japan running news

http://mainichi.jp/feature/news/20130727k0000m040056000c.html translated by Brett Larner With Mt. Fuji newly named to the World Heritage Site list, the 66th Fuji Mountain Race took place July 26 on a course starting at 769 m elevation in front of Fujiyoshida City Hall and ending 21 km and more than 3000 m climb later at the summit, along with a 15 km race halfway up the mountain ending at its Fifth Stage. In the summit division, Dai Matsumoto  (29, Gunma Pref.) won the men's race in 2:49:40.  American Leah Daugherty  (28) won the women's race in 3:23:47.  In the Fifth Stage race, Naoto Ikuta  (33, Tokyo) won for the second time, while veteran Yoshimi Hoshino  (47, Shizuoka) won a third title.

by Brett Larner Ome photos by Mika Tokairin Kumanichi screencap by Applepie Cold and clear weather helped bring fast times at both of Japan's major 30 km road races on Feb. 17.  At the 57th Kumanichi 30 km Road Race in Kumamoto, the site of the former 1:28:00 world record set by Takayuki Matsumiya  (Team Konica Minolta in 2005) and a race which joined forces with the new mass-partipation Kumamoto-jo Marathon last year to ensure its own survival, Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref.) did the seemingly impossible and fulfilled his pre-race promise of a win around 1:29:30.  Despite a spectacular 2:08:15 marathon PB two weeks ago at the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon, Kawauchi took apart a top-notch field and outkicked the fresh 22-year-old  Fumihiro Maruyama  (Team Asahi Kasei) by 3 seconds for the win in 1:29:31, a new PB by 36 seconds and a record on the hillier new course introduced last year by 30 seconds. Kawauchi's time was the sixth-best in Kumanichi h...

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2012/07/28/kiji/K20120728003776590.html translated and edited by Brett Larner 3676 runners took part in the two divisions of the 65th Fuji Mountain Race on July 27.  Making his Mt. Fuji debut, Jonathan Wyatt  (39, New Zealand) won the summit course in a strong 2:33:59, with Mina Ogawa  (37, Amino Vital AC) taking the women's race in 3:07:51 for her second-straight summit win.   Toru Koide  (30, Salomon) and Maki Hagiwara  (37) won the men's and women's Fifth Stage course wins in 1:25:42 and 1:45:17. With a margin of 17 minutes over the runner-up, Wyatt's win was definitive.  A two-time Olympian for his native New Zealand with appearances in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic 5000 m and 2004 Athens Olympics marathon, Wyatt pulled clear into the lead after crossing into the purest mountain running section of the course after the Sixth Stage.  "My win today is one of the biggest honors in my long career," said a ha...

by Brett Larner note: International travel resulted in a delay to posting these results.  Apologies. Three big road races produced noteworthy results across Japan over the past weekend.  At last year's Takashimadaira Road Race 20 km, the completely unknown Takehiro Deki  (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) exploded onto the Kanto region university men's distance scene by tying the course record of 58:51 while winning by a margin of 1:30.  This year as a more established name Deki successfully repeated, winning Takashimadaira again in warm conditions in 59:44 by a margin of 1:13.  Veteran Yoshimi Hoshino  (eAthletes AC) took her fifth win in the women's division, running 1:15:12, while five-time women's 10 km division winner Maki Inami  (Kita AC) made it six as she won in 34:50.  Komazawa University graduate  Akinori Iida  (Team Honda) won the men's 10 km in 29:59. Further north in Sendai, Ritsumeikan University  scored a major upset as it b...

by Brett Larner American Jason Lehmkuhle in a sprint finish against Toyoyuki Abe meters before winning the 2011 Ome 30 km. Jason Lehmkuhle won a tight sprint finish over Team NTT Nishi Nihon's Toyoyuki Abe at the 2011 Ome 30 km Road Race to become the first American to win the prestigious race since Greg Meyer 's 1983 victory. Lehmkuhle was aggressive throughout the race, leading the field of over 15000 through the early kilometers and remaining at the head of the pack over the difficult ups and downs through the middle 20 km. The pack, initially nine-strong, whittled down to a core of five by halfway. With roughly 5 km to go Lehmkuhle surged, first dropping eventual 4th-placer Atsushi Ikawa (Team Otsuka Seiyaku), then frequent leader Ryotaro Nitta (Team Konica Minolta). Local boy Daisuke Shimizu (Team Kanebo) was the next to fall, leaving only Abe at Lehmkuhle's side. The pair rounded the final righthand corner together with Lehmkuhle on the inside, and in the last sp...

http://mainichi.jp/area/yamanashi/news/20100724ddlk19040123000c.html translated and edited by Brett Larner With 4686 runners making up its largest-ever field, the 63rd annual Fuji Mountain Race took place July 23. With last year's race having been cut off at Mt. Fuji's 5th Stage due to fog and rain at the mountain's summit, this year under dazzling summer skies the event returned to its usual format with runners competing in either the 21 km, 3000 m climb Summit division or the 15 km, 1460 m climb 5th Stage division. In the men's Summit race, Shinya Takahashi , 35, of Iwate Prefecture, took his first win in 2:53:00. Yoshimi Hoshino , 44, of Shizuoka Prefecture, the course record holder and two-time winner in the 5th Stage division, took her fifth Summit win eight years after her last Summit victory. 5th Stage men's winner Satoshi Kato was only 38 seconds off the course record, running 1:19:57, while women's winner Mina Ogawa was only a minute and a half off Ho...