japan running news

Headwinds in the last 6.5 km and cold rain throughout kept the really fast times from happening as scheduled, but the 2019 Tokyo Marathon  still brought plenty of surprises. #1-ranked Birhanu Legese (Ethiopia) winning the men's race wasn't one of them. The lead pack blasted most of the first half sub-2:04 pace, only breaking up after rounding the 20 km turnaround. Early casualties included last year's 4th-place Gideon Kipketer (Kenya) and Asian record holder El Hassan El Abbassi (Bahrain), but just after the turnaround national record holder Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project) and 2018 Berlin Marathon 4th-placer Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) dropped back, Osako stopping shortly thereafter. The remaining six split into two trios. In the front group, defending champ Dickson Chumba (Kenya) fell back from Legese and Bedan Karoki (Kenya/DeNA) approaching 30 km before Legese took off after the final pacer said goodbye. On the way down to the 35.8 km turnaround Legese'...

The 2019 Tokyo Marathon is this Sunday. Storylines and subplots of this year’s race: The Women The Tokyo Marathon has its roots as an elite men-only race. It’s taken twelve years since 18-year-old Hitomi Niiya became its first female winner, for no prize money or recognition (“I got a nice finisher’s medal” she told JRN last week), for the Tokyo women’s race to get up to parity with the men’s. It’s been a slow, step-by-step process, but this year at last parity has been achieved. If anything the women’s field is better than the men’s. Even before the withdrawal of the top two men there were more high-level international women in the field than men, and that’s even more so now. Ethiopian power trio Ruti Aga , Boru Feyse Tadese and Yebrgual Melese all have the skills to better Sarah Chepchirchir ’s 2:19:47 course record and its likely replacement, last year’s 2:19:51 win by Birhane Dibaba , Aga talking 2:18:30 at the pre-race press conference. But with six other women in the f...

Following last Saturday's National Cross Country Championships , the JAAF has announced the rosters for next month's World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus, Denmark. The always-strong U20 Women's squad and sometimes-strong U20 Men's squad are solid, each featuring the top six from its race at Nationals led by junior national champions Ririka Hironaka (Nagasaki Shogyo H.S.) and Jun Kasai (Kansai Soka H.S.). The Senior Men's team is one of the better in recent years, with only Nationals 2nd-placer Kazuki Tamura (Sumitomo Denko) and 6th-placer Shota Onizuka (Tokai Univ.) giving the team a miss. In their places will run 7th-place Kosei Yamaguchi (Asian Kogyo), a steeplechase specialist, and Yusuke Nishiyama (Toyota), the fastest man on the team with a track 10000 m PB of 28:29.23. But the Senior Women's lineup is thin. Six of the top eight placers at Nationals were already on the Japanese national team for April's Doha Asian Championships , a...

On Mar. 26 it was learned that Kanto Gakuin University , which last qualified for the Hakone Ekiden in 2004, has hired female IAAF-certified coach Akari Kishikawa , 33, to join its coaching staff beginning Apr. 1. The Daiichi Seimei women's corporate team is led by head coach Sachiko Yamashita , 54, and the Ritsumeikan University and Josai University women's ekiden teams by assistant coaches Miyuki Tokura , 45, and Yukiko Akaba , 39, but it is virtually unheard of for a woman to be appointed to a university men's ekiden program staff. Kishikawa, who is qualified as a senior psychology counselor among other things, has a proven track record with two national titles to her name in the 800 m in 2010 and 2011. She will support Kanto Gakuin head coach Yoshitaka Nakagawa , 43, and is expected to play a key role in shaping a stronger team. At last October's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifying race Kanto Gakuin University finished only 23rd. Missing a qualifying spot b...

Running at the same meet where 2019 Hakone Ekiden champion Tokai University 's  Ryoji Tatezawa  broke the indoor mile national record last year, Tokai graduate  Nanami Arai (Honda) ran an Asian area record 3:56.60 for the win at Sunday's Boston University Last Chance Invitational. A teammate of half marathon national record holder Yuta Shtiara , Arai outkicked Olympic medalist Nick Willis  to record the fastest-ever mile indoor or outdoor by a Japanese athlete and take 0.45 off the Asian indoor record set way back in 1993 by Qatar's Mohamed Suleiman . Yasunari Kusu (Ami AC) was 11th in 4:07.21. Returning to the B.U. track two weeks after breaking the 5000 m indoor national record at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational , Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko) came up well short of Suguru Osako 's 3000 m indoor NR of 7:45.62, running 8:02.43 for 3rd. Boston University Last Chance Invitational Boston, U.S.A., 2/24/19 complete results Men's Mile 1. Nanami Arai (H...

The National Cross-Country Championships were the weekend's most competitive race, but half marathons were the main source of road action. Takumi Obara (Komazawa Univ.) ran the fastest time of the day to win the 41st Inuyama Half Marathon in 1:03:52, outrunning Shoya Kawase (Seigakkan Univ.) by two seconds. Kawase's run was a rare sub-64 from a university man outside the Kanto Region, holding off 3rd placer Shota Ezomori (Waseda Univ.) by four seconds. Honoka Sugiura (Chukyo Univ.) dominated the women's race by nearly a minute to win in 1:13:31. Daiji Kawai (Toenec) won Inuyama's 10 km division in a strong 29:01, with Honoka Wada (Nagano Higashi H.S.) the fastest woman at 33:50. At the 68th Kashima Yutoku Half Marathon , Ryuichi Hashimoto (Juntendo Univ.) won the men's race in 1:04:40, with Hiroko Yoshitomi (Memolead) taking the women's race in 1:15:01. Hikaru Kumagai (Raffine) ran almost the identical time to Hashimoto to win the 13th Fukaya City...

Japan held its 2019 National Cross Country Championships Saturday in Fukuoka, its primary selection race for next month's Aarhus World Cross-Country Championships . In the senior men's race, heavy favorite Kazuya Shiojiri (Juntendo Univ.) broke away from the field early, only to be run down midway by the 190-cm Yuta Bando (Hosei Univ.), who quickly broke Shiojiri and went ahead in the lead. With just a lap to go he was caught by brothers Kazuki Tamura (Sumitomo Denko) and Yusuke Tamura (Kurosaki Harima). With Kazuki Tamura constantly turning to call encouragement to his younger brother over his shoulder Bando had just enough downtime to attack in the last kilometer and get away for the win in 29:36. Kazuki Tamura was 2nd in 29:40 with Yusuke 3rd in 29:41. Waseda University first-year Yuhi Nakaya was 4th, with Yohei Komatsu and Shota Onizuka , two of the star members of 2019 Hakone Ekiden winner Tokai University , rounding out the top six and probable Aarhus senior me...

https://nyrr.org/media-center/press-releases/nine-olympians-and-nine-paralympians-to-lead-star-studded-professional-athlete-field-as-all-four-defending-champions-return-for-2019-united Japan's Ken Nakayama (Chuo Univ.) and Genki Kaneko (Josai Univ.) will run the Mar. 17 United Airlines NYC Half after taking the top two Japanese collegiate spots at November's Ageo City Half Marathon in school records of 1:01:32 and 1:02:16. photo © 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved