japan running news

On June 3 it was revealed that 2013 Moscow World Championships women's 10000 m 5th-placer Hitomi Niiya , 30, will run the women's 3000 m at the June 9 Nittai University Time Trials as part of the Nike Tokyo Track Club. Her first race in over four years, the race represents her first step on the road to a comeback in time for the 2020 Tokyo Oympic Games. According to a club spokesperson, Niiya began running again last summer. Her goal at Nittai to clear the 9:50 qualifying time for July's Hokuren Distance Challenge series in Hokkaido, where she will run the 5000 m in order to secure the 15:40.00 standard for the 2019 National Championships. A native of Soja, Okayama, while at Kojokan H.S. Niiya won the 6.0 km First Stage at the National High School Ekiden three years in a row. Two of those runs broke the course record, with her time of 18:52 still standing as the course record. No other runner has ever broken 19 minutes. Together with her future London Olympics teamma...

The Tenmaya women's corporate team announced on Dec. 19 that two-time World Championships marathoner and 2012 London Olympian Risa Shigetomo , 30, will retire from competition at the end of the season in March next year. A press conference is scheduled for Dec. 21. As a third-year at Okayama's Kojokan H.S. in 2005 Shigetomo led the team to win its first-ever National High School Ekiden Championships title. She joined the Tenmaya team the following spring after her graduation. With a powerful stride driven by her tall 168 cm frame, Shigetomo won the 2012 Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2:23:23 to qualify for the London Olympic team. At the Olympics she finished only 70th in 2:40:06. This year Shigetomo won Osaka for the second time in 2:24:22, earning a return trip to London for this summer's World Championships where she finished 27th in 2:36:03. Translator's note: Shigetomo also ran in the 2015 Beijing World Championships, where she was 14th in 2:...

The six members of Japan's men's and women's marathon teams at the ongoing London World Championships returned to Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Aug. 9. Decked out in the official team suit, Japanese team captain and at 9th the top-placing Japanese marathoner in London Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) spoke to the media. Having declared pre-race his intention to withdraw from consideration for future Japanese National Team positions, post-race Kawauchi showed no change in that intent. With regard to his future plans, his motivation as a competitor likewise remaining unchanged, Kawauchi indicated that he will run Decmeber's Fukuoka International Marathon,where his 3rd-place overall finish last year earned him his place in London. "In Fukuoka I want to break my PB and run 2:07," he said. "There are things I want to accomplish besides being on the National Team." Kawauchi revealed that his next marathon will be September's Oslo Marathon...

Coming from behind after a mid-race fall, team captain Yuki Kawauchi took the top Japanese men's spot in the London World Championships marathon, running down teammate Kentaro Nakamoto in the final kilometer to finish 9th in 2:12:19. In the early stages of the race the experienced Nakamoto and Kawauchi held back mid-pack while younger teammate Hiroto Inoue stayed near the front. Midway through the second lap Kawauchi took a drink bottle at one of the aid stations and, while drinking, hit his left thigh on a sign protruding from the next table, the signs inexplicably changing at exactly that point from overhead to waist-hieght obstacles on the course. The impact was hard enough to cut Kawauchi's leg but not enough to slow him down. When the big move came early in the third lap Nakamoto led the charge in pursuit, the three Japanese men running single file, but Inoue quickly losing touch. Near the top of the short S-curve uphill near 23 km Kawauchi abruptly stumbled and f...

The men's marathon aside, the third day of competition at the London World Championships was largely a bust for the Japanese team. Out of thirteen athletes in five disciplines only two advanced out of the opening rounds. In the men's 110 m hurdles National Championships 3rd-placer Genta Masuno advanced to the semifinals with a time of 13.58 (+1.3 m/s) for 4th in his heat, but unable to better that performance in his semi he failed to make the final. 400 m hurdles national champion Takatoshi Abe did better, taking 2nd in his heat in 49.65 to move on to Monday's semifinals. London World Championships Day Three Japanese Results London, England, 8/6/17 click here for complete results Men's 110 m Hurdles Heat 1   (-1.2 m/s) 1. Omar McLeod (Jamaica) - 13.23 - Q 2. Balazs Baji (Hungary) - 13.35 - Q 3. Eddie Lovett (Virgin Islands) - 13.41 - Q ----- 7. Shunya Takayama (Japan) - 13.65 Men's 110 m Hurdles Heat 2   (+1.3 m/s) 1. Devon Allen (U.S.A.) - 13.26 ...

A month out from the London World Championships, women's marathon team member Risa Shigetomo (Tenmaya) tuned up with her first road race since winning January's Osaka International Women's Marathon, lining up at Hokkaido's Hakodate Half Marathon . Running in the second pack with 2015 winner Asami Kato (Panasonic) and last year's winner Hiroko Miyauchi (Hokuren), Shigetomo took 6th in 1:14:38. 3rd the last two years, Yuko Mizuguchi (Denso) scored the win in 1:13:37 over Reia Iwade (Dome) and Miharu Shimokado (Nitori), both still adjusting to recent team and coaching changes. London team alternate Misato Horie (Noritz) was also in action in Hokkaido later the same day, running 16:21.77 for 10th in the women's 5000 m at the season's first Hokuren Distance Challenge meet in Shibetsu. In the men's race in Hakodate last year's top three shuffled positions to sweep the podium again. 2nd last year, Charles Ndungu (Komori Corp.) got the better ...

London World Championships women's marathon team member Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya) held an open training session for members of the media June 27 in Okayama. Of her second-straight World Championships appearance she said, "I want to produce good results. My goal is top eight." Since the end of May Shigetomo has done two training camps in Shobara, running on a cross country course as she focused on base mileage. With the trouble she experienced with her right heel last year having improved, the training went off without problems. "Before my marathons up to now I haven't been able to do the right mileage [due to injuries] but this time I've been getting in the tough training," she said. Shigetomo will now begin to focus on speed training. At the open training session she did three 1000 m repeats. "I want to sharpen up," she said. "Right now I'm tired and not moving well, but I'm excited to see where things go from here."...

by Brett Larner Most of the country's corporate leagues held their regional track and field championships this weekend, but superseding them all was the Golden Grand Prix Kawasaki meet. With a shortage of candidates for the London World Championships men's 5000 m the JAAF doctored in a sub-7:55.00 qualifying standard for men to get into next month's National Track and Field Championships, adding a 3000 m to the normally sprint, middle distance and field event GGP.  In the midst of his best season in years, Yuichiro Ueno (Team DeNA) took it out close to national record pace through the first half before abruptly slowing and dropping off the back. Rio Olympics 10000 m silver medalist Paul Tanui (Team Kyudenko) took over, with only Evans Keitany Kiptum (Team Toyota Boshoku), Hiroki Matsueda (Team Fujitsu), Hayato Seki (Tokai Univ.) and Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Team Asahi Kasei). Never do this. Kiptum looked set for the win with a strong kick over the last 200 m, ...

by Brett Larner In a livestreamed press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 17 the JAAF announced the women's and men's marathon teams for this summer's London World Championships.  With four selection races each for the three spots on the women's and men's teams the JAAF went with the best balance they could have achieved between quality and fairness. Making the grade on the women's team were Nagoya Women's Marathon 2nd and 3rd-placers Yuka Ando (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) and Mao Kiyota (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) and Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya), all three with PBs under 2:24.  Osaka runner-up Misato Horie (Team Noritz) was named alternate. On the men's side, the team consists of Fukuoka International Marathon 3rd-placer Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't), Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon winner Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) and Tokyo Marathon 8th-placer Hiroto Inoue (Team MHPS).  All three have brok...

by Brett Larner The press conference announcing the Japanese women's and men's teams for August's London World Championships is set for this Friday.  It's a complicated selection process with four separate domestic races each to choose the three women and three men who will represent Japan in London. Essentially, any woman who had run under 2:22:30 or man under 2:07:00 within the selection window and took the top spot at one of the selection races would be on the team. Barring that, the JAAF would consider a pool of ten for each team, the top woman at last August's Hokkaido Marathon and the top three domestic women from November's Saitama International Marathon , January's Osaka International Women's Marathon and March's Nagoya Women's Marathon , and for men the top Japanese man at February's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon and the top three from December's Fukuoka International Marathon , February's Tokyo Marathon and March...

by Brett Larner Tenmaya teammates Rei Ohara and Risa Shigetomo won today's Osaka Half Marathon and Osaka International Women's Marathon with dominating performances.  Ohara, the fastest female Japanese half marathoner of 2015 and second-fastest last year, took the half marathon out hard, splitting 15:58 for the first 5 km, 1:07:22 pace with a 1:08 target.  She faded steadily from there but held on to win by 52 seconds in 1:10:02, bettering her fastest time of 2016 by 2 seconds.  Having missed the Rio Olympic team by 1 second despite running 2:23:20 at last year's Nagoya Women's Marathon, Ohara will line up in Nagoya again in March in hopes of joining the London World Championships team. Her teammate Shigetomo was one step ahead in making that goal a reality.  A member of the 2012 London Olympics and 2015 Beijing World Championships marathon teams, Shigetomo won Osaka in 2012 in 2:23:23, still her PB, to make the London team, and was controversially added to ...

by Brett Larner The race to make the Japanese team for August's London World Championships continues Sunday at the Osaka International Women's Marathon .  Snakebitten in recent years by the presence of Eastern European women associated with disgraced Russian agent Andrey Baranov , Osaka has noticeably toned down its international component this year.  Rio Olympian Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) leads the field, her 2:24:42 best the fastest time of any woman in the race over the last three years and nearly a minute ahead of Ethiopian-born Shitaye Habtegebrel (Bahrain).  2012 Osaka winner Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya) and last year's Gold Coast Airport Marathon course record-breaker Misato Horie (Team Noritz) make up Ito's main front end competition, where they will have to break 2:22:30 and be the top Japanese woman to be guaranteed a spot on the London team. That's not an impossible task.  Last year Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) did it, winning outright in 2...

by Brett Larner Rio Olympics marathoner Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) leads the elite field of domestic hopefuls for the 2017 World Championships team at the Jan. 29 Osaka International Women's Marathon .  On the home front she faces London Olympian Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya), the last two Gold Coast Airport Marathon winners Misato Horie (Team Noritz) and Risa Takenaka (Team Shiseido), and the debuting Hanae Tanaka (Team Daiichi Seimei), a training partner of Ito's Rio teammate Tomomi Tanaka . Ethiopian-born Shitaye Habtegebrel (Bahrain) presents the toughest international competition to Ito with a PB just under a minute slower than Ito's 2:24:42 best.   Iwona Lewandowska (Poland), Muluhabt Tsega (Ethiopia), Serena Burla (U.S.A.), Cassie Fien (Australia), Ling-Ling Jin (China) and Munkhzaya Bayartsogt (Mongolia) round out the international contingent. Further down the field, Japan's current top three amateur women Yoshiko Sakamoto (YWC), Yumiko Kin...

http://www.sanyonews.jp/article/459054 translated by Brett Larner 327 women are set to run the 35th anniversary Sanyo Ladies Road Race Dec. 23 in Okayama.  117 are entered in the Yuko Arimori Cup Half Marathon, with 210 entered in the Kinue Hitomi Cup 10 km.  Top-level domestic and international athletes including some who ran in this summer's Rio de Janeiro Olympics are set to bring fireworks to the streets of Okayama. The half marathon is led by Rio marathoner Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) and features last year's runner-up local Rei Ohara (Team Tenmaya) and 2015 World Championships team member Risa Shigetomo  (Team Tenmaya). Misaki Kato (Team Kyudenko), who ran brilliantly at last month's National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships, and Reia Iwade (Team Noritz), who set the junior national record of 1:09:45 in Sanyo in 2013, are also on the list.  Rio 5000 m 9th-placer Eloise Wellings and 2016 World Half Marathon Championships team member Cassie Fi...

http://www.kahoku.co.jp/tohokunews/201604/20160412_14046.html translated by Brett Larner On April 11 the organizers of the 26th Sendai International Half Marathon announced the five domestic athletes set to lead the elite field for this year's race on May 8.  Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't), a member of the 2011 and 2013 World Championships marathon teams and the bronze medalist in the 2014 Incheon Asian Games marathon, returns to the Sendai Half for the fifth year in a row.  A former Hakone Ekiden star on the uphill Fifth Stage during his days at Juntendo University, Masato Imai (Team Toyota Kyushu) is the fastest current Japanese marathoner with a 2:07:39 best. Others in the field include last year's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon placer Takuya Noguchi (Team Konica Minolta), 2012 London Olympian and 2015 World Championships team member Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya), and this year's Osaka International Women's Marathon runner-up Misato Horie (Team Nori...

by Brett Larner Fresh off the suspension of its three-time defending champion Tetiana Shmyrko (Ukraine) for systematic cheating revealed through the biological passport system, the Osaka International Women’s Marathon ’s elite field features a small overseas field that passes muster with IAAF labeling requirements while keeping the Eastern contingent to a bare minimum.  Karolina Nadolska (Poland) returns to Osaka with the fastest recent non-Japanese time in the field, 2:26:31, leading 2014 World Half Marathon Championships bronze medalist Sally Kaptich Chepyego (Kenya/Team Kyudenko) and Seong Eun Kim (South Korea). More key is the domestic field competing for one of the two places still up for grabs on the Rio Olympic team. Half marathon national record holder Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal), elevated to the status of 2013 Osaka Women’s champ after Shmyrko’s defenestration, is poised to get the win for real this time as the clear favorite to find herself on the short list a...

by Brett Larner In a sight already familiar from the women's 5000 m heats and 10000 m final, the Japanese women ran up front together through most of the Beijing World Championships women's marathon, the slow early pace and low-hanging fruit of the JAAF's promise of a place on the Rio Olympic team to the first of them to make the top 8 combining to ensure they stayed near the front until things really got moving.  Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) was the first Japanese woman to go to the lead, joined in short order by domestic favorite Sairi Maeda (Team Daihatsu) and the controversial Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya).  Apart from periodic surges at water stations by Mare Dibaba and other members of the Ethiopian team the Japanese trio led until well into the second half tailed all the while by rival Hye-Song Kim (North Korea). Shigetomo, again followed by Kim, made the first real effort to get the pace moving faster after halfway, killing off the European members of the ...