Truly incredible: Top Japanese HS team has 7 man avg 5k pb of 14:08

Americans have more outliers due to greater diversity than the Japanese.

"All-Time Olympic Marathon Final

USA - 10 Medals (3 Gold, 3 Silver, 4 Bronze)

JPN - 5 Medals (1 Gold, 2 Silver, 2 Bronze)"

Adjusting for population, Japan has exeeded US accomplishments. 50% of the medals with much less than 50% of the population.

d fj wrote:

Americans have more outliers due to greater diversity than the Japanese.

Lol how do you know Americans have more diversity than the Japanese?

edo wrote:

"All-Time Olympic Marathon Final

USA - 10 Medals (3 Gold, 3 Silver, 4 Bronze)

JPN - 5 Medals (1 Gold, 2 Silver, 2 Bronze)"

Adjusting for population, Japan has exeeded US accomplishments. 50% of the medals with much less than 50% of the population.

Exactly, and most of those USA marathon medals were from the early days of the Olympics between whoever felt like taking a boat to the city

And Kenya destroys Japan. What's the point? Japan burns out its runners, PERIOD. Ask any Japanese. A guy like Kawaguchi has been warning everyone that's what the corporate teams do to runners. Toxic system.

The biggest race of the weekend is the National High School Ekiden Championships, lovingly broadcast live nationwide and commercial-free for 4 and 1/2 hours this Sunday from Kyoto on NHK starting at 10:05 a.m. JRN will cover both the girls' and boys' races live on @JRNLive.

Impressive!

The qualifying lists appear to be all times from the track.

The girl's Ekiden is a half marathon with 5 person teams, i.e. 4.2195 km each.

The boy's Ekiden is a full marathon with 7 person teams, i.e. 6.2786 km each.

The Ekidens are apparently all on the roads.

I'm not sure if team members all run the same distance, or varying distances.

kco wrote:

And Kenya destroys Japan. What's the point? Japan burns out its runners, PERIOD.

Ever hear of Sammy Wanjiru?

zatopek3210 wrote:

4. The successful high schools are almost like running factories. There is very little pressure for the students to do anything academically. Their number one priority is to run.

They would be geniuses compared to American schools.

deverse wrote:

d fj wrote:

Americans have more outliers due to greater diversity than the Japanese.

Lol how do you know Americans have more diversity than the Japanese?

Because the Japanese are almost all Japanese.

Northport, NY HS had three guys sub-9:00 last year. With proper distance focus (more mileage), that is 14:20's for 5000. I could see a top U.S. school averaging 14:30-14:40 pretty quickly if the 5000 were to replace the 3200. As for the girls, getting five girls to average the equivalent of 10:00 would be a bigger stretch, IMO

The Japanese have the depth, but not the top level, other than in the marathon (excluding EAs)

Also: What happens to the Japanese kids who scare 10.00 in the 100 but disappear as adults?

The average Japanese isn't any smarter than the average American. The only advantage they have in comparing test score is that they have a very small lower class to drag down the average.

Hellbender wrote:

I could see a top U.S. school averaging 14:30-14:40 pretty quickly if the 5000 were to replace the 3200.

No way.

Yea but we won world war 2

Their courses are short

"Yea but we won world war 2"

LOL. No, Japan has came out far ahead of the US.

"Their courses are short"

No, their school classes are longer than U.S. of A. classes.

Things to think about

a) Are the ages the same. Getting 1 more year would be big

b) How big are the schools? Are they magnet schools that good junior runners get sucked into?

Either way that is a lot of guys would be sub 9 min 2 milers in the US and quite a few that would be sub 8:50.

They are Japanese that's why wrote:

deverse wrote:

Lol how do you know Americans have more diversity than the Japanese?

Because the Japanese are almost all Japanese.

And Americans are almost all Americans genius.

deverse wrote:

They are Japanese that's why wrote:

Because the Japanese are almost all Japanese.

And Americans are almost all Americans genius.

Americans have come from all over the world and still do.