japan running news

Housekeeping services provider Bears Co., Ltd. held a press conference in Tokyo to formally announce the launch of its new women's track and field team Bears Camellia . The new's team starting lineup features five athletes and head coach Yuya Takayanagi , 31, a member of Nittai University 's 2013 Hakone Ekiden champion team. At the press conference Takayanagi discussed athletes' "second career," talking about how after they retire from competition most corporate league athletes leave the company they run for. Based on his own experience, he said that he hoped to help guarantee team members a future through working for the company in tandem with competitive life. Bears VP Yuki Takahashi commented, "I hope that this will be an opportunity for team members to develop as people, as professionals, and as athletes." In the future, athletes on the team will be categorized into three levels according to their achievements, "Top," "Development...

The Nippon Television broadcast of the 98th Hakone Ekiden on Jan. 2 and 3 generated average viewership ratings of 26.2% for the first day of the race and 28.4% for the second day , according to data released on Jan. 4. The overall average viewership rating for the two days was 27.2%. Last year's broadcast had average viewership of 31.0% on day one, 33.7% on day two, and an overall average of 32.3%, all the highest since the TV broadcast began in 1987. Peak viewership on the first day of this year's race came at 1:22 p.m. when winner Aoyama Gakuin University 's Hiroki Wakabayashi finished the uphill Fifth Stage, reaching 31.1%. The peak day two rating of 33.4% came at 9:05 a.m., just after the finish of the downhill Sixth Stage when Aoyama Gakuin's Yuki Takahashi held on to the team's lead and Juntendo University 's Keito Makase overtook Komazawa University 's Kohei Tsukuda in a duel for 2nd. Meanwhile, race organizers Kanto Gakuren  announced that an ...

Despite missing star 2nd-year Mebuki Suzuki , last year's national champion Komazawa University  pulled-off a late stage reversal to win a second-straight National University Men's Ekiden title by one of the tightest margins in the race's history.  First-year Shoji Sato  broke the course record on the opening leg by 2 seconds to put Komazawa out front, but a string of weak runs on the middle stages knocked it off the eight-deep podium. It took until the Sixth Stage for Komazawa's luck to turn around with 2nd-year Taiyo Yasuhara  taking them from 9th to 4th. That put #1 man Ren Tazawa  in position to take the lead by 18 seconds over the perpetually strong  Aoyama Gakuin University  with the fastest-ever time by a Japanese man on the stage, 50:36 for 17.6 km. AGU anchor Takayuki Iida  reeled in Komazawa's Yuki Hanao  midway through the 19.7 km stage, but instead of going by he tucked in. Hanao responded by gradually slowing down, saving ...