japan running news

by Brett Larner Two high-level mid-season women's ekidens held their 29th runnings on Nov. 10.  A dry run for January's National Women's Ekiden and featuring the same format of teams made up of junior high school, high school, university and pro runners from each prefecture, the nine-stage, 42.195 km East Japan Women's Ekiden in Fukushima saw 2010 winner Chiba Prefecture  advance in the second half of the race after a strong Fifth Stage run from ace Yurie Doi  and a brilliant performance from the Seventh Stage's Asahi Tate  to return to the top.  Anchor Mai Shinozuka  had a scare from 2013 London Marathon 3rd-placer Yukiko Akaba  (Tochigi Pref.), but with a starting margin of almost 45 seconds at her disposal fro the 10 km Ninth Stage she was safe enough to run a steady, conservative leg to bring Chiba home in 2:19:23, 27 seconds ahead of Akaba.  Up front through much of the race, Nagano Prefecture was the only other team to break 2:20:00 in ra...

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/news/20131106-OYT1T01090.htm translated by Brett Larner The Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA) announced Nov. 6 that with support from the JAAF it will introduce a biological passport system, which records blood data and other biological information to help reveal use of banned drugs and the like, at the country's major races by the end of the year.  It was not announced which races those would be. The biological passport stores information about biological markers such as the composition of an athlete's blood over time to help detect abnormal changes that indicate possible use of unfair artificial advantages.  JADA has already introduced the biological passport system in some sports other than track and field this year and plans to continue to expand its scale in the lead-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics to allow a complete anti-doping system to be in place in time for the Games.

http://www.stripes.com/sports/kadena-sweeps-cross-country-relay-1.251123 Another, completely separate, running scene in Japan.

by Brett Larner Komazawa University 　rode the momentum of its course record win at last month's Izumo Ekiden to score its third-straight and eleventh total national title Nov. 3 at the 45th National University Men's Ekiden Championships .  2013 national university half marathon champion Shogo Nakamura  blew things open on the 14.6 km First Stage by opening a gap of over 30 seconds that never closed.  Five of Komazawa's eight runners scored stage bests to seal the deal, anchor and captain Shinobu Kubota  falling just short of breaking last year's overall course record of 5:12:43 for the full 106.8 km distance as he crossed the line in 5:13:09. By far the star of the show was Komazawa junior Kenta Murayama .  Let's say that again. Kenta Murayama .  Remember that name.   Kenta Murayama .  After crushing Japanese domestic 10000 m record holder Tsuyoshi Ugachi 's stage record at Izumo last month, Murayama did the inconceivable and ran 39:24 to t...

by Brett Larner Former Hakone Ekiden uphill specialist Masato Imai  (Team Toyota Kyushu) had the best results of the day among the three Japanese athletes at the 2013 ING New York City Marathon , running a steady pace to advance to 6th in 2:10:45, the best-ever performance by a Japanese man in New York.  The Koichi Morishita -coached Imai and, appearing with support from JRN, independent Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) stayed in the midst of the men's lead pack running into the wind throughout the first half of the race. When defending champion and eventual winner Geoffrey Mutai (Kenya) led a move at 22 km both Imai and Kawauchi fell off the group along with past New York champions Meb Keflezighi  (U.S.A.) and Martin Lel (Kenya) and 2013 New York City Half Marathon runner-up Daniele Meucci  (Italy). Imai showed characteristic uphill strength heading onto the Queensboro Bridge just before 25 km, remaining within 10 seconds of the lead group after the turn ...

http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/nsp/ekiden/2013/all/kiji/20131103/20131103_0004.shtml translated and edited by Brett Larner results coming shortly The eighth, final and sweetest of the eight days making up the 62nd running of the Grand Tour Kyushu ekiden took place Nov. 3, the day's six stages spanning 83.8 km from the Yuhata Nishi Ward Offices in Kita-Kyushu to the Nishi Nippon Newspaper building in Fukuoka.  The hometown Fukuoka team won the day, its third individual day win of the tour, to make up a 3:42 deficit at the end of the seventh day and overtake Miyazaki for its second-straight overall win by a margin of just 2 1/2 minutes over the full 739.9 km distance, the 26th overall title in its history.  It was a perfect ending to bring the Grand Tour Kyushu's long and celebrated history to a close. Fukuoka trailed Miyazaki through the Fourth Stage until Fifth Stage man Shuji Yoshikawa (Team Kyudenko) moved into first.  Fukuoka's anchor, Moscow World Championships...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/sports/japanese-civil-servant-runs-marathon-for-fun-not-profit.html

http://www.runnersworld.com/new-york-city-marathon/citizen-runner-yuki-kawauchi-takes-on-the-nyc-marathon