Yamagata Breaks 100 m U20 NR, Yanagita 9.97 at National University Individual Championships

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's 100 m. After coasting through her opening heat in the 100 m in 11.68 (+0.8), Fukuoka University 1st-year Aiha Yamagata got people talking with an 11.36 (+3.4) to win her semifinal, under the U20 NR by 0.07 but wind-aided. In the final Yamagata backed that up with an 11.41 (+1.7), 0.06 under the meet record and a new U20 NR by 0.02.

And she wasn't done. Coming back Sunday in the 200 m, Yamagata ran 24.48 (+0.6) and 23.77 (+2.8) to win her heat and semi, then dropped a 23.53 (+1.4) meet record just 0.08 off the U20 NR to win the final. With three years still ahead of her Takahashi looks to have good shots at both that and the 11.32 collegiate record in her.

Other meet records were mostly in women's events:

Akari Funada (Mukogawa Joshi Univ.) cleared the triple jump meet record by 35 cm, jumping 13.48 (+0.5) on her 3rd attempt and going on to go over the old record of 13.13 on her 4th and 5th attempts too.
Women's discus throw U20 NR holder Maki Saito (Tokai Univ.) broke her own MR by almost 2 m, opening with a winning 57.50 m throw and bettering her old 55.66 m MR from last year on her 3rd, 5th and 6th attempts. 2nd-place Honoka Shiroma (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) threw only 47.25 m.
Women's hammer throw collegiate and U20 NR holder Raika Murakami (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) threw 64.15 m on her 5th attempt, breaking the 63.44 m MR she set last year and good for the win.
Sota Haraguchi (Juntendo Univ.) was one of two men to set a new MR, clearing 2.23 m in the high jump on his 1st attempt.
Hiroki Kitahara (Niigata Iryo Fukushi Univ.) threw 59.95 m on his 5th attempt in the men's discus throw, bettering the old MR by almost 2 m.

Paris-bound Hiroki Yanagita (Toyo Univ.) opened with a 10.23 (+1.1) in the men's 100 m heats, then dropped a wind-aided 9.97 (+3.5) in the semifinals. Former NR holder Yoshihide Kiryu's 10.01 MR was out of reach in the final, but Yanagita still ran a career 5th-best 10.13 (+1.4) for the win, a return to form ahead of Nationals after a disappointing May. Yuhi Mori (Daito Bunka Univ.) had a great day, breaking 10.20 for the first time with a 10.13 (+1.9) to win his opening heat, then taking his semi in 10.16 (+0.7), then running 10.19 for 2nd behind Yanagita in the final.

In distance races, Daito Bunka University 2nd-year Sarah Wanjiru added another title to her already extensive resume with a 15:42.8 for the win in the 5000 m, beating Sayuki Ota (Ritsumeikan Univ.) by almost 5 seconds. Only three men started in the 5000 m, with Riki Koike (Soka Univ.) soloing a 13.47.3 that came just 2 seconds short of the MR, while teammates Kosei Shiraishi and Kyosuke Hiramatsu of Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University jogged together to both finish in 14:28. For whatever reason, the 5000 m were the only events to be hand-timed.

Mayu Kawase extended Daito Bunka University's dynasty in the women's 3000 mSC with a 10:20.39 for the win in a very close race against Yuka Komatsu (Tsukuba Univ.), 2nd in 10:22.67. Suzuna Kinoshita (Chuo Univ.) won the women's 1500 m title in 4:25.11. Only two men started in the 3000 m SC, Rintaro Ozono (Kanoya Taiiku Univ.) winning by 6 seconds over Kai Ogata (Kanto Gakuin Univ.) in 8:48.80. Shuta Azuma (Hiroshima Keizai Univ.) won the men's 1500 m in 3:49.40 in a four-way sprint finish.

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

CHN and JPN National Records Go Down - Weekend Track Update

There weren't any Japanese athletes in action at the Rabat Diamond League meet Sunday, but 2 lower-tier domestic meets produced new national records. At the Nittai University Time Trials meet in Yokohama, Samuel Kibathi (Toyota) led the top 5 in the men's 10000 m under 28 minutes in 27:39.97. In 3rd, China's Wenjie Wang took just over a second off his own NR from the same meet last year, setting a new record of 27:47.53. His teammate Haoran Tang was 6th in a 28:27.44 PB, with the top Japanese time in the race being a 28:33.39 for 8th from Jin Yuasa (Toyota). Amazingly, Wang and Tang were back the next day on day 2 of the Nittai meet, Wang running a PB of 13:35.58 for 4th in the A-heat and Tang winning the B-heat in a PB of 13:38.80. Isaac Ndiema took the A-heat in 13:26.49, with the fastest Japanese time going to Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu) with a 13:35.94 for 5th behind Wang. Other Nittai highlights: Deborah Chemutai (Univ. Ent.) won a photo finish against Yua Nagamori ...

Batt-Doyle and Strintzos Break Records at Launceston Half

Australians Isobel Batt-Doyle and Haftu Strintzos turned in record-breaking performances to win the McGrath Launceston Running Festival Peppers Silo Half Marathon in Tasmania. Running with a private male pacer, NR holder Batt-Doyle dusted the field with the fastest half marathon ever by an Australian woman on Australian soil, a 1:08:46 CR that put her 2 and a half minutes ahead of runner-up Genevieve Gregson . Last year's runner-up Yumi Yoshikawa was almost a minute back from Gregson in 3rd in 1:12:03, but was almost run down by club runner Ayaka Shimoyamada . Starting slow in her international debut, Shimoyamada moved up from 7th over the 2nd half of the race to finish 4th in 1:12:06, kicking hard in the home straight to try to catch Yoshikawa and momentarily blacking out after finishing. Kaho Onishi was 7th in 1:12:45 in her own international debut. The men's half had pacing set at 2:53/km to try to deliver the first-ever sub-61 half marathon on Australian soil. CR holde...

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