japan running news

by Brett Larner Following up on a disappointing showing at last weekend's Great North Run and Prague Grand Prix 10 km, Japan's corporate league runners underwhelmed again at Sunday's Köln Marathon and Usti nad Labem Half Marathon.  In a race won by Kenya's Anthony Maritim in 2:10:26 in Köln, 2:09:18 marathoner Yuko Matsumiya (Team Hitachi Butsuryu), the twin brother of 5000 m and 30 km national record holder Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta), could do no better than 2:18:41 for 3rd.  2:15:05 man Kenta Iinuma (Team Sagawa Group) fell well below the professional level, running only 2:23:12 for 4th.  Formerly Japan-based Kenyan Julia Mumbi took the women's race in 2:28:00. Further east, Japanese results at the Czech Republic's Usti nad Labem mirrored those at the Great North Run, with 1:02 half marathoners Yuya Ito (Team Toyota) and Masamichi Yasuda (Team Aichi Seiko) and their 1:03 counterpart Atsushi Yamazaki (Team Subaru) all clocked leisurel...

by Brett Larner Click here for Dr. Helmut Winter's German-language article on this year's Muenster Marathon including a large number of high-quality photos. The day dawning with heavy rain, wind, thunder and lightning, the 12th edition of the Volksbank Muenster Marathon saw the worst conditions in the race's history, but with radically opposing results in the men's and women's races the weather's impact on the race was hard to determine.  In the men's race things went out very slow on the twisting roads in the course's first 10 km, understandable given the slick cobblestone surface.  The designated Kenyan pacer was more than 10 seconds per km off the target pace of 3:06/km, but still the almost entirely Kenyan lead pack lagged behind.  Japanese runners Yuko Matsumiya  (Team Hitachi Butsuryu) and Yuya Shiokawa (Team Subaru), in Muenster with support from JRN, gestured for the pacer to run the designated splits but he repeatedly looked over his sh...

by Brett Larner For the second year in a row, Germany's Volksbank Muenster Marathon  features Japanese athletes in its elite field through the support of JRN.   Yuko Matsumiya  (Team Hitachi Butsuryu), identical twin brother of 5000 m and 30 km Japanese national record holder Takayuki Matsumiya  (Team Konica Minolta), and veteran Chihiro Tanaka  (AthleC AC) are the fastest athletes in the field on paper, Matsumiya with a best of 2:09:18 and amateur Tanaka holding a 2:29:30.  But both ran these times several years ago and will face tough challenges from the best-quality fields Muenster has yet assembled.  Kenyans Bertram Kimutai Keter , Joel Kipsang Kositany  and John Kyalo  have all run under the course record of 2:10:25 within the last two years, and with favorable conditions forecast for Sunday it may well take a new course record to win.  Pre-race Matsumiya was optimistic, saying, "I'm here to win.  I'm not focused on a time,...

2010 Amsterdam Marathon - Top Finishers click here for complete results Men 1. Getu Feleke (Ethiopia) - 2:05:44 - PB 2. Wilson Chebet (Kenya) - 2:06:12 - debut 3. Chala Dechase (Ethiopia) - 2:07:23 4. Cherkos Feleke (Ethiopia) - 2:07:29 5. Hailu Mekonnen (Ethiopia) - 2:07:37 6. Shadrack Kiplagat (Kenya) - 2:07:56 7. Daniel Kosgei (Kenya) - 2:08:45 8. Jackson Kotut (Kenya) - 2:08:59 9. Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Sagawa Express) - 2:12:38 10. Thomas Chemitei (Kenya) - 2:13:14 ----- 11. Masashi Hayashi (Team Yakult) - 2:13:23 13. Naoya Hashimoto (Japan) - 2:15:01 20. Yuko Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta) - 2:17:24 Women 1. Alice Timblili (Kenya) - 2:25:03 - PB 2. Eyerusalem Kuma (Ethiopia) - 2:27:04 3. Robe Guta (Ethiopia) - 2:27:44 4. Woinshet Girma (Ethiopia) - 2:27:51 5. Shitaye Bedaso (Ethiopia) - 2:29:48 6. Miranda Boonstra (Netherlands) - 2:34:24 7. Julia Mumbi (Kenya) - 2:34:37 8. Ayelech Worku (Ethiopia) - 2:35:09 9. Inge de Jong (Netherlands) - 2:38:00 10. Christiana Das Changas (Braz...

2010 Hakodate Half Marathon click here for complete results Women 1. Kaori Yoshida (Amino Vital AC) - 1:12:48 2. Eri Hayakawa (Amino Vital AC) - 1:16:24 3. Erina Muta (Team Noritz) - 1:16:49 Men 1. Yuko Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:04:06 2. Takehiro Arakawa (Asahi Kasei) - 1:04:11 3. Daisuke Matsufuji (Kanebo) - 1:04:13 2010 Ichinoseki International Half Marathon click here for complete results Women 1. Kana Nomura (Team Nihon ChemiCon) - 1:19:31 Men 1. Akinori Iida (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:04:37 2. Masaru Yamaki (Josai Univ.) - 1:04:42 3. Hideaki Tamura (Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) - 1:04:44

With a significant number of Japanese runners in the field, TV Tokyo will be broadcasting this year's London Marathon live. Scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. Japan time on Apr. 25, it appears that the broadcast will begin 30 minutes after the start of the elite women's race but will otherwise show the race in its entirety. Overseas viewers should be able to watch online for free using Keyhole TV. To download Keyhole TV and for directions on how to use it, click here .

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/london-marathon/7608517/Volcanic-eruption-threatens-disruption-for-elite-London-Marathon-field.html

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/091201/spg0912010000000-n1.htm http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/news/p-sp-tp0-20091201-571347.html http://www.shimotsuke.co.jp/news/tochigi/sports/news/20091201/242397 translated and edited by Brett Larner On Nov. 30 it was announced that 2009 Berlin World Championships women's marathon silver medalist Yoshimi Ozaki (28, Team Daiichi Seimei) and her World Championships teammate Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) will run the April 25th London Marathon. Other women in the field include two-time defending champion Irina Mikitenko (Germany), 2009 World Championships gold medalist Xue Bai (China) and 2008 Beijing Olympics gold medalist Constantina Dita (Romania). The men's race will feature men's 5000 m and 30 km national record holder Takayuki Matsumiya, his identical twin brother Yuko (both of Team Konica Minolta) and 2008 World Half Marathon 5th place finisher Yusei Nakao (Team Toyota Boshoku). At the forefront will be 2008 Beijing Olympics and c...

translated and edited by Brett Larner click photos for full-sized versions Team Asahi Kasei runner Tomoyuki Sato posted on the company's blog on Sept. 7 while at a Rikuren-sponsored training camp with Yusei Nakao (Team Toyota Boshoku), Yuko Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta) and a group of younger runners. Sato, second from right in the above photo in pale blue, was a member of Japan's 2007 World Championships marathon squad. He holds a PB of 2:09:43 and ran 2:09:59 in both of his 2008 marathons. Right now I'm at Rikuren's training camp in Boulder, Colorado. We've been here since Sept. 1. In the early morning here it's pretty cold at ground level, but during the day it gets hot and the air is really, really dry. This is the first time I've ever done serious altitude training. Being my first time I think I'm going to gain a lot of new experience which will help me in my running career after this. I'm planning to run the Fukuoka International Marathon th...

http://www.iaaf.org/WHM09/news/kind=100/newsid=54247.html Complete results are available here .

by Brett Larner Six days after completing a rare quadruple with an 800 m meet record at the Kanto Regional University Track and Field Championships, fourth year Daniel Gitau (Nihon Univ.) took down Japanese 1500 m national record holder Fumikazu Kobayashi (Team NTN) with a PB and meet record 3:37.96 in the men's 1500 m at the May 30 Golden Games in Nobeoka . Heavy rain throughout the meet dashed hopes for a new Japanese national record-level performance, but although he missed his own record mark of 3:37.40 Kobayashi's time of 3:38.80 was one of his best since setting the record in 2004. Other noteworthy marks came in the ten heats of the men's 5000 m. The fastest times came in the E-heat, where Micah Njeru (Team Toyota Boshoku) ran 13:22.20, a PB by 0.07 over his time from last year's Golden Games, to take down John Thuo (Team Toyota) for the win by just over a second. Yuichiro Ueno (Team S&B) continued his return to form after a year of serious illness in 2008, ru...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/news/f-sp-tp0-20090415-483225.html translated by Brett Larner The long distance athletes attending the Rikuren Long Distance and Road Racing Special Committee's first group training camp returned to Japan on April 15 after two intensive weeks in New Zealand. Beijing Olympian Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta) commented, "Thanks to being able to train together with a bunch of other people I've gotten a lot stronger." His twin brother Yuko (Team Konica Minolta) added, "It was hard work what whith so many strong runners there. I'm looking forward to reaping the benefits of all the training we did."

http://www.asahi-kasei.co.jp/asahi/jp/csr/sports/rikujo/result/2009/090408.html translated and edited by Brett Larner click thumbnails for full-sized photos via Team Asahi Kasei Atsushi Sato leads Tomoya Shimizu, one of the Matsumiya twins, Satoru Sasaki and Seiji Kobayashi. Japan's top male marathoners departed on Mar. 30 for a Rikuren-sponsored training camp in New Zealand. Lasting until Apr. 15, the training camp is taking place at the northernmost tip of New Zealand's southern island, in the town of Nelson. 2009 Berlin World Championships marathoner Masaya Shimizu (Team Asahi Kasei) is taking part in the camp along with his junior teammate Satoru Sasaki (Team Asahi Kasei). Also at the camp are prospective World Championships team members Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku), who is training for this month's London Marathon, and Seiji Kobayashi (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki), who was 2nd in February's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon. Others in the training group includ...

by Brett Larner photos courtesy of Jason Lawrence The lead pack at 18 km. Beijing Olympics marathon bronze medalist Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia followed through on his promise to run a PB by scoring a resounding 2:06:10 victory in the 2008 Fukuoka International Marathon . Beijing gold medalist Samuel Wanjiru was on hand to watch Kebede smash his year-old course record by 29 seconds; South African great Gert Thys' Japanese soil record of 2:06:33 from the 1999 Tokyo International Marathon also went by the wayside. Kebede will next have a chance to take down Wanjiru himself in April's London Marathon. Team Kanebo's Satoshi Irifune ran his second marathon PB of the year to finish 2nd in 2:09:23 despite fading in the final kilometers, barely holding off an incredible late charge by Team JR East Japan's Arata Fujiwara, who ended up 3rd in 2:09:47. Irifune provisionally qualified for the Japanese national team at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin. Barring a slew of spectac...

http://www.asahi.com/sports/spo/TKY200812060097.html translated by Brett Larner The 2008 Fukuoka International Marathon elite field: l-to-r Kobayashi, Sato, Irifune, Matsumiya, Fujiwara, Aburaya, Limo, Kebede, and Martinez The organizers of the 62nd Fukuoka International Marathon, to be held Dec. 7 with sponsorship from Rikuren, the Asahi Newspaper Group, TV Asahi and the Kyushu Asahi Hoso Corporation, staged a press conference at a Fukuoka hotel on Dec. 5 to introduce this year's elite field to the media. As a selection race for the Japanese national team at next year's World Track and Field Championships in Berlin, this year's Fukuoka features an array of top Japanese marathon men battling for a position on the team. The fastest man in the field, Kenya's Felix Limo was very positive about his race tomorrow, saying, "I've been struggling with injuries for the last two years but am now completely recovered and am back in the kind of shape I was when I was runni...

by Brett Larner The Fukuoka International Open Marathon Championship is the most important of Japan's elite men's marathons. At its peak Fukuoka served as the unofficial marathon world championships, the place where all the world's best came to end the year with a battle royale, hence the event's full name. Fukuoka's international stature faded in the era of the big city, big money marathon, but its importance to Japan's elite men has never diminished. As the first chance for Japanese men to qualify for an Olympic or World Championships team it remains a highly competitive domestic event with national record-level performances. In recent years Fukuoka's organizers seem to have made a concerted effort to return the event to a level of international signifcance; the invited overseas field at the 2006 Fukuoka included future world record holder Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia) and two-time world champion and Olympic silver medalist-to-be Jaouad Gharib (Morocco), w...

by Brett Larner The Fukuoka International Marathon announced on Nov. 18 the elite field for this year's race, scheduled for Dec. 7. The first of the four domestic selection races for the 2009 Berlin World Championships men's marathon team, the domestic field features 2005 World Championships bronze medalist and 2008 Beijing Olympics marathoner Tsuyoshi Ogata (Team Chugoku Denryoku), 2004 Athens Olympics marathon 5th place finisher Shigeru Aburaya (Team Chugoku Denryoku), and 2008 Tokyo Marathon runner up and Beijing Olympic team alternate Arata Fujiwara (Team JR Higashi Nihon), along with a variety of other sub-2:10 countrymen. The competitive foreign field stars Beijing Olympics bronze medalist Tsegaye Kebede (Ethiopia), London, Chicago and Rotterdam winner Felix Limo (Kenya), and two-time Olympic 4th-place finisher Jon Brown (Canada). Kebede and Limo's appearances continue Fukuoka's re-emergence as a world-class race, the 2006, 2007 and 2008 races having featured the ...

by Brett Larner December will see two of Japan's elite marathons take place in the country's deep south, the A-list Fukuoka International Marathon on Dec. 7 and the developmental Hofu Yomiuri Marathon on Dec. 21. Official entry lists for the two races have not been released, but a number of athletes have declared their intentions to compete in either or Fukuoka or Hofu. This year Fukuoka is particularly significant in that it is the first of the domestic selection races for the 2009 Berlin World Championships men's marathon team. Headlining Fukuoka thus far is Arata Fujiwara, who finished 2nd at last February's Tokyo Marathon and was selected as the alternate for the Beijing Olympics men's marathon team. Fujiwara ran an atrocious race at October's Chicago Marathon and will run Fukuoka to make up for his failed international debut. His chief competition thus far is Yuko Matsumiya, the slightly less talented identical twin brother of Beijing Olympian Takayuki Mats...

by Brett Larner In miserable conditions of rain and snow with temperatures of 3 degrees, Nagano overcame rivals Hyogo and a strong performance by Aichi on Jan. 20 to take back the title it lost at last year's All-Japan Men's Interprefectural Ekiden . The Interprefectural Ekiden features a 7-stage, 48 km course starting and ending at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park. Like last week's women's edition of the event, teams in the Interprefectural Ekiden include star professional, university, high school and junior high school runners from each of Japan's 47 prefectures. It is an unusual sight to see young runners barely into their teens handing off to Olympian teammates, but this is one of the Interprefectural Ekiden's unique points. The last four years have been duels between Nagano and Hyogo, with Nagano coming out on top for three years straight before Hyogo's victory last year on the strength of its anchor Satoru Kitamura's dominating performance. This...

by Brett Larner World half-marathon record holder Samuel Wanjiru (Kenya) won his debut marathon at today`s Fukuoka International Marathon, smashing the course record by 12 seconds to finish in 2:06:39. Second place finisher Deriba Merga (Ethiopia) also went under the old course record to finish in a major PB of 2:06:50. Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) had the breakthrough he had been hoping for, running an excellent 2:07:13 PB to seal a place on the Japanese men`s marathon team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The day was sunny and cool with steady breezes, a day made for excellent performances. Wanjiru and Merga`s times were the second and third-fastest ever run in Japan and the first time two 2:06 performances have taken place in the same race in Japan. Sato`s result ranks him as the fourth-fastest Japanese runner of all time. Together, the three runners` marks rank Fukuoka second only to Amsterdam in the world this year. Other pre-race favorites did not fare as well. Sato`s teamm...