Skip to main content

Posts

Kiryu Leads Record-Breaking National University Championships

by Brett Larner video by  ekiden news This weekend's National University Individual Championships , held annually at Shonan BMW Stadium in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa south of Tokyo are an anomaly on the Japanese collegiate calendar, no relays or team competition, just individual competition from universities across the country, occupying the place where you would expect the equivalent of NCAAs but relatively minor compared to both May's Kanto Regionals and Kansai Regionals meets and September's National University Championships.  Especially in the distance events, top talent rarely competes there.  Not so this year. Men's 100 m junior national record holder Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.) whipped up a storm of excitement when he tied his legal best in the semi-final, running a collegiate national record 10.01 with a +1.8 m/s tailwind.  Kiryu's time broke the existing meet record by 0.18 seconds and met the JAAF's selection standard for the Rio Olympics, giving him...
Post a Comment
Read more

'Japan Emerge on Top - 17th Asian Junior Athletics 2016'

http://www.athleticsasia.org/index.php/k2-component/113-japan-emerge-on-top-17th-asian-junior-athletics-2016 Japan's distance medals at the Ho Chi Minh Asian Junior Championships included the women's 1500 m silver, women's 3000 m gold, women's 3000 mSC gold, men's and women's 5000 m gold and silver and men's 10000 m gold. Final Medal Tally - 17th Asian Junior Athletics Championships 1. Japan - gold: 13     silver: 10     bronze: 4 2. China - gold: 11     silver: 7     bronze: 4 3. India - gold: 7     silver: 4     bronze: 6 4. Malaysia - gold: 3     silver: 3     bronze: 1 5. Taiwan - gold: 2     silver: 3     bronze: 4 6. Thailand - gold: 2     silver: 3     bronze: 4 7. Vietnam - gold: 2     silver: 3     bronze: 2 8. Qatar - gold: 2     silver: 2     bronz...
Post a Comment
Read more

The State of the Gold Standard: IAAF Gold Label Times at Spring 2016 Marathons Worldwide

by Brett Larner Last weekend's Ottawa Marathon marked the effective end of the spring marathon season, apart from July's Gold Coast Airport Marathon , and of course the Rio Olympics , the last IAAF gold label marathon until September.  Gold label events are required to recruit elite athletes of a variety of nationalities under specific time standards, currently 2:10:00 for men and 2:28:00 for women, in order to earn that label.  There's no question that at its very front end the London Marathon men's race was the best of the season, but using these standards to look at the number of men and women running gold label times, what the IAAF has decreed to be the top level of the sport, what were the best marathons in the first five months of 2016 by depth of quality? Below are the top ten marathons worldwide this season by number of men under 2:10, number of women under 2:28, and by combined men's and women's numbers under the gold label time standard.  Where r...
Post a Comment
Read more

Weekend Overseas Road Race Japanese Results

by Brett Larner 2014 Incheon Asian Games marathoner Eri Hayakawa (Team Toto) ran Sunday's Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Half Marathon, finishing 3rd in 1:14:10 behind American Rio Olympics marathoners Shalane Flanagan and Amy Cragg .  Japan's Eri Okubo ran into trouble early at Saturday's Stockholm Marathon, dropping out just halfway through the race.  Okubo started slow, averaging around 4:00/km through 15 km, before dropping to slower than 6:00/km through 20 km and then dropping out.  Jane Moraa Onyangi (Kenya) won the women's race in 2:31:46, with countryman Stanley Kipchirchir Koech taking the men's race in 2:10:58. Ai Utsunomiya (Team Miyazaki Ginko) had more success in the Czech Republic, finishing 4th in the women's race at the Mattoni České Budějovice Half Marathon in 1:13:57.  Ashete Bekere (Ethiopia) won in 1:10:40.  Two of Japan's better male athletes, London Olympian Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) and 2016 National XC Champi...
Post a Comment
Read more