Yamagata 9.95 NR - Weekend Track Roundup

There was a lot of distance action this weekend, but the biggest performance in Japan came at the Fuse Sprint meet in Tottori. Lucking out with a maxed out legal tailwind of 2.0 m/s, Ryota Yamagata (Seiko) took 0.02 off the national record in his first sub-10 clocking to win in 9.95. 2nd-place Shuhei Tada (Sumitomo Denko) also scored a PB of 10.01, with sub-10 man Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) 3rd in 10.13. Despite a scratch from former NR holder Yoshihide Kiryu and a weak run from relay regular Aska Cambridge, the Japanese men's 4x100 m looks to be in a stronger position than ever.

Fuse also produced a national record in the women's 100 m hurdles thanks in part to an ideal +1.8 m/s tailwind. Masumi Aoki (77 Ginko) equalled the 12.87 NR held by Asuka Terada (Japan Create) for the win, with Terada running 12.89 for 2nd. Both women are still short of the Olympic qualifying standard, but the solid runs will push them up further from their current positions of 32nd and 33rd in the 40-deep quota.

In distance action Yokohama's Nittai University Time Trials meet turned out the fastest times of the weekend. After having run 27:01 twice last fall during the blackout period on Olympic qualifying, Richard Kimunyan Yator (Hitachi Butsuryu) came up agonizingly short of the 27:28.00 standard for 10000 m, running 27:28.79 to win the A-heat in what had to have been his last shot at getting the standard. The great Paul Tanui (Sunbelx) was 2nd in 27:43.98, with the next four runners, all Kenyan, going under 28 minutes. Justus Soget (Honda) came even closer to Olympic qualification, winning the 5000 m A-heat in a PB of 13:14.10 just 0.60 short of the standard.

Dolphine Nyaboke Omare (USE TC) won the women's 5000 m in 15:38.87 over Minami Yamanouchi (Kyocera) and Shiho Kaneshige (GRlab Kanto), 2nd and 3rd in 15:42.19 and 15:42.91.

The amateur club runner Kaneshige then went straight up to Niigata for the Denka Athletics Challenge Cup, where less than 24 hours later she won the women's 10000 m in a PB of 32:46.83 with a 3:02 final 1000 m. Hakone Ekiden champ Komazawa University's Ren Tazawa took one last shot at hitting the men's 10000 m Olympic standard, but after a quick start he faded over the last quarter of the race to win in 27:52.52, the only runner to break 28 minutes.

Naomi Muthoni Kariuki (Univ. Ent.) won the Denka women's 5000 m in 15:03.01, the sole runner to clear the Olympic the standard. Steeplechase specialist Hironori Tsuetaki (Fujitsu) took the men's 5000 m in a PB of 13:39.00 ahead of the National Championships later this month.

At Saitama's Heisei Kokusai University Time Trials meet, Titus Wambua (SID Group) joined Kimunyan and Tazawa in making it a weekend of sub-28 winning times all around, taking the men's 10000 m A-heat in 27:49.89. Charles Kamau Wanjiku (Musashino Gakuin Univ.) took the 5000 m A-heat in 13:53.03.

Kanagawa's National University Individual Championships saw the meet records fall in both the women's and men's 5000 m. In the women's race photofinish specialist Narumi Kobayashi of National University Women's Ekiden champ Meijo University replicated her close victory at March's National University Half Marathon, winning in a meet record 15:33.69 by 0.43 over first-year Seira Fuwa (Takushoku Univ.). Tomoki Ichimura (Tokai Univ.) won the men's 5000 m, likewise going under the meet record in 13:45.20 to win by 1.42 over Hiroki Wakabayashi (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.). Video of both races can be had here.

'CAS Clears Japan’s Olympic Silver Medallist Ikeda of Doping, Overturns Ban'

https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/10/23/cas-clears-japans-olympic-silver-medallist-ikeda-of-doping-overturns-ban The AIU's missteps in this case cost Tokyo Olympics and Oregon World Championships 20 km race walk silver medalist Koki Ikeda , a Toyo University graduate who competes for the Asahi Kasei corporate team, the chance to represent Japan at a home soil World Championships last year. It is almost unheard of for an athlete to successfully fight a biological passport suspension as Ikeda did, making this a highly significant case. The CAS' press release about its decision stated: "The Panel stressed that the Athlete did not merely assert his position on the ABP abnormalities but adduced very extensive evidence in support of his explanations. In this highly complex case, the evidence brought during the CAS proceedings was far more abundant and specific than during the first instance proceedings with the WA Disciplinary Tribunal, implying the CAS Panel had further ...

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...

Meijo Back With Morinomiyako Ekiden CR for National University Title

The last big dynasty school in Japanese women's distance running with 7-straight wins at October's Morinomiyako Ekiden from 2017 to 2023 and 6-straight titles at the season-ending Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden from 2018 to 2023, Meijo University came back from a 3rd-place finish last year to win the 44th Morinomiyako Ekiden again, leading almost start-to-finish to set a 2:02:21 CR for the 6-stage, 38.0 km course in Sendai. 12 second back in 2nd after the opening leg, collegiate 3000 mSC champ Nozomi Kondo put Meijo out front with a 12:36 CR for the 4.0 km Second Stage, and the rest of the team never looked back. The biggest threat to a Meijo win was on the 9.2 m Fifth Stage, where this year's collegiate 10000 m winner Sarah Wanjiru from last year's runner-up Daito Bunka University started 50 seconds back from Meijo 1st-year Mao Kimura . In taking the 10000 m title Wanjiru had outrun Kimura by over a minute, but today Kimura was a revelation, strong and smooth out fr...

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