japan running news

http://svr.sanyo.oni.co.jp/feature/sports/road/2011/11/29/20111129104730.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Reaching its 30th anniversary this year, the Dec. 23 Sanyo Ladies Road Race half marathon and 10 km has announced its elite field.  Led by Daegu World Championships marathon 5th-place finisher Yukiko Akaba  (Team Hokuren) and local Kojokan H.S. graduate Hitomi Niiya  (Sakura AC), the assembled field is without a doubt the most brilliant in the event's history. In the Yuko Arimori Cup Half Marathon, Akaba receives top billing.  Her Daegu teammate Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) will also line up along with last year's 2nd and 4th-place finishers Yoko Miyauchi  (Team Kyocera) and Kaori Urata  (Team Tenmaya) and last year's 10 km winner Sally Chepyego  (Kenya/Team Kyudenko).  Veterans including 1998 10 km division winner Yuri Kano  (Team Shiseido) and Athens Olympics marathoner Naoko Sakamoto  (Team Tenmaya) are on the ent...

by Brett Larner Click photo for video highlights of men's 5000 m. The final day of track and field competition at the 2011 World University Games brought the biggest round of distance racing, with the women's and men's half marathon and the men's 5000 m final all taking place Aug. 21.  Both half marathons were slow and tactical as the athletes dealt with the morning heat and humidity.  The women's half went out in 18:59 for the first 5 km, a pace which kept the entire field together.  A split of 18:39 for the next 5 km dropped a few of the weaker runners, but a 17:42 split from 10 to 15 km cut the field down to seven, including all four Japanese runners.  China's Xiaoli Jiang  and Japan's Shiho Takechi  were unable to keep this pace and fell away from the lead pack.  Of the remaining five, only North Korean Un Ok Ro  could maintain pace as she ran 17:43 from 15 to 20 km to open a narrow lead she carried all the way to gold in 1:16:38.  Ch...

by Brett Larner Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) takes the men's Grand Prix 10000 m in a world-leading 27:23.85. Click event headers in results below for complete video of other events. In the wake of a spate of road race cancellations following last month's disasters, the 10000 m was the focus of this year's Hyogo Relay Carnival, Apr. 23-24 at Kobe's Universiade Memorial Stadium. In addition to the regularly-programmed men's and women's Grand Prix 10000 m and the men's Asics Challenge 10000 m, effectively the meet's B-heat, this year's race featured an additional 10000 m for university men looking to qualify for the 10000 m at this summer's World University Games and a separate men's and women's 10000 m qualifier for the World University Games half marathon. With a shortage of quality 10000 m races worldwide the focus in the Grand Prix and Asics Challenge 10000 m events for both Japanese runners and Japan-resident Africans w...

by Brett Larner Led by stage record performances by its pair of aces, 2010 national university 5000 m Kasumi Nishihara and national 10000 m collegiate record holder Hikari Yoshimoto , Bukkyo University won the 2010 National University Women's Ekiden on Oct. 24, covering the six-stage, 38.6 km distance in a new course record time of 2:02:44. Perpetual rivals Ritsumeikan University were second in a strong 2:04:20 after trailing Bukkyo from the start. Bukkyo's Chinami Mori started things off with a 14-second lead over Ritsumeikan on the 5.8 km First Stage, and from there Bukkyo's next three runners progressively extended the lead to 1:18 thanks in large part to Nishihara's 28:56 stage record on the 9.1 km Third Stage. Ritsumeikan's Akane Yabushita managed to make a dent with a 12:38 stage record on the 4.0 km Fifth Stage, but anchor Yoshimoto delivered the win in style as she outran Ritsumeikan anchor Machiko Iwakawa by 50 seconds, running a new stage record of 25:...

by Brett Larner This weekend saw eight major meets across Japan, two university regionals and six corporate team regionals. With too many results to list in detail JRN gives you a quick review of the major performances starting with the university meets. Click each meet or event for complete results. Kanto Regional University Championships , Tokyo: Detailed in a separate article with video links , Kenyans Benjamin Gando (Nihon Univ.) and Duncan Mozay (Takushoku Univ.) took both windy men's 10000 m heats, Gando in 28:27.18 and Mozay in 29:15.43. The top seven in the A-heat broke 29 minutes, including two Waseda University frosh, Suguru Osako and Fuminori Shikata . Both 18 year-olds now have PBs in the 28:30's, boding well for Waseda's chances this year. Osako lost out in a three-way sprint finish against Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Meiji Univ.) and Ryuji Kashiwabara (Toyo Univ.) who finished 2-3 with Yoroizaka taking 21 seconds off his PB to clock 28:34.12. The women's 1000...

by Brett Larner It was a familiar story: clocking an unprecedented fourth-straight new stage record at the major national university women's championship Morinomiyako Ekiden , ace senior Kazue Kojima led Ritsumeikan University, except for 2005 when it was 2nd the national champion every year since 2003, to break its own course record by nearly two minutes. But there was something strange. TV cameras showed Ritsumeikan's women crying and devastated at the finish. What had gone wrong? The answer: cross-town rival Bukkyo University had beaten them by another margin of nearly two minutes to take its first-ever national title. Bukkyo's performance was just a few degrees off perfection. First Stage runner Mai Ishibashi took a slow first half before taking off in the second half to win the leg by 2 seconds over Ritsumeikan's Hanae Tanaka. From there on every Bukkyo runner just went out hell-bent at 100% from the start, recklessly running stage-record pace and daring Ritsumeika...