japan running news

The 41st Sanyo Ladies Road Race takes place Dec. 18 in Okayama. 119 athletes including qualifiers for the MGC Race 2024 Olympic marathon trials are entered in the half marathon, with another 155 in the 10 km bringing the total to 274 entrants. MGC qualifiers Kanako Takemoto (Daihatsu), Reia Iwade (Denso) and Mirai Waku (Universal Ent.) lead the half marathon field. Other top names include last year's first Japanese finisher Yumi Yoshikawa (Uniqlo), 5000 m U18 NR holder Shuri Ogasawara (Denso), and local Tenmaya team members Rei Ohara and Shiori Yoshizono . Last year foreign athletes swept the podium. This year all three are set to return, with Zeyituna Husan (Denso) going for the first threepeat in event history. In the 10 km Agnes Mwikali (Kyocera) will likewise being going for the first-ever threepeat, with pressure from 2021 runner-up Naomi Muthoni (Universal Ent.) and others. MGC qualifier Mao Uesugi (Starts) and Tenmaya rookie Shiho Tachizako are also in the field...

Three big pre-ekiden season meets happened this weekend and produced some big results. Saturday at the Nittai University Time Trials in Yokohama, Richard Kimunyan (Hitachi Butsuryu) and Benard Koech (Kyudenko) pushed each other under Josphat Ndambiri 's longstanding 10000 m Japan all-comers record of 26:57.36, Kimunyan setting the new record at 26:54.76 and Koech next in 26:55.04. Those times made them the only Kenyans under 27 minutes this year worldwide, with the Hachioji Long Distance meet still to come next month. Three others were under 27:30 led by Jonathan Ndiku (Hitachi Butsuryu) in 27:12.84, with Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) the top Japanese man at 6th in 27:53.00. Justus Soget (Honda) took the 5000 m A-heat in 13:24.01, the top five all under 13:30 and another Fujitsu runner, Olympian Hiroki Matsueda , filling the top Japanese spot at 8th in 13:34.62. Harumi Okamoto (Yamada Holdings) won the women's 5000 m A-heat in 15:49.72, and Kenyan Hellen Ekarare (Toyota Ji...

Looking at what's coming up Sunday it kind of almost sort of feels like things are starting to get back toward normalish. Down to the south you've got the Nagoya Women's Marathon stepping up as the first WA Platinum Label Race worldwide to go ahead with a combined elite and mass-participation race since the pandemic started. It's a much smaller field than usual with just 5,000 in the mass-participation race plus elites, but they're actually going to do it. Can you believe it? We're still having a hard time. The elite race should be good, even with the withdrawal of Tokyo Olympics marathon team member Ayuko Suzuki  (Japan Post) with another injury. You've still got Olympic team alternate Rei Ohara  (Tenmaya), last year's Osaka International winner Mizuki Matsuda  (Daihatsu) and 25 km national record co-holder Sayaka Sato  (Sekisui Kagaku), with Matsuda kicking around the possibility of a new NR. That sounds pretty good. There's even a chance of a ne...

The Mar. 14 Nagoya Women's Marathon announced this year's field yesterday, the same day that vaccinations officially began in Japan. It's another domestic-only race, but it has a great potential trio up front and looks to be going ahead with a mass-participation race. Up front are last year's Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Mizuki Matsuda , 25 km national record co-holder Sayaka Sato , and Tokyo Olympics marathon team member Ayuko Suzuki . Suzuki is only 9th by recent time, but with a half marathon best of 1:07:55 and this being her first shot at a fast marathon she's definitely got the potential to stay with Matsuda and Sato. Reia Iwade  and Rei Ohara  have both run 2:23 but neither has been near that level in the last few years, Iwade in particular having dropped out of Osaka last month and only running 1:13:10 last weekend at the National Corporate Half. Mao Uesugi , Haruka Yamaguchi  and Mirai Waku  all ran Osaka too, so whether they start and h...

Something I wrote for another outlet on the 13th but which subsequent events bumped off the priority list. On Mar. 12 the JAAF held a press conference in Koriyama, Fukushima to introduce the members of its super-prestigious women’s and men’s marathon teams for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. It was the culmination of an almost three-year process to put together a team with the best chance of winning a home-soil medal in the event Japan treasures more than any other. Let’s take a look at that process. The Background Marathons are a major spectator sport in Japan, with live nationwide broadcasts of its main races. The most important of these, for women the Saitama International Marathon, Osaka Women’s Marathon and Nagoya Women’s Marathon, and for men the Fukuoka International Marathon, Tokyo Marathon and Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, have traditionally served as selection races for Olympic teams, with consideration sometimes also given to 2nd-tier races like the Hokkaido Marathon ...

The members of the Japanese men's and women's marathon teams for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics appeared at a press conference Mar. 12 at Koriyama View Hotel in Koriyama, Fukushima to talk about their hopes and aspirations for the home soil Games. The team members also visited the grave of 1964 Tokyo Olympics men's marathon bronze medalist Kokichi Tsuburaya in Sukagawa, Fukushima, praying and swearing to medal. The JAAF chose Fukushima as the starting point for Team Japan's quest to become Tsuburaya's Olympic inheritors. At the press conference JAAF marathon development project leader Toshihiko Seko , 63, said, "Tsuburaya's run formed the bedrock upon which the marathon stands today." Appearing at the press conference were men's team member Yuma Hattori (26, Toyota), women's team members Honami Maeda (23, Tenmaya), Ayuko Suzuki (28, Japan Post) and Mao Ichiyama (22, Wacoal), along with men's alternates Shohei Otsuka (25, Kyudenko) and Ry...

Gather round, y'all, Sunday's  Osaka International Women's Marathon  has a story to tell. It's the next-to-last chance for Japanese women to make the Sapporo 2020 Olympic team. All they have to do is be the first Japanese woman across the line and go 2:22:22 or better, as better as possible to keep the crosshairs that will be on their back at the Nagoya Women's Marathon in March down to a workable size. Three women on the list could conceivably play the protagonist and hit 2:22:22 on a good day,  Rei Ohara  (Tenmaya),  Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) and  Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal). Ohara, last year's runner-up, has run as fast as 2:23:20 and currently has a provisional place on the 2020 Olympic team after finishing 3rd at September's MGC Race Olympic marathon trials . She's the one who stands to get knocked out if anyone hits the 2:22:22 standard, so while Nagoya might have made more strategic sense, here she is. A 28th-place finish at December's  Sany...

The Denso corporate team held off top-ranked Tenmaya and Kamimura Gakuen High School to win the 31st Kitakyushu Women’s Invitational Ekiden, Sunday in Fukuoka. A unique race that pits top-ranked corporate, university and high school teams against each other in a season-ending epilogue to last weekend’s National Women’s Ekiden, the Kitakyushu Invitational features a long anchor stage split into two segments for the high school division to make it teams of five against six. Denso started the race in 2nd, with leading runner Shuri Ogasawara covering the 5.3 km First Stage in 16:59, 3 seconds behind Rina Miyata (Kyudenko). Its next runner, Husan Zeyituna , dropped a stage best to put Denso 9 seconds ahead, but despite a scare from Kyudenko’s fourth runner Joan Kipkemoi Denso’s win was never at real risk. Anchor Akko Matsumoto brought them home in 1:27:29, 48 seconds ahead of Kyudenko. Despite a good team performance up to that point, Kyudenko anchor Yuri Karasawa was caught i...

The New Year and Hakone Ekidens were big news among JRN readers as always. But in Japanese long distance, this year was all about the 2020 Olympic marathon, and especially about the Sept. 15 MGC Race, Japan's first modern attempt at a one-shot Olympic trials format for choosing its Olympic marathon lineup. Five of this year's ten most-read stories were about the MGC Race, its qualifying races, and about the Olympic marathon itself. The complete top ten stories of the year in Japanese distance as seen by JRN readers: Tokai University Wins First-Ever Hakone Ekiden Title - Jan. 2-3 After Toyo University held off four-time defending champion Aoyama Gakuin Unviersity to lead the Hakone Ekiden at the end of its first day , Tokai University came on strong on Day Two to overtake Toyo and keep AGU at bay for its first-ever win at Japan's most prestigious race. Nakamura and Maeda Win Japanese 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials - Sept. 15 Abandoning its black box multi-race nati...

The Osaka International Women's Marathon announced its elite field for its Jan. 26, 2020 running today. It's a race that serves one main purpose: to try to get a Japanese woman under 2:22:23 and onto the 2020 Sapporo Olympic marathon team. It's perfectly set up for that to happen, with three Ethiopian-born athletes and one Kenyan under 2:22 in the last two years, last year's winner Fatuma Sado (Ethiopia), pacing for the first 12 km from the woman with the stablest pace control in Japan, Hitomi Niiya (Nike Tokyo TC), and three Japanese women who could conceivably hit 2:22:22 on a good day,  Rei Ohara  (Tenmaya),  Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) and  Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal). Ohara, last year's runner-up, has run as fast as 2:23:20 and currently has a provisional place on the 2020 Olympic team after finishing 3rd at September's MGC Race Olympic marathon trials . She's the one who stands to get knocked out if anyone hits the 2:22:22 standard, so while Nagoya ...

After an almost two-year qualification period that made it the most difficult marathon in history to get into, Japan's Marathon Grand Championship 2020 Tokyo Olympics marathon trials went off perfectly Sunday in warm and sunny conditions. Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu), 4th in Berlin last year, and 2018 Fukuoka winner Yuma Hattori (Toyota) went 1-2 in a 3-way sprint finish against national record holder Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project) to score places on the Olympic team, with 2017 Hokkaido Marathon winner Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) taking the women's race and 2018 Hokkaido winner Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post) holding off Rei Ohara (Tenmaya) to join Maeda in the Tokyo lineup. It was a sign of the level of commitment that this generation brought, of what next summer's Olympics are going to be like, that both the women's and men's races went out at national record pace, but the two couldn't have been more different. In the women's race, 9 of the 10 starters wen...

Honami Maeda age: 23 sponsor: Tenmaya graduated from: Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. best time inside MGC window: 2:23:48, 2nd, 2018 Osaka International Women’s Marathon PB: 2:23:48, 2nd, 2018 Osaka International Women’s Marathon other PBs: 5000 m: 15:38.16 (2018) 10000 m: 32:13.87 (2018) half marathon: 1:09:12 (2018) marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019) 12th, 2019 Tokyo Marathon, 2:31:42 7th, 2018 Berlin Marathon, 2:25:23 2nd, 2018 Osaka International Women’s Marathon, 2:23:48 – PB 1st, 2017 Hokkaido Marathon, 2:28:48 other major results: 3rd, 2019 Hakodate Half Marathon, 1:10:23 3rd, 2019 National Women’s Ekiden Ninth Stage (10.0 km), 31:49 1st, 2018 Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, 1:09:12 – PB 5th, 2018 National Corporate Women’s Ekiden Third Stage (10.9 km), 35:15 35th, 2018 Valencia World Half Marathon Championships, 1:12:09 7th, 2017 Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, 1:10:22 12th, 2017 Osaka International Women’s Marathon, 2:32:19 2nd, 2016...

Rei Ohara age: 29 sponsor: Tenmaya graduated from: Kojokan H.S. best time inside MGC window: 2:25:46, 2nd, 2019 Osaka International Women’s Marathon PB: 2:23:20, 3rd, 2016 Nagoya Women’s Marathon other PBs: 5000 m: 15:39.47 (2016) 10000 m: 31:48.31 (2015) half marathon: 1:09:17 (2015) marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019) 2nd, 2019 Osaka International Women’s Marathon, 2:25:46 10th, 2018 Berlin Marathon, 2:27:29 8th, 2018 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2:27:44 other major results: 2nd, 2019 Sendai International Half Marathon, 1:10:25 4th, 2018 National Corporate Women’s Ekiden Sixth Stage (6.795 km), 21:54 3rd, 2018 Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, 1:10:37 5th, 2017 Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, 1:09:26 1st, 2017 Osaka Half Marathon, 1:10:02 1st, 2016 Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, 1:10:04 3rd, 2016 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2:23:20 – PB 2nd, 2015 Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, 1:09:17 – PB 22nd, 2015 Beijing World Championships 10000 m, 32:47.74 3rd, 201...

Bound for the 2020 Olympic marathon trials MGC Race to be held Sept. 15, Tenmaya teammates Rei Ohara , 28, and Honami Maeda , 23, left July 22 for altitude training in the U.S.A. The pair will be based in Albuquerque, New Mexico at 1600 m elevation until early September, doing the brunt of their preparations for the MGC Race there. Maeda won the 2017 Hokkaido Marathon to become the first woman to qualify for the MGC Race. After that she ran an excellent 2:23:48 at the 2018 Osaka International Women's Marathon and competed at the World Half Marathon Championships. The main event on Sept. 15 will be one without pacers and a field of only 12. "I've never run in a race with so few people before," she said. "I want to run my own race. The last 5 km will be the key." Ohara ran 2:23:20 at the 2016 Nagoya Women's Marathon, missing a place on the Rio Olympic team by 1 second as the second Japanese finisher. "The next few weeks will be an important ti...

2018 Jakarta Asian Games marathon silver medalist Keiko Nogami (Juhachi Ginko) turned in one of the best performances of her career Sunday, taking almost two minutes off her half marathon best to win the Sendai International Half Marathon in 1:09:27. One of just fifteen women to have qualified for Japan's MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials, Nogami quickly dropped the more accomplished Rei Ohara (Tenmaya), also an MGC qualifier, to run the last 3/4 of the race alone en route to the fastest winning time in Sendai since 2009. Ohara was next in 1:10:25, with 10000 m collegiate record holder Hikari Yoshimoto (Daihatsu) 3rd in a PB of 1:12:39. Locally-based Kenyan Alexander Mutiso (ND Software) won the men's race with the same kind of margin as Nogami, running 1:01:10 for the win, Sendai's fastest time since 2010. Back on the roads for the first time since his crash-and-burn shot at a 2:04 at March's Tokyo Marathon, Yuki Sato (Nissin Shokuhin) was 2nd in 1:02:30 ...

Relative darkhorse Fatuma Sado (Ethiopia) outlasted some of Japan's top Olympic hopefuls and her Kenyan competition to win the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2:25:39. Stellar pacing right on the A-group target of 17:00 per 5 km quickly shook the pack down to the main contenders, Ethiopians Sado, Abebech Afework and Sutume Asefa Kebede , Kenyans Bornes Chepkirui and Eunice Jeptoo and Japan's Rei Ohara (Tenmaya), Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal), and Natsuki Omori (Daihatsu). Ohara had already qualified for September's MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials, but for Fukushi, running her first marathon since the Rio Olympics, and the debuting Omori, they needed to either clear 2:24 or be in the first three Japanese women after Ohara and under 2:28. Just past 12 km disaster struck Fukushi. Tripping in the middle of the pack and falling, she tore both knees and hands before hitting her head on the pavement. Fukushi bounced up and quickly regained contact with th...

We're getting into the last few months of qualification for September's MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials, and for Japanese women's Sunday's  Osaka International Women's Marathon  represents one of the last chances to make it. One of only eight to have qualified so far,  Rei Ohara  (Tenmaya) is one of three Japanese women in the field to have broken 2:24, along with 2016 Osaka winner  Kayoko Fukushi  (Wacoal) and 2014 Yokohama winner  Tomomi Tanaka  (Daiichi Seimei). But none of that trio has run that kind of time since early 2016, and for both Fukushi and Tanaka this will be the first marathon since they represented Japan in the marathon in Rio. That seems to be the overall impression of the domestic field in Osaka this year, it being mostly made up of people at their best two or three years ago but hoping to get it back together well enough to qualify for the trials. They'll have to be under 2:28:00 if among the top three Japanese women...