japan running news

text and Kanto video by Brett Larner Hachioji video by B1853264 Two major time trial meets focusing on the men's 10000 m took place in Tokyo Nov. 24, the pro-oriented Hachioji Long Distance Time Trials meet in Tokyo's western suburbs, and the Kanto Region University Long Distance Time Trials meet at the National Stadium. The focus in the A-heat in Hachioji was on the 2013 World Championships A and B qualifying times of 27:40.00 and 28:05.00.  With impeccable pacing from Bitan Karoki (Kenya/Team S&B) in 14:00 through 5000 m, former Jobu University ace Yusuke Hasegawa (Team S&B), 2011 year-leader Tsuyoshi Ugachi  (Team Konica Minolta) and Kenyans Patrick Mwaka  (Team Aisan Kogyo) and  Alex Mwangi  (Team YKK) cleared the B-standard, Hasegawa going sub-60 on his final lap to deliver a 15-second PB of 27:50.64.  With outstanding conditions four other men in the top ten ran PBs of 20 to 45 seconds, led by 2012 Waseda University graduate Yusuke Mi...

by Brett Larner Just a week after the busiest ekiden weekend of the year comes another big weekend of racing in Japan.  The Yokohama International Women's Marathon is the most important of them, the first of the three domestic selection races for the Japanese women's Olympic marathon team.  Despite a bad race at August's Daegu World Championships, defending champ, course record holder and 2009 World Championships silver medalist Yoshimi Ozaki  (Team Daiichi Seimei) is the domestic favorite.  It's not a one-woman race, though, as Ryoko Kizaki  (Team Daihatsu) comes in fresh from a solid 15:22.87 5000 m PB at the end of September and may be ready for something big.   Kaoru Nagao  and her teammate Chika Horie  (Team Univ. Ent.) should also be in contention for the top Japanese woman position.  If she's fast enough the top Japanese woman will secure an Olympic spot.  The Japanese women face competition from the likes of Robe Guta ...

http://www.iwanichi.co.jp/ichinoseki/item_25911.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Its course record wins at all three major university men's ekidens in the 2010-2011 season making it the best university team ever assembled, Waseda University 's ekiden squad has arrived in Ichinoseki, Iwate to begin training for the first key battle in this year's campaign, October's Izumo Ekiden.  On Sept. 19th the team held a public reception at its training facilities in the city's Hanaizumi district to greet and offer support to local residents affected by March's disasters.  With the entry list for this year's Izumo Ekiden announced the same day, the reception also served to mark the beginning of serious training for the team's core group of athletes. Waseda's ekiden team originally began using Hanaizumi as a training base in 1990 and has continued with only one interruption.  Team alumnus Yasuyuki Watanabe  (38), now Waseda's head coach, exper...

by Brett Larner photos by Daniel Seite Suguru Osako, 2010 Ageo City Half Marathon winner. Waseda University first-year Suguru Osako ran his biggest performance yet Nov. 21 at the Ageo City Half Marathon, winning his half marathon debut in a new junior national record and junior Asian record of 1:01:47. Running in perfect conditions the 19 year-old Osako, who holds a 5000 m PB of 13:47.29 and a 10000 m PB of 28:35.75, battled it out with Kenyan Cosmas Ondiba (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) for 16 km ahead of a large chase pack before dropping a hard surge with 5 km to go and pulling away for the win with the largest margin of victory in Ageo history, 57 seconds. Following the race he told the Yomiuri newspaper , "That didn't feel like it was very long at all." Cosmas Ondiba (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) leads Osako and 3000 mSC national record holder Yoshitaka Iwamizu (Team Fujitsu) at 3 km. Osako became only the third man to break 1:02 at Ageo and the fastest-ever Japanese runner to...

by Brett Larner Half marathon Asian record holder Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) headlines the field at the 49th Himejijo 10 Mile Road Race on the national holiday of Feb. 11, just 10 days after finishing 3rd overall and as the top domestic runner at the Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon. As he prepares for the London Marathon Sato will face a wide range of challengers including the runner who finished just behind him in Marugame, Team Nissin Shokuhin's Satoru Kitamura, and 2:07:52 marathoner Tomoaki Kunichika (Team S&B), but his biggest competition is likely to be the only other sub-28 minute 10000 m runner in the race, Terukazu Omori (Team Shikoku Denryoku). The field also includes American Steven Crane, the lone foreigner among the elite runners. 2009 Himejijo 10 Mile Road Race Elite Field times listed are PB marks for 10000 m and half marathon Terukazu Omori (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 27:43.94 / 1:02:14 Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 27:56.86 / 1:00:...

by Brett Larner Update: Click here for a listing of 2009 Hakone videos on YouTube. I've been watching the Hakone Ekiden since I first came to Japan in 1997, and wanting to write about it was one of the main reasons I started this blog. This year's Hakone was the best I've seen. There were four consecutive stage records on Day One, two by first-year runners and one a double record, and two all-time passing records. Not a single team was white-sashed despite the presence of three more teams than usual. Japan's two potentially greatest male distance runners ever, Kensuke Takezawa and Yuki Sato, finally settled who was who, and another runner emerged who might surpass them both. This year's Hakone also had an unusual amount of pure head-to-head racing, with spectacular bouts between Masato Kihara and Daniel Gitau, Ryuji Kashiwabara and Masayuki Miwa, Hikaru Tominaga and Kato Sota, and two exciting three-way sprint finishes on the final leg. After last year's carnag...

by Brett Larner Click here for a video digest and individual stage highlights of Hakone Day One. Toyo University first-year Ryuji Kashiwabara runs an epic 1:17:18 stage record on the 5th leg of the 2009 Hakone Ekiden to score Toyo's first-ever individual day Hakone win. The first day of the 2009 Hakone Ekiden will be remembered as one of the greatest in the event’s 85 year history. After a slow, tactical first leg, runners set new records on all four of the remaining stages, the highlight of which was an awe-inspiring 47-second record on the mountain-climbing 5th stage by Toyo University first-year Ryuji Kashiwabara. Kashiwabara, who said before the race that his goal was to break the untouchable 5th stage record set in 2007 by his fellow Iwaki High School graduate Masato Imai of Juntendo University, ran fearlessly from the stage's start, coming from 9th place, 4:58 behind the lead, to overtake Waseda University and give Toyo its first-ever single day victory by a margin of ...

by Brett Larner Click here for video highlights of Day One and Day Two of the 2008 Hakone Ekiden. Less than a week remains until the 85th Hakone Ekiden , a 2-day championship relay race on Jan. 2-3, 2009 between the top university men's teams in the Tokyo-centric Kanto region of Japan. Last year Japan Running News published a detailed history of the Hakone Ekiden . To summarize, Hakone is the most popular and thrilling race of the year. It's hard to imagine that a regional university men's distance running championship could attract mass popularity, but in Japan Hakone has at the very least the stature of the Super Bowl or World Series among the general public. Tens of millions watch both on TV and along the course, which consists of 10 stages of about half marathon distance each stretching from downtown Tokyo to the mountaintop resort of Hakone and back. 19 school teams and a select team made of ace runners from universities which failed to qualify usually take part, but...

by Brett Larner The 2nd place finishers at this year's Hakone Ekiden have made a major advance toward returning to the winner's podium after a 15-year absence. On Jan. 4, Waseda University announced that the top three runners from this year's crop of high school graduates will enter Waseda this April.* The new recruits include Yuki Yagi of Nishiwaki Kogyo High School, Yusuke Mita of Toyokawa Kogyo High School, and Takuya Nakayama of Suma Gakuen High School. Yagi, Mita and Nakayama finished 1-2-3 in the 2007 National High School 5000 m Championships and, along with fellow recruit Taro Inoue of Yawatahama High School, represent a major coup for Waseda. In the 2008 Hakone Ekiden Waseda suffered from weak performances by its injured star Kensuke Takezawa and several of its runners on the last few stages. Nevertheless, thanks in large part to outstanding mountain stage performances by Ryuta Komano and Sota Kota it won Day One and did not give up the lead to eventual winners Ko...