japan running news

Scheduled for September 27, the Ichinoseki International Half Marathon in Ichinoseki, Iwate has been canceled due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis. With a formal announcement of its cancelation issued by race organizers, this marks the first time in the Ichinoseki Half's history that the event has been canceled. Founded in 1982, the Ichinoseki Half attracts top corporate league runners, university men targeting the Hakone Ekiden, and amateurs, with participation numbers rising in recent years to more than 3,000 people from across the country. But as the only one of Japan's 47 prefectures without a single recorded case of coronavirus infection, concerns are high in Iwate about the risk of the virus being brought in and spread by use of public transportation, concerns that were a part of the decision to cancel the race. Entry fees will be returned to those who have already entered. In addition, the second running of October's Iwate Morioka City Marathon is likely to ...

On the last business day of May four of the remaining fall Japanese marathons made announcements about their events' futures in the face of coronavirus crisis. The Oct. 4 Tohoku Miyagi Fukko Marathon , 7.457 finishers in its second edition two years ago and canceled last year due to a typhoon, announced the cancelation of this year's race. In their announcement the organizers said that while they did not want to cancel for the second year in a row, they felt that the options available to them for going ahead with the race would deviate too far from the race's mission of building contact between runners and local residents still rebuilding from the 2011 tsunami. All entry fees will be refunded. Held in the only prefecture in Japan not to have found a single case of coronavirus infection to date,  the Oct. 25 Iwate Morioka Marathon , 5,729 finishers last year announced that it is stepping back from its plans to go ahead as scheduled. Race organizers said that they would ...