japan running news

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The 104th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships wrapped with another windy day. In the D2 men's pole vault Hiroto Shinotsuka (Ikuei Univ.) delivered the day's only new meet record, clearing a PB 5.37 m to win by 20 cm. Arie Flores (Nittai Univ.) impressed again, edging Shihori Sato (Juntendo Univ.) in the last 50 m to win the D1 women's 200 m final 23.26 to 23.34 (+2.5) in her 8th race over the 4 days of the meet. Sarah Wanjiru (Daito Bunka Univ.) made it another 5000/10000 double title, running most of the D1 women's 5000 m final with company from Daisy Cherop (Josai Kokusai Univ.) but pulling away to win easily in 15:49.26. Once dropped Cherop folded, ultimately fading to 5th with 2nd going to Airi Tajima (Juntendo Univ.) in 16:09.22. Both the D1 and D2 men's 5000 m were great 3-way last lap battles. 1st-year Rui Suzuki (Waseda Univ.) impressed in the D1 race, throwing in a big surge to catch up to 4th-year Kenyans Victor Kimutai (Josai Un...

Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post) was back from the dead yet again to win today's Sendai International Half Marathon women's race. Starting out with company from Selly Kaptich (Kyudenko) and Yuri Mitsune (Hitachi), Suzuki was always a step ahead. Putting away Mitsune early in the 2nd half, it took until the last km for her to break Kaptich, winning in 1:11:00 with Kaptich 8 seconds back in 2nd. Mitsune faded over a minute, just hanging on to 3rd in 1:12:02 over Mayuka Fujita (Route Inn Hotels). Ibuki Kaneko (Komazawa Univ.) frontran the early going in the men's race, 7 seconds up on the main group at 5 km in 14:51 but out of the top 20 by 10 km. Andrew Lorot (YKK) took clear control in the 2nd half, 12 seconds ahead by 15 km and pulling away all the way home to the win in 1:01:41. After facing criticism for making the Tokyo World Championships marathon team off the JAAF's JMC series rankings in spite of not having broken 2:10 in his last two marathons, Naoki Koyama (Hon...

Day 3 of the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships was mostly filled by qualifying rounds, with the only track finals being the men's 10000 m race walks. Yushi Nakajima (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) had the fastest time of the day, winning a close D1 men's race in a 39:41.90 PB. Sota Arai (Heisei Kokusai Univ.) also PBd to win the D2 race in 42:39.62 by just 0.40 over Takuma Hachimura (Rikkyo Univ.), with Kotaro Wake (Kokushikan Univ.) taking the D3 title in 41:49.89. On the field the most interesting competition came in the D1 men's triple jump. Manato Miyao (Toyo Univ.) opened with a 15.66 m (0.0) jump that ended up being his best of the day. Koki Kanai (Juntendo Univ.) equalled that on his 4th attempt, with his 2nd-best jump of 15.54 m (-0.7) putting him ahead of Miyao's 15.53 m (-0.6). Enter Gai Kitagawa (Tokai Univ.), who equalled Kanai and Miyao at 15.66 m on his last jump. With a 5th attempt of 15.57 m (-0.2) that was enough for him to take the...

Following up her collegiate record 51.71 last weekend in Shizuoka, Arie Flores (Nittai Univ.) lit up a windy 2nd day of the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships with a solo 52.82 MR, over half a second under the old record and beating 2nd place by a second and a half. With her Japanese citizenship transfer from Peru still in processing it's only a matter of time before Flores officially erases the 2008-era 51.75 m NR. She wasn't the only athlete to set a new MR despite the windy conditions. The D1 women's and men's 1500 m finals were nothing special time-wise, but in the D2 men's race Ryuto Aoki (Rikkyo Univ.) set a D2 MR 3:44.92 for the win, with the next 3 all running new PBs. Women's hammer throw 3rd-placer Misaki Takako (Tsukuba Univ. Grad School) also set a D2 MR with a throw of 54.37 m. But except for Flores, the races of the day were the D1 and D2 men's 100 m finals. With a massive +4.5 m/s tailwind, #1-ranked Hiroki Yanagita (T...

Japan's best collegiate meet started Thursday at Kanagawa's Sagamihara Gion Stadium with the 104th edition of the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships . On the track only three finals happened, with the D1 women's 10000 m getting things rolling. In windy conditions meet record holder Sarah Wanjiru (3rd yr., Daito Bunka Univ.) pulled off a slow burner, leading start to finish but starting off on mid-33 pace and gradually ratcheting it up. Haruka Ogawa (3rd yr., Rikkyo Univ.) was the last one to stay with her, but by just past halfway Wanjiru was on her own and kept up the acceleration the whole way to win in 32:25.78. Ogawa was next in 33:10.37, with Mariya Noda (3rd yr., Daito Bunka Univ.) shaking off Yume Miyake (2nd yr., Takushoku Univ.) for 3rd in 33:34.46. Tomonori Yamaguchi (4th yr., Waseda Univ.) got the D1 men's 10000 m off to a fast start with a 2:43 opening 10000 m that killed off everyone except James Mutuku (4th yr., Yamanashi Gakuin Uni...

2025 Ueda Sky Race Ueda, Nagano, 4 May 2025 26 km, 3050 elevation change Men 1. Ruy Uuda (Japan/Redbull) - 3:33:12 2. Tsubasa Fuji (Japan/Nnormal) - 3:52:31 3. Marcel Hoche (Germany/Adidas Terrex) - 3:55:53 4. Kesete Habtetsion (Eritrea) - 4:02:44 5. Shota Matsumoto (Japan/The North Face) - 4:06:05 6. Lucas Mouret (France/Inverse) - 4:08:05 7. Fujio Ichige (Japan/Skywolf Kyoto) - 4:08:11 8. Tomofumi Miyagawa (Japan/Merrell) - 4:08:16 9. Blake Turner (Australia/ADCO Cons.) - 4:10:24 10. John Ray Onifa (Philippines/T8) - 4:13:42 Women 1. Takako Takamura (Japan/Skywolf Kyoto) - 4:19:55 2. Iris Bessey (France/Scott) - 4:41:20 3. Suzuha Kusuda (Japan/Sky Kyoto) - 4:53:05 4. Nikola Matkova (Slovakia) - 4:53:19 5. Simone Brick (Australia/Salomon) - 5:07:00 6. Kaede Hayashi (Japan/Ssessionzz) - 5:17:43 7. Mami Saito (Japan) - 5:31:19 8. Chihiro Aibara (Japan/Merrell) - 5:31:45 9. Akari Samata (Japan) - 5:42:38 10. Rachel Hebaus (U.S.A./Hagan SkiMo) - 5:45:02