japan running news

by Brett Larner Japan's Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) and Reia Iwade (Team Noritz) will be in the field for Sunday's BMW Berlin Marathon .  Berlin has been good to Japan in the past, with the country's first 2:06 men's national record and the last three women's national records all happening on the ultra-flat Berlin course.  But in the last decade Berlin has seen fewer and fewer quality runs from Japanese athletes.   Kurao Umeki placed 3rd in 2006, but the fastest time over the decade was only 2:10:24 in 2013 by future Rio Olympian Suehiro Ishikawa .  For women too, Tomo Morimoto placed 3rd in 2010, her 2:26:10 also the fastest time in the last ten years but far off the quality of the 2:19 marks set  in Berlin by Naoko Takahashi , Yoko Shibui and Mizuki Noguchi .  The ten-year average times and places for Japanese athletes in the top ten in Berlin are 2:12:00 for 8th for men and 2:29:26 for 7th for women. Can Kawauchi and Iwade beat those aver...

http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/sports/Sp201012150098.html translated by Brett Larner Professional runner Kurao Umeki (Team Chugoku Denryoku) will run his final marathon this weekend at the Dec. 19 Hofu Yomiuri Marathon. Having decided to retire at the end of the season next spring, the 35 year-old Umeki chose Hofu so he could wrap up his career on his home ground in Yamaguchi prefecture. A graduate of Yamaguchi's Ubekojo High School, Umeki attended Waseda University before joining Team Chugoku Denryoku. With a long list of accomplishments in ekidens and marathons, Umeki said of Hofu, "This is the race that made me want to be a marathoner." At Waseda Umeki took stage best titles twice at the Hakone Ekiden, winning the First Stage his junior year and the ace Second Stage as a senior. After joining Chugoku Denryoku he anchored the team in its first-ever New Year Ekiden national title in 2004. Umeki's marathon debut came at the 2000 Tokyo International Marathon, but in h...

http://kyushu.yomiuri.co.jp/news/national/20101130-OYS1T00214.htm translated by Brett Larner On Nov. 29 the organizing committee of the 41st Hofu Yomiuri Marathon , scheduled for Dec. 19, announced the field of ten invited elites at this year's race. Eight domestic runners and two overseas athletes will compete for the win, while the general division will see its largest-ever field including 1692 men and 156 women. At the top of the field is Kurao Umeki (Team Chugoku Denryoku), who set his PB of 2:09:52 at the 2003 Berlin Marathon. 2008 Hofu champion Kentaro Ito (Team Kyowa Hakko Bio) returns to seek a second title. Young rising stars seeking to make a name include Takuro Yamashita (Team Fujitsu), Takashi Yamauchi (Team Aisan Kogyo) and Kiyotaka Shimamura (Tokyo T&F Assoc.). Kenyan Samuel Ganga (Team Mazda) will make his marathon debut. Invited overseas elites include Mongolian Serod Batochir , who set a PB of 2:12:42 at September's Berlin Marathon and returns for his...

2010 Beijing Marathon - Top Results 10/24/10 Men 1. Siraj Gena (Ethiopia) - 2:15:45 2. Gert Thys (South Africa) - 2:15:56 3. Matthew Sigei (Kenya) - 2:16:01 ----- 9. Kurao Umeki (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 2:18:41

by Brett Larner 81 year-old Keizo Yamada, the 1953 Boston Marathon winner, returned to this year's race on Apr. 20. Yamada successfully finished his 18th Boston in 6:16:56 after a first half of 2:33:29. Universal Sports reports that Yamada intends this year's running to be his last. A laughably slow women's race gave Team Toto's Tomoe Yokoyama and amateur runner Hiroko Sho some unexpected international camera exposure as they ran at the head of the elite women's pack in the earliest stages of the race. Yokoyama had suffered injuries since winning February's Ome Marathon 30 km road race and hoped only to break 2:40, meaning that the lead pack's speed throughout the first 10 km of the race suited her fine. As the pace crept glacially forward Sho drifted away, but Yokoyama moved to the front and alternated the lead with veteran American Colleen de Reuck. Only nearing halfway, for which Yokoyama clocked 1:19:59, did she begin to lose contact, eventually fading ...

by Brett Larner Updated 3/21/09 to reflect athlete withdrawals. The 2009 Tokyo Marathon is the first marathon in Japan to publicly announce significant prize money, the first A-level marathon to host both elite men's and women's fields, and the final domestic selection race for the 2009 World Championships men's marathon team. On paper the men's race has attracted a respectable field, with four runners posting best times under 2:07 and ten under 2:09. The reality is that almost all are aging veterans, with only four runners in the field having broken 2:10 within the last two years. The chance may be there for a first-timer or little-known name to step up for the win. Among the overseas entrants, most eyes will be on Sammy Korir (Kenya). Korir is the third-fastest man ever in the marathon with a PB of 2:04:56 from Berlin 2003. A past winner of the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon, he ran the 2007 Tokyo Marathon but dropped out near 16 km, sitting out the rest of the year w...

http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/sports/Sp200903180106.html translated by Brett Larner One more domestic selection race for August's World Championships in Berlin remains, the Mar. 22 Tokyo Marathon . Team Chugoku Denryoku Olympian Tsuyoshi Ogata may be bathing in the spotlight, but his teammate Kurao Umeki , who finished 6th last year in Tokyo, will also be lining up for his 15th marathon. At age 33 Umeki is trying to capture the prize which has thus far eluded his grasp, a place on the national team. Umeki debuted at the 2000 Tokyo International Marathon. In 2003 he set his PB of 2:09:52 at the Berlin Marathon and was 3rd in Berlin in 2006, but he has never been able to put together a good performance in a national team selection race. In the 2007 Biwako Mainichi Marathon he dropped out of the race. "I think I've been too focused..." he trails off. At last year's Tokyo Marathon he ran his best-ever time within Japan, 2:11:00, but he fell behind the leaders in the lat...

by Brett Larner While the 2008 Ome Marathon 30 km and 10 km road race was cancelled due to heavy snowfall, this year's race saw unseasonable mid-spring temperatures around 20 degrees. 23280 people ran the two races, with 17959 in the 30 km race and 5321 in the 10 km. Team Konica Minolta's first-year star recruit Hirokatsu Kurosaki continued to impress, taking the win in the men's 30 km division in 1:32:50, a strong time on Ome's famously hilly course. Veteran jitsugyodan runner Kurao Umeki (Team Chugoku Denryoku) was 48 seconds back in 2nd, narrowly beating out Waseda University's downhill specialist Sota Kato who ran a PB of 1:33:52 for 3rd. 2009 World Championships marathon team member Satoshi Irifune (Team Kanebo) was 4th in 1:34:17, just half a step ahead of American Nicholas Arciniaga who clocked the same time but was 5th. The women's 30 km race was a three-way battle, with Tomoe Yokoyama (Team Toto) winning in 1:47:01 over Team Hokuren's Yoshie Kito...

http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/sports/Sp200802160125.html translated by Brett Larner The invited domestic elites who will try for a spot on the Beijing Olympic team at this year's Tokyo Marathon assembled in Tokyo for a press conference on Feb. 15. Among the well-known runners is Kurao Umeki of Team Chugoku Denryoku. "First of all," commented Umeki, "I want to run strong. The ticket to Beijing is going to be settled in the 2nd half of this race." Umeki has worked hard this season, running the Berlin Marathon in September, the Nagoya Half Marathon in November, and the New Year Ekiden and Yamaguchi Ekiden in January, along with training camps in Okinawa and Kunming, China. "I've done a lot of long, slow, careful preparation," Umeki said with confidence. "I'll be coming to the start line well-prepared." At age 32, Umeki has run 14 marathons and is one of the veterans in the domestic field. He holds a PB of 2:09:52, but the fastest of his do...