Budapest World Championships Day 5 Japanese Results

None of the finals on Day 5 of the Budapest World Championships featured any Japanese athletes, but there were good performances in qualifying rounds in both the morning and evening sessions. First up for the day, Tomoya Karasawa didn't turn in one of the good ones, failing to clear the opening height in the men's pole vault qualifying round. Japan's best prospect for an individual medal outside of race walking, Haruka Kitaguchi was the first woman in the javelin throw and one of only seven to clear the auto-qualifying mark of 61.50 m, throwing 63.27 m. Marina Saito managed only 58.95 m for 15th in the first round, just 71 cm short of making the qualifying bracket of twelve.

Men's long jumpers Yuki Hashioka, Hiromichi Yoshida and Shotaro Shiroyama were all off their game in the opening round, Hashioka jumping best with a credible 7.94 m -0.2 m/s but short of the 8.00 m that proved necessary for qualification. Yoshida jumped 7.60 m +1.2 m/s and Shiroyama only 7.46 m -0.8 m/s after clearing 8 m last month at the Asian Championships.

The lone Japanese woman in the 200 m heats, Remi Tsuruta ran 23.49 -0.3 m/s for 6th in Heat 6 and didn't move on to the finals, but the men had better luck. In Heat 1, 2010 World U20 gold medalist Shota Iizuka, now 32, unexpectedly ran his best time since 2016, 20.27 +0.0 m/s for 4th. With six heats still to go it didn't seem like there was much chance Iizuka would survive to make the semifinals on time, but as it played out Heat 1 was the fastest of the day, putting Iizuka through with the fastest time qualifier. Koki Ueyama was 4th in Heat 4, but with only a 20.66 -0.2 m/s he didn't make it.

Heat 5 saw maybe the Japanese performance of the day. Favorites Courtney Lindsey, Rasheed Dwyer and Tarsis Orogot seemed to think they had the top 3 spots locked up and all backed off just before the line. But right behind them Asian Champion Towa Uzawa hammered it right through the line, passing all three for the win by 0.05 in 20.34 -0.2 m/s. American Lindsey and Jamaican Dwyer still auto-qualified, but there was some tense waiting for the Ugandan Argot to see if his 20.44 was enough to get him through. Which it ended up being.

In the evening session, neither of the Japanese women in the triple jump made the semifinals, Mariko Morimoto 15th in Group A at 13.64 m -0.3 m/s and Maoko Takashima 17th in Group B at 13.34 m -0.3 m/s. In the only other event with Japanese athletes, women's 5000 m NR holder Ririka Hironaka doubled back from taking 7th in the 10000 m final with a season best 15:11.16 for 12th in Heat 1, missing the cutoff for the final by 6 seconds. Former Meijo University star Yuma Yamamoto was last in Heat 1 in 16:05.57. In Heat 2, Nozomi Tanaka doubled from finishing last in the 1500 m semifinals to take 6th in Heat 2, breaking Hironaka's NR with a 14:37.98 and making the final. The final takes place Sunday night.

Complete Day 5 results here.

Hakone Ekiden Qualifying Race Entry Roster Sizes Increased from 14 to 16

Hakone Ekiden organizers KGRR have announced details for the qualifying half marathon for next year's 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The Yosenkai qualifying race will be held Oct. 17 in Tachikawa, Tokyo. The combined times of the 10 fastest finishers from each participating team will be used for team scoring, with the 10 fastest teams going on the the main event next January and top-placing individuals from teams that do not qualify being names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team. One change from previous years is that the number of runners each school can enter has been increased from 14 to 16. Teams will still only be allowed to have from 10 to 12 athletes on the starting line, but the move gives coaches greater flexibility in making the final decision on their starting rosters. No changes have been made to the qualifying times of 34:00 for 10000 m or 1:13:00 for the half marathon, and the new earlier starting time of 8:30 a.m. introduced last year in an effort to mitigate ...

Japan's Team for Nagoya Asian Games

The JOC announced the full lineups for the men's and women's teams for September's Nagoya Asian Games . Being hosted in Japan the Asian Games are a pretty big deal, and it's pretty close to the maximum of 2 athletes per event. The men's and women's triple jump, the women's 400 m and the women's discus throw only have 1 athlete on the Japanese team, and it's a big FU to the shot putters apparently as nobody was named to either the men's or women's teams even though people ranked lower in the World Athletics Asian rankings than top JPN shot putters Daichi Morishita and Chiharu Saka did make the team in other events. But, let's focus on what it is, not what it isn't. Going off this week's Asian rankings 8 men and 5 women are ranked #1 in their event, with a total of 19 men and 14 women ranked in the top 3. Factor in a limit of 2 per nationality and the relays and Japan's chances of scoring a great medal haul are looking good. M...

2-Time Olympian Yuka Takashima Joins Uniqlo Women's Team

On July 21 the Uniqlo women's team announced that 2-time Olympic 10000 m runner Yuka Takashima had joined its lineup as of July 16. Born in Yamaguchi in 1998, Takashima anchored Okayama's Kojokan H.S. to its first-ever National High School Ekiden win in 2005. After graduating she joined the Denso corporate team, playing a key role in its 3-straight National Corporate Women's Ekiden titles. In 2015 she ran the 10000 m at the 2015 Beijing World Championships. In the spring of 2016 Takashima transferred to the Shiseido corporate team, where she made the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics team in the 10000 m. She played an important role for the team in its ekidens, and in 2022 anchored Shiseido to its first national title in 16 years. In 2023 she was 2nd in the 10000 m National Championships, securing her place on her 2nd Olympic team at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Takashima's PBs are 15:26.33 for 5000 m, 30:57.26 for 10000 m, and 2:26:13 for the marathon. In March this year T...

japan running news

Search This Blog