Japan Running News: Japanese college teams are faster and not over-aged and have no foreigners like US NCAA teams

Doesn't do them much good in developing professional runners

drinker of sapporo wrote:

Did anyone see this?

http://japanrunningnews.blogspot.com/2012/11/2012-ncaa-xc-and-2012-national.html

He compares the average 5k times of the top Japanese teams to the US teams and Japan comes out on top.

Then he leaves a real zinger.

JRN wrote:

In another difference between the two systems illustrated below, none of the top five teams at the Japanese National University Men's Ekiden Championships included any athletes over age 22 or any foreign-born athletes. Four out of the five NCAA teams included athletes of age 23 or 24, and likewise four out of five included athletes of foreign origin.

Strange Times wrote:

Doesn't do them much good in developing professional runners

Thanks, I needed a good laugh. By all means, please tell us about the lack of development in their professional runners.

survey says wrote:

Strange Times wrote:

Doesn't do them much good in developing professional runners

Thanks, I needed a good laugh. By all means, please tell us about the lack of development in their professional runners.

Japan had 1 runner in the 10K and he finished 22nd

Japan had 0 runners in the 5K final

Japan had 0 runners in the 1500 final

Japan had 0 runners in the 800 final

In the marathon their top runner was 6 and next was 40 and 45.

Exactly correct by previous poster. At the London Olympics and subsequently, the Japanese Olympic Coaches were asking USA staff HOW THEY ARE SO SUCCESSFUL IN DEVELOPING TOP QUALITY DISTANCE RUNNERS?

The Japanese depth at half marathon is not translating to success at the marathon - which is the event in Japan.

BTW...My previous post only included the men.

One word for you: scoreboard.

JustSayin's post showed it all...the only japanese runner in the london olympic 10k final finished 22nd. Galen Rupp finished 20 places ahead and came home with a medal.

The Japanese runners didn't even make the final in the 5k and mid-d events.

The results are the same for the 2008 Beijing Olympics as well.

Keep arguing on paper if it makes you feel better.

the whole japanese system is filled with foreigners (non-americans)

Also,

The way Brett Larner sets up his argument is bogus. He makes too many assumptions and pretends to produce an objective, number-based argument with pretty Excel tables. More importantly, he does not address all of the confounding variables which might make a simple comparison of 5k times not so simple. For example, here are a few reasons why simply comparing the 5k times is not credible: weather (what was the dewpoint temperature at each race location? - which is spatially comparable by the way unlike humidity percentages), elevation (self-explanatory), type of race (i.e. an invitational-type race tends to be fast and conducive to prs while championship races are not run all out but rather erratically in order to win...in this case it would be unfair to compare say Galen Rupp's winning time at the Olympic Trials - 27...something to a Japanese runner's pb at an invitational-type race). The only way to compare Japanese Runner times to American ones and control for all of these variables would be to have them run in the same race. Geesh what a concept.

And, in general, why does he have to present the article like that anyway? The argument in his blog is subtly pitting the US runners against Japanese ones to prove...what, exactly? I think it would have been better to report their times and show how good they are doing and talk more about their focus on longer distances. You see, that sort of cultural analysis is interesting. But the way he presents it may potentially get people riled up unnecessarily.

09-8u709-u8709-u8 wrote:

And, in general, why does he have to present the article like that anyway? The argument in his blog is subtly pitting the US runners against Japanese ones to prove...what, exactly? I think it would have been better to report their times and show how good they are doing and talk more about their focus on longer distances. You see, that sort of cultural analysis is interesting. But the way he presents it may potentially get people riled up unnecessarily.

+1

I bet if you look at the times of the 20th to 25th place team finishers, the US would be comfortably ahead. In Japan and Korea (for other sports) they funnel top athletes to certain schools. In the US there are way more choices for top athletes to go to so the talent gets spread out.

Japan had 1 runner in the 10K and he finished 22nd

Japan had 0 runners in the 5K final

Japan had 0 runners in the 1500 final

Japan had 0 runners in the 800 final

In the marathon their top runner was 6 and next was 40 and 45.[/quote]

all above distances were shorter than the college distance japan runs.

but all of Japans runners actually finished the marathon in london..haha

There is no reason to even argue about this.Foreign Talent wins and coaches get paid for winning. You may not like it but that is the way the system works. NCAA is a business and in business if you dont produce you wont have a job. Americans have other things to fall back on besides running. A 30min Kenyan is going to starve as a pro runner but come to NCAA and they have success not only in running but getting an eduction.

Thomas

TrackshackA wrote:

Japan had 1 runner in the 10K and he finished 22nd

Japan had 0 runners in the 5K final

Japan had 0 runners in the 1500 final

Japan had 0 runners in the 800 final

In the marathon their top runner was 6 and next was 40 and 45.

all above distances were shorter than the college distance japan runs.

but all of Japans runners actually finished the marathon in london..haha[/quote]

And your point is what?

My post was in reply to the person that tried to compare at the professional level. I didn't include how the Americans finished at the Olympics but I think we all know that the Americans distance runners, overall, performed WAY better than the Japanese runners.

And America had 3 finishers the 5K final and 10K. hahaha.

Do Japanese college runners really run further than marathon distance? No wonder they aren't so successful at the Olympics.

TrackshackA wrote:

Japan had 1 runner in the 10K and he finished 22nd

Japan had 0 runners in the 5K final

Japan had 0 runners in the 1500 final

Japan had 0 runners in the 800 final

In the marathon their top runner was 6 and next was 40 and 45.

all above distances were shorter than the college distance japan runs.

but all of Japans runners actually finished the marathon in london..haha[/quote]

The top American in the Olympic marathon was 4th, the top Japanese 6th. Yes, all Japanese finished, but two of them 10+ minutes off their PBs.

Sure in the half marathon and marathon the Japanese have more elite runners, but hardly anyone of world class caliber. Even in those distances the best of the US are better than the top Japanese.

It seems Japanese runners do better at the longer distances? Here are the Japanese men's national records.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_records_in_athletics

The records for the longer races seem more impressive to me.

How many schools are these runners spread over? The US has several hundred schools and only twice the population of Japan (a bit more now, especially with the immigration differential).

Why does he have Girma Mecheso listed as Ethiopian? He has American citizenship.

Strange Times wrote:

Doesn't do them much good in developing professional runners

drinker of sapporo wrote:

Did anyone see this?

http://japanrunningnews.blogspot.com/2012/11/2012-ncaa-xc-and-2012-national.html

He compares the average 5k times of the top Japanese teams to the US teams and Japan comes out on top.

Then he leaves a real zinger.

lets just face the facts that the japanese people are inferior in genetics. they are not bad at developing athletes. they developed wanjiru....which is arguably the best of all time

They don't cheat, that's their problem. Maybe if they were in the call room with a mask over their faces inhaling every puffable 'legal' but disgracefully unsportsmanlike drug possible at the last possible moment pre race they might've come out with a gold and silver.

They are a strange nation, they think it's ok to watch raunchy school girl cartoons but they would never want to line up with an unfair (whether legal or not) advantage over their rival.