japan running news

http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/yu-chiba-nordea-riga-marathon

by Brett Larner Alongside Bedan Karoki 's Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon course record , Murayama twins Kenta and Kota 's Kanto Regional University Championships 10000 m double victory and Yoshihide Kiryu 's 10.05 national university record , four of the six regional corporate leagues held their track and field championships over the weekend.  Moscow World Championships 10000 m bronze medalist Paul Tanui (Kenya/Team Kyudenko) fronted the corporate regionals' best race with a world-leading 27:16.75 to win the Kyushu region  men's 10000 m over the Koichi Morishita -coached Kenyan Jeremiah Karemi  (Team Toyota Kyushu), 2nd in 27:41.81, and Ethiopian Melaku Abera  (Team Kurosaki Harima), 3rd in 27:42.35. Four of the eight Japanese men to have run sub-2:10 marathons so far this year were also in the race,  Masato Imai  (Team Toyota Kyushu), 2nd in 2:09:30 at February's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon, topping the group 5th overall in 28:34.75.   Kohei Matsu...

by Brett Larner The 61st running of the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon , one of Japan's oldest, takes place this Sunday, Feb. 5.  Outside the circuit of Olympic-qualifying races this year, Beppu-Oita's domestic field is largely developmental, but it features a good international field of athletes looking to run Olympic-qualifying marks for their own countries including one prominent debut.  Overseas viewers should be able to watch TBS' race broadcast via Keyhole TV  beginning at 11:50 a.m. Japan time on the 5th.  JRN will once again cover the race via Twitter @JRNLive . The Japanese field includes five men who ran second-tier PBs at other domestic marathons last year.   Yuki Moriwaki  (Team JFE Steel) leads the way with a 2:12:34 from last year's Beppu-Oita.  Moriwaki is closely followed by the Koichi Morishita -coached  Kenji Takeuchi  (Team Toyota Kyushu) with a 2:12:44 at last year's Nobeoka Nishi Nihon Marathon.  One noteworthy nam...

by Brett Larner click here for Day One report Kenji Nakashima anchors Waseda to Hakone Ekiden CR win. Click photo to enlarge. They were the two best university teams ever assembled and they ran like it. After two-time defending Hakone Ekiden champion Toyo University and 2010 National University Ekiden champion Waseda University both broke the Day One Hakone course record, Waseda hammered Toyo on the first two stages of Day Two to retake the lead and then held on to take the overall win in a course-record 10:59:50, the first school to ever break 11 hours on the celebrated 10-stage, 217.9 km course. Toyo nearly ran Waseda down on the final stage, finishing 22 seconds back in the closest margin of victory in Hakone's 87 year history and likewise breaking the course record by over 3 minutes. It was a classic duel between the elite Waseda, symbolic of the privilege, connections and money at the top of Japanese society, and the underdog Toyo, a minor school with a young coach wi...

by Brett Larner The Tokyo Marathon may be the biggest race happening in Japan on Feb. 28, but three other elite races also fall the same day. The most major of these is the Kumanichi 30 km Road Race in Kumamoto, Kyushu. The world's most competitive race at this distance, Kumanichi was until the last fall the site of the men's 30 km world record. In the field for this year's race are former marathon national record holder Atsushi Fujita (Team Fujitsu), steeplechase national record holder Yoshitaka Iwamizu (Team Fujitsu), 2009 Ome 30 km winner Hirokatsu Kurosaki (Team Konica Minolta), Komazawa University ace Tsuyoshi Ugachi and New Year Ekiden winner Team Nissin Shokuhin member Bene Zama . The elite women's field is limited to three and is led by Chiharu Matsuo (Team Kyudenko). Further north in Aichi, the Inuyama Half Marathon has an interesting matchup between pro and university runners. Three members of 2009 and 2010 Hakone Ekiden winner Toyo University'...

http://www.iwate-np.co.jp/sports/2009sports/m09/spo0909211.html translated and edited by Brett Larner At the 28th Ichinoseki International Half Marathon on Sept. 20 in Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture, Josai University senior Yuki Takamiya took the overall win in a time of 1:05:51. Takamiya launched an attack with 1 km to go to hold off junior teammate Ryo Ishita, famous for collapsing on the 8th stage of this year's Hakone Ekiden, by one second. Josai first-year Dai Nakahara came third to complete Josai's sweep. Iwate native Yu Chiba, who ran the 8th stage for this year's Hakone winners Toyo University, was a special invited runner and finished 5th overall in 1:06:33. Fusai Narita (Team NEC Fuchu) won the women's division in a time of 1:24:23.