japan running news

Having officially taken over as head coach of the Waseda University track and ekiden program as of June 1, on June 2 Katsuhiko Hanada held a press conference at the school's campus in central Tokyo's Shinjuku ward. "I want to develop athletes who will represent Japan," he said. In his own days as an athlete at Waseda, Hanada played a role in the school's win at the 1993 Hakone Ekiden. After graduating he joined the SB Foods corporate team, going on to run for Japan at both the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and 2000 Sydney Olympics. His coaching experience includes leading Jobu University to its first Hakone in 2009, and helping to found the GMO corporate team. Central to Hanada's selection as new head coach was his former coach at both Waseda and SB, Toshihiko Seko , 65. After Hanada announced his resignation from GMO earlier this year, Seko called him about his alma mater, which had finished only 13th at this year's Hakone. Hanada went to observe the team...

Jobu University  has announced that 2004 Athens Olympics men's marathon 6th-placer Toshinari Suwa , 45, has been named head coach of its track and field and ekiden team. At a press conference at the school's campus in Isesaki, Gunma, Suwa said, "The main goal is to make it back to the Hakone Ekiden. In the longer term, to develop athletes who will pursue the marathon. I want them to aim for the international level I experienced." Jobu University first qualified for the Hakone Ekiden in 2009 and made it there 11 years in a row. But for the last three years it has failed to make it out of the Yosenkai qualifying half marathon. A native of Isesaki, new coach Suwa commented, "We're going to make world-class athletes right here in Isesaki." Suwa brings experience with coaching at the Nissin and Hitachi Butsuryu corporate teams. "I want us to approach each workout with a goal and without making any compromises." source article: https://www.sanspo.c...

After falling out of the top 10 for the first time in 3 years to 13th at this year's Hakone Ekiden, Waseda University is set to name Olympian, former GMO corporate head coach and Waseda alum Katsuhiko Hanada , 50, as its new head coach. Former head coach Yutaka Sagara , 41, is expected to remain on as head coach. Under the new arrangement Waseda hopes to regain its former stature. Having left GMO at the end of March, Hanada is already overseeing Waseda team training at the university's Tokorozawa campus in Saitama. Asked about his role, Sagara commented, "Nothing has been finalized yet." But according to an involved source, the decision about Hanada is final and only a few last details are still under discussion. Hanada ran well at the Hakone Ekiden during his collegiate years and was part of Waseda's winning team his third year at the school. After joining the S&B corporate team, he competed on the track at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and 2000 Sydney Olympi...

Hayato Sonoda age: 30 sponsor: Kurosaki Harima graduated from: Kumamoto Kokufu H.S., Jobu University best time inside MGC window: 2:09:34, 2nd, 2018 Beppu-Oita Marathon PB: 2:09:34, 2nd, 2018 Beppu-Oita Marathon other PBs: 5000 m: 14:05.64 (2016) 10000 m: 28:52.49 (2018) half marathon: 1:03:00 (2016) marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019) 18th, 2019 Boston Marathon, 2:15:58 8th, 2019 Beppu-Oita Marathon, 2:10:39 5th, 2018 Fukuoka International Marathon, 2:10:31 4th, 2018 Jakarta Asian Games Marathon, 2:19:04 2nd, 2018 Beppu-Oita Marathon, 2:09:34 – PB 11th, 2017 Fukuoka International Marathon, 2:12:04 other major results: 33rd, 2019 Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon, 1:05:42 21st, 2019 Niigata Half Marathon, 1:06:01 27th, 2019 New Year Ekiden Fourth Stage (22.4 km), 1:07:34 5th, 2018 Kyushu Corporate Ekiden Seventh Stage (16.3 km), 47:22 70th, 2018 Valencia World Half Marathon Championships, 1:04:12 7th, 2017 Lake Biwa Marathon, 2:11:32 4th, 2...

On Nov. 13 Rikkyo University , which will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2024, announced its new "Rikkyo Hakone Ekiden 2024" project, naming DeNA corporate team runner Yuichiro Ueno , 33, as head coach of its ekiden program. A graduate of Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S. and Hakone powerhouse Chuo University, Ueno has been well-known for his unique personality as well as his achievements both at those schools and at the SB and DeNA teams. He will leave DeNA at the end of November and take over at Rikkyo effective Dec. 1 to lead its ekiden team to qualify for the 100th Hakone Ekiden in 2024. He plans to remain active as an athlete, training directly alongside the athletes he will supervise. If successful it will be Rikkyo's first time qualifying for the Hakone Ekiden since 1968. For a school more than half a century removed from the Hakone frontlines Rikkyo's new development project is an ambitious one, and the appointment of the idiosyncratic Ueno as head coach...

The Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai is the qualifying race for Japan's most prestigious road race, the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden . University men's teams in the Tokyo area that didn't make the top ten at Hakone the year before square off in Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park with teams of up to twelve. The top ten score, their cumulative times determining the team's placing with the top eleven teams advancing and high-placing individuals from schools that don't make the cut rounded up to form a select team. The Yosenkai has long been the world's #1 20 km road race by a wide margin, with winning times among the fastest in the world for the distance and the same kind of incredible depth seen at November's Ageo City Half Marathon and March's National University Men's Half Marathon . In light of changes in the IAAF's ranking system and the level of performance at the Yosenkai, this year organizers took the historic step of changing it from its traditional dista...

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20160229-00000191-sph-spo translated by Brett Larner On Mar. 1 the major telecommunications company GMO Internet announced the launch of a new GMO Athletes corporate running team in April.  Resigning from his position at Jobu University, Katsuhiko Hanada , 44, will be the team's first head coach, with two-time Hakone Ekiden champion Aoyama Gakuin University head coach Susumu Hara , 48, serving as adviser.  The team's initial lineup includes current Aoyama Gakuin University fourth-years Ryo Hashimoto and Toshinori Watanabe , both of whom made their marathon debuts Sunday at the Tokyo Marathon . Hanada graduated from Waseda University and ran for the S&B corporate team, running at both the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.  Becoming head coach at Jobu University in 2004, he developed the brand-new Jobu team into Hakone Ekiden regulars.  The GMO team marks the launch of the Hara Project, a concept aimed at developi...

http://www.jomo-news.co.jp/ns/2014532978453725/news.html http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20160121-00000179-sph-spo translated and edited by Brett Larner After leading Jobu University to eight-straight Hakone Ekiden appearances, head coach Katsuhiko Hanada , 44, has announced that he will step down from his position and leave Jobu University at the end of March following the end of the academic year.  In an interview with the Jomo Newspaper coach Hanada said, "In the future I would like to continue to be involved with developing athletes," but he declined to discuss the reason for his resignation or his specific future plans. Jobu finished last at this year's Hakone Ekiden. During his time as an athlete at Waseda University Hanada set the stage record on the Hakone Ekiden's Fourth Stage, contributing to Waseda's overall win.  At the S&B corporate team he ran the 10000 m at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and 2000 Sydney Olympics.  After his retirement as ...

by Brett Larner photos by Daniel Seite One of three current teams coached by members of Waseda University's record-setting mid-90's team, Jobu University  pulled off a surprise win at this year's Hakone Ekiden Qualifier , a 20 km road race in and around Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park that determines the second tier of teams to join the ten already seeded for January's main event.  The youngest team in the field, under head coach Katsuhiko Hanada  Jobu has developed a heavy emphasis on overall quality and team running rather than relying on individual aces, a trait that served has served it well in the past and was again the key to its success this year.  Ranked only 5th coming into the race Jobu ran consistently, outside the top ten for the first half, 5th at 15 km, and on top by the end.  It was one of only two schools to put two runners into the top ten, one of them courtesy of a very nice run from first-year Shun Sato .  By contrast, top-ranked Josai Univ...

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/event/sports/news/20101213-OHT1T00247.htm translated by Brett Larner On Dec. 13 Jobu University's ekiden team held a workout session at the school's track in Isesaki, Gunma prefecture as it prepares for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden. Speaking to the media at the workout, the team's captain and senior ace Yusuke Hasegawa , holder of the fastest 10000 m time of the year by a Japanese university student, revealed that he has signed to join the elite Team S&B following his graduation in March. Hasegawa, the national university 1500 m champion as a sophomore, is a top-class speed runner among university athletes. At November's Nittai University Time Trials meet he ran a 10000 m PB of 28:07.47, the best of the year by a Japanese student and all-time #8 on the collegiate 10000 m rankings. Having led Jobu from scratch to Hakone in a remarkably short time, head coach Katsuhiko Hanada , a former S&B star himself, will continue to serve as Hasegawa...

by Brett Larner Click here for an explanation of scoring for the Hakone Ekiden qualifying race. Aided by ideally cool, cloudy and windless conditions, Tokai University first-year Akinobu Murasawa, the star runner of 2008 national high school champion Saku Chosei H.S., served notice to the big guns at the Oct. 17 Hakone Ekiden-qualifying Yosenkai 20 km road race with a 59:08 win, just 28 seconds shy of the best mark ever recorded at the race by a Japanese athlete. Running in his first university road race and his first-ever longer than 10 km, Murasawa took down defending champ Kazuki Tomaru (Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) and two other ace seniors, Yuta Takahashi (Josai Univ.) and Takuya Fukatsu (Komazawa Univ.), over the final five kilometers to seal his win. In a race which rarely sees more than one or two runners break the hour mark, eleven athletes succeeded this year with another two just a second off from joining them. It may well have been the most competitive race in Yosenkai history. Beyo...

by Brett Larner Watch the 2009 Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai online on Nihon TV on Oct. 17 from 3:30-5:00 p.m. Click here for more info. As the American NCAA cross-country season chugs along, the home of the world's most competitive university men's distance running, Japan's Kanto region, gets into full swing this weekend with two major 20 km races, the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifying race on Oct. 17 and the Takashimadaira Road Race on Oct. 18. Each year at the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden, the Kanto region's university men's ekiden championships and an event with mass popularity on the scale of the World Series or Superbowl, the top ten teams out of the field of twenty score seeded positions for the following year's Hakone. The remaining ten teams must battle it out with all the other Kanto universities at October's Yosenkai 20 km road race to earn the honor of a place in Hakone. At the Yosenkai teams can field up to twelve runners meeting tough qualification stand...

by Brett Larner A film version of Shion Miura's popular 2006 novel The Wind is Blowing Hard will hit Japanese theaters Oct. 31. The book and film tell the story of ten students at the fictional Kansei University who band together to try to make it into the Hakone Ekiden, the east Japan regional university men's ekiden championships and the most prestigious and popular race in the country with millions of television and courseside spectators. Although fiction, the plot closely mirrors the real-life story of the runners at Jobu University, a small school which qualified for Hakone for the first time this year. In its preview of the 2009 Hakone Ekiden JRN wrote about Jobu, The team is straight out of every underdog-makes-good American sports movie ever made, and hopefully one will be made about them some day. The film's producers evidently felt the same way and have chosen to reflect this parallel, designing a uniform and tasuki for Kansei University almost identical to thos...

by Brett Larner Click here for video highlights of Day One and Day Two of the 2008 Hakone Ekiden. Less than a week remains until the 85th Hakone Ekiden , a 2-day championship relay race on Jan. 2-3, 2009 between the top university men's teams in the Tokyo-centric Kanto region of Japan. Last year Japan Running News published a detailed history of the Hakone Ekiden . To summarize, Hakone is the most popular and thrilling race of the year. It's hard to imagine that a regional university men's distance running championship could attract mass popularity, but in Japan Hakone has at the very least the stature of the Super Bowl or World Series among the general public. Tens of millions watch both on TV and along the course, which consists of 10 stages of about half marathon distance each stretching from downtown Tokyo to the mountaintop resort of Hakone and back. 19 school teams and a select team made of ace runners from universities which failed to qualify usually take part, but...