japan running news

Australia's Gold Coast Marathon is a big draw for Japanese corporate leaguers these days. Japanese men have won it four of the last five editions, and the last time a Japanese man wasn't in the top two was 2015. Last year Naoki Koyama set a course record 2:07:40, then went on to win the Paris Olympic marathon trials, then 2:06:33 in Osaka this past February. Given that kind of progression, the field this year is packed with 2nd-tier Japanese men hoping to have the same success, ten of them who've run 2:07 to 2:09 in the last two years. Most of the action looks like it'll be down around the 3rd to 5th-ranked runners, with 2:07:53 Kenyan Timothy Kipkorir Kattam looking like the best bet to break the Japanese streak carried this year by Yuta Koyama , 2:07:57 in Osaka last year, and Mizuki Higashi , 2:08:03 in Osaka this year. The best potential for a breakthrough out of the Japanese men is Yota Ifuku , a Waseda University ekiden team member who broke the course record

An update on standings for Japan's potential team at this summer's Paris Olympic Games a week out from the National Track and Field Championships. Final team nomination in most cases depends on a top 3 finish there, but as of this writing events where Japan could or will field three athletes having cleared the Olympic standard are the men's 110 mH, men's 400 mH, men's 20 kmRW and women's marathon. Other events that will or are likely to have a complete squad of three athletes include the men's 100 m, men's 200 m, men's 400 m, men's high jump, men's marathon, women's 5000 m, women's 10000 m, women's javelin throw, and women's 20 kmRW. Main changes from last week: Women's pole vault NR holder Misaki Morota won at the Harry Jerome Track Classic at 4.28 m, improving her spot in the Paris quota from 32nd to 31st. Momone Ueda won the Asian Throwing Championships women's javelin throw at 61.32 m, moving up from 23rd to 22n

  Japanese men's 400 m national record holder Kentaro Sato (Fujitsu) sat for online interviews on June 18. Sato's 44.77 NR cleared the Paris Olympics qualifying standard of 45.00, and if he wins the National Championships later this month in Niigata he'll be named to the Paris team. "To put it simply, it's the meet that decides who's #1 in Japan," he said. "I haven't won a national title yet. I'm preparing to run for time, for place, and for an Olympic spot." As he trains Sato is paying close attention to the condition of his left Achilles tendon, which he injured two years ago. "I'm more focused on time than place," he said. "If I can run 44 at Nationals then I'll get the place I'm looking for. If I can put together a 400 m the way I want to do it then I can run a national record. That means focusing on something faster than just the NR. Sub-44.5 is what I'm thinking." Also entered at Nationals are to

On June 16 at a junior high school track and field championships meet in Aomori a student was hit in the head by a metal shot put ball and suffered a fractured skull. The incident happened at Kazuhiro Group Athletics Stadium in Aomori at the Tosei Region qualifying meet for this summer's prefectural junior high school sports festival. According to the Tosei Junior High School Athletics Association, the incident occurred just before 8:00 a.m. on June 16 at the warmup track next to the main stadium. While warming up a student threw the shot, which hit another student on the side of the head. The injured student remained conscious and was immediately taken to the hospital, where they were treated for a fractured skull. Their current condition has not been released. A statement issued by the TJHSAA said, "We will conduct a thorough investigation of this accident and strive to ensure that it does not happen again." source article: https://www.aba-net.com/news/news-115882.html

by Dai Yamazaki The "foreign student problem" is always a hot topic in the ekiden world, and this season will see big changes to the rules in high school ekidens. There has always been a lot of trial and error when it comes to international students in the ekidens, but what do the coaches on the front lines of competition think about these changes? We talked to Masaru Takamizawa , head coach of last year's National High School Boys Ekiden champion Saku Chosei H.S. which ran the fastest time in the race's 74-year history while using an all-Japanese lineup. The major rule changes regarding the use of non-Japanese athletes in high school ekidens were announced at the end of last year. Non-Japanese runners first appeared on the scene in high school running in the early 1990s and have been the source of constant debate since then. Restrictions have gradually tightened. In 1995 a rule limiting teams to one non-citizen in their starting lineup was announced. In 2008 non-Ja

On the final day of the Hokushinetsu Region National High School Championships qualifier Sunday at Niigata's Denka Big Swan Stadium, Saku Chosei H.S. 3rd-year Tetsu Sasaki won the boys' 3000 m steeplechase in 8:39.15, the 2nd-fastest time ever by a Japanese-born high schooler. A day earlier Sasaki had run 9:06.93 in his qualifying heat. In the final he was out fast from the gun, but although he missed both the high school record of 8:32.12 set by Saku Chosei teammate Soma Nagahara and Nagahara's 8:36.06 meet record at last year's Hokushinetsu Regionals, Sasaki's time took over 10 seconds off the 8:50.04 PB he set at May's Nagano Prefecture High School Championships, the race in the video above. It also made him the fourth Japanese-born high schooler to break 8:40 in the 3000 mSC, just bettering the former high school record of 8:39.37 set by Tokyo Olympics 7th-placer and future national record holder Ryuji Miura . Born in Aichi, Sasaki joined the TSM club t

At the high school, university and corporate league levels, national championships on the track are at an odd time in the Japanese calendar. After regional championships in May, college students and corporate leaguers don't have their national championship meets until September right after summer mileage base building for ekiden season. High schoolers have their regional meets in June, then their Nationals in August. The National University Track and Field Individual Championships , aka the All Japan University Track & Field Challenge Meeting, happens more when you'd expect, ever mid-June in Kanagawa, but without a team component, no relays, no team scoring, and missing a few events, it's not a major event and doesn't usually bring in much of the main collegiate talent. Two weeks out from the outright National Championships, this year was an exception at the Individual Championships with seven new meet records. The biggest out of them was in Saturday's women'

Entry lists are out for Japan's National Championships at the end of the month in Niigata. Top three there with the standard or inside their event quota is the primary way for people who haven't yet to score places on the Paris Olympics team, and it's notable that three people with the standard, Abdul Hakim Sani Brown in the men's 100 m, Ryuji Miura in the men's 3000 mSC, and Shunsuke Izumiya in the men's 400 mH, are giving Nationals a miss. One effect of their absence is that it improves the chances that other people are going to make the Paris quota on points, especially in the 100 m and steeple where Sani Brown and Miura are the only ones with the standard and likely to still be that way post-Nationals. Whether that's intentional only they can say, but it's interesting that one outcome of the World Athletics world rankings system is that in a way it encourages top talent to skip their National Championships to help out their teammates. But the mos

On June 10th the Aomori Prefectural Sports Association handed down a warning to the Aomori Athletics Association after a former AAA director who resigned in April this year had improperly used funds to buy home appliances for personal use in 2019. The director, who had been in charge of accounting at the AAA, conducted a bank transfer of over 180,000 yen (~$1650 USD at the time) from the AAA account to pay for the appliances. The director was found to have created false documents to cover the purchase, which was conducted online. The fraud was discovered in May, 2019 after other members of the AAA executive board investigated, and the director repaid the full amount the next month. These details of the case had been kept internally among the executive board for the last five years. In the APSA censure issued this week, it directed the AAA to take action to ensure proper management and operation procedures. source article: https://www.aba-net.com/news/news-115299.html translated and

Two months out from his Olympic debut in the Paris Olympic Games in the men's 20 km race walk, Yuta Koga talked to media during a practice session in Naruto on June 10 about his hopes for his first Olympics. A native of Fukuoka, Koga, 24, belongs to the Otsuka Seiyaku corporate team. At the 2023 Budapest World Championships he was the top Japanese placer at 12th. In February this year he chopped almost a minute off his PB to finish 3rd in 1:17:47 and secure his place on the Paris team. "I'd been shooting for the Olympics for a long time, so when I made it I was half happy and half just relieved," he said. "Now I've got more of a sense of responsibility and awareness. At this point I'm in the base phase of what you'd call the training pyramid. The pace of my workouts isn't that fast, but I'm going long to build up leg strength and endurance, and then we'll add speed to that. I want to aim high, set high goals, and work toward achieving th

An update on standings for Japan's potential team at this summer's Paris Olympic Games. Final team nomination in most cases depends on a top 3 finish at the National Track and Field Championships, but as of this writing events where Japan could or will field three athletes having cleared the Olympic standard are the men's 110 mH, men's 400 mH, men's 20 kmRW and women's marathon. Other events that will or are likely to have a complete squad of three athletes include the men's 100 m, men's 200 m, men's 400 m, men's high jump, men's marathon, women's 5000 m, women's 10000 m, women's javelin throw, and women's 20 kmRW. Main changes from last week: Koki Ueyama moved up to 36th of 48 in the men's 200 m quota, passing Shota Iizuka for #2 Japanese man. Yuta Sakiyama was 2nd in the men's javelin throw at the Josef Odlozil Memorial in Prague and broke into the Paris quota at 32nd of 32. Misaki Morota was 2nd in the women

On June the KGRR released the entry lists for the Kanto Region qualifying race for the Nov. 3 National University Men's Ekiden. Taking place June 23 at Kanagawa's Sagamihara Gion Stadium, the Kanto Region qualifier consists of four heats of 10000 m, with participating school fielding two runners per heat and scored on the total time of its eight entrants. The seven fastest teams will go on to November's Nationals. Going for its 11th-straight Nationals appearance, Tokai University is led by 3rd-duo Hisaya Hanaoka , who was a standout at last month's Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, and Judah Hyodo . Tokai's combined time of 3:48:37.21 for its eight entrants makes it the fastest in the field, an average of 28:34.65 per runner. 4th-year Yuto Kajitani and 3rd-year Makoto Takewari also feature in Tokai's lineup. Missing the podium at Nationals last year, Toyo University is back at the Kanto qualifier for the first time in two years. In the

Paris Olympics women's marathon team member Mao Ichiyama (Shiseido) ran the Mastercard New York Mini 10k in the U.S.A. this weekend. Running as part of her training, she was 25th in 35:41 in what will be her final race before the Paris Olympics. Ichiyama finished 8th at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and took 2nd at the Marathon Grand Championship Olympic trials race last Oct. 15 to qualify for her second-straight Olympic marathon. In January she ran 1:12:26 at the Okukuma Road Race half marathon and 1:45:21 to win February's Ome Road Race 30 km. Also racing in the U.S. this weekend was men's Olympic trials 3rd-placer Suguru Osako (Nike). Running at the Portland Track Festival in Oregon, Osako was 6th in the 10000 m in 28:16.00 in his first track race since last November's Hachioji Long Distance 10000 m. Doing it as a training run, Osako ran the first half at 66-68' per lap, clocking even splits of 5:40 at 2000 m and 11:20 at 4000 m. He slowed gradually after 6000 m but

At the Tokai University Time Trials meet June 8 at Tokai's Shonan Campus Field in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, Kazuto Iizawa , 23, of the Sumitomo Denko corporate team, ran 3:35.62 for 1500 m, the second-fastest time ever by a Japanese man. His time improved on his already all-time Japanese #2 3:35.77 from the May 12 Kinami Memorial Meet and missed the 3:35.42 national record held by Kazuki Kawamura , 26, by just 0.20. Including the PB he ran his senior year at Tokai, it was Iizawa's third time coming in at all-time Japanese #2. "It felt like my legs completely locked up with 30 m to go," he said post-race. "It's really disappointing." His coach at Sumitomo Denko, Yasuyuki Watanabe , was positive about Iizawa's performance, saying, "That was really close. He'll get the NR next time." The race happened on Watanabe's 51st birthday. "I'd wanted to give Coach Watanabe the NR as a birthday present," joked Iizawa. Next on his sch

Regarding the suspension of a former corporate league athlete for doping violations The action against former Aisan Kogyo corporate team athlete Rodgers Kwemoi of Kenya for violation of rules against anti-doping was recently finalized. The penalties imposed against Kwemoi that were announced on May 17 by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), an independent unit of World Athletics (WA), were as follows: Suspension from competition for a six-year period beginning 8 August, 2023 annulment of all competition results from 18 July, 2016 to 8 August, 2023 Details on the decision can be found at this link . In compliance with this ruling, all of Kwemoi's results in National Corporate Federation competitions during the specified period will be annulled. In addition, the Aisan Kogyo team results from ekidens in which Kwemoi competed for them will also be annulled. All official results will be updated to move individuals and teams that finished behind Kwemoi and Aisan Kogyo in these competit

Two athletes from the Subaru men's corporate team who have already secured their places on Japan's teams for this summer's Paris Olympics and Paralympics visited the Gunma prefectural government to talk about their plans for the Games. Both set to run in their second-straight Games, Paralympics 1500 m and 5000 m runner Kenya Karasawa , 29, and 3000 m steeplechase specialist Ryuji Miura , 22, made the trip to the government offices. Miura is originally from Shimane, and joined the Subaru team in April. On May 10 at the third Diamond League series meet in Doha he was 5th in 8:13.96, clearing the 8:15.00 Olympic standard and securing his place on the Paris team. While a student at Juntendo University Miura took 7th in the Tokyo Olympics 3000 mSC, the first time for a Japanese athlete to make top 8 in that event. At Paris, he said, "I want to medal and run a PB." The 3000 mSC includes a hurdle with a pool of water on each lap, a point where abrupt changes in positio