Skip to main content

Posts

Goshima and Kasai Win 10000 m National Titles, Maeda Breaks U20 Asian Record

Rino Goshima and Jun Kasai stepped up with PBs to win the 2024 National Championships 10000 m titles Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium. In the women's race, Goshima, 4th in last December's 2023 National Championships 10000 m, went out front from the start with Kenyan teammate Judy Jepngetich pacing and 2023 3rd-placer Haruka Kokai in tow. Things were never on track to hit the 30:40.00 Paris Olympics standard, but except for a brief dip to 3:08 at 7000 m Goshima held steady at 3:05 to 3:06/km even as Kokai and Jepngetich fell off. With blood dripping from her left knee after an apparent spiking, Goshima took 5 seconds off her best from December's Nationals to win in 30:53.31 and move up to all-time Japanese #6. Jepngetich also PBd at 31:09.42 without counting in the standings, with Kokai 2nd in 31:10.53 and Kazuna Kanetomo 3rd in a PB 31:59.29. The runner-up last time, Yuka Takashima was last in 33:33.27. The men's race went out in a pedestrian 13:43 for the f
Recent posts

10000 m National Championships Preview

  Less than five months since the 2023 10000 m National Championships went down at the 2021 Olympic stadium in Tokyo, the 2024 edition happens Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium, with NHK broadcasting it live starting at 19:25 local time. Doubling up on Nationals like this lets Japanese athletes double dip on placing points to try to get into the Paris Olympics on rankings. But between the number of people who've hit the 30:40.00 women's standard and 27:00.00 men's standard and the lopsided eight spots given away to top placers at World XC, there are only four women's spots and three men's available via rankings. Of those, three of the four women's spots and two of the three men's spots are currently occupied by top placers at December's 2023 Nationals, Ririka Hironaka , Haruka Kokai and Rino Goshima for women and Ren Tazawa and Tomoki Ota for men. The 2023 Nationals did get close to the standards, with Hironaka leading the top four women under

Weekend Track and Road Roundup

  The Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon aside, a quick roundup of results from this past weekend: At the Nittai University Time Trials , aka the Nittaidai Challenge Games, Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) led a great men's 10000 m A-heat in 27:20.05, with the top six men all going under 27:28. James Mutuku (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) was the only other collegiate runner among them at 3rd in 27:23.09, with 2:06 marathoner Hidekazu Hijikata (Asahi Kasei) the top Japanese finisher at 8th in 28:23.27. Mutuku's YGU teammate Brian Kipyegon won the 5000 m A-heat in 13:30.88, James Karuri (Aomori Yamada H.S.) next in 13:33.67 and Kaisei Okada (Chuo Univ.) 3rd in 13:48.44. Soya Katayama (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) had the fastest 1500 m with a 3:46.19 to win the A-heat. In the women's races at Nittai, Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) was the only one to clear 16 minutes in the 5000 m A-heat, running 15:27.12 for the win. Lucy Nduta (Aomori Yamada H.S.) was likewise the only one u

Chesang and Kipkoech Win Hot Gifu Half

Hot conditions held back fast times at the Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon Sunday, where Ugandan Stella Chesang and Kenya Hillary Kipkoech took the top spots over last year's winners Dolphine Nyaboke Omare and Amos Kurgat . In the women's race Chesang, Omare and Kenyan-born Bahraini Eunice Chebichii Chumba went out as a trio, Japan-based Hellen Ekarare with them initially but eventually dropping out. After a 15:39 opening 5 km Chumba started to slip off, and by 15 km Chesang was on her own. Chesang won in 1:07:59, solid given the conditions, with Omare 2nd in 1:08:31 and Chumba 3rd in 1:09:10. Rinka Hida was the first Japanese woman, 5th overall in 1:12:06 behind Australian Genevieve Gregson . A lead men's pack of 11 went through 5 km in 14:31, but by 10 km it was down to Kipkoech, Kurgat, , Timothy Kiplagat , Ugandan Stephen Kissa and Japan-based Kenyans Patrick Mathenge Wambui and Anthony Maina . At 15 km in 43:40 only Kurgat and Kipkoech were left, and over the last 5

Drury and Mashiko Lead Four Japanese Golds - U20 Asian Championships Day 4

The closing day of the Dubai U20 Asian Athletics Championships saw Japan go out big, with four gold medals led by dominant runs by Sherry Drury (Tsuyama H.S.) and Yota Mashiko (Gakuho Ishikawa H.S.). Making her international debut, the 16-year-old Drury led start to finish in the women's 1500 m final, grinding down the rest of the field and putting over 4 seconds on runner-up Sandilea Vinod of India over the last 300 m to win in 4:21.41. Drury's splits: 1:11-2:24-(3:19)-3:35-4:21. There's still a long way for Drury to go, but in terms of form and confidence this was the best she has looked since her legendary breakthrough CR at last year's National Women's Ekiden, and you could see more than a glimmer of what everyone is hoping is really there. Mashiko was even more dominant in the men's 3000 m. Coming out on the front end of some pushing and shoving in the first 50 m, Mashiko led the entire way. By 300 m he had a measurable gap that never got smaller, and af

Nishida and Fuchigami Gold - U20 Asian Championships Day Three

Day three of the 21st U20 Asian Athletics Championships in Dubai Friday delivered Japan's best single-day medal count so far, with two gold medals, a silver and four bronze. Breaking it down: Yuri Nishida (Ritsumeikan Univ.) and Sari Kamei (Kyoto Kyoiku Univ.) brought A-game in the women's 800 m final. Nishida ran a PB 2:06.55 for gold over India's Sandilea Vinod by 0.55, with Kamei also running a PB of 2:07.56 for bronze. Shota Fuchigami (Waseda Univ.) dominated in the men's 400 mH, running a PB 49.97 to win gold by almost 2 seconds over China's Cai Yuchen and Korean Kim Jeonghyun . Rikuya Yoshida (Nittai Kashiwa H.S.) cleared 5.25 m for silver in the men's pole vault. Yuki Hojo (Yoga T&F) held off Korea's Hwang Uichan by 0.04 for bronze in the men's 110 mH final, running 13.74 (+1.2) to Hwang's 13.78. Kyosuke Yamanaka (Hosei Univ.) was just out of the medals at 13.80 for 5th. Miyabi Sono (Kokushikan Univ.) won bronze in the women'

Orita Wins 5000 m Gold - U20 Asian Championships Day Two

Day two of the 21st U20 Asian Athletics Championships in Dubai was capped with Japan's first gold medal of the games. Less than a month into his first year at 2024 Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University , sub-13:30 high schooler Sota Orita fought off multiple surges from Indian duo Gaurav Bhaskar Bhosale and Vinod Singh to take 5000 m gold in 14:08.71 with 56-second last lap and big a move on the last curve. His new AGU teammate Kaito Iida also finished strong for bronze, coming up just short of silver in 14:09.63. Miku Yanagawa (Gunma T&F Assoc.) added another gold medal to the count in the women's pole vault, winning at 3.85 m on her first attempt, with silver and bronze medalists Anna Cherkashina of Kazakhstan and Melabessy Andriani of Indonesia only going as high as 3.60 m. Nono Tsuneishi (Fukuoka Univ.) won silver in the women's long jump, jumping 6.21 (+0.7) on her 3rd attempt. Gold medalist Nagaraj Pavana also dropped her biggest jump in the third