japan running news

by Brett Larner videos by aoshin0507 Two-time Olympic medalist, three-time World Championships medalist and national record holder Koji Murofushi  (Mizuno), 39, added an historic twentieth-straight men's hammer throw national title to his list of accomplishments, easily winning the 2014 Japanese National Track and Field Championships in Fukushima with a throw of 73.93 m.  Murofushi could have stopped after his opening throw and still won, runner-up  Hiroki Ako (Tottori T&F Assoc.) throwing 67.60 m, but with the Federation's A- and B-standards for this fall's Asian Games beckoning he continued on, building slightly on his distance over his next few throws before peaking at 73.93. Twenty-straight national titles, taking Murofushi all the way back to 1995, a time when this was the biggest hit in the land.  A true one-of-a-kind. Murofushi wasn't the only national record holder to come out on top on the second day of the National Championships.  Battlin...

by Brett Larner videos by aoshin0507 With heavy rain and wind hitting most of the country, collegiate road 10 km national record holder Kasumi Nishihara  (Team Yamada Denki) moved up the ranks with her first national title, winning the women's 10000 m in 32:37.23 to cap the first day of competition at the 2014 Japanese National Track and Field Championships in Fukushima.  In a close and tactical race that included most of the favorites from last year's record-setting edition, Nishihara and Yamada Denki teammate Shiho Takechi didn't move clear until the final lap, racing each other to the line with Nishihara claiming the national title by 0.46 seconds.  Favorite Ayumi Hagiwara (Team Uniqlo), showing vulnerability in recent races after a very strong winter season, was unable to match the YD pair's closing speed as she took 3rd in 32:41.56 with 4th through 11th places within ten seconds of her. In the day's only other distance event, 2007 men's 3000 mSC...

http://www.saitama-np.co.jp/news/2014/06/05/06.html http://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/sports/article/20140606000163 translated and edited by Brett Larner Civil servant runner and Kuki, Saitama resident Yuki Kawauchi , 27, attended an elementary school track and field meet in Kuki on June 6, encouraging the 6th grade student athlete representatives from all 23 elementary schools in the city.  Employed as an office worker at the prefecturally-operated Kuki High School, Kawauchi appeared at the meet before going to work.  It was his second time putting in a guest appearance, having also attended last year, and like last year he ran in the 1000 m together with students from each school.  As he ran he called out support and encouragement to the runners, saying, "Only one lap left!  Keep pushing!" One boy from Aoge Elementary School who ran together with Kawauchi said, "Mr. Kawauchi ran totally under control with energy to spare.  He's amazing!"  Another boy from ...

by Brett Larner click here for live streaming With the Japanese Federation getting serious about this fall’s Asian Games as Japan’s buildup to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics gets underway, Fukushima plays host to the 98th edition of the National Track and Field Championships this weekend. Several events have seen national records fall this season, and there is the potential for more including one key distance record. Friday Friday’s main long distance race is the women’s 10000 m. Last year Hitomi Niiya lapped the entire field to set a meet record of 31:06.67 for the win, but with Niiya apparently serious about her retirement last year’s 2nd through 4th-place finishers will have a go at succeeding her for the national title. 2013 runner-up Yuko Shimizu (Team Sekisui Kagaku) made a decent marathon debut at London in April and will be returning to the track for her first major race since then. Ayumi Hagiwara (Team Uniqlo) has run big for most of the year since finishing 3rd behing...

by Brett Larner Fujiwara photo c/o Arata Project Kawauchi photo by Arata Fujiwara For its first running as an IAAF gold label event, Australia's Gold Coast Airport Marathon has announced that 2:07:48 Olympian  Arata Fujiwara (Miki House) will face his greatest rival, defending Gold Coast champion and course record co-holder  Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref. Gov't), at this year's race on July 6.  As the two independents who have changed the face of modern Japanese men's marathoning, Fujiwara and Kawauchi should bring the fireworks to light up one of the summer's best races.  Or winter, depending on your point of view. The only Japanese man in the last 27 years to win a marathon outside Japan sub-2:10, Fujiwara had a nearly undefeated record against Kawauchi going into last fall, starting the season by beating him at the Great North Run and Hakodate Half Marathon.  Since then he's had three straight losses, losing to Kawauchi at Fukuoka, the Sendai Ha...

http://www.hochi.co.jp/topics/20140530-OHT1T50305.html translated by Brett Larner Accused of aiding attempted murder in the 1995 Tokyo Metropolitan Government mail bomb incident, former Aum Shinrikyo cult member Naoko Kikuchi , 42, underwent questioning May 30 at her trial in Tokyo about her time in the cult, infamous for the 1995 sarin nerve gas attacks in the Tokyo subway system.  It was her first time making remarks in the trial since May 8.  In her comments she touched upon her marathon training as part of the cult's "World Record Achievement Division," looking back on the harshness of the training as she said, "I had to run carrying a 10 kg weight, and when I was finished running I would do 1000 squats." As the first day of questioning of the defendant, all questions came from the defense side.  At the beginning of her comments Kikuchi apologized to victims of the bombing incident, saying, "It had a tremendous impact on people's lives, and fo...

by Brett Larner photo by shinopota In his sixth marathon so far in 2014 Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) scored his fourth marathon course record win of the year at Sunday's Chitose JAL International Marathon , running  2:15:57  to take more than 2 1/2 minutes off the record he set last year. Pre-race he told JRN, "I'm going for the course record, and unless I fall apart near the end it won't be a problem."  In warm temperatures on a tough course including a 155 m climb near halfway and extensive gravel and dirt road sections Kawauchi had little trouble living up to those words and doing away with both his own record and the competition. Runner-up Sho Matsumoto (Arata Project), a 2:13 marathoner in 2013, was almost eight minutes back in 2:23:50.  In breaking 2:20 Kawauchi cleared another historic mark, setting a new Japanese record of 35 career sub-2:20 marathons and taking the great Takeshi Soh off the books. Women's winner Hiroko Yoshito...

by Brett Larner Japan-based Kenyans Paul Tanui  (Team Kyudenko) and Bedan Karoki  (DeNA RC) ran big at the U.S.' Prefontaine Classic 10000 m, both setting new sub-27 PBs for 2nd and 3rd behind winner Galen Rupp 's new 26:44.36 American record.  Tanui, the Moscow World Championships 10000 m bronze medalist and fastest in the world going into the race with a 27:16.75 two weeks ago at the Kyushu Corporate Track and Field Championships, ran next to Rupp in the front pack for the entire race, twice going to the front in the late going before Rupp got away on the last lap.  Tanui first broke 27 at Prefontaine three years ago.  Today he took just over a second off his best from that race with a 26:49.41 PB. Karoki, who runs for the Toshihiko Seko -coached DeNA  corporate team in central Tokyo and set a 1:00:02 course record at the Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon less than two weeks ago, started more conservatively in the second pack before working his way up to joi...