japan running news

https://worldathletics.org/news/report/tigst-assefa-world-marathon-record-berlin-kipchoge-2023 Japanese half marathon national record holders Yusuke Ogura (Yakult) and Hitomi Niiya (Sekisui Kagaku) both ran the Berlin Marathon. Ogura finished 51st in 2:17:39 a few steps ahead of women's runner-up Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya, with Niiya 11th in 2:23:08. Although Niiya’s run was billed as an attempt at the 2:19:12 national record, she was never on NR pace and slowed continuously after 10 km.  Complete results .

Sunday's other big race in Hokkaido was the Hakodate Half Marathon and Marathon , where members of Japan's marathon squad for August's Budapest World Championships and qualifiers for October's MGC Race Olympic marathon trials tune up for their races. In the men's half marathon, Shun Sadakata held off Evans Kipkemei to take the win by 2 seconds in a PB and CR 1:01:37. Hideyuki Tanaka took 3rd in 1:01:40, with Dan Kiplangat the only other runner under 62 in 1:01:54 for 4th. Half marathon NR holder Yusuke Ogura was 6th in 1:02:38, and close behind him was marathon NR holder Kengo Suzuki , 7th in 1:02:46. For Suzuki it was the first time he'd made it to the starting line of a race since the March, 2022 Tokyo Marathon, and as the first MGC qualifier to finish in Hakodate his performance there was good enough to generate a collective sigh of relief. Budapest marathon team member Kazuya Nishiyama didn't have the same kind of day, only 15th in 1:03:58. Women-o...

Post-ekiden road season is up to full speed in Japan with two major races this Sunday. First up, the Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon kicks off its 75th anniversary edition at 10:35 a.m. with an Aussie-heavy field and the usual domestic depth. Kenyan Nancy Jelagat is the class of the women's field on paper with a 1:05:21 in Berlin 2021, but without any race results in 2022 it's a question how she'll fare against Japan-based Pauline Kamulu (Route Inn Hotels), the Aussie trio of Sinead Diver , Eloise Wellings and Isobel Batt-Doyle , Brit Charlotte Purdue , American Sarah Pagano , and top-ranked domestic woman Rika Kaseda (Daihatsu). Sub-58 man Alexander Mutiso (ND Software) fronts the men's field, with Aussies Jack Rayner and Riley Cocks set to mix it up with debuting 27:20.34 man Cleophas Kandie (Mitsubishi Juko) and a million domestic men including sub-61 half marathoners Yusuke Tamura (Kurosaki Harima) Takashi Namba (Toenec) and Yusuke Nishiyama ...

The world's deepest half marathon returned after a 3-year absence Sunday in Ageo, Saitama. In its 35th anniversary year the Ageo City Half Marathon debuted a tweaked new World Athletics-certified course that moved its starting point onto the road outside the stadium traditionally used for its start and finish.  Boniface Mulwa (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) took off from the massive main pack after a leisurely 14:48 opening 5 km, pursued at first by national record holder Yusuke Ogura and Kensuke Tsubura of this season's Izumo and National University Ekiden course record breaker Komazawa University . But Mulwa's sub-14 split from there to 10 km was too much for them, and he ran the rest of the way complete alone out front. Ageo's first sub-61 clocking looked to be in the works, but after a short stretch of undulations leading to 15 km Mulwa slowed just enough to miss that and let the chase group start to come back into sight of him. With a kick on the last lap of the track...

Corona numbers in Japan are at record-breaking levels right now, some of the highest in the world, but at least a few races are throwing caution to the wind, in their own highly controlled way, and trying to go ahead. The Hokkaido Marathon is one of them, an end-of-summer regular making a comeback this year in order to give a shortcut to 2024 MGC Race olympic trials qualification to anyone who can handle hot conditions. It announced its elite field today. Honami Maeda , was the first woman to qualify for the pre-Tokyo Olympics MGC, winning Hokkaido back in 2017 and going on to win the trials. She broke the 30 km NR without wearing super shoes after that, but things haven't been great for her for a long time. But while every other good marathoner from the Tenmaya team has never pulled back up once they start the downward spiral, Maeda has re-emerged this spring with two good half marathons, the better a 1:08:28 PB and CR win in nearby Hakodate a month ago. That's all good, but...

At the July 3 Hakodate Half Marathon in Hakodate, Hokkaido, 30 km national record holder and Tokyo Olympics marathon team member Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) won in a course record 1:08:28, improving her PB by 40 seconds. Her Tenmaya teammate Natsumi Matsushita , already qualified for the MGC 2024 Olympic marathon trials, was 2:16 behind in 2nd, with Tokyo Olympics 10000 m squad member Yuka Ando (Wacoal) 4th. Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) won the men's half marathon in 1:02:17, beating top Japanese man Shun Sadakata (Mazda) by 29 seconds. National record holder Yusuke Ogura (Yakult) was 12th in 1:03:39, with former NR holder Yuta Shitara (Honda) 28th in 1:05:48. Miharu Shimokado (S.I.D. Group) won the accompanying full women's full marathon in 2:43:16, Shintaro Miyakawa (Tokyo Police) taking the men's race in 2:22:25. Hakodate Half Marathon Hakodate, Hokkaido, 3 July 2022 half marathon results marathon results Women's Half Marathon 1. Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) - 1:08:28...

As the only game in town for its final running before being swallowed up by the Osaka Marathon 's platinum ambitions, the Feb. 28 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon has put together the best field in its history. Times in the last three years don't mean what they used to, but even so Lake Biwa has 2 men sub-2:07, 7 sub-2:08, 13 sub-2:09, 25 sub-2:10, 40 sub-2:11 and 53 sub-2:12, all Japanese but one, Japan-based Kenyan Simon Kariuki  (Togami Denki).  Among them are 2:06 men Ryu Takaku  (Yakult) and Hiroto Inoue  (Mitsubishi Juko), half marathon national record holder Yusuke Ogura  (Yakult), 2019 Fukuoka winner Taku Fujimoto  (Toyota), Tokyo Olympics marathon trials winner Shogo Nakamura  (Fujitsu), 100 km world record holder Nao Kazami (Aisan Kogyo) and many, many more. And there are at least another 7 men with half marathon bests under 62 minutes making debuts or trying to finish a marathon for the first time, notably university ekiden star Shunya Kik...

On Nov. 2 the management of the Kyudenko corporate men's team announced that Kazuma Kubota , 27, quit the team on Oct. 31 to devote himself to working for the Kyudenko corporation. The announcement effectively represented an announcement of Kubota's retirement. Kubota graduated from the national-level Kyushu Gakuin H.S. in 2012 and entered Aoyama Gakuin University . The same year, he won the most competitive stage at the Izumo Ekiden as a 1st-year, securing Aoyama Gakuin its first-ever win at one of the Big Three University Ekidens. At the 2015 Hakone Ekiden his third year, Kubota had a memorably intense First Stage duel with Komazawa University 's future Tokyo Olympics marathon trials winner Shogo Nakamura , losing to Nakamura by just 1 second. But Aoyama Gakuin rode the momentum that Kubota had generated, going on to win Hakone for the first time.  During his senior year in the 2015-16 season he won his stage at all three university ekidens. At Hakone Ekiden he won the...

At least six runners broke five national records at today's fast and deep Marugame Half Marathon . The ambitious Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) kicked off the women's race by taking a swing at the 1:06:38 Japanese women's national record set two weeks ago in Houston by Hitomi Niiya (Sekisui Kagaku), with Namibian national record holder Helalia Johannes close behind. Ichiyama dropped off after the turnaround near 10 km, leaving Johannes to run on alone to a new record of 1:08:10, 2:20 under the record she set just last April. Ichiyama faded to 5th in 1:08:56, run down by 2019 Sanyo Ladies Half winner Charlotte Purdue , South Korean Kyun Sun Choi , and Australian Sinead Diver on the return trip. Purdue took 2nd in 1:08:23, with Choi close behind in a national record 1:08:35 for 3rd over Diver, 2:39 off the 2009-era South Korean record. Succeeding where Ichyama fell short, Andrea Seccafien took 3 seconds off the Canadian national record set in Houston by Natasha Wodak , fini...

2020 Japanese track and road distance running rankings. Overall rankings are calculated using runners' times and placings in races over 5000 m, 10000 m, half-marathon and marathon and the strength of these performances relative to others in the top ten in each category. Click any image to enlarge. Past years: 2019  ・  2018  ・  2017  ・  2016   ・  2015  ・  2014  ・  2013  ・  2012  ・  2011 © 2020 Brett Larner,  all rights reserved

Two of the year's biggest 10000 m time trial meets went down in miserably cold and wet conditions Saturday in Tokyo's western and southern suburbs as part of the buildup toward the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden and Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden. At Hosei University, the Hachioji Long Distance meet saw Evans Keitany (Toyota Boshoku) lead twelve Japan-based Kenyans under 28 minutes in the fastest heat. No Japanese men did it, but sub-61 half marathoner Keijiro Mogi (Asahi Kasei) turned in the fastest Japanese time of the weekend with a 28:06.51 PB to win the A-heat. Yusuke Ogura (Yakult) was almost as fast in the B-heat, winning in a PB of 28:08.80. Komazawa University's star first-year Ren Tazawa made an impressive debut in 28:13.21 for 2nd behind Mogi, the fastest collegiate time of the weekend. Special mention to D-heat winner Shoya Kawase (Kogakkan Univ.), and 4th-placer Takato Imai (Ritsumeikan Univ.) whose times of 28:26.37 and 28:31.76 were new regional records for their ...

25 teams from 11 prefectures took part in the 70th anniversary running of the 5-stage, 73.7 km Towada Hachimantai Ekiden on Aug. 7. Saitama's Yachiyo Kogyo corporate team scored its first-ever victory in 3:50:00. ND Software took 2nd and Subaru 3rd, with two-time defending champion Yakult falling to 4th. Kazuno T&F Assoc. was the top local team at 10th overall. The race began at 8:00 a.m. on the shores of Lake Towada in Aomori. Mid-race temperatures around 30 degrees were recorded in Kazuno, but despite the heat and strong sunlight the athletes on each team gave it their best to ensure their tasuki would make it to the next runner. On the tough and hilly 13.6 km First Stage Yachiyo Kogyo's Abiyot Abinet took an early lead. Yakult rookie Yuji Asaishi was only 7th. On the downhill 13.4 km Second Stage Yakult's Bernard Kimani ran the fastest time on the stage to move into 3rd, but Yachiyo Kogyo's Takahiro Yagihara ran a strong stage 3rd-best time to maint...

by Brett Larner photos by @rikujolove click here for Hakone Ekiden Day One report and results After leading the first day of Japan's biggest race the entire way, defending champion Aoyama Gakuin University did it again on the return trip to become the first school in 39 years to lead the Hakone Ekiden start to finish.  Starting the day with a margin of 3:04 over 2015 National University Ekiden champion Toyo University Aoyama Gakuin had some room for error over the 5-stage, 109.6 km Day Two race, but even so head coach Susumu Hara took a major gamble in putting unknown Yuji Onoda , a 1st-year with no university ekiden, half marathon or 10000 m credentials and a 5000 m best of only 14:15.70, onto the day's leading stage, the 20.8 Sixth Stage with 800 m of brutal descent.  In doing it he also showed why is the best current coach in Japan, as Onoda responded to the challenge by tying the course record in 58:31.  For Toyo to have a chance it needed to make up serio...

by Brett Larner The road ahead awaits.  Back after a typhoon-induced cancellation last year, the Izumo Ekiden kicks off the 2015-16 university men's ekiden season on Oct. 12.  Short and sweet with six stages averaging 7.5 km, Izumo is an indication of things to come in the buildup to the biggest of them all, January's season-ending Hakone Ekiden. 2015 Hakone winner Aoyama Gakuin University and defending Izumo champion Komazawa University are the clear favorites, with preceding champs Toyo University and Waseda University and darkhorse Yamanashi Gakuin University conceivably in the game.  Back again this year, the Ivy League Select Team fields a lineup that could see it equal its best-ever 8th-place finish if all goes perfectly. No typhoon is on the horizon, but the forecast does call for strong winds straight out of the west, meaning a tailwind on the first half of the course and a powerful headwind in the second half.  In the pre-race coaches' press...

by Brett Larner video by naoki620 Following in the footsteps of his former Aoyama Gakuin University teammate Takehiro Deki 's win at last weekend's Gold Coast Half Marathon , Yusuke Ogura became the first Japanese man since 2001 to win the World University Games half marathon taking gold in 1:04:41.  Ogura, who played a key role in AGU's course record-setting Hakone Ekiden win in January and ran 1:02:03 at February's Marugame Half Marathon, led his AGU teammate and National University Half Marathon champion Tadashi Isshiki and Yuta Takahashi (Teikyo Univ.) in a sweep of the podium, the first time in World University Games history that men from a single country have taken all three half marathon medals. A slow first 10 km kept most of the field together, but a move from the Japanese athletes shortly after that broke things up quickly, and by 15 km they were well ahead of chasers Soufiane Bouchikhi (Belgium) and Naoki Kudo (Komazawa Univ.), the runner-up b...