japan running news

At Sunday's Kitakyushu Invitational Women's Ekiden , 27.2 km in 6 legs for the high school division and 5 legs for the corporate team division, last year's overall winner Kamimura Gakuen H.S. did it again, breaking the finish tape ahead of the top corporate team. Head coach Tetsuzo Arikawa commented, "The athletes really grew in ability over this last year." The key play came on the 3.8 km Fourth Stage, where 3rd-year Rina Kurogami ran aggressively after starting 11 seconds behind Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. "I didn't push too hard on the climbs and just built up momentum on the downhills," she said. Just past 2 km into the stage she passed Ritsumeikan Uji for the lead, going on take 8 seconds off the CR she had set on the same stage 2 years ago. 2nd-year Rin Setoguchi had responsibility for the longest stage of the race, the 5.9 km Fifth Stage. "I just told myself that I could make up the 21 seconds to the corporate division leader, and ran like ...

Ahead of the Dec. 22 National High School Ekiden in Kyoto, the 2023 national champion Kamimura Gakuen H.S. girls held an open practice session for the media. 2023 was Kamimura Gakuen's only 2nd national title ever. Can it make it two in a row? The Kamimura Gakuen girls won the Nov. 2 Kagoshima Prefecture High School Ekiden, its 9th-straight win and 31st victory overall in the prefectural qualifying race for Nationals. 3rd on her stage at Nationals last year as part of the winning team, Hina Ogura summed up this year's lineup. "There's no really dominant star runner this year, but each person is aware of their position on the team and working together to share in everyone playing leading roles." Sakine Noguchi ran the Second Stage at Nationals last year. "I think we've improved our stamina," she said, "so I hope that we can get the best possible results and all finish with a smile." Handling the First Stage last year, Rin Setoguchi said,...

The 2023 National High School Ekiden champion Kamimura Gakuen H.S. girls ended their season with another win, taking 1st at the 35th Kitakyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden Sunday in Fukuoka. Running against corporate league competition like 2023 Queens Ekiden winner Sekisui Kagaku and high school Nationals 3rd and 4th placers Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. and Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. , Kamimura Gakuen got off to a slow start when leading runner Rina Kurokami was only 13th on her stage and 24 seconds off the lead. But having delivered Kamimura Gakuen the national title last month with an incredible anchor stage run, its second runner Caroline Kariba showed again that she's a budding international-level talent, chopping 18 seconds off the 3.8 km Second Stage CR, an amazing 47 seconds fastest than the previous record by a high school athlete. That was enough to put Kamimura Gakuen out front by 18 seconds over the Kyocera corporate team and 42 seconds ahead of Kunei Joshi Gakuin. Its...