japan running news

http://www.marathon.tokyo/news-media/news/news_000062.html translated by Brett Larner click here for a map of the 2017 Tokyo Marathon course Thanks to your support, last month the Tokyo Marathon celebrated its tenth edition as an annual event since its first running in 2007.  During those ten years the landscape has changed dramatically, from redevelopment in the city center that has brought about a spectacular new Tokyo cityscape to the evolution of the marathon as a high-speed event and the rise to international prominence of wheelchair racing.  Thus, from the twin perspectives of showing the best of modern Tokyo inside and out and of offering a course capable of producing the fastest times in the world, the Tokyo Marathon will feature a new course beginning with 2017's race. Translator's note:  Roughly 13-14 km of the 2017 course will cover new and flatter ground, the rest representing a shuffling of current segments.  The new course keeps the same starting...

http://www.tokyo-sports.co.jp/sports/othersports/523466/ translated by Brett Larner Marathoner Yuki Kawauchi (29, Saitama Pref. Gov't) has expressed his full withdrawal from future Olympic opportunities.  On March 27 Kawauchi won the Nerima Kobushi Half Marathon in 1:05:32.  Just a week earlier on March 20 he ran Taiwan's Wanjinshi Marathon.  He came down with food poisoning afterward but it didn't seem to impact his run in Nerima.  Kawauchi believes that he can still make a full comeback and win a medal at next year's London World Championships.  "People might think I'm well past my peak, but I'll only be 30 when the World Championships happen," he said.  On the other hand, he downplayed talk about the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, preemptively raising the white flag given his history running in heat.  "Honestly, in those kinds of temperatures there's no way," he said.  "I don't want to do something where I know I can't compet...

by Brett Larner Fired from the Toyota Boshoku corporate team last month after asking its head coach for more flexibility, Ryotaro Otani , a 2013 graduate of two-time Hakone Ekiden champion Aoyama Gakuin University , took fans by surprise when he won Sunday's Japan Triathlon Union Qualifying Time Trial in one of the fastest times in the event's history. 先輩が新たなスタートを。認定記録会1位(スイム400m4'40、ラン5000m14'22) #JTU認定記録会 #トライアスロン pic.twitter.com/TlhEEar7dz — 高木聖也 (@iinorun) March 27, 2016 Before becoming a runner Otani was a youth swimmer, making it to the national level before switching over to his junior high school's track and field team full-time. Alongside Takehiro Deki , at Aoyama Gakuin he was one of the star runners who helped turn AGU into national names, beating top-level men Yuta Shitara (Toyo Univ.) and Ikuto Yufu (Komazawa Univ.) to break the Fourth Stage course record and pave the way for AGU to score its first-ever Big Three University Ekiden win at ...

by Brett Larner Led by a 10th-place overall finish by Yuka Ando (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) with support from top-20 placings by Miho Shimizu (Team Hokuren) and Mizuki Matsuda (Team Daihatsu), the Japanese women narrowly held off Australia to score the team bronze medal at the 2016 World Half Marathon Championships in Cardiff.  All three scoring members turned in solid runs, Ando and Matsuda seconds off their bests and Shimizu, the fastest on the team with a PB of 1:09:41 at last month's National Corporate Half Marathon Championships, just over a minute off hers. Likewise bronze medal quality on paper with one runner with a 1:00:54 best, two under 1:01:30 and a fourth at 1:01:53, the Japanese men left their races at home as they struggled to make the top five.  Komazawa University second-year Naoki Kudo , 5th in last year's World University Games Half Marathon, was the top Japanese man and the only one to break 64 minutes as he finished 22nd in 1:03:41.  The other two ...

by Brett Larner Japan is sending one of its better teams in recent World Half Marathon Championships history to Saturday's race in Cardiff.  20-year-old Keijiro Mogi , a training partner of 10000 m national record holder Kota Murayama at the Asahi Kasei corporate team, leads the men's roster with a 1:00:54 best.  Hakone Ekiden powerhouse Komazawa University features heavily, with current Komazawa runners Keisuke Nakatani and Naoki Kudo and 2015 graduate Shogo Nakamura (Team Fujitsu) making up the core of the men's team.  The women's team includes three sub-70 runners led by Miho Shimizu (Team Hokuren) with support from Yuka Ando (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) and Mirai Waku (Team Univ. Ent.).  With the exception of Mizuki Matsuda (Team Daihatsu), all will be making their international road debuts. World Half Marathon Championships Cardiff, U.K., 3/26/16  click here for timetable and complete rosters Men Keijiro Mogi (Asahi Kasei) - 1:00:54 (Marugame ...

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20160322-00000175-sph-spo translated by Brett Larner After finishing 12th overall as the 4th Japanese man in his debut at the Feb. 28 Tokyo Marathon , 4th-year Yuma Hattori of 2015 National University Ekiden champion Toyo University indicated on Mar. 22 that he plans to run both the 5000 m and the 10000 m at June's National Track and Field Championships, the qualifying event for the Rio Olympic team. Hattori's 5000 m and 10000 m bests are 13:36.76 and 28:09.02.  The Olympic qualifying marks for those distances are 13:25.00 and 28:00.00.  Along with clearing those times Hattori faces the tough hurdle of winning the National Championships.  "The marathon and the track are totally different so it'll be tough for me to make the Olympic team," he said coolly, "but as long as there's a chance I want to go for it." Hattori's former Sendai Ikuei H.S. teammate Tadashi Isshiki , a 3rd-year at 2016 Hakone Ekiden ...

Yuta Shitara, Kento Otsu and Coach Sakai at the 2012 NYC Half Sunday's United Airlines NYC Half marked the fifth year that the NYRR has invited the top two Japanese university finishers from November's Ageo City Half Marathon to run against top international competition in New York, a concept JRN proposed in 2011 and continues to help oversee.  For decades Japan's corporate leagues have sent runners to races like Philadelphia, San Diego and Virginia Beach, but relative to their pro elders the eight university men who have run a total of ten times in New York so far have represented themselves well with consistently serious and fast performances on a course with a challenging first half. Otsu, Bernard Lagat and Kenta Murayama in 2013 The ten fastest times ever run in the United States by Japanese corporate league runners to date: 1:02:28 - Yasuaki Yamamoto (Tokyo Metro) - Philadelphia 1999 1:02:50 - Yoshinori Oda (Toyota) - Virginia Beach 2007 1:02:59 - Y...

http://www.sankei.com/region/news/160321/rgn1603210010-n1.html translated and edited by Brett Larner On a course through the oldest and most scenic parts of town, the Matsue Ladies' Half Marathon held its 37th running on Mar. 20.  Serving as the National University Women's Half Marathon Championships, Matsue hosted 2363 runners from elementary school students to the corporate leagues to the best of the university circuit.  Local supporters turned out all along the course to cheer on the women whose run welcomes spring back to Matsue every year. The Matsue Ladies Road Race featured four divisions starting one after another, the half marathon followed by the 3.2 km division, a 1.0 km children's race and the 10 km division.  153 women including 94 university runners were entered in the half marathon.  Taking control of the race after just 3 km, invited athlete Miharu Shimokado (Team Shimamura) won in 1:11:48.  "I was able to make it my own race," she said c...