japan running news

by Brett Larner With a live nationwide commercial-free TV broadcast, the National High School Ekiden Championships take to the air this Sunday, Dec. 23.  The top teams from each of Japan's 47 prefectures square off in Kyoto, boys over seven stages and 42.195 km, girls over five stages and 21.0975 km.  In-country fans can catch the action on NHK, the girls starting at 10:05 a.m. and the boys at 12:15 p.m.  Overseas viewers can give it a go on Keyhole TV or follow @JRNLive for race coverage. Why should you care about a Japanese high school race?  Well, they're pretty good.  Take a look at the top ten boys' and girls' teams. As reader Bruce Carrick   pointed out earlier this year , a lot of the boys' teams would do pretty well in NCAA DI.  Top-ranked Toyokawa H.S.  and #2 Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.  have better seven-man 5000 m averages than 2012 NCAA DI cross-country 3rd-place University of Colorado .  The top nine high school...

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/hokkaido/sports/news/20120524-OHT1T00161.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner In the men's 5000 m first-round heats on the second day of the Hokkaido regional qualifier for the National High School Track and Field Championships, May 23 at Sapporo's Atsubetsu Park Field, the first Kenyan to ever run the meet, Sapporo Yamanote H.S. first-year Charles Ndungu  made history with the meet's first-ever sub-14 clocking as he won his heat in 13:58.83.  Both a personal best and the Hokkaido international student high school record, Ndungu's shocking debut took him to the final as the top seed. His performance marked the beginning of a new era in Hokkaido high school boys' distance running.    In only the first-round heats of the 5000 m Ndungu surged hard over the last lap, battling a strong headwind as he came down the home straight in first place.  When the digital clock showed his time of 13:58.83 a huge roar of cheering and applau...

by Brett Larner Along with marathoner Yuki Kawauchi 's anchor stage win at the Okumusashi Ekiden , three other ekidens around the country on Sunday saw significant action. At the biggest of them, the 75th Chugoku Yamaguchi Ekiden, Team Mazda  had a surprise upset over local stronghold Team Chugoku Denryoku  thanks to a spectacular anchor run from ace Akihiko Tsumurai .  Starting the 11.1 km Seventh Stage 43 seconds behind Chugoku Denryoku anchor Takumi Kiyotani , Tsumurai ran him down and won by three seconds, with Mazda finishing in 4:11:49 for the seven-stage, 84.4 km course to Chugoku Denryoku's 4:11:52.  Tsumurai clocked a new stage record of 31:21, a flat conversion to 28:07 for a road 10 km, just two seconds off   the national record held by Chugoku Denryoku's Atsushi Sato .  2011 national champion Sera H.S.  was a surprise 3rd in 4:14:13, one second ahead of the pro Team Sagawa Express  thanks to a sizeable lead from opening Kenyan John...

by Brett Larner Sera High School ’s scouts are on top of their game.First Sera’s Bitan Karoki (Team S&B) came a hairsbreadth from cracking Samuel Wanjiru 's legendary National High School Ekiden stage record his senior year before going on to impress this year at the Cardinal Invitational, Kenyan Championships and the Africa Games. Then as a junior last year current Sera senior Charles Ndirangu likewise missed Wanjiru’s record by the slimmest of margins. Now Ndirangu has come through. Seemingly unaware of the international declaration of the end of track season last month, Ndirangu rocketed a 13:15.44 at the Oct. 22 Oita Prefecture Challenge Games track meet to break the Japanese national high school 5000 m record. Officially called a new Japanese high school international student record, Ndirangu’s time is a full 16 seconds better than the best ever run by a Japanese high school student.  In comparison, past Kenyan national XC champion Gideon Ngatuny (Team Nissin Shok...