japan running news

by Brett Larner Leaders 14:54 thru 5k, just under 63 pace. Huge pack with almost no separation. pic.twitter.com/s06yAf9wUR — Japan Running News (@JRNHeadlines) March 6, 2016 Lake Biwa was the weekend's biggest race , but there was no shortage of other high-level action across the country.  Last year the National University Men's Half Marathon in Tokyo's Show Kinen Park was the deepest half marathon in history , with 265 breaking 1:06:00 and the top 12 all under 1:02:30.  This year with no World University Games and the World University Cross-Country Championships, NYC Half Marathon, World Half Marathon Championships and Rio Olympics all coming up most of Japan's top university men gave it a miss, resulting in a relatively low-key race by recent standards.  The entire field went out just under 3:00/km pace and stayed there, the numbers whittling down to a final seven.   Ryunosuke Hayashi (Tokai Univ.) broke away in the last km for the win in 1:03:07, his teamm...

by Brett Larner An alternate for Aoyama Gakuin University 's course record-setting team at last week's Hakone Ekiden , 18-year-old Yuta Shimoda led the field with a 1:03:16 course record at the 42nd running of the Takanezawa Genki Up Half Marathon on Jan. 11 in Takanezawa, Tochigi.  Shimoda's time was a PB by over 3 minutes and was enough to beat fellow AGU first-year alternate Yuki Nakamura by more than 45 seconds.  AGU runners took the top four spots, with Hakone 6th-placer Tokai University alternate Ryunosuke Hayashi 5th in 1:04:28, also under the old course record.  Nami Iwahara (Gazelle AC) won the women's division in 1:23:22. Course records also fell at the Oita City Half Marathon in Kyushu.  2014 Kita-Kyushu Marathon winner Yuka Yano led a Canon AC Kyushu sweep of the top four spots in the women's race with a course record 1:13:41.  Ethiopian Melaku Aberu , a runner for the locally-based Kurosaki Harima team, outran Oita native and sub-2:1...