japan running news

by Brett Larner The Mar. 7 Fukuoka International Cross Country Meet lived up to its name as foreign runners took three of the day's four main races. Beijing Olympic marathoners Yurika Nakamura (Team Tenmaya) and Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) had mixed results as they and others ran in the last selection race for this year's World Cross Country Championships team on a warm and windy day. Senior Men's 10 km The senior men's race featured many of Japan's top runners, including Atsushi Sato in training for next month's London Marathon, Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta) fresh from training in Kenya in preparation for an attempt on the 10000 m national record later this spring, and Yu Mitsuya (Team Toyota Kyushu) getting ready for his final World Championships as a track runner before moving to the marathon next year. Middle distance runner Yasuhiro Tago (Team Chugoku Denryoku) took the field out, but before the end of the 1st km the race's lone Ken...

by Brett Larner The team representing Tokyo won its 2nd straight victory at the East Japan Women's Ekiden in Fukushima Prefecture on Nov. 9, outlasting a surprise challenge from the Niigata Prefectural team to take the 2008 title. The East Japan Women's Ekiden features a 9-stage, 42.195 km course and teams made up of star professional, university, high school and junior high school runners from the 18 prefectures in eastern Japan and is one of a series of regional precursors to January's All-Japan Interprefectural Women's Ekiden. Tokyo won comfortably last year but this year was threatened over the entire course by the Niigata team, which had never placed higher than 8th in the event's 23 previous runnings. Niigata's Chiaki Takagi wore down Tokyo's Rie Takayoshi to win the 6 km 1st stage, breaking away at 4 km. Takagi finished the stage in 19:08 to Takayoshi's 19:11. Tokyo's Chisa Nishio overtook Niigata's Moeno Nakamura with 1 km to go on the 4...