Skip to main content

Corporate League Federation to Put Up Million Dollar Bonus for New Japanese Marathon National Record

http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASH3F66N3H3FUTQP02J.html

translated by Brett Larner

A new Japanese national record in the marathon will now be worth 100 million yen.  To provide extra motivation to the Japanese marathoning world in the buildup to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the Japan Industrial Track and Field Association overseeing the country's corporate running league has approved plans to establish the exceptional bonus [worth roughly $1 million USD at normal exchange rates] and will make the formal decision at a meeting of its board of directors in Tokyo on March 18.

The national records symbolize the stagnation of Japan's marathoning world.  They have not been touched since Toshinari Takaoka ran 2:06:16 in 2002 and Mizuki Noguchi ran 2:19:12 in 2005.  In the Olympics as well, nobody has won a medal since Koichi Morishita took silver at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and Noguchi gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

However, thanks to the popularity of the ekiden the depth of athletes has increased tremendously, and if that can be channeled into the marathon then  success at the Tokyo Olympics will become a possibility.  In addition to the bonus for athletes who break the record, their coaches will also be paid 50 million yen [~$500,000 USD] with the goal of creating an active focus not just on the ekiden but also on the marathon.

There are still issues to be faced with collecting funds for the bonus from sponsors, but plans call for the bonus to be in place by the fall with possible provisions to extend it to athletes outside the corporate league as well.

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Ninja Runner Yuka Ando Leads Japanese Women's Marathon Team in London: "I Want to Go For It"

Her form has been dubbed "ninja running." Both arms held straight down with almost no movement. That idiosyncratic style carried Yuka Ando , 23, to the fastest-ever marathon debut by a Japanese woman, 2:21:36, at March's Nagoya Women's Marathon to land at #4 on the all-time Japanese lists. All at once Ando found herself catapulted to the top level of women's marathoning, a candidate for Japan's next great marathoner. When she was younger Ando ran moving her arms like other runners, but she had a bad habit of moving robotically, her upper body and lower body not working in sync. The turning point came in 2014 when she joined Suzuki Hamamatsu AC . Working there with coach Masayuki Satouchi to eliminate the faults in her form, the pair arrived at the ninja running style that let her run relaxed. "Other people keep asking me, "Isn't it hard to run like that?" but for me it's comfortable," she said. The efficient form helped her mai

Yamaguchi 10th at United Airlines NYC Half - Weekend Overseas Results

2024 national cross-country champion Tomonori Yamaguchi was the top Japanese finisher in the men's race at the United Airlines NYC Half , taking 10th in 1:04:36. A 2nd-year at Waseda University , Yamaguchi was one of three collegiate runners running New York in the 11th year of JRN's development program collaboration between the Ageo City Half Marathon and the New York Road Runners, a program that has seen people like future half marathon and marathon NR breaker Yuta Shitara and Paris Olympic team member Akira Akasaki make their international debuts. Yamaguchi's Waseda teammate Taishi Ito started fast, going with the leaders through 5 km in 14:29 before losing touch. Hosei University senior Rei Matsunaga went through in 14:42 in his last race before joining the JR Higashi Nihon corporate team in April. Yamaguchi, who caught COVID after winning last month's National Cross-Country Championships, started more conservatively with a 15:11 first 5km. But where both Ito

Rui Aoki Wins National University Men's Half Marathon - Weekend Results

Yuka Ando 's win at the Nagoya Women's Marathon was the big news of the weekend, but there were other high-level races happening, even in Nagoya. Held in parallel with the marathon, the Nagoya City Half Marathon saw Australians Natalie Rule and Ed Goddard take easy wins by about 2.5 minutes each, Rule in 1:13:57 and Goddard in 1:04:01. The new Biwako Marathon also had a non-Japanese winner, China's Yousheng Guan scoring 1st in 2:14:58 with Japan's Hirohito Sugai next in 2:16:40. Mikiko Ota won the women's race in 2:50:44. The Shizuoka Marathon returned for its first running in five years, with club runner Shumpei Oda leading the top 7 men under 2:20 in 2:15:36. Women's winner Remi Tanaka ran 2:41:23, beating runner-up Ayumi Sano by exactly 7 minutes. And in Tokyo, Rui Aoki continued what has been a great season so far for Koku Gakuin University with a win at the National University Men's Half Marathon . Aoki and Hiro Konda of Chuo Gakuin Unive