japan running news

The Tenmaya women's corporate team announced on Dec. 19 that two-time World Championships marathoner and 2012 London Olympian Risa Shigetomo , 30, will retire from competition at the end of the season in March next year. A press conference is scheduled for Dec. 21. As a third-year at Okayama's Kojokan H.S. in 2005 Shigetomo led the team to win its first-ever National High School Ekiden Championships title. She joined the Tenmaya team the following spring after her graduation. With a powerful stride driven by her tall 168 cm frame, Shigetomo won the 2012 Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2:23:23 to qualify for the London Olympic team. At the Olympics she finished only 70th in 2:40:06. This year Shigetomo won Osaka for the second time in 2:24:22, earning a return trip to London for this summer's World Championships where she finished 27th in 2:36:03. Translator's note: Shigetomo also ran in the 2015 Beijing World Championships, where she was 14th in 2:...

by Brett Larner Japan's qualification process for the Rio Olympics marathon wrapped up with a bang at yesterday's Nagoya Women's Marathon , with Tomomi Tanaka (Daiichi Seimei) getting payback for being left off of last year's Beijing World Championships team in favor of a runner from the Tenmaya corporate team by beating Tenmaya's Rei Ohara by one second in 2:23:19 to take what is almost definitely the last place on the Rio team.  Last week JRN detailed the situation regarding the Rio men's team candidates .  The women's situation looks more clear-cut but it's worth a quick review to see who the most likely names are for Thursday's Olympic team lineup announcement.  Click any race for detailed results. Beijing World Championships Women's Marathon, Aug. 30 7. Mai Ito (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 2:29:48 13. Sairi Maeda (Daihatsu) - 2:31:46 14. Risa Shigetomo (Tenmaya) - 2:32:37 Under the JAAF's selection criteria this time around the only ch...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/1456012.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Following a meeting of the JAAF's Development Committee in Tokyo on Apr. 2, Vice Chairman of Development Katsumi Sakai , 55, commented on the controversy surrounding the selection for the women's marathon team for August's Beijing World Championships.  "You absolutely have to go with the lead group from the beginning.  It's not about winning.  It's about trying to run the target time that we determine.  That is the message we have sent," he said of the Federation's exclusion of Tomomi Tanaka (Team Daiichi Seimei), winner of November's Yokohama International Women's Marathon in 2:26:57, in favor of Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya), who ran 2:26:39 for 3rd more than 4 minutes behind winner Tetiana Gamera (Ukraine) after going through halfway with Gamera in 1:11:15, and who is coached by Federation Director of Women's Marathoning Developmen...

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20140813/k10013771981000.html translated and edited by Brett Larner In preparation for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics two years from now, executives from each Japanese sports federation visited the city this week to inspect the venues for their disciplines during the same period in which the Olympics will take place.  JAAF representatives including men's marathon director Takeshi Soh and women's marathon director Yutaka Taketomi examined the marathon course running through the heart of the city. For the most part the course avoids the Copacapana and Ipanema waterfront that characterizes Rio de Janeiro, instead featuring many straight sections with few hills or undulations.  Although it is winter, temperatures in Rio de Janeiro peaked at 30 degrees with strong sunshine on the day of the course inspection.  Members of the inspection committee began at the start point of the marathon, examining the road conditions and taking measurements ...

http://mainichi.jp/sports/news/m20140311k0000m050012000c.html translated and edited by Brett Larner On Mar. 10, Beijing Olympics women's marathoner Yurika Nakamura , 27 announced her intent to retire at the end of March.  The announcement came via her corporate team sponsor Tenmaya.  Following her retirement she plans to focus on her work at the company. Nakamura is a native of Hyogo prefecture.  After graduating from Nishinomiya H.S. she joined the Tenmaya team in 2004.  She won her marathon debut at the 2008 Nagoya International Women's Marathon to qualify for the Beijing Olympics where she placed 13th, the only Japanese woman to finish the race.  In the 2009 Berlin World Championships 10000 m she placed 7th, the top Japanese finisher.  After her last race in January, 2013 she took a leave of absence from competition to rest and recuperate.  "After re-examining myself I came to the conclusion that it was time to retire," she said in her stateme...

by Brett Larner Marathons are often surprisingly unpredictable, but while there were a couple of big surprises at the 33rd edition of the Osaka International Women's Marathon , what was most surprising was how predictable three of the big results were. One surprise was how aggressively Poland's Karolina Jarzynska  took the race out.  With a best of just 2:26:45, Jarzynska pushed the first half through in 1:11:30 and by 30 km had a lead of 12 seconds as she clocked a 1:42:22 split.  Not too surprisingly, she tied up in the final 12 km and dropped to 3rd but was rewarded for taking her shot with a new PB of 2:26:31, just short of a new national record. Two of the predictable elements came from the two women who ran her down.  For the third time, Ukrainian national record holder and defending champion Tetiana Gamera-Shmyrko  rocked the Osaka course with the fastest second half and final 2.195 km in the field to take her second Osaka win, coming from 42 second...

by Brett Larner The ING New York City Marathon has rarely seen top-level Japanese athletes in its field, largely as a consequence November's series of regional qualifying ekidens for the corporate league's men's and women's national championships ekidens in late December and early January.  This year New York scored one of Japan's best along with two more quality corporate runners. A cultural phenomenon in Japan who has won fans worldwide, the independent  Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) comes to New York with support from JRN to make his U.S. and World Marathon Majors debut in his ninth of eleven marathons scheduled for this year.  After a early-spring season that saw him run a 2:12:24 Egyptian all-comers' record, a 2:08:15 course record at the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon in a duel with Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki), a 1:29:31 CR at the Kumanichi 30 km, a 2:08:14 PB at the Seoul International Marathon and three other races all within ...

http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/sports/Sp201303200094.html translated and edited by Brett Larner At an Okayama-area press conference on Mar. 19, Team Tenmaya announced that head coach Yutaka Taketomi  59, whose athletes made four-straight women's Olympic marathons, will be replaced as head coach on April 1 by current assistant coach Tetsuya Urakawa , 51.  Taketomi will move to a new capacity as general manager. Having led the team since its inception in 1992, Taketomi explained his departure, saying, "For reasons including my service as head of the Japanese Federation's women's marathoning program I became slow to respond to minute details.  I want to resolve that situation."  In the shift to his new supporting capacity he hopes to ensure a smooth transition.  Urakawa commented, "I will be facing pressure, but I want to continue to learn from coach Taketomi as I aim to send our athletes to the Olympics and to win the National Corporate Women's Ekiden....

http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2012110100974 translated by Brett Larner On Nov. 1 Rikuren, the Japanese athletics federation, announced the names of the new members of its strengthening committee.  Taking over as head of men's middle distance, long distance and marathoning is Team Asahi Kasei head coach Takeshi Soh .  Team Tenmaya head coach Yutaka Taketomi  remains in place as head of the women's distance program. Koji Ito , holder of the Japanese men's 100 m national record of 10.00, was named the new head of men's sprinting, while former 400 mH national record holder and strengthening committee vice-chairman Kazuhiko Yamazaki will act as head of the committee's actualization division. In the lead-up to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics the strengthening committee will be organized into three main divisions, track and field, middle, long distance and road, and actualization.  Newly-named strengthening committee director Yasuhiro Harada  will a...

by Brett Larner For many a long year Japanese women's marathoning has gotten far more media attention and public respect than the men; at the 2010 London Marathon the Japanese broadcast only followed the women and never mentioned that 5000 m and 30 km national record holder Takayuki Matsumiya  (Team Konica Minolta) and two-time World Championships team member Satoshi Irifune  (Team Kanebo) were in the men's race, even when they were inadvertently on-camera.  It's telling, then, of expectations of this year's Japanese women's marathon team that government broadcaster NHK's pre-Olympic preview of six events for Japanese fans to follow prominently featured the men's marathon but said nothing about the women's marathon. To give credit where it's due it's a good squad, featuring 2009 Berlin World Championships silver medalist Yoshimi Ozaki  (Daiichi Seimei), 2012 Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Risa Shigetomo  (Team Tenmaya), whose...

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/olympic/news/2012/05/19/kiji/K20120519003285991.html translated and edited by Brett Larner At the Chugoku Corporate Track & Field Championships May 19 at Hiroshima's Miyoshi Sports Park Field, London Olympics women's marathon team member Risa Shigetomo  (Team Tenmaya) won the 10000 m title in a new PB of 33:25.48.  "It wasn't as fast as I wanted," she said afterwards, indicating the main task she has ahead of her in the time left until the Olympics. Shigetomo had not raced since winning January's Osaka International Women's Marathon.  She took the 10000 m out hard, running alone with focus, but with lost training due to sciatic nerve problems she has been suffering since mid-March she was forced to scale back her target time by one minute.  Her coach Yutaka Taketomi  commented, "We knew she wasn't in shape yet.  The goal now is to get her legs strong." At the end of the month Shigetomo will run the Bupa ...

http://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/sports/0004831749.shtml translated by Brett Larner On Feb. 21 Beijing Olympic marathoner Yurika Nakamura  (Team Tenmaya) announced that she has withdrawn from her planned run at the Mar. 11 Nagoya Women's Marathon because she has not been able to get into good enough shape.  The final selection race for the London Olympics marathon team, her withdrawal means that Nakamura has given up on trying to repeat as an Olympic marathoner. Nakamura won her debut marathon at the 2008 Nagoya International Women's Marathon and finished 13th at the Beijing Olympics later that year.  However, running for the Okayama Prefecture team at January's National Women's Ekiden she finished only 42nd on the First Stage.  According to Tenmaya head coach Yutaka Taketomi , during her training in late January Nakamura was not getting back into shape.  "Even if she started, she is in no shape to run," he said in explaining the decision to pull her from ...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20110420-764021.html translated by Brett Larner According to a statement by Rikuren director of women's marathoning Yutaka Taketomi on Apr. 20, Japan's #1 long distance woman Kayoko Fukushi (29, Team Wacoal) is likely to aim for the marathon at next year's London Olympics. According to Taketomi, Fukushi, who was training in Christchurch, New Zealand at the time of February's earthquake, said, "If I run [a marathon] I think it'll be at one of the Olympic selection races." At this summer's National Track and Field Championships Fukushi will be focusing on qualifying for the Daegu World Championships on the track. Fukushi's marathon debut came at the 2008 Osaka International Women's Marathon, a selection race for the Beijing Olympics, but she faded badly over the later stages of the race and finished 19th.

http://www.nikkei.com/sports/news/article/g=96958A9C81818A9993E2E0E0EB8DE0E1E2E3E0E2E3E3E2E2E2E2E2E2;da=96958A88889DE2E0E3EAEAE5E6E2E0E3E3E0E0E2E2EBE2E2E2E2E2E2 http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/news/20110124k0000m050083000c.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Following her stage win at the Jan. 23 Kita-Kyushu Invitational Women's Ekiden , 10000 m national record holder and former marathon national record holder Yoko Shibui (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) announced that she will run the Feb. 27 Tokyo Marathon. It will be Shibui's first full marathon since pulling out of the 2009 World Championships marathon team with a stress fracture. "My teammate Reiko Tosa is running, so I thought it would be fun to enter too," Shibui said. "I'm just going to run comfortably without setting any target time." Shibui's coach Shigeharu Watanabe said that the decision to run Tokyo came shortly after Shibui's successful return to competition at December's...

http://www.asahi.com/sports/spo/TKY201012100169.html translated by Brett Larner Click to enlarge course map. On Dec. 9 the new course for the Feb. 20 Yokohama International Women's Marathon was announced. The course for last year's first edition featured three loops of a 13.2 km course through the heart of Yokohama, but while the new version shares the same start and finish at Yamashita Park it will consist of two large loops, the first an out-an-back to JR Shin-Sugita Station and the second around the Minato Mirai district. Last year's course required the roads in downtown Yokohama to be closed for three hours. The police department was unhappy with the situation, saying it created potential problems for the fire department and ambulances in the event of an emergency. As a result, organizers looked into designing a new course. In meeting the demands, organizers sought to create a flatter course at the same time. The previous course had an elevation variation of 13 m, where...

http://mytown.asahi.com/hyogo/news.php?k_id=29000141003310002 translated by Brett Larner Yurika Nakamura (Team Tenmaya) is running Monday's Boston Marathon, only her third attempt at the distance. In her last marathon Nakamura was the only Japanese woman to finish the Beijing Olympics, where she was 13th. She vowed to work on her track speed before returning to the marathon. At last summer's World Championships she was one of the highlights of the Japanese team, with three PBs in three starts on the track over 5000 and 10000 m and unafraid to lead each of her races. With only a 2:25 PB from her 2008 debut Nakamura is unlikely to attract much pre-race attention, but the simple fact that she is there says she feels ready for something big in Boston. The local Hyogo edition of the asahi.com website recently published this interview with Nakamura. Asahi.com: When you were a child you weren't a particularly fast runner. Nakamura: I loved playing kick the can and hide and seek, b...

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/news/20100202-OYT1T00890.htm http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/100202/spg1002021231002-n1.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) may have dropped out of Sunday's Osaka International Women's Marathon, but she remains positive about her aggressive performance and values the experience. Akaba led the front pack right from the start, taking them through 25 km in 1:23:59. This was only 18 seconds off national record holder Mizuki Noguchi's split in her 2003 course and Japanese soil record. Rikuren Women's Marathoning director Yutaka Taketomi said her early stages were a welcome turn of events, commenting, "If Akaba can deliver on that kind of strong, assertive race it will elevate the whole level of Japanese running." Akaba injured her left knee in mid-January and was unable to keep up the charge after 25 km. She probably had a contingency plan to drop out if her knee began bothering her during the race...

http://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/sports/0001853743.shtml translated and edited by Brett Larner Seizing her last chance to qualify for the Japanese national women's marathon team for this August's World Championships in Berlin, Tomo Morimoto (Team Tenmaya) is running the Apr. 26 London Marathon. After being unable to run the Beijing Olympics as the team alternate, Morimoto is quietly determined to make her first World Championships team. "This time I'm going to make it," she says with understated resolve. At last year's Osaka International Women's Marathon Morimoto couldn't put the kind of race she wanted together. After a slow first half spent in the pack far behind leader Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal), eventual winner Mara Yamauchi (U.K.) broke away when Fukushi came within sight. Morimoto gave pursuit but was unable to close the gap to Yamauchi and finished 2nd. Although Morimoto ran a faster time, her teammate Yurika Nakamura (Team Tenmaya) was chosen o...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/news/f-sp-tp0-20090423-486359.html http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2009042300873 translated and edited by Brett Larner Rikuren's Long Distance and Road Racing Special Committee held a meeting at the National Training Center in Tokyo's Kita Ward on Apr. 23. With regard to August's World Championships in Berlin, committee director Susumu Takano commented, "We're not in a position to discuss our goals in much detail quite yet, but I will say that we expect to improve on our overall performances from the last two years." Japan earned one medal in athletics at the 2007 World Championships, Reiko Tosa's bronze in the women's marathon, and two in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the men's 4 x 100 m relay team's bronze and Koji Murofushi's bronze in the men's hammer throw. Takano went on to add that the committee anticipates two finishers within the top eight in the World Championships women's marathon a...

http://www.nikkei.co.jp/kansai/news/news005972.html http://sports.nikkei.co.jp/index.aspx?n=SSXKC0474%2021042009 http://www.plus-blog.sportsnavi.com/kmanabu/ translated and edited by Brett Larner Having already secured a place on the national team for August's World Championships in Berlin, Yuri Kano (30, Second Wind AC) will get an advance taste of world-class competition when she lines up among most of the world's best women for the first time at the Apr. 26 London Marathon. Kano thought she would win last November's Tokyo International Women's Marathon but she was 2nd after being outrun by Yoshimi Ozaki (27, Team Daiichi Seimei), the younger sister of her Second Wind teammate Akemi Ozaki. Following the final domestic selection race last month, Kano's place on the World Championships team was announced on Mar. 23. "I felt like, 'Finally!'" Kano says. Now, as she faces her first overseas marathon, she is confident. "My training hasn't gon...