More Meet Records on National Sports Festival Day 3

The meet records kept coming on Day 3 of the 2025 National Sports Festival Sunday in Shiga. The biggest came in the junior women's javelin throw, where Ayaka Suzuki (Namisho H.S.) opened with a 57.11 m MR throw to win by almost 9 meters. That would have been good enough for 4th in the senior women's javelin throw, where Marina Saito (Suzuki) won over Momone Ueda (Zenrin) 59.39 m to 59.34 m, but more newsworthily put her at all-time #5 on the Japanese high school rankings, 1.79 m behind Paris Olympics champ Haruka Kitaguchi.

Both the junior women's 5000 m race walk and junior men's 5000 m race walk took the event to new levels, with the top 4 in the women's race going under the MR and the top 2 in the men's race doing the same. Hikari Osaka (Nishinomiya H.S.) took the women's race by less than a second over Yuna Uchiyama (Honjo Higashi H.S.) 22:40.75 to 22:41.50, but the men's race was clearer-cut with Daichi Yamada (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) winning by 16 seconds over Toshiya Inoue (Nagano Nichidai H.S.) 20:03.54 to 20:19.72. The fact that Inoue was still under the MR shows how good Yamada's performance was.

The MR went in the senior men's 110 m hurdles thanks to Tatsuki Abe (Juntendo Univ.), who turned in a 13.26 (+0.2) for the win. Chisato Kiyoyama (Ichigo) didn't quite get to the senior women's 100 mH MR but still turned in a dominant win in 13.07 (-0.4).

With teams made up of 3 students and one pro both the women's 4x100 m and men's 4x100 m saw new meet records. Anchored by Midori Mikase, the Hokkaido women's team set a new MR of 44.58 for the win over Yamagata. Shizuoka took the men's title with a great anchor run from Shota Iizuka, becoming the first team to break 39 at the National Sports Festival in 38.95. With Yuki Koike leading off the Hokkaido men tied the old MR in 39.13 for 2nd.

Other winners included:

Sora Murata (Tsukuba Univ.) and Akari Osakaya (Ehime T&F Assoc.) both tied the 4.20 m MR in the senior women's pole vault, Murata getting the win.
High school record holder Sorato Shimizu (Seiryo H.S.) tied the MR in junior men's 100 m A-final, running 10.19 (+0.2). Risa Akizawa (Tokyo Gakkan Niigata H.S.) won the junior women's 100 m A-final in 11.56 (+0.8).
Sora Matsukawa (Naha Kokusai H.S.) took the junior women's triple jump with a 12.37 m (+0.3) last-round jump. The next 3 placers were all within 9 cm of Matsukawa.
Natsuki Yamakawa (Team SSP) won the senior men's long jump by 1 cm over Tenju Togawa (Ueno Nakamura Shikain) 7.77 m (+0.6) to 7.76 m (-0.1).
Akane Minamisawa (Matsumoto Doken) won the senior women's 400 mH in 56.96, Daiki Ogawa (Toyo Univ.) taking the senior men's title in 49.03.

Komazawa University One Step Away From Perfect Season With Hakone Ekiden Day One Win

Already the course record-breaker at the Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden this season, 2021 Hakone Ekiden champion Komazawa University came one step away from its first-ever triple crown of single-season ekiden wins as it won a highly competitive 2023 Hakone Ekiden Day One over defending champ Aoyama Gakuin University and last year's 6th placer Chuo University . Things got off to an unexpected start when Select Team runner Hayate Nitta of non-qualifier Ikuei University decided to take his one and only Hakone shot and run it up to his ability on the 21.3 km 1st leg even though the rest of the field opted to jog. At one point Nitta had a lead of almost a minute and a half, but as beautiful as it would have been for him to pull it off, Meiji University 's Shunpei Tomita and Komazawa's Kensuke Tsubura still managed to run him down in the final kilometer. Tomita took the stage win in 1:02:44, 1:02:08 half marathon pace vs. his 1:02:10 PB despite the slow s...

"Hell Running" - Chinese Site Calls Japanese Women's Distance Running Too Cruel

http://www.yukawanet.com/archives/5166613.html translated by Brett Larner High schooler Yumika Nagahama leading the Jan. 15 National Women's Ekiden for the Kanagawa team. Since the start of the month it's been cold in Japan. A record-breaking kind of cold that has seen snow piling up even on the Pacific side of the country, and for better or worse that word "snow" has been generating buzz around the world. Yes, it has been a cold winter, and now that fact has become a hot topic in China. Particularly in relation to women's distance running. The picture above is from the " National Women's Ekiden " that took place in Kyoto on Jan. 15. Kyoto experienced a blizzard, even "whiteout" conditions. Far too harsh to go ahead with staging a running race in conditions like that. It's natural to wonder why the race wasn't cancelled, but it seems likely that they weren't expecting the snow to escalate to the point that it wo...

Hachioji Long Distance Meet Postponed to March

The organizers of the Hachioji Long Distance meet traditionally held in late November at Hachioji's Kamiyugi Field announced this week that the meet's 2026 edition has been postponed until March 6, 2027. Explaining the move, organizers said, "Various circumstances make it difficult to meet the conditions necessary to stage the meet, making it difficult to organize it at its usual time." Using pacers and Wavelight technology to help deliver reliably fast 10000 m times, the meet is a favorite for collegiate and corporate league runners. It occupies a solid place in Japanese long distance history, capped by Mebuki Suzuki 's 27:05.92 national record there last year. By moving the meet to Mar. 6, organizers said, "We are preparing to make this a high-profile event, a place where our best domestic athletes can aim for strong performances and a stage for record-breaking attempts in the lead-up to the 2027 Beijing World Championships." This year's 10000 m Na...

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