Male collegiate long-distance runners in Japan who scored higher on a self-administered screening test of fundamental physical functions tended to run faster 10,000-meter races, according to a prospective cohort study published in BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation. The test, known as KOJI AWARENESS, was developed in Japan and emphasizes body awareness and functional literacy rather than the conventional measures of aerobic capacity or muscle strength that dominate performance testing in distance running.
The research team, led by Koji Murofushi with colleagues including Sho Mitomo, Yosuke Yamada, Kenji Hirohata, Hidetaka Furuya, Hiroki Katagiri, Hiroshi Akuzawa, Susumu Hara, Masakazu Ito and Koji Kaneoka, set out to determine whether preseason scores on the KOJI AWARENESS test were associated with subsequent race performance among collegiate runners competing in the All-Japan Ekiden Championships. The ekiden relay format holds a prominent place in Japanese collegiate athletics, making this population a well-defined group for examining how a broad functional screening tool relates to competitive outcomes.
Unlike laboratory assessments of maximal oxygen uptake or isolated muscle strength, the KOJI AWARENESS test evaluates a set of fundamental physical qualities that include mobility, stability, strength and balance. The tool has been widely implemented in schools, companies and sports programs under national initiatives in Japan, which means large numbers of athletes and students are already familiar with its administration. Because it is self-administered, it does not require specialized laboratory equipment or a technician, a feature that has contributed to its adoption as a national screening instrument.
In the study, 105 male athletes were evaluated with the KOJI AWARENESS test once during the preseason period, six months before the target relay championship. The analyzed race took place four months after the test administration, a single 10,000-meter event whose finishing time served as the performance outcome. The researchers treated age, body mass index and prior running-related injuries as candidate covariates in their statistical models, applying both correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis to the race time data.
The runners in the cohort recorded a mean 10,000-meter race time of 29 minutes 37.7 seconds, with a standard deviation of 1 minute 5.8 seconds, indicating a relatively homogeneous group of high-level collegiate competitors. Their mean total KOJI AWARENESS score was 44.5 with a standard deviation of 4.7. The Neck-Scapula-Upper Extremity subcomponent averaged 12.7 with a standard deviation of 1.7, while the Lower Extremity subcomponent averaged 23.1 with a standard deviation of 2.9.
Statistical analysis revealed moderate negative correlations between race times and all three score measures. The total KOJI AWARENESS score correlated with race time at r = -0.375, the Neck-Scapula-Upper Extremity score at r = -0.334, and the Lower Extremity score at r = -0.386, all with p values below 0.001. The negative direction of these coefficients means that athletes who scored higher on the screening test tended to record faster race times, although a correlation of this magnitude explains only a modest share of the variation in performance and does not establish that the test scores caused the differences in running speed.
When the researchers moved from simple correlation to multiple regression analysis, the preseason KOJI AWARENESS scores remained significantly associated with race performance after accounting for the candidate covariates of age, body mass index and prior running-related injuries. The Lower Extremity subcomponent score emerged as particularly associated with race performance in these regression models, suggesting that the lower-limb items of the screening tool carried the strongest signal among the subcomponents examined.
The authors concluded that the KOJI AWARENESS test captures fundamental aspects of physical function that are associated with running performance. They further suggested that, as a culturally grounded and nationally implemented screening tool, it may serve as a practical indicator of preseason physical function and may have potential utility for athlete monitoring. Because the test is already embedded in national programs across Japanese schools and sports organizations, adding it to a preseason assessment routine would require little additional infrastructure for teams operating within that system.
Several limitations frame the interpretation of these findings. The study involved a single preseason test administration and a single analyzed race, so the results reflect one point in each athlete’s season rather than tracking changes over time. The cohort consisted exclusively of male collegiate runners in Japan, and the moderate size of the correlations leaves most of the variation in race performance unexplained by the screening scores alone. The association observed here does not demonstrate that improving KOJI AWARENESS scores would improve race times, and the authors’ language remains at the level of potential utility for monitoring rather than established predictive or interventional value.
For the sport science community, the study adds to the evidence that broad functional assessments can carry information relevant to endurance performance, complementing the physiological measures that have traditionally anchored testing in distance running. Whether the same association holds for female runners, for athletes at different competitive levels, or for race distances other than 10,000 meters remains outside the scope of this cohort. The work was published as an open access article on 25 October 2026 under the journal’s early-share arrangement, which provides citable peer-reviewed accepted research ahead of the final Version of Record.
Subject of Research: Association between preseason KOJI AWARENESS self-screening test scores and 10,000-meter race performance in male Japanese collegiate long-distance runners
Article Title: Running performance of male collegiate long-distance runners is associated with fundamental physical functions assessed by a Japanese national self-screening tool (KOJI AWARENESS)
Article References: Murofushi, K., Mitomo, S., Yamada, Y., Hirohata, K., Furuya, H., Katagiri, H., Akuzawa, H., Hara, S., Ito, M., & Kaneoka, K. (2026). Running performance of male collegiate long-distance runners is associated with fundamental physical functions assessed by a Japanese national self-screening tool (KOJI AWARENESS). BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13102-026-02178-7
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.1186/s13102-026-02178-7
Keywords: KOJI AWARENESS, long-distance running, collegiate athletes, 10,000 meters, ekiden, physical function screening, mobility, balance, prospective cohort study, race performance, sports science, Japan
News Source: Ophelia Keating. (October 28, 2026). Self-Administered Japanese Fitness Test Scores Track 10,000-Meter Race Times in Collegiate Runners, Study Finds. Scienmag.
