasukawa  (Team Univ. Ent.), the top Japanese woman last year in an anaemic performance that saw her left off the Moscow World Championships team in favor of an empty seat, is the best bet to pick up the reins.   Azusa Nojiri  (Hiratsuka Lease) and Eri Okubo  (M...

by Brett Larner Top-seeded Lydia Cheromei  (Kenya) braved windy seaside conditions to solo a course record 2:23:07 at the 4th Yokohama International Women's Marathon after breaking from the pack at only 15 km.   As predicted , 2009 Tokyo Marathon winner Mizuho Nasukawa (Team Univ. Ent.) took top Japanese honors, 2nd overall in 2:26:42 after an exciting four-way battle over the last 7 km. The first of three major women's selection races for the 2013 Moscow World Championships, Yokohama saw Japanese women butting heads with the Federation's seemingly excessively ambitious sub-2:24 qualifying time.  In difficult conditions three pacers led by the promising Asami Kato  (Team Panasonic) took things out on schedule, but after Kato's departure at 14 km the pace slackened and Cheromei grew impatient.  Moving ahead of remaining pacers Maria Konovalova  (Russia) and Olena Shurkhno ( Ukraine) at 15 km she forged on ahead, fluttering on either side of the 2:23 li...

by Brett Larner photo by Mika Tokairin The Japanese campaign for places on the 2013 Moscow World Championships marathon team kicks off this Sunday in Yokohama at the fourth running of the Yokohama International Women's Marathon , followed two weeks later by the Fukuoka International Marathon.  With Risa Shigetomo  (Team Tenmaya) running 2:23:23 to win January's Osaka International Women's Marathon and Arata Fujiwara  (Miki House) running 2:07:48 for 2nd in Tokyo in February the Federation decided to enact strict standards for the Moscow team: sub-2:24 for women and sub-2:08 for men at any of the designated domestic selection races or the World Marathon Majors.  Considering that both Shigetomo and Fujiwara made it into the all-time Japanese top ten it seems like a pretty tall order to imagine Japan being able to field full five-member teams of that caliber next summer, but that's where the powers that be set the hoop and people are lining up to jump.  With fav...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20121114-1046546.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Along with the Yokohama International Women's Marathon and Ageo City Half Marathon, regional qualifying ekidens for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden national corporate men's championships take place in the Chubu, Hokuriku, Kansai and Chugoku regions.  The final regional qualifier, the Kyushu Corporate Men's Ekiden, takes place opposite the Nov. 23 International Chiba Ekiden. The entry list in Kyushu features London Olympics marathon 6th-placer Kentaro Nakamoto  (Team Yasukawa Denki), Daegu World Championships marathon 7th-placer Hiroyuki Horibata  (Team Asahi Kasei), former Hakone Ekiden star Masato Imai  (Team Toyota Kyushu) and, in his pro ekiden debut, 10000 m national collegiate record holder Tetsuya Yoroizaka  (Team Asahi Kasei).  The Horibata-Yoroizaka combination is enough to make the Asahi Kasei team one of the favorites for the nat...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/olympics/sns-rt-us-athletics-russia-abitovabre8a61ls-20121107,0,2970680.story Inga Abitova  is the second Japanese marathon-winning Russian woman managed by Spartanik RS Inc . this year to have been given a doping suspension, following Tatiana Aryasova  who was stripped of her 2011 Tokyo Marathon win after a positive test for a masking agent .  According to the article linked above Abitova will be stripped of all results beginning Oct. 10, 2009, a period which includes her 2009 Yokohama International Women's Marathon win .  If Abitova loses her Yokohama title, runner-up Kiyoko Shimahara  (Second Wind AC) should find herself elevated to the winner's position.   Other athletes on Spartanik's current roster to have won Japanese marathons in the last five years include 2012 Nagoya International Marathon winner Albina Mayorova , 2010 Tokyo Marathon winner Alevtina Biktimirova  and 2008 Nagano Marathon winner Alevtina...

http://news.runnersworld.com/2012/11/05/nycs-thwarted-elite-runners-head-to-japan/ http://newyorkcitymarathon.runnersworld.com/2012/11/for-elites-next-stop-japan.html

http://www.nzrun.com/topic/13459-Smith-to-run-Yokohama-Marathon http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/7909842/ The full name of the race is the Yokohama International Women's Marathon.

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20121030/ath12103015430001-n1.html translated by Brett Larner The organizers of the Nov. 18 Yokohama International Women's Marathon announced Oct. 30 that two of its overseas invited elites have withdrawn.   Philes Ongori  (Kenya) has pulled out with a leg injury, while Yolanda Caballero  (Colombia) has withdrawn due to poor fitness.

http://www.iaaf.org/Mini/LRR12/News/NewsDetail.aspx?id=68052 2:26 marathoner and former Suzuki Hamamatsu AC member Noriko Matsuoka  made her international debut as a member of the Second Wind club at the Great South Run, finishing 10th in 56:08 ahead of next month's Yokohama International Women's Marathon.