japan running news

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20140212-00000203-jij-spo http://mainichi.jp/sports/news/20140213k0000m050001000c.html translated and edited by Brett Larner On Feb. 12 Rikuren announced the lineup for the Japanese team for the Feb. 22 Asian Cross Country Championships in Fukuoka's Uminonakamichi Kaihin Park.  Held in conjunction with the Fukuoka International Cross Country Meet, the Asian Championships will consist of the senior men's 10 km, senior women's 6 km, junior men's 8 km and junior women's 6 km events. 2013 National Championships 5000 m champion Sota Hoshi  (Team Fujitsu) and runner-up Tetsuya Yoroizaka  (Team Asahi Kasei) lead the men's team in the 10 km, with National Championships 10000 m 3rd-place Ayumi Hagiwara  (Team Uniqlo) and marathon national collegiate record holder Sairi Maeda  (Bukkyo Univ.) topping the women's team for the 6 km division.  Thirteen countries are scheduled to compete, some of them fielding leading African ...

by Brett Larner Yoshihiro Wakamatsu  (Team Nissin Shokuhin), a graduate of Hakone Ekiden course record holder  Toyo University , won the final running of the historic Himejijo Road Race men's 10 miler on Feb. 11. Throwing in a surge at 7 km he easily broke away from the field, which included London Olympics marathoner Ryo Yamamoto  (Team SGH Group Sagawa), two-time Himejijo winner Kazuyoshi Tokumoto  (Team Monteroza), and Norihisa Imai  of Toyo's 2014 Hakone-winning squad, to open a gap of 30 seconds and claim the win unchallenged in 47:38. Tsukasa Morita (Team Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) was a solo 2nd in 48:08, his teammate Jun Shinoto , the 2006 national champion in the 3000 m steeplechase, winning a tight pack race for 3rd in 48:21. In the women's 5 km, Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.  went 1-2 with  Tomoka Iwai  winning in 16:24 over Tomoka Katada  in 16:28. The Himejijo Road Race is set to be transformed into a mass-participation marath...

by Brett Larner Teen sprint sensation Yoshihide Kiryu  (Rakunan H.S.) broke the Asian Junior Indoor 60 m record twice on day two of the National Indoor Track and Field Meet Feb. 9 in Osaka. Kiryu opened with a 6.63 in Heat Two to break the existing record, then returned an hour and fourteen minutes later to do it again with a 6.59 in the final .  The 6.59 moved him to all-time #2 in the Japanese record books behind Beijing Olympics 4x100 m bronze medalist Nobuharu Asahara .  The meet was one of Kiryu's last before graduating next month.  In April he will enter Saitama's Toyo University , home of the 2014 Hakone Ekiden champion team and London Olympics 20 km race walker Takumi Saito . (c) 2014 Brett Larner all rights reserved

by Brett Larner photo courtesy marumaruko1201 Record-breaking snowfall in eastern Japan all day Saturday meant the cancellation of virtually every Sunday race in the area, including the elite-level Chiba International Cross-Country Meet , and kept many Tokyo-region runners bound for races in the west at home. Of the races that did go off, in his marathon debut 2008 Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai 20 km winner Kazuki Tomaru  (Team Toyota) was the star of the day's most important race, the 52nd running of the Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon . With impeccable pacing from former Waseda University standout Yuki Yagi  (Team Asahi Kasei), who split 15:27, 15:26 and 15:26 for the first three 5 km segments, a large pack ran at around 2:10:30 pace, 45 seconds ahead of the event's course record.  The pace slowed slightly from 15 km to Yagi's departure at 25 km, but Tomaru quickly got to work with another 15:26 to get rid of the field.  Only Ryo Ishita  (SDF Academy) went aft...

by Brett Larner With heavy snow scheduled to hit most of the country on Saturday four races fill Sunday's calendar.   Chief among them is the 52nd edition of the Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon , a developmental race that has seen the debuts of the likes of Moscow World Championships marathon 5th-placer Kentaro Nakamoto  (Team Yasukawa Denki) and Hiroaki Sano  (Team Honda), the top Japanese man at last year's Chicago Marathon.   Sho Matsumoto  (Nikkei Business) leads the way with a 2:13:38 best from last year's Nobeoka, but look for challenges from debuting Hakone Ekiden Sixth Stage course record holder Kenta Chiba (Team Fujitsu) and Team Otsuka Seiyaku's ace rookie Yudai Yamakawa . Click here for a field listing and more info . The 54th Karatsu 10-miler sees Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref. Gov't) taking on sub-60 minute half marathoner Mekubo Mogusu  (Kenya/Team Nissin Shokuhin), Hiroyuki Uno  formerly of Hakone Ekiden course record sette...

h ttp://www.sanyo.oni.co.jp/feature/sports/other/2014/02/05/20140205113852.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Having developed  Kojokan H.S.  of Ihara, Okayama into an ekiden powerhouse with two National High School Girls Ekiden Championships titles under his leadership with an all-star cast of alumni including London Olympians Hitomi Niiya  (Team Univ. Ent.) and Risa Shigetomo  (Team Tenmaya), head coach Yoshitoshi Morimasa  has announced that he will leave the team to take over as head coach at the Toto women's corporate team in Kita-Kyushu beginning in April.  On Feb. 4 members of the Okayama athletics community and local residents in Ihara held an event to honor Morimasa for his many years of accomplishment.  With his successor still in training, Morimasa will remain associated with the team in an advisory capacity. Okayama Track and Field Association director Yasuhisa Kandatsu  hailed Morimasa, calling him, "The single biggest c...

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20140202-00000067-jij-spo http://373news.com/modules/pickup/index.php?storyid=54493 translated and edited by Brett Larner Having retired in December, 2009 World Championships marathon 6th-placer and half marathon national record holder Atsushi Sato  (35, Team Chugoku Denryoku) announced Feb. 2 that he will become head coach of the Kyocera  corporate women's team this spring.  Sato is the all-time fourth-fastest Japanese marathoner, with a best of 2:07:13, and ran the 2008 Beijing Olympics marathon.  He retired last year following December's Fukuoka International Marathon.  For some time he has been on leave from the Chugoku Denryoku company, training and working to develop local athletics in his native Fukushima.  Previous Kyocera head coach Yasunori Niihara  passed away on Dec. 20 due to an illness. Also announced was that Sato's wife, 800 m national record holder and Olympian Miho Sato , will join the team's s...

by Brett Larner Complete video of Marugame in eight parts.  Follow links in video above for rest of race. Japan's highest-level winter half marathon, the Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon took a little bit of a hit this year at the hands of the World Half Marathon Championships.  With the World Half moved to March, the National Corporate Half Marathon Championships, held the third weekend of March, were bumped back a month to Feb. 16, just two weeks after Marugame.  With both the men's and women's races at the Corporate Championships counting toward World Half selection but only the men's race in Marugame counting many corporate league runners gave Marugame a miss this year, especially on the women's side.  It's no surprise, then, that only one corporate runner finished in the top four in either the men's or women's races. Suzuki Hamamatsu AC , a former corporate team that quit the league a few years ago to let its runners focus on thin...