japan running news

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 ...

https://twitter.com/soutarou_t/status/707312990672986112 translated by Brett Larner With a record of achievement at Aoyama Gakuin University and Team Chugoku Denryoku that made him Nagasaki's star long distance runner, Takehiro Deki , 25, announced on Mar. 8 that last month's Tokyo Marathon was his final race and that he is retiring. Deki started running during the winter of his first year at Hokuyodai H.S. and grew to become the star runner at Aoyama Gakuin, leading the team to new heights.  His third year at AGU he won the 2012 Hakone Ekiden's most competitive stage, the 23.2 km Second Stage, following up just over a month later with a marathon debut at the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon where he ran 2:10:02, the third-best ever by a Japanese university runner.  Aiming for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics at the Tokyo Marathon last month he finished 26th. Deki commented, "After entering the corporate leagues I gave my absolute best every single day, but I found that ...

by Brett Larner It was a big day for records at Australia's Gold Coast Airport Marathon , high-quality fields and the relative absence of the Gold Coast's infamous winds combining for a day to remember.  Japan's Takehiro Deki (Team Chugoku Denryoku) got things started in the men's half marathon, running alone after just 7 km to drop a 1:02:11 PB for the win, the 5th-fastest winning time in the event's 32-year history.  A very likeable former Hakone Ekiden star who as a complete unknown in college ran a 58:51 CR at the Takashimadaira 20 km and a 2:10:02 marathon debut without specific marathon training his junior year, Deki helped set Aoyama Gakuin University on the road to its course-record Hakone Ekiden win this year. "It was a little tough being out there on my own," he said post-race, "but I ran the way I wanted. This was a big step toward making the Rio Olympics team in the marathon."  Deki's coach Yasushi Sakaguchi , who previo...

by Brett Larner Japanese athletes feature in two of the three races at Australia's Gold Coast Airport Marathon in its second year as an IAAF gold label race.  Former Aoyama Gakuin University captain Takehiro Deki (Team Chugoku Denryoku) leads the men's half marathon, with cancer survivor Remi Nakazato at the top of the women's list. Deki's 58:51 best for 20 km translates to 1:02:15 for the half marathon, far ahead of the 1:03:28 best of #2-ranked Liam Adams (Australia), but although he has run 1:03:11 for the first half of a marathon Deki's legitimate half marathon best remains just 1:04:16, and with a 29:22 two weeks ago in Boston indicating mid-1:04 condition it should be a challenge for him to take down Adams and the other Aussie and Kiwi competition. "This is my first serious race in a long time," Deki told JRN.  "If all goes well I think I can run mid-1:03." Nakazato, a promising new talent after a 2:24:29 at age 23 in 2011 in...

http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/olomouc-half-marathon-2015-keitany-kiptis Y uka Takemoto (Canon AC Kyushu), formerly Yuka Yano, was 9th in the women's race in 1:13:34, while Kenta Matsumoto (Team Toyota) finished 12th in 1:04:42 in the men's race.  Click here for complete results . Elsewhere, Tomomi Tanaka (Team Daiichi Seimei) finished 5th in the BAA 10K women's race in 32:56, with Takehiro Deki (Team Chugoku Denryoku) 8th in the men's race in 29:22.

by Brett Larner Last year the Tokyo Marathon expanded on its claim to legitimacy as a World Marathon Major with new course records of 2:05:42 and 2:22:23, alongside the London Marathon one of only two races in the world all year to have 9 men sub-2:09 and its grand total of 14 men sub-2:10 making it far and away the deepest race in the world in 2014.  But the absence of much big-name talent and Tokyo's lack of genuine international orientation meant not many people noticed or cared . Continuing to expand on its legitimacy, the Tokyo Marathon has partially remedied that by pulling in both quantity and some quality names for this year's race, especially on the men's side.  All told Tokyo features 21 men with bests from 2:03:02 to 2:09:30, the other spring World Marathon Majors Boston having 15 men from 2:03:38 to 2:09:37 and London 13 from 2:02:57 to 2:09:54.  Alongside last year's Tokyo course record-setting winner Dickson Chumba (Kenya) are Boston and New York Ci...

by Brett Larner video highlights courtesy of race broadcaster NHK Championship ekiden season wrapped up with Sunday's 20th running of the National Men's Ekiden starting and finishing at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Museum.  Strong start to finish, the Saitama team outran Japan's 46 other prefectures to take its first national title in 2:19:14, the third-fastest time in race history. Saitama was right there from the start, opening runner Ryoji Tatezawa up against five sub-14 athletes but taking 6th on the 7.0 km H.S.-only First Stage in 20:14 just 10 seconds behind leader Shota Onitsuka (Fukuoka).  Many of the pre-race favorites had trouble on the opening stage, defending champion Nagano 17th, 2012-13 winner Hyogo 18th, hosts Hiroshima just 32nd and powerhouse Aichi disqualified after its first runner Atsushi Yamato threw the tasuki across the line to second runner Shota Ezomori after falling repeatedly in the final 50 m while struggling to finish, a rar...

by Brett Larner click here for video highlights of the first 19 years of the National Men's Ekiden Ekiden season rolls on for a few weeks more, but Sunday's 20th anniversary National Men's Ekiden marks the end of the month-long run of national championship ekiden races.  Teams made up of the best J.H.S., H.S., university and pro runners from each of Japan's 47 prefectures race over 48.0 km in 7 stages through the streets of Hiroshima, with NHK's live commercial-free broadcast showing many of Japan's future stars to a national audience for the first time.  Follow @JRNLive for live coverage starting at 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 18. There's so much growth happening right now in Japanese men's distance running that there's almost no point filling a preview with details about which teams are packed with talent.  Most of them are.  Hometown Hiroshima is not fooling around with its lineup, featuring 27:38.99 man Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Asahi Kasei), 2015 Hako...

interview and photo by Brett Larner On Jan. 2-3 Aoyama Gakuin University won the biggest title in Japan for the first time, setting an incredible new course record at the 91st running of the Hakone Ekiden in large part thanks to a spectacular run up the mountain on the Fifth Stage by third-year Daichi Kamino and more outstanding runs by his fellow  third-years Kazuma Kubota and Yusuke Ogura .   Back in the spring of 2012 JRN interviewed then-Aoyama Gakuin third-year Takehiro Deki and head coach Susumu Hara ahead of Deki's marathon debut at Lake Biwa, where he ran 2:10:02 .  Hara, a graduate of 2014 National High School Ekiden champion Sera H.S. , went to school outside the Kanto region at Aichi's Chukyo University and never ran the Hakone Ekiden, going on to a short-lived and unsuccessful career at the Chugoku Denryoku corporate team before leaving the sports world for an office job.  Years later he returned to take over at Aoyama Gakuin, at the time...

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20140220-OHT1T00082.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner A representative of Kentaro Nakamoto  (Team Yasukawa Denki), 5th in the Moscow World Championships marathon and 6th in the London Olympics marathon, announced on Feb. 20 that he has withdrawn from the Feb. 23 Tokyo Marathon, a selection race for this fall's Asian Games marathon in South Korea.  According to the team spokesperson, Nakamoto caught the flu in early February and has not fully recovered.  He is not entered in the final Asian Games selection race, the Mar. 2 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, meaning that Nakamoto will not be able to run the marathon at the Asian Games. Also withdrawing are 2013 10000 m national champion and London Olympian Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin), former Aoyama Gakuin University captain Takehiro Deki (Team Chugoku Denryoku) and 2008 Tokyo winner Viktor Rothlin (Switzerland).

by Brett Larner It's almost time for Japan's biggest and best sports event, the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden , the Kanto region university men's championships.  It seems like every year I've come on here and said, "This is going to be the greatest Hakone ever," but it's true.  Things have been accelerating very rapidly in Kanto collegiate distance running.  There have been course records at Hakone the last two years, and this fall the other two Big Three University Ekidens, the Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden Championships, also saw course records.  Two years ago 15 athletes in Hakone's field had bests at the sub-13:40, sub-28:30 and sub-1:03:00 level.  Last year there were 19.  This year there are 32, from 15 of the 20 schools in the field.  Where is it going to end?  The battle between the three course record-setting schools this year, Toyo University , Komazawa University  and Aoyama Gakuin University , looks set to be ...

JRN's most-read articles of 2012 by month: January Toyo University takes eight minutes off Hakone Ekiden course record in historic win. -  Jan. 3 Russian Tatyana Aryasova stripped of 2011 Tokyo Marathon title after testing positive for masking agent. - Jan. 24 February Kisorio wins deepest-ever Marugame International Half-Marathon. - Feb. 5 2012 Tokyo Marathon preview.   - Feb. 23 Kipyego, Habtumu win Tokyo Marathon, Fujiwara back with 2:07:48. - Feb. 26 Kawauchi, 14th in 2:12:52: "I do not think I will be picked" for Olympics; shaves head. - Feb. 27 Gebrselassie gives words of support to Kawauchi. - Feb. 28 Fujiwara's high school coach, hometown supporters delighted with Tokyo performance. - Feb. 28 March Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon preview. - Mar. 2 Takehiro Deki ahead of Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon debut: "That's where my talent is." - Mar. 2 Ndungu wins debut at Lake Biwa, Szost 2:07:39 sets Polish NR, Yamamoto takes probabl...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/p-sp-tp0-20121215-1059960.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Their ace is leading the way to the crown.  Aiming for their first Hakone Ekiden win in five years at the 89th running of the race on Jan. 1-2, national champions Komazawa University  held a public training session on Dec. 14 in Tokyo.  Having turned heads in November by running down leader Toyo University  on the anchor stage to bring Komazawa its tenth National University Ekiden title and giving Beijing Olympics 5000 m bronze medalist Edwin Soi  a run for it at the International Chiba Ekiden , junior Shinobu Kubota  is now aiming for his second-straight Hakone stage win.  "Last time we weren't even close to being able to compete with Toyo," he says.  "The disappointment hasn't faded a year later.   If you're not #1 in Hakone then you can't really be called the best.  That's what I want to become." He has further...

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20121210/ath12121017570005-n1.html translated and edited by Brett Larner additional source articles linked within translation On Dec. 16 the sixteen-man rosters were released for the twenty university teams competing at the 89th running of the two-day, ten-stage, 217.9 km Hakone Ekiden on Jan. 2 and 3.  The same evening, the head coaches appeared at a public event in Ebisu, Tokyo to discuss their teams' conditions, plans and their expectations for what looks to be an intensely competitive edition of the historic event.  Comments from the coaches of the top tier of teams: Yasuyuki   Watanabe , Waseda University 3rd, 2012 National University Ekiden Championships 6th, 2012 Izumo Ekiden 4th, 2012 Hakone Ekiden Course record wins at 2010 Izumo Ekiden, 2010 National University Ekiden Championships and 2011 Hakone Ekiden I want to put together a running order that forces our opponents to fight when they don't want to.  The m...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20121112-1046022.html translated and edited by Brett Larner On Nov. 12 Rikuren, the Japanese Federation, released the entry lists for the Nov. 23 International Chiba Ekiden , a six-stage, 42.195 ekiden featuring teams of three men and three women.  Thirteen national teams along with a Japanese University select team and a team from hosts Chiba Prefecture make up the field. The Japanese national team includes London Olympics women's 10000 m 9th-place finisher and 5000 m national champion  Hitomi Niiya  (Team Univ. Ent.) and her Olympic teammate, 10000 m national champion Mika Yoshikawa  (Team Panasonic) along with top-ranked collegiate runner Suguru Osako  (Waseda Univ.) and past 1500 m and 5000 m national champion Yuichiro Ueno  (Team S&B).  The Japanese University team features three members of Izumo Ekiden course record-setters Aoyama Gakuin University, Takehiro Deki , Kazuma Kubota...

interview and photo by Brett Larner Aoyama Gakuin University  has had a spectacular underdog-makes-good trajectory in recent years, qualifying for the storied Hakone Ekiden four years ago for the first time in thirty-three years thanks to three extra places being available in commemoration of the event's 85th running, then rocketing all the way to its best-ever 5th place at the 2012 Hakone Ekiden.  With aces Takehiro Deki  and Ryotaro Otani  now seniors and an impressive class of first-year recruits led by #1-ranked Kazuma Kubota  the team's goal for the 2012-2013 season is simple: the Hakone win.  On Oct. 8 the team took an enormous step toward that goal, crushing all four teams that beat them in Hakone and breaking the six-stage, 44.5 km course record with a new record of 2:09:41.  JRN talked to head coach Susumu Hara  and Deki, the team's captain this year, about their goals, the team atmosphere, Hara's coaching philosophy, and more. I...