japan running news

by Brett Larner In a familiar sight on the Japanese women's marathon circuit, a late-30's Eastern European woman negative-splitted her way to the win of the world's largest women-only marathon, the Nagoya Women's Marathon .  39-year-old Russian Mariya Konovalova  led virtually start to finish, more than often than not ahead of the lone Kenyan pacer as she progressively ground down the competition.  A lead pack of 21 at 10 km was down to 14 by halfway, which Konovalova crossed in 1:12:34.  Most of the burnoff happened between there and 25 km, with only defending champion and Moscow World Championships marathon 4th-placer Ryoko Kizaki  (Team Daihatsu), 2005 Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Jelena Prokopcuka  (Lativa), debuting National Corporate Half Marathon champion Tomomi Tanaka  (Team Daiichi Seimei), the idiosyncratic Eri Hayakawa  (Team Toto), Ethiopian Ashete Dido  and the pacer able to match Konovalova's pace. K...

http://www.melbournemarathon.com.au/News/ArtMID/4424/ArticleID/1895/Mens-Race-Record-set-to-go Note: Two corrections to the above article.  Melbourne will be Yuki Kawauchi 's eighth marathon so far this year, with three more planned in November and December.  He finished 8th at last month's Great North Run.

by Brett Larner While much of the rest of Japan struggled with heavy snow, clear skies, cool temperatures and gentle winds greeted the runners in the 42nd Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon in Oita Prefecture. Beppu-Oita, or Betsudai as the race is usually known, has the reputation of being a development for younger runners to break through into the front ranks of Japanese marathoning. This year's race lived up to the event's reputation. A large pack of 16 runners with 2 pacemakers ran together through the first half of the race, passing 5 km in 15:19. 2003 L.A. Marathon winner Mark Yatich was the first to drop off the pack. Race commentators passed along their condolensces to Yatich, whose older brother was killed last week in the ongoing strife within Kenya. By 10 km the pack was down to 14 runners plus the pacemakers, going through the mark in 30:29. 15 km (45:50) and 20 km (1:01:16) passed mostly without event. Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki's Yoichi Watanabe slipped and fell...