japan running news

2026 Hakone Ekiden champion Aoyama Gakuin University held a press conference Apr. 4 at its Sagamihara campus announcing that it was adding a women's ekiden team to its track and field program. In its first year the team has only 2 members, Nodoka Ashida of Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. , and Kairi Ikeno of Suma Gakuen H.S . The team's head coach will be Susumu Hara , who coached the AGU men to their second Hakone threepeat this year and had a hand in the GMO corporate team's first-ever New Year Ekiden win. At the press conference he talked about the reasons for launching a women's team, and the harsh realities facing women's track and field. AGU is the undisputed leader in the evolution of the university men's ekiden circuit, but adding a women's team represents a new challenge. Hara cited 3 objectives in expanding the AGU program: "creating an environment where female athletes can balance competition and life events," "expanding the opportunities...

Yeah, this was a good one. Last year's CR-breaking Morinomiyako Ekiden winner and national university women's champion Ritsumeikan University had a lackluster run at the Kansai Region qualifying race at the end of September, finishing only 3rd. That turned out to be a sign of where it is this season and not a peaking issue. Ritsumeikan was in 2nd for the first 2 legs in the 6-stage 38.0 km race with good runs from leading duo Sayuki Ota and Yua Sato but only faded from there, ultimately finishing 5th almost 2 minutes off the win. Josai University , the 1998 and 2000 national champ, came in hot with its first 3 runners Kyo Honma , Koharu Kaneko and Yuna Onishi replicating their feat at the Kanto Region qualifying race of all breaking the CR on their stages. Ichigo Ishikawa , a replacement for Kanto lineup member Aoi Takahashi , ran big on the 4th leg to give Josai a 20-second lead over last year's 5th-placer Tohoku Fukushi University , 49 seconds on 2018-2024 national ...

University men's ekiden season got started with the Izumo Ekiden two weeks ago and last weekend's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifying race. This week it's the first national-level university women's ekiden of the season, the Morinomiyako Ekiden in Sendai. Because of Hakone's popularity and Tokyo's massive size the Kanto Region dominates men's running to the point that it's almost impossible for a university from any other part of the country to beat even a single Kanto team at Izumo or next month's National University Men's Ekiden. Not so at Morinomiyako or December's Mt. Fuji University Women's Ekiden. The Kanto Region still has the biggest share of the field, with 11 of the 26 teams in the field this year based in Kanto. But it doesn't dominate the same way it does for collegiate men. There's almost always a Kanto Region team in the top 3, and it's almost always last year's 2nd-placer Daito Bunka University , but a Kant...

The last big race of the year is Monday's Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden , the season-ending national championship race for university women. Between Mt. Fuji and October's Morinomiyako Ekiden , up to this season Meijo University was undefeated in 13-straight championship ekiden races, with 7-straight wins at Morinomiyako and 6 at Mt. Fuji. But nothing lasts forever, and at this year's Morinomiyako the last big dynasty school before Meijo, Ritsumeikan University , winner at Morinomiyako from 2011 to 2015 and at Mt. Fuji from 2013 to 2017, outran a flailing Meijo squad to take the win for the first time in 9 years. Its runners took stage wins on 3 of the 6 legs, Yumi Yamamoto breaking the Second Stage CR, Tomo Muramatsu the Third Stage CR, and anchor Makoto Tsuchiya outrunning Meijo captain Nanase Tanimoto for the win. Meijo's big names, especially Tanimoto and Nanaka Yonezawa , have been off their best most of this season, and it showed when they were only 4th at Mori...

The Hitachi women's corporate team has announced that Maya Fukushima has retired effective the end of November. Fukushima joined Hitachi last year after graduating from Josai University and Eda H.S. In high school she ran a best of 9:24.93 for 3000 m and won her stage at the prefectural ekiden championships. At Josai she grew into one of its best runner, running a PB of 15:44.90 for 5000 m and the longest stage at both the Morinomiyako Ekiden and Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden university championships. Her 4th year she was 2nd in the 10000 m at the Kanto Region Championships and 5th on the Morinomiyako's Fourth Stage. But Fukushima was diagnosed with task-specific dystonia, a disorder that causes abnormal postures during particular motions and prevented her from racing after joining Hitachi. "As the days passed and I couldn't run like before the mental stress got worse and worse," she wrote in the Hitachi announcement. "But I'm really grateful to everyon...

Nobody can stay on top forever, and after 13-straight wins across the two major national-level university women's ekidens, 7-time defending champion Meijo University was knocked out of the top spot Sunday's Morinomiyako Ekiden in Sendai by a course record-breaking run from Ritsumeikan University . There was an element of more of the same, with last year's top 4 teams Meijo, Daito Bunka University , Ritsumeikan and Josai University all finishing in the top 4 again and all six of last year's individual winners, Tomo Muramatsu (Ritsumeikan), Sayuki Ota (Ritsumeikan), Asuka Ishimatsu (Meijo), Kokoro Nakachi (Ritsumeikan), Sarah Wanjiru (Daito Bunka) and Nanase Tanimoto (Meijo) making the top 3 on their stages this time. Meijo was never really on its game, with last year's First Stage runner-up Nanaka Yonezawa 9th and second runner Nene Ueno only 10th on her leg. Meijo spent the rest of the race trying to dig its way out of that hole, but it only got as far as...

There was never really any doubt that five-time defending champion Meijo University was going to become the first team in National University Women's Ekiden history to win a sixth-straight title. Star 1st-year Nanaka Yonezawa took the lead in the first 200 m and from there Meijo never looked back. Its first four runners Yonezawa, Asuka Ishimatsu , Yuma Yamamoto and Nanase Tanimoto all won their stages, Yamamoto tying the 21:37 CR held by teammate Narumi Kobayashi on the 6.9 km Third Stage and Tanimoto turning in the most impressive run of the day with a 15:14 CR on the 4.8 km Fourth Stage, 23 seconds under the CR she set last year and 50 seconds faster than the next-best runner on the stage. Captain Kobayashi was the only weak link in the lineup, 30:48 for 6th on the 9.2 km Fifth Stage, but anchor Yuka Masubuchi still had a 1:55 lead to work with on the 6.7 km Sixth Stage. Like Tanimoto, Masubuchi broke her own CR with a 22:04 that put Meijo's final lead up to 2:31. Wit...

Sunday is the 40th edition of Sendai's Morinomiyako Ekiden , the National University Women's Ekiden Championships . NTV will be broadcasting the race live starting at noon local time, with coverage also on @JRNLive . 26 teams are racing for the national title, the complete course covering 38.1 km in 6 legs. Last year Meijo University led start-to-finish en route to a fifth-straight win, taking 5 of the 6 individual stage titles with 3 of them in course record time. 2 of the stage winners have graduated, but in their place Meijo has a very strong class of first-years led by Nanaka Yonezawa , 8:59.57 for 3000 m and 15:31.33 for 5000 m. 4 others are under 9:15 for 3000 m or under 15:50 for 5000 m, making solid support for the 4 returning members from last year. A lot depends on 4th-year Narumi Kobayashi , who ran a 10000 m  collegiate record 31:22.34 last year but hasn't run well most of her senior year so far. 4th-year Yuma Yamamoto on the other hand is fresh off a 15:16....

The Kanto Region qualifier for October's National University Women's Ekiden took place Sunday in Inzai, Chiba on a 6-stage, 34.4 km course, its first time in 3 years back on the roads. 5th at Nationals last year, Nittai University won in 1:55:03, its first time to win the qualifier in 8 years. 2021 Nationals 3rd-placer Takushoku University was 2nd in 1:55:33. Takushoku ran without collegiate 10000 m NR holder Seira Fuwa , who won the Sept. 10 National University Track and Field Championships 10000 m in a comeback from an injury in January. Planning for "a race that wouldn't rely on one runner," head coach Toshiharu Igarashi was very positive about finishing only 30 seconds behind Nittai, saying, "Our goal was 5th. Having exceeded that by a long shot is going to pay off later." Igarashi spoke well of senior Kae Gyu , who handled the longest stage, 8.6 km. "The results of everything she's done up to now are starting to come out now," he sa...

Meijo University  led almost start-to-finish at Sunday's National University Women's Ekiden, taking five of the six individual stage bests to become only the second school to win five-straight national titles. Opening runner Yuma Yamamoto  waited until the last km of her 6.6 km stage to turn it on, opening a 7-second lead to win it in 21:48. Second runner Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu overcame a bad season to break the record for her stage, running 12:01 for 3.9 km and building Meijo's lead to 23 seconds. Third runner Yuna Wada  added another 56 seconds to the lead with a 21:51 win on her 6.9 km stage, and fourth runner Nanase Tanimoto  turned in a 15:37 stage record for 4.8 km to chalk up another 14 seconds.  10000 m collegiate record holder Narumi Kobayashi  was the weakest link, finishing only 3rd on the 9.2 km Fifth Stage on individual time but still stretching out Meijo's lead to 2:07. Anchor Yuka Masubuchi  had more than enough to work with with onl...

Three-time defending Morinomiyako Ekiden champion Meijo University made it four in a row, leading Sunday's National University Women's Ekiden almost start to finish to break its own year-old course record by over a minute and a half. Rival Ritsumeikan University 's leading runner Rinka Hida was the only one to spoil Meijo's party, dropping Meijo's Yuna Wada to win the 6.6 km First Stage by 8 seconds. But on the next stage Yuma Yamamoto put Meijo out front, and with its next three runners all winning their stages, two in stage record time including an impressive 29:14 for the 9.2 km Fifth Stage by 10000 m national collegiate champ Rika Kaseda , its lead only grew. Anchor Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu was 2nd-fastest on her stage, but with a lead of nearly a kilometer she was never in danger of getting caught as she broke the tape in 2:02:57, a full 1:37 under the record for the 6-stage, 38.1 km course that it set last year. Road records might not be worth what the...

Some of its major events have been canceled, but championship ekiden keeps moving forward. This weekend it's the Morinomiyako Ekiden , the national university women's championships , with 25 teams from around the country 38.1 km in six stages around Sendai. In some ways the national distribution of the top end of the field is more interesting than at next month's National University Ekiden, where schools from the Tokyo-centered Kanto Region dominate the eight-deep podium every year. Since Matsuyama University broke Ritsumeikan University 's near monopoly on the national title in 2016 Meijo University has come up to take Ritsumeikan's place as the top program in collegiate women's long distance, winning Morinomiyako in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Meijo comes to Sendai as the favorite again, with Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu  having won the 1500 m at September's National University Championships and Rika Kaseda taking the 10000 m. Many of its best runners turned in ...