japan running news

by Brett Larner Komazawa University delivered on expectations, winning a fourth-straight National University Men's Ekiden championship, its twelfth Nationals title under head coach Hiroaki Oyagi , by nearly a kilometer Sunday in Nagoya. With the first of the season's Big Three University Ekidens, the mid-October Izumo Ekiden, cancelled due to a typhoon ekiden fans were hungry for action at Nationals and were rewarded with one of the best pieces of collegiate racing in memory on the 14.6 km First Stage.  Identical twins Kenta Murayama (Komazawa Univ.), 13:34.53, 27:49.94 and 1:00:50 (half marathon) this year, and Kota Murayama (Josai Univ.), 3:39.56, 13:34.57 and 58:26 (20 km) this fall, led things off with future Asahi Kasei corporate teammate and fellow identical twin Takashi Ichida (Daito Bunka Univ.), dropping the rest of the field early and running most of the stage as a trio pursued by intriguing indy Kentaro Hirai (Kyoto Univ.) and Kenyan John Kariuki (Daiichi...

by Brett Larner photo by Kazuyuki Sugimatsu click here for Hakone Ekiden Day One report and results Before 2009 Toyo University  had only finished in the top three once in the history of Japan's biggest sporting event, the Jan. 2-3  Hakone Ekiden university men's road relay championships, all the way back in 1960.  In Hakone's 85th anniversary running in 2009, the tens of millions of fans who watch Hakone live on TV and along its ten-stage, 217.9 km course were witness to the birth of a legend as Toyo first-year Ryuji Kashiwabara singlehandly lifted the team to the winner's podium for the first time with a stunning course record on Hakone's most celebrated stage, the 23.4 km Fifth Stage with nearly 900 m of climb.  With Kashiwabara Toyo was almost untouchable at Hakone; he won the Fifth Stage all four years at Toyo and set stage records on it in three of them.  Every time he broke the record, Toyo took the overall win, transforming themselves from the l...

text and Kanto video by Brett Larner Hachioji video by B1853264 Two major time trial meets focusing on the men's 10000 m took place in Tokyo Nov. 24, the pro-oriented Hachioji Long Distance Time Trials meet in Tokyo's western suburbs, and the Kanto Region University Long Distance Time Trials meet at the National Stadium. The focus in the A-heat in Hachioji was on the 2013 World Championships A and B qualifying times of 27:40.00 and 28:05.00.  With impeccable pacing from Bitan Karoki (Kenya/Team S&B) in 14:00 through 5000 m, former Jobu University ace Yusuke Hasegawa (Team S&B), 2011 year-leader Tsuyoshi Ugachi  (Team Konica Minolta) and Kenyans Patrick Mwaka  (Team Aisan Kogyo) and  Alex Mwangi  (Team YKK) cleared the B-standard, Hasegawa going sub-60 on his final lap to deliver a 15-second PB of 27:50.64.  With outstanding conditions four other men in the top ten ran PBs of 20 to 45 seconds, led by 2012 Waseda University graduate Yusuke Mi...

by Brett Larner For the second year in a row #1-ranked Komazawa University  returned from a shambolic performance at October's Izumo Ekiden to take the win at the National University Men's Ekiden Championships , anchor Shinobu Kubota  running down Toyo University  first-year Yuma Hattori  to bring Komazawa home in a course-record 5:12:43 for the eight-stage, 106.8 km race between Nagoya and Ise.  It was Komazawa's tenth national ekiden title under head coach Hiroaki Oyagi , an achievement which puts him solidly in the record books among Japan's all-time greats.  Toyo, #3 on paper leading into Nationals, just missed the course record, running 5:13:32 for 2nd, while #2-ranked Waseda University was hit-and-miss as it took 3rd in 5:15:08. Nittai University , Meiji University and Nihon University  rounded out the top six to make the seeded places for 2013's National Championships, but times were fast all around as the top eight all beat Waseda...

click here for complete listing Senior Men's 12 km Tsubasa Hayakawa (Tokai Univ.) Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) Yusuke Takabayashi (Team Toyota) Hirotaka Tamura (Nihon Univ.) Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Meiji Univ.) Senior Women's 8 km Ai Igarashi (Team Sysmex) Nanae Kuwashiro (Team Sysmex) Hitomi Niiya (Team Toyota Jidoshoki) Korei Omata (Team Sekisui Kagaku) Yuko Shimizu (Team Sekisui Kagaku) Hanae Tanaka (Ritsumeikan Univ.) Junior Men's 8 km Yuki Arimura (Kagoshima Jitsugyo H.S.) Yuma Hattori (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) Takashi Ichida (Kagoshima Jitsugyo H.S.) Kazuma Kubota (Kyushu Gakuin H.S.) Genki Yagisawa (Nasu Takuyo H.S.) Ken Yokote (Sakushin Gakuin H.S.) Junior Women's 6 km Tomoka Kimura (Chikuyo Joshi Gakuen H.S.) Yuriko Kosaki (Narita H.S.) Risa Shibuya (Hanawa H.S.) Katsuki Suga (Kojokan H.S.) Risa Yokoe (Suma Gakuen H.S.) Natsumi Yoshida (Sendai Ikuei H.S.)

by Brett Larner The winners of three of the four main races at the Feb. 13 Chiba International Cross Country Meet repeated two weeks later at the 25th Fukuoka International Cross Country Meet of Feb. 27 with dominant performances under sunny skies. The final of the domestic selection races for next month's World Cross Country Championships in Spain, Fukuoka settled the list of contenders for the Japanese Worlds team. In the senior men's 10 km, Bitan Karoki (Kenya/Team S&B) was in another league from the rest of the field, running a sensational course record 27:52 to win by 58 seconds over countryman Nicholas Makau (Kenya/Team Yachiyo Kogyo). Karoki became the first runner to clear 28 minutes on the Fukuoka course, clearing the old record by 26 seconds. Makau finished in the lead spot among a tight-knit pack of four followers, outkicking Jakob Wanjuki (Kenya/Team Aichi Seiko) for 2nd in 28:50. Tokai University sophomore Akinobu Murasawa , the top non-African at last year...