japan running news

translated and edited by Brett Larner Yuki Kawauchi at work a day after the Tokyo Marathon as media look on. Click here to enlarge . Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, Long Distance and Road Racing Special Committee chief Toshio Kiuchi and other executive members of the Japanese athletics federation traveled to Kasukabe, Saitama on Mar. 2 to pay a formal visit to Yuki Kawauchi , 23, the amateur runner who qualified for August's World Championships marathon team by placing 3rd overall and top Japanese at the Feb. 27 Tokyo Marathon. "Since he is not affiliated with a corporate team, we had to talk about what the future holds," said Kiuchi. The federation dignitaries asked administration officials at Kasukabe High School, where Kawauchi is employed as an administrative assistant, for their help and support in getting Kawauchi to the World Championships. In order to minimize the strain caused by the sudden rush of media attention upon Kawauchi, one of the main topics ...

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/news/20110228-OYT1T00190.htm?from=y10 http://www.daily.co.jp/general/2011/02/28/0003832907.shtml http://mytown.asahi.com/areanews/saitama/TKY201102270461.html "Amateur Kawauchi 3rd" by Daisuke Yamaguchi, Nikkei Newspaper 2/28/11 translated and edited by Brett Larner Update: Reader vilagoiberia sent me a link to this video of the last 6.5 km of Kawauchi's run. Kawauchi with his bronze medal, after regaining consciousness. Click photo to enlarge. He did it, he's on the national team. At the Feb. 27 Tokyo Marathon, Yuki Kawauchi , 23, an administrative worker at Saitama Prefectural Kasukabe High School, ran 2:08:37 to finish as the top Japanese man and 3rd overall. In so doing he secured a place on the Japanese national team for this summer's World Championships in Daegu, Korea, earning joyful respect and praise from those connected to him. Kawauchi began working for the Saitama Prefectural Government in April, 2009, taking a job as an...

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20130526-OHT1T00149.htm translated by Brett Larner 6098 people completed the May 26 Kurobe Meisui Half Marathon .  First among them was the race's star invited athlete, civil servant runner Yuki Kawauchi  (26, Saitama Pref. Gov't), who set a new course record of 1:03:58 in taking the win.  In 26-degree temperatures Kawauchi ran head-to-head against locally-based corporate team YKK's ace, Naohiro Yamada , 28.  Suddenly taking off at the 13 km point, Kawauchi shot away from Yamada and ran all-out for the final 8 km to secure the win and record. The race was Kawauchi's fifth half marathon this month, but despite the accumulated fatigue and the 26-degree heat he obliterated the 1:04:46 record set in 2010 by YKK's Tetsuo Nishikawa .  "It was really hot out there," Kawauchi said afterward.  "I drank at every water station."  After finishing he poured cups of water over his head, thirstily gulping down Ku...

http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASGCY4W7ZGCYUTNB003.html http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20141130-00000102-spnannex-spo http://www.hochi.co.jp/event/sports/20141130-OHT1T50268.html translated and edited by Brett Larner The 3rd Hasuda Road Race took place Saturday, Nov. 29 on a course around Kurohama Park in Hasuda, Saitama, with around 3000 people showing their stuff in the event's 10 km and 3 km races.  The official representative of Saitama prefecture, civil servant runner Yuki Kawauchi was back again in the 3 km this year for the third-straight time, first across the finish line in 8:47 after running 8:50 last year and 8:44 two years ago in Hasuda's first running.  Before and after the race he was all smiles, high fiving other runners all around.  "I love this course," he said.  "It's always great to run here." 3 km participant Mitsuyo Kubo of Iruma, Saitama, commented, "I get to meet a fantastic runner like Mr. Kawauchi, so I enter thi...

by Brett Larner In his marathon debut, Kenyan-born Ali Hassan Mahboob (Bahrain) completed a total and 100% sweep of the 2014 Asian Games long distance gold medals by African-born athletes running for Bahrain, Qatar and the U.A.E., outkicking Japan's Kohei Matsumura and Yuki Kawauchi on the last lap of the track to win in 2:12:38. As a multiple Asian Games gold medalist with a 27:21.40 best for 10000 m Mahboob was a clear danger despite it being his debut, and the danger built steadily as he kept himself at the very rear of the lead pack of ten through the slow first 25 km.  With only a 2:15:09 best South Korea's Si-Hwan Noh took it upon himself to lead at mid-2:13 pace from the start, followed closely by Kenyan Bahraini Aadam Ismaeel Khamis , a 2:07:59 runner who had managed only 2:15:37 in the last two years.  The popular favorite Kawauchi was obviously keying off Khamis, staying right behind him whenever Khamis moved forward or backward.  Kawauchi's friend and...

For the last few years Ethiopia's Tsegaye Kebede and Japan's Yuki Kawauchi have been in a race to erase serial marathoner great Abebe Mekonnen from the record books. At one point Mekennon held a controlling share of the sub-x marathon world records, the number of times an athlete ran under 2:** in their career. Kebede has been taking Mekonnen's records away from the faster end and Kawauchi from the slower, finally meeting each other at the sub-2:12 level. Kawauchi got there first, tying Mekonnen's record of 22 at May's Prague Marathon. With his 2:09:18 at Sunday's Gold Coast Airport Marathon Kawauchi took away Mekonnen's last record as he marked his 23rd career sub-2:12, the first man in history to run such depth at quality. His Gold Coast performance extended Kawauchi's range to every record from sub-2:12 to sub-2:19. Looking ahead, he is now 8 races away from tying American Doug Kurtis ' record of 76 career sub-2:20 marks. With 6 more marat...

by Brett Larner photos by Dr. Helmut Winter Ndambiri for the win. Click photo for video highlights courtesy of KBC TV.   Click here for a sequence of photos from throughout the race via KBC . In many ways the 65th Fukuoka International Marathon played out according to script, but in the details it worked out to be the most memorable edition since Samuel Wanjiru 's debut in 2007.  Longtime Japan resident and 10000 m all-comers record holder Josphat Ndambiri  (Kenya/Team Komori Corp.) made a good transition to the marathon, winning his debut in a solid 2:07:36.  Veteran James Mwangi  (Kenya/Team NTN) took two minutes off his four-year-old PB to finish an elated 2nd in 2:08:38.  And in the Japanese men's race for an Olympic spot, what initially looked like a replay of amateur Yuki Kawauchi 's thrilling come-from-behind run at Tokyo in February turned into a brutal, knockdown battle of surges between pre-race favorites Kawauchi and former Hakone Ekiden...

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

2017 saw Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) saw him extending his range at both ends of his spectrum with two sub-2:10s, breaking Ethiopian great Abebe Mekonnen 's world record for most career sub-2:12 marathons, and, in his final race of the year, tying American Doug Kurtis ' sub-2:20 world record. Along the way he set at least 10 course records, won 5 marathons, and took the top Japanese spot at 9th in the London World Championships, altogether making for one of the better years he's had so far. Based on the assumption that his performance at the 2016 Fukuoka Marathon, the " Miracle in Fukuoka ," was going to be enough to get him on the London team Kawauchi spent the New Year running on the London course and in preparation for August's World Championshps planned to run one overseas marathon a month starting in April. He tuned up at February's amateur-level Ehime Marathon, where an unexpectedly aggressive debut by local boy Yohei Suzuki (Wased...

by Brett Larner Despite wintry conditions, Yuki Kawauchi shaved 9 seconds off his last year's time to win today's @zurichmarathon ! pic.twitter.com/35Zj5spg0O — Chris Godfrey (@runningbydoing) April 24, 2016 Overcoming tough conditions that saw 19 of the 35 elite athletes in the combined men's and women's elite fields drop out, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) led almost start to finish to score his first-ever European win at Sunday's Zurich Marathon .  With snow starting just before the race began and peaking out with 1 cm accumulation 40 minutes in Kawauchi, 2nd last year in 2:12:13 and running again with support from JRN, pushed it from the gun in hopes of a sub-2:10 win.  Pacer Edwin Kiprop Korir (Kenya), tasked with taking the race out on track for 2:09:24, slipped on a corner at 3 km and twisted his ankle, holding on through 5 km before falling behind and leaving Kawauchi to do the heavy lifting. Followed closely by Ethiopians Abere Belay a...

2013 was a big year for JRN, with total views since JRN's founding in 2007 crossing the one million mark in June and closing in on 1.5 million by year's end.  Needless to say, much of the readership revolved around the adventures of  Japan's most popular indy runner  Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref. Gov't), who factored into eight of our thirteen most-read stories of the year including all of the top three. 1. Mathathi Makes Transition to Marathon in Fukuoka, Kawauchi 3rd in Third Sub-2:10 of 2013  - Dec. 1 2007 Osaka World Championships 10000 m bronze medalist Martin Mathathi (Kenya/ Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) made a successful return to the marathon with the second-fastest-ever closing split on the Fukuoka course, while Kawauchi became the first Japanese man to break 2:10 three times in one year.   Click here for JRN's race preview . 2. Kawauchi Over Nakamoto in 2:08:15 Beppu-Oita Course Record  - Feb. 3 Kawauchi and London Olympian Kentaro Nakamoto ...