japan running news

Fujitsu and Asahi Kasei led the first round of qualifiers for the New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships, winning Saturday's East Japan and Kyushu regional corporate ekidens. Starting in 7th, Fujitsu took the lead in the East Japan race thanks to a stage-winning run from second man Hiroki Matsueda and never looked back, its final margin of victory over the 7-stage, 76.9 km course standing at 46 seconds over runner-up Kanebo . Racing for the first time since his 4th-place 2:08:16 finish at September's Berlin Marathon, Fujitsu's Shogo Nakamura had a strong run on the 9.5 km Fourth Stage, finishing 2nd on time in 27:59 behind fellow Komazawa Unviersity graduate Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Konica Minolta). 6th at the final exchange, last year's East Japan winner Honda moved up to 4th thanks to a stage-winning run from anchor and half marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara . Shitara was the only runner to break 38 minutes for the 12.9 km Seventh...

by Brett Larner photos by @rikujolove 2015 national corporate men's champion Toyota held off all comers to take a second-straight New Year Ekiden national title thanks in part to its second-to-last runner Hideyuki Tanaka and some bad luck for its strongest competition. An expected challenge from the all-Japanese Asahi Kasei superteam never materialized as its 10000 m national record-breaking pair Tetsuya Yoroizaka and Kota Murayama finished 16th and 24th out of 43 on the first two of the 100.0 km New Year Ekiden's seven stages.  In their absence Yoshihiro Wakamatsu of East Japan region runner-up Nissin Shokuhin took the First Stage, 4 seconds ahead of Konica Minolta 's Kazuto Nishiike and another 5 seconds ahead of Toyota's Tsubasa Hayakawa , winner of last year's anchor stage. 【動画】これはひどい。 沿道の観客の犬が飛び出しコニカミノルタのポールクイラ選手転倒 ちゃんとリード持っとけよアホ #ニューイヤー駅伝 #tbs pic.twitter.com/tLoyDfBRXe — アナログちゃん (@anlgc) January 1, 2016 2013 World Cross-Country Cha...

by Brett Larner Yoshihiro Wakamatsu  (Team Nissin Shokuhin), a graduate of Hakone Ekiden course record holder  Toyo University , won the final running of the historic Himejijo Road Race men's 10 miler on Feb. 11. Throwing in a surge at 7 km he easily broke away from the field, which included London Olympics marathoner Ryo Yamamoto  (Team SGH Group Sagawa), two-time Himejijo winner Kazuyoshi Tokumoto  (Team Monteroza), and Norihisa Imai  of Toyo's 2014 Hakone-winning squad, to open a gap of 30 seconds and claim the win unchallenged in 47:38. Tsukasa Morita (Team Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) was a solo 2nd in 48:08, his teammate Jun Shinoto , the 2006 national champion in the 3000 m steeplechase, winning a tight pack race for 3rd in 48:21. In the women's 5 km, Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.  went 1-2 with  Tomoka Iwai  winning in 16:24 over Tomoka Katada  in 16:28. The Himejijo Road Race is set to be transformed into a mass-participation marath...

Sollentuna, Sweden, 7/5/12 click here for complete results Men's 5000 m 1. Josephat Menjo (Kenya) - 13:16.87 2. Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 13:28.79 3. Monder Rizki (Belgium) - 13:41.62 4. Akinobu Murasawa (Tokai Univ.) - 13:47.98 5. Mumin Gala (Somalia) - 13:51.01 6. Yoshihiro Wakamatsu (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 13:52.27 7. Olle Wallerang (Sweden) - 13:56.09 8. Abdi Hakin Ulad (Denmark) - 14:07.43 - PB 9. Scott Fraser (GBR) - 14:09.75 - PB 10. Tuomas Jokinen (Finland) - 14:11.15 - PB

by Brett Larner The year kicked off with perfect, windless conditions at the seven stage, 100.0 km New Year Ekiden , the corporate men's national championships Jan. 1 in Maebashi, Gunma.  Three stage records fell along the way as pre-race favorite Team Nissin Shokuhin  won by over a minute in 4:49:32, returning to the top after a 3rd-place finish last year to take its second national title in three years. Despite the ideal weather the race started very slow, the pack of 37 teams splitting 3:07 for the first km of the 12.3 km First Stage.  Last year's First Stage runner-up Yoshihiro Wakamatsu  (Team Nissin Shokuhin), a transplant from the suspended Team TEPCO , emerged from a sprint finish against Yuya Konishi  (Team Toyota Kyushu) to hand off to past Kenyan national XC champion Gideon Ngatuny  (Team Nissin Shokuhin) in the lead.  Ngatuny appeared stale but maintained the lead against the mostly-African field, which included 2011 World XC silver med...

by Brett Larner The East Japan regional qualifiers for December's National Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden Championships and the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden men's national corporate championships took place Nov. 3 in Saitama, northwest of Tokyo.  Run in perfect conditions, there were new records on five of the seven men's stages and four of the six women's stages with the winning men's team just three seconds off the overall course record. 27:38 man Yuki Sato  (Team Nissin Shokuhin) set the tone for the day, taking 52 seconds off the record for the 11.6 km first stage and winning by a margin of 36 seconds after leading wire to wire.  The entire field was aggressive, with the top nine all clearing the old stage record of 33:52.    27:41 man Tsuyoshi Ugachi  (Team Konica Minolta) nearly closed the gap on the 15.3 km second stage, coming within 10 seconds of leader Hiroyuki Ono  (Team Nissin Shokuhin) and breaking his own stage record by 21 seconds. Much of t...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/news/f-sp-tp0-20111013-849436.html translated by Brett Larner On Oct. 13 TEPCO announced that as a consequence of the ongoing situation at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant the suspension of its men's long distance and ekiden team will continue indefinitely.  There are no plans for the team to compete in corporate league competition and, at the present time, it cannot take part in the fall and winter ekiden season. Following March's earthquake and tsunami disaster the TEPCO team's athletes and coaching staff have all been sent to work in Fukushima.  A team representative commented, "We have no restrictions on them running races independently." Translator's note: In reality, many of the team's athletes, including aces Yoshihiro Wakamatsu  and Tomohiro Shiiya , have quit TEPCO since the announcement that they would be sent to work on Fukushima cleanup efforts and have been hired by other teams.  Wakamatsu no...

by Brett Larner 100 km came down to a lean at the tape as Team Toyota won its first-ever New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championship title in a thrilling sprint finish over 2009 champion Team Fujitsu and 2010 champion Team Nissin Shokuhin . With an unusual number of teams losing key players to injury Toyota's chances looked good pre-race as it held the largest number of sub-28 10000 m, the fruition of several years under the leadership of head coach Toshinobu Sato who had previously turned Team Konica Minolta into one of the country's best. After two good opening stages Third Stage runner Yusuke Takabayashi set a new stage record of 38:02 for the 13.6 km course to put Toyota into the lead, and it remained in the top pack of four throughout the next three stages. Toyota anchor Takeshi Kumamoto started in 3rd and, when quickly overtaken by defending Seventh Stage winner Hiroyuki Ono of defending champion Nissin Shokuhin, latched on to close the small gap...

by Brett Larner 22 year old Kensuke Takezawa (Team S&B) returned to his home ground of Hyogo Prefecture on Feb. 11 to win the 50th anniversary Himejijo 10 Mile Road Race . As a high school student Takezawa had won the high school division of the 2005 Himejijo 10 Miler, but today's win marks the first victory on the roads of his pro career. As in January's Interprefectural Ekiden duel with half marathon national record holder Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku), Takezawa stalked leader and course record holder Terukazu Omori (Team Shikoku Denryoku) throughout the race and beat him only in the last sprint. Both men clocked 47:33, over a minute off Omori's course record in cold and rainy conditions, with Toyo University grad Yoshihiro Wakamatsu (Team Tokyo Denryoku) just 2 seconds behind. It was Omori's second year in a row to lose at the line in Himejijo after last year's three-way photo finish with Sato and that year's winner Satoru Kitamura (Team Nissin ...

by Brett Larner Click photo for full-sized version. The women's and men's half marathon kicked off the biggest day of long distance action at the 2009 World University Games , and the Japanese women did what they do best. Josai University's Chisato Saito led Kikuyo Tsuzaki and Sayo Nomura of Meijo University to a Japanese sweep of the women's half marathon. The relatively easy pace played into the hands of Tsuzaki and Nomura, the only runners in the field with PB marks under 72 minutes, but for Saito the win required an A-level effort as she ran just 3 seconds off her PB in 1:13:44. "I didn't expect to win at all, so more than happy I'm just surprised," Saito told reporters after the race. Tsuzaki finished 19 seconds back in 2nd, with Nomura taking 3rd by a margin of 23 seconds over 4th placer Jong-Hyang Kim of North Korea who was more than a minute off the winning time. Asian runners took 9 of the top 11 positions. The men's race was a more balan...

by Brett Larner with athlete quotes from Komazawa Univ. website Click picture for more race photos by Narachan. Additional photos are available here . The 12th National University Half Marathon took place on Mar. 8 in western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park in conjunction with the 28th Tachikawa Akishima Half Marathon . The race served as both the first qualifier for the men's half marathon team for July's World Student Games in Serbia and the final race for graduating seniors. Daiichi Kogyo University's Kiragu Njuguna led a large pack of top university runners and a few professionals, gradually edging away to take the win in 1:02:24 with a slim 17 second lead over runner-up Soji Ikeda of Komazawa University. Ikeda, who was captain of this year's ekiden team, commented, "I'm really happy that I ran a good race today. Looking back on the last four years, as captain I didn't want to end with something as bad as this year's Hakone Ekiden. I'm glad it coul...