japan running news

  The 77th running of the Fuji Mountain Race took place on July 26. In the long course summit race, 21 km with around 3000 m of climb from Fuji Yoshida city hall to the peak of Mount Fuji, Yuri Yoshizumi won the women's race in 3:13:08 and Ryunosuke Omi the men's race in 2:42:24.; In the women's race, last year's 2nd-placer Rieko Koshi led Yoshizumi by 19 seconds at the end of the road section at around 11.5 km. But on the trail section after that Yoshizumi passed her and built a winning lead to score her sixth Fuji Mountain Race title since 2017. 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2016 winner Mina Ogawa was 2nd in 3:21:44, with Koshi hanging on to make the podium again in 3:25:02 for 3rd. Having won in his summit course debut last year, Omi was in the lead at the 11.5 km checkpoint. But by the Fifth Stage checkpoint he had been overtaken by Ruy Ueda and dropped two minutes behind. But Ueda, running the summit course for the first time, faded after hitting the steepest trail se...

by Brett Larner Hot conditions in the final kilometers of the 2009 Berlin Marathon kept times slower than anticipated. With Team Kanebo's Tomohiro Seto a no-show, three elite Japanese men joined the field behind the anticipated duel between Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia and Duncan Kibet of Kenya. Former national record holder Atsushi Fujita (Fujitsu) and 2009 World Championships marathon alternate Kensuke Takahashi (Team Toyota) ran together in the second pack, relaxing through a slow first 10 km in 30:53 before the pace began to ratchet downward. At halfway the pair were right together in 1:04:18, Fujita well on track for his sub-2:10 target and Takahashi looking smooth. When the pack broke apart in the second half Takahashi began to drift away and by 40 km was 45 seconds behind Fujita, who had fallen off sub-2:10 pace himself. Takahashi rallied for a strong finish but could only come within 6 seconds of Fujita by the goal line. Fujita was 8th overall in 2:12:54, Takahashi 9th in...

by Brett Larner Heavy rain cut the 2009 Fuji Tozan Mountain Race down to size, but two-time defending women's champion Yuri Kanbara and 2006 men's winner Toru Miyahara nevertheless prevailed again to pick up this year's titles. With conditions dangerous above Mt. Fuji's 2256 m-high 5th Stage on the July 24 race morning, organizers made the decision 30 minutes before the 7:00 a.m. start to shorten the event's 21 km long, 3000 m elevation gain Summit Race. Rather than reaching the summit, athletes in the long race would end at the 5th stage along with the event's 15 km long, 1480 m elevation gain 5th Stage Race entrants. This meant the true uphill specialists in the field such as Kanbara were at a competitive disadvantage against faster athletes who could withstand the relatively mild climb and paved first half of the 5th Stage course. The rain let up just minutes before the start, leaving the fields in the two divisions with the coolest, most ideal conditions in...

by Brett Larner While the 2008 Ome Marathon 30 km and 10 km road race was cancelled due to heavy snowfall, this year's race saw unseasonable mid-spring temperatures around 20 degrees. 23280 people ran the two races, with 17959 in the 30 km race and 5321 in the 10 km. Team Konica Minolta's first-year star recruit Hirokatsu Kurosaki continued to impress, taking the win in the men's 30 km division in 1:32:50, a strong time on Ome's famously hilly course. Veteran jitsugyodan runner Kurao Umeki (Team Chugoku Denryoku) was 48 seconds back in 2nd, narrowly beating out Waseda University's downhill specialist Sota Kato who ran a PB of 1:33:52 for 3rd. 2009 World Championships marathon team member Satoshi Irifune (Team Kanebo) was 4th in 1:34:17, just half a step ahead of American Nicholas Arciniaga who clocked the same time but was 5th. The women's 30 km race was a three-way battle, with Tomoe Yokoyama (Team Toto) winning in 1:47:01 over Team Hokuren's Yoshie Kito...

by Brett Larner Kiyoko Shimahara wins the 2008 Honolulu Marathon Kiyoko Shimahara (Second Wind AC), who finished 3rd in October's Chicago Marathon behind defending Honolulu Marathon champion Alevtina Biktimirova (Russia), came back to score her first marathon victory since her debut in the 2003 Katsuta Marathon, running 2:32:36 to defeat Biktimirova in the 2008 Honolulu Marathon on Dec. 14. Running in conditions of heavy rain, Shimahara, an athlete with a proven track record in hot races, took the lead just past 34 km and never relented. Her teammate Kaori Yoshida, winner of October's Casablanca Marathon, ran as pacemaker but hung on for 2nd place in 2:34:35. Japanese runners also took 7th through 10th in the women's division and 7th and 9th in the men's division. Two-time Olympian and three-time World Championships national team member Megumi Oshima ran as an independent after having recently quit her position with Team Shimamura, finishing 8th in 2:57:44. Two-time de...

by Brett Larner Former Chuo University standout Yuichiro Ueno, an Olympic-class runner who joined Team S&B in April after his graduation and promptly disappeared with injuries, marked his true professional debut with a 29:13 victory in perfect conditions at the Nov. 23 Ohtawara 10 km road race in Tochigi Prefecture. Ueno had a wide margin of victory over Norihito Watanabe (Team Yanagawa Seiki), 2nd in 30:22, and, in a rare road appearance, 1000 m, 1500 m and 2000 m national record holder Fumikazu Kobayashi (Team NTN) who finished 3rd in 31:07. In the women's race Yumiko Kinoshita (Second Wind AC), teammate of last week's Tokyo International Women's Marathon runner-up Yuri Kano, outclassed the rest of the field, running 34:50 to finish over 2 1/2 minutes ahead of two-time Mt. Fuji Mountain Race winner Yuri Kanbara (Namban Rengo AC), who clocked 37:31. The Ohtawara 10 km is held every Nov. 23 in conjunction with the amateur-level Ohtawara Marathon. Complete results are av...