japan running news

Following up last weekend's NR-breaking Marugame Half where the top 24 men went under 61 minutes, today's National Corporate Half Marathon delivered another big one. Yuma Nishizawa (Toyota Boshoku) and Shadrack Kipchirchir (Chudenko) broke away from the pack mid-race and opened a substantial lead, but in the last few km Tsubasa Ichiyama (Sunbelx) closed the gap and passed them by. Ichiyama took almost a minute off his PB to win in 1:00:22, the 8th-fastest time ever by a Japanese man. Favorite Tatsuhiko Ito (Honda) closed hard to pass Nishizawa and Kipchirchir on the track but couldn't catch Ichiyama, 5 seconds behind in 2nd in 1:00:27 with Nishizawa right behind in 1:00:29 for 3rd. Coming off an injury in November that held him back at last month's New Year Ekiden , Ichiyama told JRN post-race, "This was a big confidence builder for my next race." That would be next month's Tokyo Marathon. The top 14 men were all under 61 minutes. Compared to that th...

Almost totally absent its usual winds, great conditions at the Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon produced overall fast times and a sub-2:10 winning time for the second year in a row. Last year Waseda University 's Yota Ifuku became the first man to break 2:10 in Nobeoka with a surprise 2:09:26 debut for the win. Ifuku was back as a pacer with 2:07 man Tetsuya Yoroizaka from the local national champion Asahi Kasei corporate team, taking the lead group through 30 km almost dead on 3:06/km pace. A lead group of 12 was still together at that point, but just over a kilometer later Jin Yuasa , solid at January's New Year Ekiden in his corporate league debut with the Toyota corporate team with a 2nd-place run on the 11.4 km Sixth Stage, went on the attack. Pre-race Yuasa had said that he planned to bide his time until a strategic uphill between 31 and 32 km, and that's exactly what he did. Pushing on the climb, Yuasa then rolled a 2:52 for the 33rd km to blow the pack apart. F...

A statement published by the organizers of the Tohoku Miyagi Fukko Marathon on their race website. JRN's Mika Tokairin  was involved with the organization of the first edition in 2017, and we traveled to the tsunami-hit areas that year to see the race. Read Tokairin's article on it here . In 2017 we launched the Tohoku Miyagi Fukko [reconstruction] Marathon along the coastal areas impacted by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami as part of an effort to support recovery and redevelopment of the area. Along the way there were cancelations due to typhoons and the COVID-19 pandemic, but even so the race returned in 2023 and 2024 with over 10,000 runners from all 47 of Japan's prefectures and from abroad. Participants praised the course, which let them see the progress of the ongoing recovery, the aid stations full of local flavor, and the warm hospitality of the volunteers. The support and cooperation of a wide range of people and organizations, including local ...

Winner of the 2016 Gold Coast Marathon and 4th in the 3000 m steeplechase at the 2011 Asian Championships, Sysmex corporate team athlete Misato Horie has retired following her run at the Feb. 2 Hyogo Prefecture Ekiden. Born in 1987, Horie's best achievement at Seiryo H.S. was making the Kinki Region championships. But after entering Mukogawa Joshi University and starting to run the 3000 m steeplechase she grew into one of Japan's top athletes with an 8th-place finish at the 2008 National Championships. After graduating she joined the Noritz corporate team, where she was 2nd at the 2011 National Championships in what was at the time an all-time Japanese #6 mark of 10:02.24. That put her on the team for that year's Asian Championships, where she placed 4th. 2 years later she took 6th at the 2013 Asian Championships. From 2015 on Horie focused on road racing, winning the 2016 Gold Coast Marathon in a then-CR 2:26:40 and following up with her career PB of 2:25:44 for 2nd ...

  The 47th Kanagawa Half Marathon took place Sunday in Yokohama on a course starting and finishing outside the Nissin Oil Group's Isogo factory. First across the finish line was the winner of December's Fukuoka International Half Marathon and Aoyama Gakuin University  alumnus  Yuya Yoshida  (GMO), who clocked 1:02:12. Aoyama Gakuin 3rd-year  Shunya Udagawa  was next in a 1:02:20 PB, with Yusei Tomita  of Nihon University  3rd in 1:02:20 and  Yumiki Kunigo  setting a Heisei Kokusai University  school record 1:02:24 for 4th. Last year's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon runner-up Yuta Shimoda , another Aoyama Gakuin graduate running for GMO, ran 1:02:43. Fresh off a 32:08 win in last week's Katsuta Marathon 10 km, Hakuho Joshi H.S.  3rd-year Jecinta Nyokabi  won the women's 10 km here too in 31:53. Elsewhere, Jun Kojima  of Ryutsu Keizai University  won the Moriya Half Marathon in Ibaraki in 1:03:48. Kana Numata ...

After running a debut and collegiate record of 2:06:07 at Sunday's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon as the last race of his career, Aoyama Gakuin University 4th-year Hiroki Wakabayashi said on Feb. 3 that he would consider keeping it going for the half year it would take if he is named to the Japanese team for September's Tokyo World Championships. Wakabayashi plans to retire and has already accepted a job at the Nihon Seimei insurance company. "If I'm named to the team I'll have to discuss it with the company," he said cautiously. Wakabayashi's time in Beppu-Oita was the 7th-fastest ever by a Japanese man and cleared the 2:06:30 Tokyo World Championships standard, positioning him as a candidate for the team. Having already accepted a job to start after his graduation next month, immediately post-race he said, "I ran this thinking of it as the last race of my career. I think I was able to run this kind of time because I knew it was the end of the road...

Another week and another big Japanese road race announces its elite field. This year's Osaka Marathon looks set to be a 2:05 race for the men, with Ronald Korir , Bethwel Kibet , Boniface Kimutai , Abdisa Tola , Derseh Kindie and Yihunilign Adane set to pull NR holder Kengo Suzuki to a good comeback and a crew of 2:06 Japanese men led by Paris Olympian Naoki Koyama and Yusuke Nishiyama to faster PBs. Osaka factors into men's team selection for this year's Tokyo World Championships, so expect it to go big. There are 4 sub-61 half marathoners on the debut list too, led by Ryota Kondo with a 1:00:32 at the 2023 National Corporate Half and last year's Corporate Half winner Shunsuke Shikama , 1:00:41. And hot on the heels of Hiroki Wakabayashi 's 2:06:07 collegiate and debut marathon record in Beppu-Oita on Sunday, his Aoyama Gakuin University teammate Asahi Kuroda , the top Japanese man on the Hakone Ekiden's competitive Second Stage last year and even fast...

As if the results in Marugame weren't enough, university runners played a major role in the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon too. Expectations were that last year's Osaka Marathon winner Kiyoto Hirabayashi , captain of this season's Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden winner Koku Gakuin University and who set the collegiate and debut marathon records of 2:06:18 in winning Osaka, was going to dominate the race and the massive lead pack keyed off him most of the way. By Beppu standards pacing was fast, skimming just under 3:00/km through a 1:03:17 first half and 1:29:48 at 30 km. The lead pack was still 9-deep at that point, with Kenyans Vincent Kipchumba and Dominic Nyairo , last year's winner Derese Workneh , and 6 Japanese men, 2 from Koku Gakuin, 2 from Hakone Ekiden winner Aoyama Gakuin University and 2 from the corporate leagues. Hirabayashi was quick to attack after the pacers stopped at 30 km, shaking off everyone except Kipchumba, 2:06:57 man Shohei Otsuk...