japan running news

Workenesh Edesa and Honami Maeda made history at the Osaka International Women's Marathon , both going under 2:19 and Maeda breaking the 2005-era Japanese women's national record. Five pacers took the lead group of Edesa, Maeda, Stella Chesang , Mizuki Matsuda and Sayaka Sato through halfway in 1:09:46, well under pace for the 2:21:41 time the top Japanese woman would need to replace Olympic marathon trials 3rd-placer Ai Hosoda on the Paris team but 10 seconds behind pace to hit Mizuki Noguchi 's 2:19:12 NR from the 2005 Berlin Marathon when the three Japanese women up front were still in elementary school. Right at halfway Maeda, the 30 km NR holder, threw in a brash 3:11 km to open up on the pacers and rest of the pack, and it was pretty clear she had something special in mind. As the rest of the pack tried to change gears and catch back up Matsuda lost touch. Maeda went through 25 km with a projected finish time of 2:19:08, but the pack still regained ground. Then ...

In some ways there weren't really any surprises at this year's Queens Ekiden , the corporate women's national championships. Favorite Sekisui Kagaku , the 2021 national champ, moved into the lead by the 3rd of the 42.195 km race's six legs and stayed there the rest of the way, taking the 2023 national title in 2:13:33. The other three teams that have won every national title the last seven years, 2016, 2019 and 2020 winner Japan Post , 2017 and 2018 champ Panasonic , and 2022 winner Shiseido , took the next three spots with only a 9-second spread between them. Most of the people who ran last month's Paris Olympic marathon trials looked tired. Princess Ekiden qualifier winner Iwatani Sangyo made the podium for the first time. Last year's 6th-placer Toyota Jidoshokki plummeted from grace to finish last. All pretty predictable. But there were some great highlights. Women-only half marathon NR holder and 5th leg CR holder Rino Goshima (Shiseido) was stellar on th...

https://inews.co.uk/sport/athletics/great-north-run-2022-jacob-kiplimo-wins-uganda-queen-tributes-1848910

The Sendai International Half Marathon returned Sunday for the first time in 3 years, with a field limited to 4000 instead of its regular size of 10,000+ and a wave start to reduce crowd density. Running her first race since the Tokyo Olympics marathon and her first race in supershoes, Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) won the women's race in 1:09:08, exactly tying her PB. Her teammates Natsumi Matsushita and Yuna Daito were 2nd and 3rd, making it a Tenmaya sweep of the podium. In the men's race, world all-time #4 Alexander Mutiso (ND Software) just edged Andrew Lorot (Subaru) to score his second Sendai win, catching Lorot on the track after Lorot took a wrong turn at its entrance. Both runners clocked 1:01:08. Naoki Koyama (Honda) was 3rd in 1:02:07. Tomoki Suzuki (Toyota) won the men's wheelchair race in 46:02, with Wakako Tsuchida (Willraise) taking the women's race in 54:36. Another Tokyo Olympic marathoner also returned to competition, as Yuma Hattori (Toyota) ran...