japan running news

With the last-second withdrawal of NR holder Kengo Suzuki after a positive COVID test the day before the race, it was up to newbies Yusuke Nishiyama and Gaku Hoshi to represent Japan in the men's marathon at the start of Day 3 of the Oregon 22 World Championships . Nishiyama, who won February's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon in 2:07:47 in his debut, told JRN pre-race that his goals were top 8 and a PB, in that order. He stayed in the lead group for much of the race, but although he dropped off in the later stages and missed both goals, his 2:08:35 for 13th was still the fastest-ever by a Japanese man at the World Championships. Teammate Hoshi, 1st at February's Osaka Marathon in 2:07:31 in his debut, struggled to match Nishiyama, fading to 38th in 2:13:44. In between, longtime Japan-based Mongolian NR holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir , 40, made good on one of his two goals for his 10th-straight World Championships, beating his best-ever Worlds time of 2:16:41 by 5:02 as he ran 2:11...

The JAAF held a press conference today to announce the Japanese men's and women's marathon teams for this year's Oregon World Championships and Hangzhou Asian Games. As usual there were a few surprises in the choices, but overall the lineups were free of controversial decisions. National record holder and JMC Series I champ Kengo Suzuki (Fujitsu) leads the men's team for Oregon, with 2022 Osaka Marathon winner Gaku Hoshi (Konica Minolta) and 2022 Beppu-Oita Marathon winner Yusuke Nishiyama (Toyota) named to the other two spots. Both Hoshi and Nishiyama won in their debuts, Hoshi in a debut NR of 2:07:31 and Nishiyama in 2:07:47, making for an unusually inexperienced team. But with Paris 2024 just around the corner this is their chance to get that experience. In a double surprise, JMC #2-ranked Japanese man Kyohei Hosoya (Kurosaki Harima), 2:06:35 for 3rd at Lake Biwa and 2nd in Fukuoka last year, was picked for the Asian Games team, and Kenya Sonota (JR Higashi Nih...

Japan's 2022 first half domestic marathon season is done, and with Sunday's Wan Jin Shi Marathon having been the last chance for people to get onto the board for the Japan Marathon Championship Series I it's clear where things stand for the new JMC national title, for Oregon World Championships team qualification, and for qualification for the 2023 Marathon Grand Championship , volume 2 of Japan's more-or-less one-shot Olympic marathon trials. In terms of pure numbers, the 10 fastest men so far in 2022 average 2:07:30 and the 10 fastest women 2:22:45, putting the men #3 in the world behind Ethiopia and Kenya and the women 2nd only to Ethiopia. For men that's the 3rd-fastest annual average ever, following 2021 and 2020. For women it's the fastest-ever. Kengo Suzuki leads the men at 2:05:28, with another 9 men having run 2:07. Mizuki Matsuda is the fastest women at 2:20:52, with 9 other women under 2:25. It's not that meaningful to compare modern times to ...

Cut back from being a part of the return to mass-participation racing with less than two weeks to go, the Osaka Marathon celebrated its 10th edition with the domestic elite-only field it picked up from the defunct Lake Biwa Marathon with the addition of two dozen female entrants. 2016 Gold Coast Marathon winner Misato Horie (Sysmex) scored another win in the women's race, running her best time since 2019, 2:32:10, to outrun debuting duo Nami Aoki (Iwatani Sangyo) and Rui Aoyama (Univ. Ent.) by over 4 minutes for the top spot on the new Osaka course. First-timers also played a major role in the men's race, taking 3 of the top 8 places. The pacing team held things relatively steady around low-to-mid 2:07 territory through multiple 180˚ turns and strong winds from the west until just before their departure at 30 km. On the first main climb near 30 km the debuting Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu), CR breaker on the Hakone Ekiden's legendary uphill Fifth Stage, and Kenta Murayama (As...

As everyone tunes up for the Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden, New Yeark Ekiden and Hakone Ekiden, Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance meet was the main event. But it wasn't the biggest meet of the long weekend, and it didn't produce the fastest men's 10000 m time. Both of those claims went to Monday's Kanto Region University Time Trials meet at Sagamihara Gion Stadium in rural Kanagawa. With ten heats of men's 10000 m and one women's 10000 m on the program, the seventh heat saw Musashino University first-year Charles Kamau Wanjiku improbably solo the second-fastest time ever by a student at a Japanese university, 27:30.09. Wanjiku's time put him 5 seconds ahead of Hachioji fast heat winner Justus Soget (Honda) and almost two laps ahead of runner-up Yuichiro Ono (Teikyo Univ.). Heat 9 was supposed to have been the main event at the Kanto meet, and although it lost a bit of flair to Wanjiku's incredible run, fourth-year Gaku Hoshi (Teikyo Univ.) ran a ...

What do you know, it's another big weekend. The last chance for Japan's marathoners to go the easy route for qualifying for September's MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials by placing among the top six Japanese finishers at the Nagoya Women's Marathon and Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon . Traditionally they're a week apart with Nagoya marking the end of the season, but with the Tokyo Marathon moving the Lake Biwa's usual date the first Sunday in March due to the impending Imperial succession the JAAF has opted to stage Nagoya and Lake Biwa back-to-back the same day. In the morning comes Nagoya. The upper end of the domestic field took a hit with the expansion of Tokyo's women's field this year, but there's no shortage of talent from 2:24 on down. Only nine women have qualified for the MGC Race to date, but given the depth of the field it'll be a true shock if nobody hits the standards. #1-ranked Japanese woman Reia Iwade (Under Armour) alread...

For years the Hakone Ekiden has been a Day One blowout, the uphill Fifth Stage that ends it basically deciding the winner on Day Two. Last year 2014 winner Toyo University won Day One only to fall victim to the superior depth of Aoyama Gakuin University , which ran Toyo down to score a fourth-straight win at Japan's biggest race. This year Toyo again took the  Day One title, opening an almost insurmountable 5:30 lead over AGU. Bigger problems faced it, though, in the form of #1-ranked Tokai University just 1:14 behind. Tokai head coach Hayashi Morozumi was one of Japan's most successful high school coaches while at Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S. , beneficiaries of his cross-country-based principles including current marathon national record holder Suguru Osako . Since arriving at Tokai it has taken him time to get his system up and running for college-aged athletes, the last few seasons exceeding AGU on paper but coming up short at the main event. But today was Tokai...