japan running news

After a rough start to the season last month at the Izumo Ekiden , Tokai University lived up to its #1 ranking as it held off defending national champion Aoyama Gakuin University on the anchor stage of the National University Men's Ekiden to win its first national title in 16 years. In a lot of ways it was one of the more chaotic major university ekidens in recent memory, with almost every team that ended up on the eight-deep podium suffering at least one disastrous stage that saw one of its runners finish in the double digit placings on stage time. But over Nationals' full eight-stage, 106.8 km course these seemed to cancel each other out, the expected top nine teams all landing in the top ten with one unexpected interloper. A bizarrely slow First Stage, 15:20 through 5 km, resulted in a predictably blazing last 4.5 km, with last year's Second Stage winner Tomoya Ogikubo (Josai Univ.) getting away to hand off in 1st in 27:49 almost 10 seconds up on top two-ranked...

Ekiden season rolls on Sunday with the second stop on the Big Three university men's ekiden tour, the National University Men's Ekiden Championships . TV Asahi will broadcast all the action live from 7:45 to 13:40 local time, with English coverage on @JRNLive . Last year Aoyama Gakuin University ran down favorite Tokai University on the second to last stage to score the win. AGU is down on strength this year, while Tokai is stronger than ever. It should be far ahead of every other team in the field, but at the season-opening Izumo Ekiden Tokai showed the same kind of vulnerability that lost it the national title last year. #2-ranked Komazawa University should be there ready to take over the moment Tokai falters. Tokai and Komazawa are the only two schools in the field with eight-man PB averages under 14 minutes for 5000 m, sub-29 for 10000 m, and under 63 minutes for the half marathon. Behind the two favorites there's a gap back to 3rd. At Izumo the shorter ...

https://apnews.com/e1f0c66f993546269d8e5f90684c062f

The first men's race in the Final Challenge wildcard series to steal the third spot on the Sapporo 2020 Olympic marathon team from national record holder Suguru Osako (ex-Nike Oregon Project), the Dec. 1  Fukuoka International Marathon has brought in just the right people to support any Japanese men ambitious enough to take a shot at breaking Osako's record. You've got 2:05:26 Moroccan El Mahjoub Dazza and pacing from longtime Japanese resident and newly minted 2:05:53 man Bedan Karoki among others. Add in Seville winner Tsedat Abeje Ayana of Ethiopia, Belgian European marathon champion Koen Naert , Pan-Am Games champ Christian Pacheco of Peru, debuting Kenyan Shadrack Kiplagat and a few others and it's a quality field up front to be sure. Just about the only two Japanese men in the field who might give the Final Challenge a serious swing is Taku Fujimoto , a Toyota teammate and training partner of last year's winner Yuma Hattori with a 2:07:57 best to h...

On the final day of the International Olympic Committee coordination commission meeting in Tokyo, top-level talks between the IOC, Tokyo Olympic Games Organizing Committee, Japan Olympic Committee, Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Japanese National Government on the IOC's plan to move the 2020 Tokyo Olympics marathons and race walks to Sapporo convened at noon. IOC coordination commission chairperson John Coates decreed, "Regarding the marathons and race walk events, it is the IOC that has the authority to determine whether an event venue will be changed. Taking into consideration the expenses already incurred by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and local organizing committee, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government will not be asked to pay for any additional expenses. There will be no further venue changes." Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike replied somewhat antagonistically, "Am I allowed to speak on this, sir, or am I only allowed to say yes or no?" Coates elev...

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1086470/tokyo-governor-marathon-ioc-criticism

On Oct. 30 it was learned that based on the premise of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics marathons and race walks being moved to Sapporo as a safeguard against hot temperatures, the IAAF and other involved parties have proposed two plans to compress the five events into three days. Both plans call for the men's and women's marathons to be held the same day. In the first plan the men's and women's 20 km race walks would be held Aug. 7, with the men's 50 km race walk held Aug. 8. Originally scheduled for Aug. 2, the women's marathon would be held the same day as the men's marathon on Aug. 9. In the second plan, the five events would be held either July 27 to 29 or 28 to 30. The men's and women's marathons would be held the same day, but which day they would be held has not been specified. Under this plan the road events would take place prior to the start of track and field competition at Tokyo's new Olympic Stadium on July 31, making it possible to av...

On Oct. 30 the JAAF announced a team of three men and three women for the Asian Athletics Association's 17th Asian Marathon Championships to be held Dec. 22 in Dongguan, China. Times listed are athletes' best performances in the last three years. Men Daichi Kamino (Cell Source) - 2:10:18 (Tokyo 2018) Ryoichi Matsuo (Asahi Kasei) - 2:13:26 (Nobeoka 2019) Koki Tanaka (Kanebo) - 2:13:36 (Hokkaido 2019) Women Mao Uesugi (Starts) - 2:28:02 (Nagoya 2019) Marie Imada (Iwatani Sangyo) - 2:29:35 (Saitama 2018) Mirai Waku (Universal Entertainment) - 2:33:37 (Nagoya 2019) © 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved