Skip to main content

Mizumoto and 4x100 m Relay Team Add to Japan's Gold Medal Haul at U20 Asian Championships

 

The third day of the Yecheon U20 Asian Championships happened Tuesday in South Korea. In the men's 4x100 m relay Japan took the gold medal in 39.76. Scheduled to run in the 200 m, team members Shunya Kimura (Nihon Univ.) and Futo Takasu (Meiji Univ.) were forced to withdraw right before the start of the championships due to injury. This radically changed the team lineup from its original order.

100 m gold and bronze medalists Haruki Narushima (Toyo Univ.) and Kaito Kuroki (Higashi Fukuoka H.S.) ran 1-2 as planned, building a margin of error over the first half of the race. Kuroki handed off to Yuta Sekiguchi (Waseda Univ.), who showed excellent skills running the curve on third. Pole vaulter Eito Watanabe (Tsukuba Univ.), 4th in Sunday's pole vault final, was drafted in to handle anchor duties, and even though other teams made up ground on him he managed to hang on to the lead and bring Japan home in 1st. It was the second-straight U20 Asian Championships 4x100 m gold for Japan, following its win at the 2018 Gifu games.


In other events, Kana Mizumoto (Edion) won gold in the women's 3000 m in 9:16.93, dropping the rest of the field of four mid-race. Ryoma Konno (Tsukuba Univ.) broke 50 seconds for the first time in the men's 400 mH, taking silver in a PB of 49.91. Miki Hayashi (Chukyo H.S.) scored 5095 points in the women's heptathlon for silver. Shotaro Shimoike (Juntendo Univ.) clocked 44:05.50 for bronze in the men's 10000 mRW.

With one day of competition left Japan's gold medal count now stands at nine. On the final day of the championships 3000 m gold medalist Sonata Nagashima (Asahi Kasei) will go for a second gold in the 5000 m. The men's and women's 1500 m finals are also scheduled.

source article:
translated by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Chien Breaks TPE NR, Iwata Betters ID-Class WR - Weekend Track Roundup

The last weekend of the academic and fiscal year saw at least 5 meets with good results domestically and abroad. Kicking things off Friday was the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne, where Tomohiro Shinno and Naoto Hasegawa took 1st and 3rd in the men's high jump, both of them only clearing 2.18 m along with 2nd-placer Roman Anastasios . 12 other Japanese athletes were in action on the second day of the meet on Saturday, where 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura ran 3:42.84 for 6th in the men's 1500 m. Nagiya Mori had a better one in the men's 3000 m with a 7:45.40 for 4th. Both Yota Mashiko and Rui Suzuki cleared 8:00 too, Mashiko's 7:53.84 the 2nd-fastest ever by a Japanese-born high schooler. Abigail Fuka Ido and Nagisa Takahashi both placed 3rd in their events, Ido going 23.85 (-0.9) in the women's 200 m and Takahashi clearing 1.82 m in the women's high jump. 8 Japanese men were at The TEN in California to run 10000 m. In the B-heat won by Edward Marks in ...

Updates on Transfers

April 1 is the start of Japan's new academic and fiscal year, and there's always a wave of transfer announcements to go with it. Some notable ones yesterday: 800 m NR holder Rin Kubo skipped university to go straight to 2023 Queens Ekiden national champion Sekisui Kagaku after her graduation from Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S. Multiple NR holder Nozomi Tanaka rejoined the Toyota Jidoshokki women's team after having left it to pursue a solo pro career as a New Balance athlete. Already on the team for this fall's Nagoya Asian Games in the 10000 m, Ririka Hironaka announced a switch from her longtime home at Japan Post to the Uniqlo women's team. Collegiate marathon record holder Asahi Kuroda joined the 2026 national champion GMO corporate team after graduating from 2026 Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University last week. Hakone Ekdien First Stage CR holder Rui Aoki joins the Sumitomo Denko corporate team after running his final race for 2025 Izumo Ekiden w...

JAAF Announces Marathon Teams for Nagoya Asian Games

On Mar. 25 the JAAF announced Japan's marathon team lineups for this fall's Nagoya Asian Games. Yuya Yoshida (GMO) and Ichitaka Yamashita (Mitsubishi Juko) make up the men's team, with Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku) and Mikuni Yada (Edion) representing Japan in the women's marathon. Each country can field up to 2 men and 2 women per marathon team at the Asian Games. The top-ranked male and female athletes in the 2025-26 MGC Series rankings were given first priority, with the second slots going to people with high-level performances in the 2025-26 MGC Series. Yoshida ran 2:05:16 to win the 2024 Fukuoka International Marathon, and at February's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon ran an excellent 2:06:59 to take the top Japanese spot in the race and in the MGC rankings. After having run the Tokyo World Championships marathon last fall this will be his second-straight marathon national team in a major international championships. Yamashita ran 2:06:18 at February's Osak...