japan running news

Yasushi Sakaguchi , who guided the Chugoku Denryoku men's corporate team to the peak of its power as its head coach and later executive head coach, retired from the team at the end of June. Appearing at his final race on June 29, he said, "It all went by in a blur. I was blessed with the right people for 35 years." Sakaguchi helped co-found the Chugoku Denryoku team, working to build the team up from zero and becoming its head coach in 1994. "We started with the basics, and built Chugoku Denryoku up into a well-known powerhouse in athletics," he said. Sakaguchi's coaching style encouraging the independence of his athletes helped produced Olympians, World Championships medalists and national record breakers like Shigeru Aburaya , Tsuyoshi Ogata and Atsushi Sato . In the team's golden era it even won the New Year Ekiden national title. Asked what athletics has meant to him, Sakaguchi answered, "I got to experience the world, and to see it in all its...

Founded in 1961 as the Oita Godo Marathon, as the only JAAF-certified half marathon within Oita Prefecture a major draw every year for runners from throughout the area and country, the Oita City Half Marathon has been discontinued as of this year's running. Long a proving ground for the area's long distance runners, in recent years the area around the race has undergone significant change and numerous problems have arisen including the increasing difficulty of ensuring runners' safety amidst the ever-increasing traffic. The organizers issued a statement on Sept. 4 thanking everyone who participated in the race with passion and inspiration over the years, to all those who helped to organize and conduct it, and to all the local residents who turned out faithfully every year to cheer along the roadside. A day later, the organizers of the Chugoku Yamaguchi Ekiden , a longtime fixture on the area and national calendar every January, announced that it has also been disco...

Japanese marathoners these days have the reputation of rarely racing abroad, and of rarely racing well when they do. Back in the day that wasn't true; Japanese marathoners have won all the World Marathon Majors-to-be except New York, and two of the three Japanese men to have run 2:06 and all three women to have run 2:19 did it outside Japan. Whatever the extent to which things did turn inward along the way, the last few years have seen an uptick in Japanese runners going farther afield and running better there than any others before them. The lists above and below show the fastest times run by Japanese athletes in different countries to 2:20:00 for men and 2:45:00 for women. Japanese men have run sub-2:20 marathons in 37 countries around the world including Japan, with Japanese women having cleared 2:45 in 33 countries including at home. Breaking it down by IAAF label times, more Japanese men have run label standard times abroad, but women have typically performed at a higher lab...

http://hirospo.com/quick/34808.html translated by Brett Larner On Dec. 15 the Chugoku Newspaper reported that 2:07:52 marathoner Shigeru Aburaya has been promoted from his position as assistant coach at the Chugoku Denryoku men's corporate team to head coach.  Aburaya will assume his new duties next year on Feb. 1.  After 25 years working in that role current head coach Yasushi Sakaguchi will become general manager.  In November Sakaguchi became coach of the JAAF's men's marathon development program for the buildup to the Tokyo Olympics. Translator's note: Along with his 2:07:52 best from the 2001 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Aburaya's achievements as an athlete included 5th-place finishes in the 2003 Paris World Championships and 2004 Athens Olympics marathons.  Besides Aburaya, Sakaguchi also coached 2:07:13 all-time Japanese #4 marathoner and half marathon national record holder Atsushi Sato and 2:08:37 marathoner Tsuyoshi Ogata , the last Japanese man ...

http://kyushu.yomiuri.co.jp/news/national/20111207-OYS1T00173.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner At February's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon Olympian Shigeru Aburuya  (Team Chugoku Denryoku) ran a disappointing 2:19, leading him to make the decision to hang up his shoes at the end of this season.  In his 17th year as a professional runner, Aburuya has chosen Yamaguchi prefecture's Hofu Yomiuri Marathon as the site of his final pro race.  "I'm from Yamaguchi, so I feel like it's on home ground," he said.  "I want people to see that I haven't given up." Aburuya was 5th in the 2004 Athens Olympics and 5th again in two World Championships marathons.  Two years ago he shifted his emphasis to coaching at [Chugoku Denryoku] .  With new responsibilities for athlete recruitment and other obligations of coaching, his own day-to-day training routine became difficult to sustain.  "My position [as a runner]  is just an ordinary one, so it go...

http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/sports/Sp201112070118.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Once the leading force in Japanese men's ekidens and marathons, the name of the Chugoku Denryoku  team has faded into history.  Of the team's three pillars of strength, 38-year-old Tsuyoshi Ogata  has declined dramatically in ability, while 34-year-old Shigeru Aburuya  will retire after next week's Hofu Yomiuri Marathon.  It is a sign of the changing of the guards.  "One era is over," says Chugoku Denryoku head coach Yasushi Sakaguchi .  "Now it is time for us to start again from zero." "Members of our team had a streak of making the national team in the marathon," says Sakaguchi, "and in the ekiden we were #1 in Japan twice."  Chugoku Denryoku first ran the New Year Ekiden national championships in 1993.  With an all-Japanese lineup the team won the New Year Ekiden in 2004 and 2007, and it has finished in the top eight seventeen out of ...

by Brett Larner On Nov. 28 the organziers of the 2011 Hofu Yomiuri Marathon , the last elite marathon of the year, announced the lineup of this year's invited athlete field.  One of the most competitive editions in Hofu history, the field includes 2010 Asian Games marathon gold medalist Youngjun Ji  (South Korea), Tokyo Marathon hero Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref.), defending champion Serod Batochir  (Mongolia) and Fukuoka University ace Takuro Nakanishi  among others. Ji leads a contingent of three strong Korean athletes and is the likely favorite, but Batochir returns to Hofu with a solid 2:11:35 PB from April's London Marathon and should present a serious challenge to Ji's chances.  On paper Kawauchi is the leading man among the Japanese runners, but Hofu will be his fourth marathon in the last three months and, coming just two weeks after his bid for an Olympic team spot at the Fukuoka International Marathon seems unlikely to be more than a recovery...

http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/general/track/news/20081227k0000m050111000c.html Rikuren has announced that as part of its plan to strengthen Japan's distance running it has appointed Team Chugoku Denryoku head coach Yasushi Sakaguchi to lead the men's marathon subcommittee and Team Tenmaya head coach Yutaka Taketomi to the top position in the women's marathon subcommittee. Sakaguchi coached both men who ran the Beijing Olympics marathon, while Taketomi has had runners in the last three Olympic marathons. Both new committee heads will report to Long Distance and Road Racing Director Keisuke Sawaki. Translator's note: Yasushi Sakaguchi coached Olympic marathoners Shigeru Aburaya (5th, Athens 2004), Tsuyoshi Ogata (13th, Beijing 2008) and Atsushi Sato (76th, Beijing 2008). Sakaguchi's runners have been mainstays of recent World Championships marathon teams, with Aburaya 5th in Edmonton 2001 and 5th in Paris 2003, Ogata 12th in Paris 2003, taking the bronze medal in ...

http://www.asahi.com/sports/spo/TKY200812060097.html translated by Brett Larner The 2008 Fukuoka International Marathon elite field: l-to-r Kobayashi, Sato, Irifune, Matsumiya, Fujiwara, Aburaya, Limo, Kebede, and Martinez The organizers of the 62nd Fukuoka International Marathon, to be held Dec. 7 with sponsorship from Rikuren, the Asahi Newspaper Group, TV Asahi and the Kyushu Asahi Hoso Corporation, staged a press conference at a Fukuoka hotel on Dec. 5 to introduce this year's elite field to the media. As a selection race for the Japanese national team at next year's World Track and Field Championships in Berlin, this year's Fukuoka features an array of top Japanese marathon men battling for a position on the team. The fastest man in the field, Kenya's Felix Limo was very positive about his race tomorrow, saying, "I've been struggling with injuries for the last two years but am now completely recovered and am back in the kind of shape I was when I was runni...

by Brett Larner The Fukuoka International Open Marathon Championship is the most important of Japan's elite men's marathons. At its peak Fukuoka served as the unofficial marathon world championships, the place where all the world's best came to end the year with a battle royale, hence the event's full name. Fukuoka's international stature faded in the era of the big city, big money marathon, but its importance to Japan's elite men has never diminished. As the first chance for Japanese men to qualify for an Olympic or World Championships team it remains a highly competitive domestic event with national record-level performances. In recent years Fukuoka's organizers seem to have made a concerted effort to return the event to a level of international signifcance; the invited overseas field at the 2006 Fukuoka included future world record holder Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia) and two-time world champion and Olympic silver medalist-to-be Jaouad Gharib (Morocco), w...

by Brett Larner The Fukuoka International Marathon announced on Nov. 18 the elite field for this year's race, scheduled for Dec. 7. The first of the four domestic selection races for the 2009 Berlin World Championships men's marathon team, the domestic field features 2005 World Championships bronze medalist and 2008 Beijing Olympics marathoner Tsuyoshi Ogata (Team Chugoku Denryoku), 2004 Athens Olympics marathon 5th place finisher Shigeru Aburaya (Team Chugoku Denryoku), and 2008 Tokyo Marathon runner up and Beijing Olympic team alternate Arata Fujiwara (Team JR Higashi Nihon), along with a variety of other sub-2:10 countrymen. The competitive foreign field stars Beijing Olympics bronze medalist Tsegaye Kebede (Ethiopia), London, Chicago and Rotterdam winner Felix Limo (Kenya), and two-time Olympic 4th-place finisher Jon Brown (Canada). Kebede and Limo's appearances continue Fukuoka's re-emergence as a world-class race, the 2006, 2007 and 2008 races having featured the ...

http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/sports/Sp200803140100.html http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/general/track/news/20080305k0000m050043000c.html http://www.tbs.co.jp/program/marathon_20080316.html translated and edited by Brett Larner The Japan Jitsugyodan Track and Field Association has announced the field for this year's 36th edition of the All-Japan Jitsugyodan Half Marathon Championships , to be held March 16 in Yamaguchi. This year's race will feature women's full marathon national record holder and Beijing Olympic marathon team member Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex) as well as men's full marathon national record Toshinari Takaoka (Team Kanebo), who also holds the course record of 1:01:07. The women's field includes 10000 m national record holder Yoko Shibui (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo), looking for revenge for last year's Olympic marathon selection race, as well as 'Japan's Fastest Mama,' Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren), who ran an Olympic A-standard 10000 m la...

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/news/20080220-OYT1T00480.htm http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2008022000877 translated and edited by Brett Larner Rikuren released the entry lists today for this year's Fukuoka International Cross Country Meet to be held Mar. 1 in Fukuoka's Uminonakamichi Seaside Park . The women's 6 km race features 64 entrants including 3000 m steeplechase national record holder Minori Hayakari (Kyoto Koka AC), last year's winner Megumi Kinukawa (Sendai Ikuei High School) and 1500 m national record holder Yuriko Kobayashi (Team Toyota Jidoshokki). The men's 10 km race will see a field of 128 starring Athens Olympics men's marathon 5th place finisher Shigeru Aburaya (Team Chugoku Denryoku) and Chiba International Cross Country 12 km 3rd place finisher Makoto Tobimatsu (Team Yasukawa Denki). Also appearing are Yu Mitsuya (Team Toyota Jidosha Kyushu) and Yuki Sato (Tokai University). The meet is a qualifying event for the World Cross Country...

by Brett Larner Team Konica Minolta returned to the top in today`s 2008 New Year Ekiden , winning for the 4th time in the last six years with a time of 4:46:28. Cold, windy conditions prevented any new stage records, but Konica Minolta`s time was still almost one minute faster than last year`s winning time. Defending champions Team Chugoku Denryoku finished 2nd in 4:49:44, while the other pre-race favorite, Team Nissin Shokuhin , had a disappointing day with a 6th place finish in 4:52:11. 37 teams competed over the seven-stage, 100 km course in Gunma Prefecture. Highlights The 12.3 km 1st stage was dominated by African runners, with only Konica Minolta`s Takashi Ota and Team Asahi Kasei `s Ryuji Ono able to keep up. Race rules bar non-Japanese runners from the 22 km 2nd stage, restricting them to the 1st and 3rd leg and thereby forcing teams to waste their best runners on two of the race`s shortest stages. Team Subaru `s Ethiopian ringer Asefa Giruma was first in 34:37. On the ‘ace’...

http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2007122600495 translated by Brett Larner 37 teams will compete Jan. 1st in the 52nd annual All-Japan Jitsugyodan Ekiden , popularly known as the New Year Ekiden. The ekiden covers a 7-stage, 100 km course through Gunma Prefecture, starting and ending in Maebashi. Team Chugoku Denryoku will be trying for its 2nd straight victory and will face tough competition from Team Nissin Shokuhin , who will be looking for its 1st victory, and past champs Team Konica Minolta , who will be trying to return to the winner`s circle. Team Chugoku Denryoku`s lineup includes Tsuyoshi Ogata, the 5th place finisher in this past summer`s World Championships marathon; Atsushi Sato, the Japanese half-marathon national record holder and 3rd-place finisher at the Fukuoka International Marathon on Dec. 2; and Shigeru Aburaya, who was 5th in the Athens Olympics marathon. Team Chugoku Denryoku does not have any foreign runners so it will likely have a comparatively slow 1st ...

Video interviews with Samuel Wanjiru, Toshinari Takaoka, Atsushi Fujita, Shigeru Aburaya and Atsushi Fujita are available at: http://www.kbc.co.jp/sports/f-marathon2007/ Click on each line of text in the central box to the right of the five pictures to see the videos. Japanese language only. A separate text article: http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2007113000760 translated by Mika Tokairin and Brett Larner The invited elite runners for Sunday`s Olympic qualifying Fukuoka International Marathon gathered on Nov. 30 for the event`s pre-race press conference. Some quotes from the conference: "I am going for a 2:06. I am quite confident about it." -Samuel Wanjiru, 1/2 marathon world record holder and marathon debutant "When I lost four years ago at the selection race for Athens I thought I wouldn`t have another one. I am happy to be here to have a chance to compete." -Toshinari Takaoka, Japanese national marathon record holder "I have good karma in Fukuoka ...

http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/sports/Sp200711280135.html translated by Mika Tokairin and Brett Larner The first of the selection races for the Japanese men`s Beijing Olympics marathon team takes place Dec. 2 at the Fukuoka International Marathon . The elite field includes two runners from Team Chugoku Denryoku, Shigeru Aburaya and Atsushi Sato. The team`s coach Yasushi Sakaguchi says, "Whoever wins Fukuoka will probably be going on to the Olympics. Only one person can win, so I don`t want the two of them to have any bad blood." This will be a rare occasion to see two runners from Team Chugoku Denryoku facing each other in a world-class event. Aburaya`s High-Mileage Preparation Going Well To make the Olympic team, Aburaya has been training to win. "There is only one chance, if I lose that`s it. Whoever I find myself running against, I won`t lose." Aburaya decided to race Fukuoka after hearing that not only Sato but also national record holder Toshinari Takaoka (Team K...

http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/news/20071113k0000m050056000c.html translated by Brett Larner The JAAF today announced the 11-member elite field for the 61st Fukuoka International Marathon to be held December 2nd. Fukuoka is the first of the selection races for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Japanese men`s marathon team. Japanese national record holder Toshinari Takaoka (Team Kanebo), course record holder Atsushi Fujita (Team Fujitsu), Athens Olympic marathon 5th place finisher Shigeru Aburaya (Team Chugoku Denryoku) and others will try to book their Olympic ticket. Takaoka ran the Nagano Marathon in April as a comeback following injury, placing 7th in 2:15:00. 4 years ago he failed to make the Athens Olympic team when he finished 3rd in his qualifying race. Considering his age, 37, this is Takaoka`s last chance to make an Olympic team. Fujita won the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon in February. In the 10 months since then he has focused all his training on Fukuoka. Aburaya did not make the team...