Kawano Wins 35 km RW Bronze - Budapest World Championships Day 6 Japanese Results

Day 6 of the Budapest World Championships started with Japan getting onto the medal board for the first time as one of its best individual chances came through. All three Japanese men in the 35 km race walk went out with the lead group and stayed there until just past 20 km, where 2021 50 km national champion Satoshi Maruo lost contact. 2023 35 km national champ Tomohiro Noda lasted another 8 km before dropping, leaving last year's Oregon silver medalist Masatora Kawano in contention for another medal as the pack dwindled. By 31 km it was down to just Kawano, last year's 4th-placer Brian Pintado of Ecuador, and 20 km gold medalist Alvaro Martin of Spain.

Kawano dropped back with 2 km to go, Martin pulling away to take a second gold in a 2:24:30 national record and Pintado getting onto the medal stand with a 2:24:34 area record for silver. Kawano finished with a 2:25:12 SB for bronze, Japan's first medal of any kind in a World Championships that looks set to produce its most-ever top 8 placings. Noda added to that count with a 6th-place finish in 2:25:50, with Maruo taking 13th in 2:29:52.

Another top-8 came in the simultaneous women's 35 km RW as Serena Sonoda worked together with Peruvian Evelyn Inga throughout the race and ended up 7th in 2:46:32, almost 8 minutes behind gold medalist Maria Perez of Spain. Masumi Fuchise clocked a PB 2:52:57 for 14th. Veteran Kumiko Okada was a late scratch shortly before the race due to lower back pain.

In qualifying rounds, Japan's two men in the 5000 m heats had almost identically ineffectual results even though they ran opposite races. 2023 National champion Kazuya Shiojiri stayed at the back of the pack throughout the race with Norwegian 1500 m medalists Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Narve Gilje Nordas, but when they moved up into qualifying territory Shiojiri stayed where he was, ultimately finishing 18th of 21 in his heat in 13:51.00 with two of the people behind him having been involved in a hard fall. It was exactly the kind of performance his Fujitsu teammates Yuta Bando and Hiroki Matsueda turned in at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago.

Indoor 5000 m NR holder Hyuga Endo went for a more active effort in Heat 2, keeping himself in the top 8 from the start. But when the race really got going he dropped, finishing 17th of 22 in 13:50.49. Last year in Oregon he was 13th in his heat in 13:47.07, so despite having prepared for Budapest in St. Moritz it was a step backward that didn't bode well for next year's Paris Olympics.

The men's 200 m semifinals were delayed by an accident involving a collision between two athlete transport carts, one of which had veteran Shota Iizuka and other Heat 1 entrants on board. Heat 1 was bumped to the end, with Heat 2 going off first and Heat 3 second. In Heat 3, Asian champion Towa Uzawa ran 20.33 -0.4 m/s for 5th. Iizuka needed to beat the 20.21 run by Heat 3 4th-placer Joseph Fahnbulleh of Liberia, meaning an improvement on the 20.27 he ran in the heats which was already the fastest he had run since 2016. It wasn't to be, as Iizuka ran 20.54 -0.1 m/s for 5th.

Complete Day 6 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...

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