japan running news

http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/sp/nnp/nagasaki/article/307416 translated by Brett Larner A third-year at Sakuragahara J.H.S. in Omura, 3000 m junior high school national record holder Hiroto Hayashida announced on Feb. 10 that he has committed to attend Keiho H.S. in Nagasaki.  Hayashida received offers from a number of top running schools both within and outside Kyushu, but, he said of his decision, "I want to do my part to raise the level of athletics in Nagasaki where I was born and raised." In last October's Iwate National Sports Festival junior 3000 m Hayashida won in 8:19.14, breaking his own junior high school national record.  In January he set a new course record of 8:20 on the 3.0 k m Second Stage at the National Men's Ekiden in Hiroshima .  Keiho H.S. has competed at the National High School Ekiden five times.  Asked about his goals in high school, Hayashida replied with determination, "I want to win the 1500 m and 5000 m at the National High Sc...

https://www.iaaf.org/news/report/jepchirchir-breaks-world-half-marathon-record The Ras Al-Khaimah Half was the fifth-straight win for Tokyo-based Bedan Karoki (DeNA RC), having won two track races in 24 hours at November's Nittai University Time Trials meet , the first a 10000 m in 27:07.30, a brilliant win in the most competitive January race in the world, the New Year Ekiden's 8.3 km Second Stage , and a tune-up for RAK with a win at the 10 km Discovery Cross meet in Kenya late last month.  Karoki is set to debut at April's London Marathon after a DNS there last year. photo © 2017 Dr. Helmut Winter all rights reserved

by Brett Larner This time of year there are multiple high-level races in Japan every weekend, this one being no exception.  Sunday's Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon is one of the main developmental races for Japanese men, the place where future Olympic marathoners including  Hisanori Kitajima , Kentaro Nakamoto , Shinji Kawajima and Shigeru Soh  made their marathon debuts. Last year's winner Ryoichi Matsuo (Team Asahi Kasei) returns to face debuting 1:01:25 half marathoner Shota Hattori (Team Honda) and teammates Kenta Matsumoto and Kenta Matsubara (Team Toyota), training partners of Minato Oishi whose successful debut at last Sunday's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon saw him land 4th in 2:10:39. In parallel to Nobeoka, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) will run his first marathon of 2017 at the Ehime Marathon .  Kawauchi's goal is to run 2:13, three minutes under the current Ehime course record.  His main competition is Waseda University fourth-year ...

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2017/02/09/kiji/20170209s00048000050000c.html translated by Brett Larner Ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, an outline of the bipartisan Sports Parliamentary Council 's in-progress draft for Japan's first doping countermeasure bill was revealed in an interview with a source involved in deliberations.  The bill does not establish criminal punishment for violators, but it would designate doping as an illegal act for the first time and would facilitate obtaining top athletes' personal information through a public institution in exceptional cases to aid in detecting fraudulent activities that violate anti-doping provisions.  The legislation would enhance the ability to collect information on athletes, making it a useful tool for establishing plans for investigations.

http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/etc/20170208-OHT1T50033.html translated and edited by Brett Larner After running 2:11:34 at age 19 at last year's Tokyo Marathon to become the fastest-ever Japanese marathoner under 20, Aoyama Gakuin University third-year Yuta Shimoda has withdrawn from this year's Tokyo Marathon on Feb. 26 due to pain in his right knee.  Shimoda was set to try for the London World Championships men's marathon team in Tokyo, whose organizers made the announcement of his withdrawal on Feb. 7. Shimoda won the Hakone Ekiden Eighth Stage on Jan. 3 to help Aoyama Gakuin claim the overall title, his second-straight Hakone stage win.   On Jan. 15 he did a 2:27:35 marathon time trial on the last day of a three-day marathon training camp conceived by Aoyama Gakuin head coach Susumu Hara , 49, but after running the anchor stage of the National Men's Ekiden a week later on Jan. 22 he began to experience pain in his right knee. Shimoda will not run the fi...

http://www.saitama-np.co.jp/news/2017/02/06/08.html translated and edited by Brett Larner 111 men's and women's teams took part in the 84th edition of the Saitama Ekiden on Feb. 5, running from Saitama Shintoshin to Kumagaya Sports Park Field.  Fresh from representing Saitama for the first time at December's National High School Ekiden, the Honjo Higashi H.S. girls scored their first-ever Saitama Ekiden win, covering the five-stage, 20.5 km women's course in 1:12:14.  Honjo Higashi's third, fourth and fifth runners Mayuko Saito , Nanami Ishihara and Tomomi Miyasaki each won their stages to move up their team up place by place into 1st after a slow start. In the six-stage, 42.195 km men's race, Nihon Yakka University took the top position for the first time in 2:08:13 thanks in part to a 36:07 course record on the 12.1 km Third Stage by Kenyan Simon Kariuki .  The Musashino Ogoshi H.S. boys were the top-finishing high school position for the first tim...

by Brett Larner 別府大分毎日マラソン 優勝 中本健太郎選手(安川電機) 2 9 32 妬ましいほど格好良かった(^^; 優勝おめでとうございます🎉 pic.twitter.com/K6JrFL5dm9 — manamin (@kinokonoko0916) February 5, 2017 There's a good case to be made that from 2011 to 2013 Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) was Japan's best marathoner.  9th at the 2011 World Championships, 6th at the 2012 London Olympics, 5th at the 2013 Moscow World Championships, a PB every year from his 2:13:54 debut in 2008 to his 2:08:35 in 2013 and twice under 2:09.  That 2:08:35 came at the 2013 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon, one of the classic races in Japanese marathon history, a brutal smackdown duel as Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) dropped a very large stone into the tranquil pond of Nakamoto's plans for his first marathon win.  After Moscow Nakamoto looked to be on the decline, with a 2:11:58 for 12th at the 2014 Fukuoka International Marathon marking his first-ever marathon finish outside the top ten, no marathons in 2015, and jus...

by Brett Larner 神野くん粘り強い。すごいわ。 #丸亀ハーフ pic.twitter.com/XZu299LBWY — roomie (@3runn9) February 5, 2017 Having lost his 1:00:24 Scottish national record after the Great Scottish Run was announced earlier this week to have been almost 150 m short, Callum Hawkins was out to prove he had done it for real when he lined up at today's Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon .  Against a field including sub-60 man Kenneth Kipkemoi of Kenya and a group of Japanese athletes aiming for the 1:00:25 Japanese national record led by 5000 m national record holder Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project) and 10000 m national record holder Kota Murayama (Team Asahi Kasei), Hawkins went to the front from the gun and never relented. After a relatively slow 14:20 opening 5 km, the next 5 km went by in 14:07 and shook the lead group down to ten including Hawkins, Kipkemoi, Kenyan Joel Mwaura of 2016 National High School Ekiden champion Kurashiki H.S. , Osako and three other Japanese men. ...