japan running news

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2015/03/01/kiji/K20150301009898830.html translated by Brett Larner 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games men's marathon silver medalist Yukihiro Kitaoka (32, Team NTN) announced his retirement on Mar. 1 following the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon.  In the future he will join NTN's coaching staff, helping to develop its next generation of athletes. At Lake Biwa Kitaoka finished 74th in 2:27:03.  "I wanted to run one more good race, but things didn't go very well this last year," he said.  "The decision to retire leaves me feeling free and clear."

by Brett Larner The fall elite marathon season gets underway this Sunday with Sapporo's Hokkaido Marathon .  Two years organizers did away with their elite fields, leaving top amateurs Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) and Yuri Yoshizumi (Osaka Nagai AC) to win in two of the slowest winning times in event history.  Last year the elite fields returned with a small international contingent that proved mostly superfluous as Japanese runners swept the podium in both the men's and women's race.  Organizers have trimmed the fat this year to focus on a good domestic field that on paper any other country outside Africa would have a tough time matching. Leading the men's field is the 4th-fastest Japanese man of the year, Masanori Sakai (Team Kyudenko), who ran 2:09:10 in Tokyo in February.  Named to the federation's new marathon National Team program on the strength of that performance, with Hokkaido's always-hot conditions Sakai will be the first guinea pi...

by Brett Larner For years the worldwide fall elite marathon season has gotten underway with Sapporo's Hokkaido Marathon on the last Sunday of August.  Two years organizers did away with their elite fields, leaving top amateurs Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) and Yuri Yoshizumi (Osaka Nagai AC) to win in two of the slowest winning times in event history.  Last year the elite fields returned with a small international contingent that proved mostly superfluous.  With the release of this year's elite fields today it's clear that organizers have trimmed the fat to focus on a good domestic field that on paper any other country outside Africa would have a tough time matching. Leading the men's field is the 4th-fastest Japanese man of the year, Masanori Sakai (Team Kyudenko), who ran 2:09:10 in Tokyo in February.  Named to the federation's new marathon National Team program on the strength of that performance, with Hokkaido's always-hot conditions Sakai...

by Brett Larner In its third running the Naoko Takahashi Cup Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon continues to take over from the Sendai International Half Marathon as Japan's premier late-spring half.  This year organizers have set up a pair of great duels among their overseas elites. On the men's side, world record holder Zersenay Tadese  (Eritrea) faces course record holder Martin Mathathi  (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) in a rematch of the 2007 Osaka World Championships 10000 m, where Tadese led most of the race until a surge from Mathathi, who ended up with bronze, knocked him out of the medals.  Other top international competition includes three-time Sapporo International Half Marathon winner Cyrus Njui  (Kenya/Team Hitachi Seiryu), Japan-based Kenyans Jacob Wanjuki (Team Aichi Seiko) and Micah Njeru  (Team Toyota Boshoku), 2005 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Dmytro Baranovskyy  (Ukraine) and American Ryan Vail . Seven sub-63 Japanese men are sch...

by Brett Larner Screencap by @Nakajima_LA . Click to enlarge.  Many more screencaps on Nakajima's feed and on the Nobeoka Facebook page . For the third weekend in a row Japanese audiences were treated to a great marathon broadcast as 24-year-old Hiroaki Sano  (Team Honda) made a superlative debut Feb. 10 at the Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon in Miyazaki, outkicking 2009 Ome 30 km winner and fellow debutant Hirokatsu Kurosaki (Team Konica Minolta) over the final kilometer to win in 2:12:14, the 4th-fastest winning time in Nobeoka's 51-year history. Perfect weather and outstanding mid-2:11 pacing by Ryo Kiname  (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) kept a large pack together near course record pace until Kiname's departure at 25 km.  Although the pace began to slip, the numbers up front thinned over the next 5 km before a surge at 30 km by full-time-working Sho Matsumoto  (Dream AC) dramatically culled the numbers.  Three first-timers, Sano, Kurosaki...

http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/nnp/item/347573 translated by Brett Larner Celebrating the 80th anniversary of the incorporation of the city of Nobeoka in Miyazaki prefecture, the 51st Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon pre-race banquet took place Feb. 9 at an area hotel.  Including athletes and organizers, 300 people attended the banquet to share their hopes for a successful race. After the introduction of the 23 invited athletes, TV Miyazaki's Michinori Watanabe  spoke on behalf of the organizing committe, telling the athletes, "I'm sure that you are all aware of Nobeoka's long history as a race where many of our best athletes get their start.  I hope that each of you running tomorrow will be doing it with the intent of making your own name."  Mayor Masaharu Sudo commented, "This year's race commemorates Nobeoka's 80th year as a city, but most of you are probably more interested in this being the marathon's 51st running.  Nobeoka is Japan's A...

by Brett Larner The organizers of the Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon released the elite field on Jan. 28 for this year's 51st running, scheduled for Feb. 10.  Traditionally an elite developmental race for first- or second-time marathoners, this year's race is capped by 2010 Asian Games marathon silver medalist and 2011 World Championships marathoner Yukihiro Kitaoka (Team NTN).  Kitaoka has been mostly injured since 2010 and will be seeking a return to the kind of form he showed that year.  His main challengers among the marathoners are the Koichi Morishita -coached Kenji Takeuchi  (Team Toyota Kyushu) and Etsu Miyata (Team Fujitsu), a teammate of former national record holder Atsushi Fujita . This year's race is heavy on people making their debuts.  Chief among them are sub-63 men Ayumu Sato  (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) with a 1:02:33 best from last year's Marugama Half and Nittai University grad Kazuya Deguchi  (Team Nissin Shokuhin) with a...

by Brett Larner Update: Half-marathon national record holder Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) has withdrawn with an injury to his left thigh.  Invited athlete Satoshi Yoshii  (Team Sumco) withdrew earlier in the week. Note for Canadian readers: My ability to cover Dylan and Steve live will be pretty limited, but I'll do what I can. Official Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon course preview video. This Sunday's  Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon  is the last chance for Japanese men to make the London Olympics marathon team.  With strong times of 2:07:48 and 2:08:38 from the top two Japanese men at last weekend's Tokyo Marathon and good conditions in the forecast we should see the top Japanese contenders gunning for Kazuhiro Maeda 's 2:08:38 Tokyo mark to have a shot at picking up an Olympic ticket.  If two of them do it Maeda will likely be left on the sidelines come August. Biwako, as the race is universally known in Japan, will be broadcast live and comm...

translated by Brett Larner Kitaoka, Oda, Kawauchi, Nakamoto and Horibata with their team silver medals, Japan's eighth-straight World Championships finishing on the men's team podium. Click photo to enlarge. Hiroyuki Horibata  (Team Asahi Kasei) - 7th, 2:11:52 "I came down with a fever before the race.  It didn't hold me back and I ran with my full strength, but now I can't breathe through my nose.  It was cloudy on race day and felt very cool so I thought it was going to go out fast, but it started a little slow.  After 5 km the pace started going back and forth, something I've never experienced before.  It was my first time running Worlds, and up until 15 km I had some margin to enjoy it, but after 20 km things picked way up and I could feel the margin disappearing from my legs.  I figured the pace would slow down again so I thought I would try to stick with them, but things never slowed down and I drifted back from the top pack.  This time my...

by Brett Larner Hiroyuki Horibata  (Team Asahi Kasei) finished 7th at the World Championships men's marathon to lead the Japanese squad to team silver, the county's only hardware in a running event at this World Championships, continuing Japan's streak of men's marathon team medals in every World Championships since 1997.  In a race full of high-profile DNF's Horibata ran with tenacity to finish in the prize money in 2:11:52, the third-best time of his career and the fastest mark in the race by a non-African. While Asian Games silver medalist Yukihiro Kitaoka  (Team NTN) and 2011 Tokyo Marathon 4th-placer Yoshinori Oda  (Team Toyota) lost touch after less than 10 km, Horibata, Kentaro Nakamoto  (Team Yasukawa Denki) and Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref.) hung in the lead pack through halfway until the big Kenyan break that led to defending gold medalist Abel Kirui 's second-straight win.  Kawauchi, who led early in the race, fell back in the secon...

by Brett Larner Japanese men's marathoning bottomed out in 2009-2010, abruptly going from producing three 2:06 men, another eight 2:07 athletes, dozens of 2:08 runners and ten men a year sub-2:10 to only one 2:09 per year in 2009 and 2010, both in overseas races outside the domestic circuit.  It's a mark of how little respect they receive internationally nowadays that the IAAF's official Daegu World Championships marathon preview doesn't even mention them despite the top two members of Japan's five-man squad having superior season best times to the two Moroccans the preview cites as potential "intensive" challengers. Nevertheless, 2011 has seen things begin to turn around, with four relative newcomers going under 2:10 for the first time, the fastest of them, Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref.) recording the first Japanese men's 2:08 since before the Beijing Olympics.  There's a long way to go toward regaining some level of their former global compe...

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/110514/spg1105141950003-n1.htm translated by Brett Larner At the May 14 pre-race press conference for the first running of the Naoko Takahashi Cup Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon, scheduled for May 15 in Gifu, organizers announced the withdrawal of 2010 Asian Games silver medalist Yukihiro Kitaoka (Team NTN) from the half-marathon after he sustained an injury to his upper right hamstring. Kitaoka is scheduled to run August's World Championships marathon in Daegu, Korea. Kitaoka qualified for the World Championships team by winning a silver medal at last fall's Asian Games marathon.

by Brett Larner Along with the announcement and presentation of the women's marathon team for August's World Championships, the previously-announced men's marathon team was presented at the Apr. 21 Rikuren press conference. Each athlete gave a brief statement and answered direct questions. Yukihiro Kitaoka (Team NTN): I ran the Asian Games Marathon in November to qualify, so I have more recovery time than the others. I think the black athletes will be dominating the race, but it's going to be hot and that will improve my chances. I'm going to running the Gifu Half Marathon on May 15, then in July either the Sapporo International Half Marathon or the Gold Coast Marathon. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.): [visibly nervous] Having made the national team I feel very strongly that I've got to give it my absolute best. I want to show Japan, the world, that even as an amateur, even working full time, you can still be world-class. I'm also running the Gifu Half...

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/other/athletic/headlines/20110418-00000036-kyodo_sp-spo.html translated by Brett Larner The organizers of the Naoko Takahashi Cup Gifu Half Marathon announced on April 18 that 2011 World Championships marathon team members Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama T&F Assoc.) and Yukihiro Kitaoka (Team NTN) will compete in this year's first running, scheduled for May 15. The amateur Kawauchi was the top Japanese finisher and 3rd overall at February's Tokyo Marathon, while Kitaoka won the silver medal at last fall's Asian Games marathon, both earning guaranteed spots on the World Championships team. In its first edition the Naoko Takahashi Cup Gifu Half Marathon will feature both men's and women's races along with a 3 km race.

by Brett Larner On Mar. 31 after a delay following the Mar. 11 disasters, Rikuren, the Japanese athletics federation, announced the lineup for the men's marathon team for August's World Championships in Daegu, Korea. The team is a strong one, inexperienced but fresh, with 2010 Asian Games silver medalist Yukihiro Kitaoka (Team NTN) and the 3rd and 4th place finishers from both the 2011 Tokyo Marathon and 2011 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama T&F Assoc.), Yoshinori Oda (Team Toyota), Hiroyuki Horibata (Team Asahi Kasei) and Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki). All but Kitaoka hold PBs under 2:10 set this year. No alternate was officially named. Also formally confirmed for the women's team was defending World Championships silver medalist Yoshimi Ozaki (Team Daiichi Seimei) who secured a place by winning the 2011 Yokohama International Women's Marathon in a course record 2:23:56. The remaining four women will be named following next mont...

by Brett Larner Arata Fujiwara photo by Brett Larner This is the second of JRN's four-part year-end review. Click here to read the second part , a ranking of the top 10 Japanese women of 2010. Look for the third and fourth parts, the top 10 Japanese men and women of 2001-2010 and a look at the history and future of Japanese marathoning, early in the new year. To be honest, the Japanese man of the year should probably be either Shota Iizuka , the Chuo University first-year whose 4x100 m anchor leg at May's Kanto Regionals was heard 'round the world and who went on to win 200 m gold at the World Jr. Track and Field Championships, or Ichiro Suzuki , whose running abilities were critical in him scoring his tenth consecutive year of 200 major league hits, but as a distance running site JRN can only give them their due before turning to the long distance runners. Contrary to appearances, 2010 was an improvement over 2009. For the second year in a row only one man broke 2:1...