japan running news

In the absence of a full Ethiopian U20 contingent after visa issues, the U20 women's squad led the way for the Japanese team at this year's World Cross Country Championships with a team bronze medal. Yui Onotora had the best individual Japanese placing across any of the day's races at 14th to lead Japan's U20 women, with scoring members Wakana Fukuyama , Mona Utsunomiya and Mei Hosomi all making the top 30. But with Ethiopian women going 1-2-5 they would surely have knocked Japan out of the medals if they'd been able to field a full team. Led by Haruki Niizuma in 15th, the U20 men had the next-best Japanese team placing at 6th, although they also benefitted by one place from the lack of a full Ethiopian team. Junsei Murakami was the only other Japanese runner in the race to make top 30, finishing 21st. The mixed relay team of Takumi Shiobara , Yuzu Nishide , Kiyoto Ono and Momoa Yamada was 10th out of 15, while the senior men took 12th led by Ryuto Igawa in...

Alongside the National High School Girls Ekiden , the Nittai University Women's Long Distance Time Trials meet and Sanyo Ladies Road Race 10 km and half marathon made it a busy weekend for women's running in Japan. At Nittai, Momoka Kawaguchi (Uniqlo) was just off her PB in the 5000 m, winning the A-heat in 15:26.59 by almost 20 seconds over teammate Yume Goto . Nokoka Hosaka (SID Group) took the 3000 m A-heat in 9:25.42, leading the top 5 under 9:30. At Sanyo, a lead group of 4 went through 5 km in 16:09 in the 10 km before Lucy Nduta (Ehime Ginko) threw in a massive surge to win in a negative split 31:49. Janet Nyiva (Panasonic) held steady for 2nd in 32:17, with Mao Uesugi (Tokyo Metro) fading slightly but holding off the fast-closing Hikaru Kitagawa (Universal Entertainment) for 3rd 32:38 to 32:41. Part of the original lead quartet, Daisy Jerop (Josai Kokusai Univ.) blew up big time in the 2nd half, finishing 16th in 33:34. Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) just misse...

Following the track 5000 m held last weekend to pick the lineup for the U20 teams at January's Tallahassee World Cross Country Championships, the JAAF has announced its complete team lineup . The senior men's team features sub-28 runners Ryuto Igawa and Daiki Ozawa , with 31-minute women Momoka Kawaguchi and Wakana Itsuki lead the senior women's squad. The U20 men's team features 6 sub-14 high schoolers led by Haruki Niizuma with a 13:35.33 best, while at 15:27.28 Mei Hosomi leads a U20 women's team made up of a mix of high school runners, collegiate athletes and corporate leaguers. The complete team lineup with track 5000 m / 10000 m bests: Senior Men's 10 km Ryuto Igawa (Asahi Kasei) - 27:39.05 Daiki Ozawa (Fujitsu) - 27:55.74 Hiroto Yoshioka (Juntendo Univ.) - 28:08.02 Yuma Shimoo (NTN) - 28:27.52 Senior Women's 10 km Momoka Kawaguchi (Uniqlo) - 31:57.81 Wakana Itsuki (Kraftia) - 31:58.59 Sora Shinozakura (Yokohama T&F Assoc.) - 32:24.50 Mitsu ...

Japan's National Cross Country Championships happened Saturday in Fukuoka, maybe the earliest selection race in the world for next January's World XC Championships in Florida. The senior men's 10 km lived up to the hype with a 4-way race between 3000 m SC NR holder Ryuji Miura , 10000 m NR holder Kazuya Shiojiri , sub-28 man Ryuto Igawa and Hakone Ekiden downhill specialist Aoi Ito . It came down to a sprint finish between Miura and Igawa, with Miura getting the win 28:24 to 28:25 and Shiojiri a few steps back in 28:29. Considering that the National Corporate Road 10 km Championships two weeks ago were won with a time over 29 minutes, times were fast overall with the top 6 under 29 minutes. The senior women's 8 km was a pack race most of the way, with one of the favorites Momoka Kawaguchi pulling away for the win in 26:25. 6th-place Wakana Itsuki was only 10 seconds behind 2nd-placer Sora Shinozakura , who clocked 26:31, showing what a close race it was. Anna Suzuki...

The Inuyama Half Marathon and National Cross Country Championships are happening Sunday, with Japan's team for March's Belgrade World Cross Country Championships to be mostly drawn from top placers in the different divisions at Nationals. It's being streamed above starting at 10:20 local time, with fields including Takuya Hanyu , Ryuto Igawa , Hazuma Hattori , Yuta Bando , Tomonori Yamaguchi and Masato Imai in the senior men's 10 km, Momoka Kawaguchi , Nana Kuraoka and Chika Kosakai in the senior women's 8 km, Sota Orita , Ryuto Kawahara , Tetsu Sasaki , Shunsuke Kuwata and Soma Nagahara in the junior men's 8 km, and Narumi Okumoto and Nodoka Ashida in the junior women's 6 km. But the main race Sunday is the Osaka Marathon . One of the world's biggest mass-participation marathons, Osaka has deep elite fields especially on the men's side. That's not surprising since for Japanese men it's one of the designated races where they have a...

Entry lists are out for the Feb. 11 N ational Corporate Half Marathon and 10 km Championships in Yamaguchi. The third big half marathon in 3 weeks following Osaka and Marugame, entries are thin on the women's side with no recent sub-1:10 entrants in the half. Rinka Hida (Daiichi Seimei) has the best recent time at 1:10:10 from Osaka last year, with Ikumi Fukura (Otsuka Seiyaku) and Wakana Itsuki (Kyudenko) both coming in under 1:10:30. Momoka Kawaguchi (Uniqlo) is the best in women's 10 km with a track 10000 m best of 31:57.81. Last year's 3rd-placer Ryota Kondo (Mitsubishi Juko) is one of four men on the list with recent bests under 1:01, his 1:00:32 having come at last year's National Corporate Half along with those from Keijiro Mogi (Asahi Kasei) and Takashi Nanba (Toenec). 2:06 marathoner Kazuya Nishiyama (Toyota) is also in the mix with a 1:00:41 here two years ago. Shunsuke Shikama (Logisteed) and New Year Ekiden First Stage winner Naoki Ota (Yakult) ha...

Japan dominated day 2 of the Bangkok Asian Athletics Championships Thursday, winning 3 gold, 6 silver and 3 bronze medals across 10 events. The biggest news was in the men's 400 m final, where Kentaro Sato ran an all-time JPN #2 45.00 for the win and Fuga Sato an all-time JPN #5 45.13 for silver. Both were well back from Asian record holder Yousef Ahmed Masrahi of Saudi Arabia coming into the home straight, but with stunning kicks they pulled up into the medals, in Fuga's case going all the way from 5th to 2nd. Masrahi was in the bronze position in a season best 45.19. Another 1-2 finish for Japan came in the women's 10000 m. Haruka Kokai was part of a breakaway trio with Kenya-born Kazakhstani Caroline Chepkoech Kipkirui and Mongolian NR holder Munkhzaya Bayartsogt , while Momoka Kawaguchi held back in the second group warier of the heat and humidity. On track to break her own NR, Munkhzaya did all the work up front, burning off Kipkirui who ultimately dropped out. ...

Three big meets have happened in Japan in the last few days. Nittai University held a one-day edition of its time trials series on July 1, most of its usual base of athletes being up north in Hokkaido. Unattached Kenyan Stephen Lemayan took the men's 5000 m A-heat in 13:47.49 over Tomoki Ichimura (Sunbelx), 2nd in 13:47.92. Hayato Oguma (Tokyo Jitsugyo H.S.) won the 1500 m A-heat in 3:46.83, a quality mark for a Japanese high schooler. Sarah Wanjiru (Daito Bunka Univ.) continued her solid debut season with a 15:53.46 win by almost 15 seconds in the women's 5000 m A-heat. The home team's Haruko Hosaka (Nittai Univ.) won the women's 3000 m A-heat in 9:20.54. The Hokuren Distance Challenge series in Hokkaido also kicked off July 1 with its first meet happening in Shibetsu . Mostly a tune-up for later meets in the series, the highlight in women's races was an 8:55.80 win by Eva Cherono (Toto) in the 3000 m A-heat by 4 seconds over Esther Muthoni (Nitori). Rion F...

Outdoor track season gets moving this weekend with at least three competitive meets across the country. The Hokuriku Region Corporate Championships in Niigata and Chugoku Corporate Time Trials in Hiroshima are solidly in the second tier, but the main event happens Saturday in Kumamoto at the Kanaguri Memorial Meet . Streaming of Kanaguri starts at 15:30 local time above, with the main races happening later in the evening. Meet schedule and start lists here . Both the men's and women's 1500 m feature three of Japan's all-time top five. The men's race is slightly stronger, with NR holder Kazuki Kawamura (Toenec), all-time #3 Nanami Arai (Honda) and #4 Ryuji Miura (Juntendo Univ.). The women's race has NR holder Nozomi Tanaka (New Balance), #3 Ran Urabe (Sekisui Kagaku) and #5 Yume Goto (Uniqlo). Two others in the Japanese men's 1500 m all-time top ten, #6 Keita Sato (Komazawa Univ.) and #10 Yuta Bando (Fujitsu), are opting for the 5000 m. Just back from...

The Japanese fiscal and academic years run April through March, so most changes to teams' lineups happen then. With changes to regulations over team transfers after a national government investigation of potential anti-trust violations by the National Corporate Federation there's no shortage of transfers between teams. A quick look at some of the changes to the top corporate teams this year: Women Shiseido retiring  - Naruha Sato, 25 - 10000 m 31:52.43  transfer out - Wakana Kabasawa, 24 - 5000 m 15:24.79 Sekisui Kagaku new recruit  - Yuma Yamamoto, 22 - 3000 m 8:52.19, 5000 m 15:16.71 new recruit  - Akari Matsumoto, 18 - 3000 m 9:11.96 new recruit  - Yuna Arai, 22 - 10000 m 32:11.08 Japan Post new recruit  - Kokone Sugimori, 18 - 3000 m 9:10.01, 5000 m 15:34.54 new recruit  - Kae Gyu, 22 - 3000 m 9:14.29 Edion new recruit  - Kana Mizumoto, 18 - 3000 m 9:05.03 Daihatsu new recruit  - Aiko Hosoya, 18 - 3000 m 9:13.09 new recruit  - ...

The Princess Ekiden , the official qualifying race for the Nov. 27 National Corporate Women's Ekiden, happened Sunday in Munakata, Fukuoka, 31 teams racing 42.195 km in 6 stages to pick up one of the 16 places available at Nationals. It was an unusually dynamic ekiden; except for Fourth Stage winner Teresiah Muthoni (Daiso), every woman who ran the fastest time on her stage did it while taking the overall lead, and 4 of those 5 were from different teams. Up front, Panasonic anchor Sora Shinozakura pulled off a brilliant last-second come-from-behind win to take 1st in 2:18:06. Panasonic was never out of the top 4, 2nd runner Nanami Watanabe taking the lead before the team dropped back again. Shinozakura started the 6.695 km anchor leg in 3rd, 24 seconds behind leader Momoka Hanafusa of the Kyudenko team, and steadily cut down the distance to 1st. It looked like she might run out of road before she got there, but with a hard surge from 400 m out she flew past Hanafusa to take t...

Before last weekend only eight Japanese men had ever gone under 1:01 in the half marathon on record-legal courses, with another four on the old downhill Tokyo Half course. At last Sunday's Marugame Half four did it, two who had done it before and two who went under the national record in the first time clearing 1:01. At today's National Corporate Half Marathon Championships eight more did it, equalling all of Japanese history in the course of eight days and the previous record-legal history in a single race. Not too much question why, but the racing was still good. Kenyan James Rungaru (Chuo Hatsujo) earned the win, 16 seconds ahead of the pack at 5 km in 14:33 and only going faster from there to his 1:00:27 finish. The main pack had a leisurely 14:49 opening 5 km before getting it in gear, dropping to 14:17 for the next 5 km and getting down as fast as 14:12 splits between 15 and 20 km. Kiyoshi Koga (Yasukawa Denki) was the first Japanese man across the line, dropping ...