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Day 3 of the 105th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships gets into its 2nd half Saturday. Live results here . The day's schedule: 9:45  - D1/D2 Women's Heptathlon 100 mH 10:00  - D1/D2 Women's Discus Throw Final 10:10  - D1 Women's 400 mH Heats 10:40  - D2 Men's 400 mH Heats 11:05  - D1 Men's 400 mH Heats 11:15  - D1/D2 Women's Heptathlon High Jump 11:45  - D2 Men's 800 m Heats 12:00  - D1 Men's Shot Put Final 12:10  - D1 Women's 800 m Heats 12:30  - D1 Men's Long Jump Final 12:40  - D1 Men's 800 m Heats 13:20  - D2 Men's 200 m Heats 13:40  - D1 Women's 200 m Heats 13:45  - D1/D2 Women's Heptathlon Shot Put 14:05  - D1 Men's 200 m Heats 15:00  - D2/D3 Men's High Jump Final 15:00  - D2/D3 Men's Hammer Throw Final 15:45  - D2 Men's 3000 mSC Heats 15:55  - D1/D2 Women's Pole Vault Final 16:25  - D1 Men's 3000 mSC Heats 17:30  - D1 Women's Javelin Throw Final 18:25  ...

Day 2 of the 105th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships gets moving at 9:00 a.m Friday local time. Live results here . Day 2 schedule: 9:00  - D2/D3 Men's Decathlon 110 mH 9:15  - D1 Men's Decathlon 110 mH 9:35 - D2 Men's 110 mH Semi-finals 9:45  - D1 Men's 110 mH Semi-finals 10:05  - D1 Women's 100 mH Semi-finals 10:15  - D1/D2/D3 Men's Decathlon Discus Throw 10:20  - D2/D3 Men's Shot Put Final 10:25  - D2 Men's 100 m Semi-finals 10:35  - D1 Women's 100 m Semi-finals 10:35  - D2/D3 Men's Long Jump Final 10:45  - D1 Men's 100 m Semi-finals 11:30  - D2 Men's 1500 m Final 11:45  - D1 Women's 1500 m Final 12:00  - D1 Men's 1500 m Final 12:50  - D2/D3 Men's Javelin Throw Final 13:30  - D1/D2/D3 Men's Decathlon Pole Vault 13:30  - D3 Men's 110 mH Final 14:15  - D3 Men's 100 m Final 14:50  - D1/D2 Women's Hammer Throw Final 15:00  - D2 Men's 400 m Final 15:10  - D1 Women's 400 ...

Japan's best collegiate meet, the 105th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships kick off today in Tochigi. Live results here . Day 1 schedule: 8:46  - D2 Men's Decathlon 100 m 9:14  - D3 Men's Decathlon 100 m 9:15  - D1 Men's Decathlon 100 m 9:35  - D2/D3 Men's 400 m Heats 9:55  - D1/D2 Women's High Jump Final 10:05  - D1 Women's 400 m Heats 10:10  - D1/D2/D3 Men's Decathlon Long Jump 10:20  - D1 Men's 400 m Heats 10:50  - D2/D3 Men's Discus Throw Final 11:10  - D1/D2 Women's 100 mH Heats 11:40  - D2 Men's 110 mH Heats 11:45  - D1 Men's 110 mH Heats 12:35  - D1 Men's 100 m Heats 13:00  - D1/D2 Women's 100 m Heats 13:05  - D1 Men's 100 m Heats 13:25  - D1 Men's Discus Throw Final 13:30  - D1 Men's Triple Jump Final 13:30  - D1/D2/D3 Men's Decathlon Shot Put 14:00  - D1/D2 Men's 400 m Semi-final 14:15  - D1 Women's 400 m Semi-Final 14:50  - D2/D3 Men's 1500 m Heats 15:15 ...

The 105th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships will be held May 21-24 in Tochigi's Kanseki Stadium. Featuring World Championships national team members and Hakone Ekiden stars, it is the first time the meet is being held in Tochigi prefecture. The Kanto Regionals meet is open to member universities of the KGRR , with individual performances scoring points that determine the overall champion university program. The meet's history is even longer than that of the KGRR's flagship event, the Hakone Ekiden. All 22 events on the meet program except the men's half marathon, which was held separately on April 5 as part of the Yaizu Minato Half Marathon , will be held at Kanseki Stadium and the neighboring multipurpose field for throwing events. The entry list published on May 12 features Tokyo World Championships relay team member Arie Aoki (Nittai Univ.) in the 400 m. The men's 5000 m includes both Hakone Ekiden uphill Fifth Stage star Shinsaku Kudo (Was...

Hakone Ekiden organizers KGRR announced May 18 that the Yosenkai qualifying race for next year's 103rd Hakone Ekiden will be held Oct. 17 on its usual 21.0975 km half marathon course starting at the Tachikawa Air SDF Base in western Tokyo and finishing next door at Showa Kinen Park. The top 10 teams at the 102nd Hakone Ekiden this past January including winner Aoyama Gakuin University auto-qualified for the 103rd Hakone. All other schools in the Kanto Region must run the Yosenkai to qualify, fielding up to 12 athletes with their first 10 finishers scored on aggregate time. The 10 fastest teams will go on to the main event next January. The field this time is expected to include Toyo University , which finished 14th at the 102nd Hakone to break a 20-year+ streak of top 10 finishes, 15th-place Nittai University which will be looking to make Hakone for the 79th year in a row, and the debuting Shibaura Kogyo University . It's an exciting mix of traditional powerhouses and up-and...

It was a pale shadow of the results at the Keqiao Diamond League meet a day earlier, where Rachid Muratake was the only Japanese athlete in action at 3rd in 13.18 (+0.1) in the men's 110 mH, but the men's 3000 m at Sunday's Seiko Golden Grand Prix in Tokyo turned out to be the race of the meet. Collegiate 5000 m, 10000 m and half marathon record holder Richard Etir (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) did pacing duty through 2000 m in 2:33 and 5:07, almost dead-even with Suguru Osako 's 2014-era NR of 7:40.09. When Etir stepped off Yu Shibata (Josai Univ.) stepped up as the surprise leader, pushing hard to keep the NR in range and dropping everyone except corporate leaguers Ryuto Igawa (Asahi Kasei) and Nagiya Mori (Honda). Both had the wheels to run Shibata down over the last 200 m, and Mori had the honor of becoming the first Japanese man under 7:40, winning in a new NR of 7:38.98. Igawa and Shibata both got there too, Igawa 2nd in 7:39.36 and Shibata 3rd in 7:39.51, the fast...

At around 10:00 a.m. on May 17, the city of Kashiwazaki received multiple reports of a bear on the roads used as the course for the Kashiwazaki Shiokaze Marathon being held at the time. Determining that it would be dangerous to continue the race, city officials stopped the event. There were no injuries, and the bear's size remains unknown. A local hunting association examined the city and said that based on footprints and other evidence it was possible that what was seen might have been a wild boar. According to city officials, the reported bear was seen on Prefectural Road 73 in Okouchi Shinden in a mountainous area about 4 km southwest of Kashiwazaki Station, a road used as an out-and-back section of both the half marathon and marathon. Over 2200 people were participating in the race, but because runners were already on the return leg there were few people left. Organizers stopped those still running at a water station and used police cars and motorcycles to ensure their safety....

A section of insulation material fell from the ceiling of Nagoya Kinjo Futo Arena, the official venue for squash competition at September's Nagoya Asian Games. There were no injuries, but the city suspended use of the arena until its safety could be guaranteed, resulting in the cancelation of the Asian Games squash test event which was scheduled to have begun on May 14. It is not yet clear whether the arena will be usable for the Asian Games as planned. According to city officials, arena staff found that the insulation material had fallen onto a work walkway 13 m above the ground on the night of May 11. The fallen material was 3.6 m long, 50 cm wide and 2.5 km thick, and was found to be waterlogged. The cause of the accident is unknown, but it is possible that it was caused by rainwater leaking in from the roof. The same insulation material is installed across the entire ceiling, and the city plans to check for the extent of the possible flooding. Asked whether the arena will be re...

The JAAF announced on May 14 that in collaboration with the East Asian Athletics Association, the 5th East Asian Half Marathon Championships will be held as part of the 2027 Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon in April next year. It will be the first time the East Asian Half will be staged in Japan. The race will be held on the Gifu Seiryu Half course starting and finishing at Gifu Memorial Center at the same time as the regular race. Only the results of athletes representing East Asia member countries will be considered in scoring. The East Asian Athletics Association is made up of Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Macau, Mongolia, North Korea and Taiwan. The 1st edition of the East Asian Half Marathon was held in 2023 in Hong Kong, with the 2nd through 4th editions held in China. source article: https://www.rikujyokyogi.co.jp/archives/207139 translated by Brett Larner

  After finishing 15th at the Hakone Ekiden in January and dropping off the Hakone podium for the first time in 20 years, Toyo University  is on a comeback mission. At the May 4 National University Ekiden Qualifying Meet at Kanagawa's Lemon Gas Stadium Toyo finished 5th overall in 3:58:51.88, scoring a place at November's Nationals after missing out last time around. 3rd-year Shion Jinnai , who led the first of the qualifying meet's 4 heats of 10000 m, said, "Our theme this season is 'getting back to our roots.' We have a new captain and some great 1st-years, and we're going for top 3 at Hakone." Jinnai talked about some changes in the team since the disappointing last season, saying, "We're still doing the same group training, but we're also now putting more effort into individual activity out side of that, things like aerobic development outside the scheduled practices. We have team practices twice a day on weekdays when there are class...

On May 11 Taisho University announced the launch of the school's new track and field team this year, with Masami Soeda named as its first head coach. With Taisho celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, its decision to launch a track team is a core part of its sports enhancement initiative aimed at improving student athletic performance and elevating the school's image. Soeda had previously demonstrated his ability as a coach at Kokushikan University where he led it to 8-straight Hakone Ekidens from the 93rd to 100th editions. Taisho also named Nobuharu Sato , previously involved in scouting and coaching at the Fujitsu corporate team and at Komazawa University , as head of scouting and as strengthening coach in tandem with Soeda. A statement from Taisho University said, "As an institution of higher education we place value on both developing human capability and interaction with the local community, and we want create new value in university sports. We are starting...

The Michitaka Kinami Memorial Meet in Osaka was the weekend's main event on the track, and women's pole vault NR holder Misaki Morota (Art Home) led the way with its biggest result. After struggling with injuries the last couple of years, Morota was back with a 4.50 m national record on her 1st attempt at the height, bettering the 4.48 m NR she set back in 2023 and outdoing 2nd place by 25 cm. Morota packed it in at that point and didn't try for 4.55 m, but as she looked back to peak form expect to see her try to take the record further this season. Other highlights from Kinami: Nanako Matsumoto (Toho Ginko) and Morgan Mitchell (Australia) both broke the meet record in the women's 400 m, Matsumoto getting the win in 52.24 and Mitchell 2nd in 52.27. Jaylah Hancock-Cameron (Australia) outran Ayano Shiomi (Iwatani Sangyo) for the win in the women's 800 m 2:01.85 to 2:04.09, while NR holder Rin Kubo (Sekisui Kagaku) struggled in the start of her corporate league ...

Shunsuke Shikama (Logisteed) and Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) won the Sendai International Half Marathon Sunday in Sendai, Shikama in 1:01:31 and Njeri in 1:09:20. Mizuki Nishimura (Tenmaya) was the top Japanese woman at 2nd overall. The men's race went through 5 km in 14:34 and 10 km in 29:22. Shikama ran alongside top competition including Shoki Yamaguchi (Soka Univ.), who has been running well in half marathons this season, and Tokyo World Championships marathon team member Naoki Koyama (Honda). On a course with many small ups and downs, Shikama attacked on a downhill just after 15 km, quickly breaking free of the lead group of 7. 13 seconds up by 20 km, Shikama covered the last 1.0975 km in 3:06 to seal his first Sendai title. A graduate of Juntendo University , Shikama is in his 4th season with Logisteed. At the 2024 National Corporate Half Marathon he ran 1:00:41, and at last year's East Japan Corporate Ekiden he won the Third Stage. In his marathon d...

Having scored its 3rd-straight Hakone Ekiden win this past January, Aoyama Gakuin University spent the Golden Week spring holidays training on the Myoko Plateau in Niigata from May 2-6. Along with the champion men's ekiden team, the first 2 members of AGU's new women's long distance team Nodoka Ashida and Kairi Ikeno , and AGU alumni and 2026 New Year Ekiden champion GMO team members Yuya Yoshida and Asahi Kuroda also took part in the training camp. Depending on the day's training schedule, mileage at the camp was over 50 km a day. AGU men's captain Kaito Nakamura confidently said, "This Golden Week training camp is where we lay the foundations for our 4th-straight Hakone title." A lot of people spend Golden Week on vacation, but the AGU ekiden team spent their time working hard on Myoko's rolling land amid the sprouting leaves of spring. On the 2nd day of the camp, May 3, team members woke up at 5:00 a.m. to do their warmup. The team assembled a...

There was a lot of action on the track over Japan's Golden Week holidays. Highlights: Shizuoka International Meet - Fukuroi, 3 May Men's 800 m NR holder Ko Ochiai (Komazawa Univ.) broke his own record with a 1:43.90 win. Daigo Usuki (18 Ginko) and Gakuto Mishima (Nippatsu) both broke the NR in the T20 men's 400 m, Usuki getting the win in 49.08 and Mishima 2nd in 49.15. Lauren Bruce (New Zealand) threw a meet record 67.44 m on her final attempt in the women's hammer throw, but even her shortest throw of 64.31 m was over 3 m better than the rest of the field. Kazuki Kurokawa (Sumitomo Denko) got the men's 400 mH meet record with a 48.50 for the win. Women's 3000 mSC NR holder Miu Saito (Panasonic) won the steeple in 9:31.83, the 2nd-best time in her career so far, despite falling. 2nd through 4th all broke 10 minutes. National University Men's Ekiden Kanto Region Qualifier - Hiratsuka, 4 May The top 8 teams at November's National University Men...

The 70th running of the Yamagata-ken Judan Ekiden happened over the start of the Golden Week holidays, a 3-day, 29-leg race covering 306.9 km around the northern prefecture of Yamagata. There used to be a lot more of these races where people from the prefecture run for their hometown teams on a Tour de Whatever prefecture or area it happens to be held in, but Yamagata's is one of the few to have survived this long. And amazingly enough, local broadcaster YBC live streamed the entire thing on Youtube. There aren't many corporate teams in the mostly rural area, so runners from the ND Software corporate team played a heavy role, its 2 best runners Masato Arao and Ryoma Takeuchi winning their stages on Day 2 with Takeuchi doubling to anchor the Kita-Murayama team to an overall 5th-place finish, and Koichi Shoji breaking the 2nd leg CR on Day 1 and winning the 2nd-to-last stage on Day 3 to play a key role in the Yamagata city team taking the overall win in 16:06:51, 3:09/km ...

Four big meets with distance action happened across Japan over the 2nd half of April. Highlights from each of them: Hyogo Relay Carnival - Kobe, 18-19 April Hirokazu Sakai (Senko) set a 2.25 m MR in the men's high jump. Sae Takemoto (Orico) threw 59.68 m to set a new MR in the women's javelin throw. Distance events were pretty low-key, with Ryota Natori (Konica Minolta) winning the men's 10000 m in 28:49.74 and Yuzu Nishide (Daihatsu) the women's 5000 m in 15:44.03. National University Individual Championships - Hiratsuka, 24-26 April Miori Kida  (1st yr., Juntendo Univ.) debuted with 4:19.14 MR in the women's 1500 m, going 0.12 under the previous record set last year. Sarah Wanjiru (4th yr., Daito Bunka Univ.) kicked off her senior year by chopping 25 seconds off her own 10000 m MR to by over a minute in 31:23.69. Mao Kimura (1st yr., Meijo Univ.) had a great debut in 32:31.56 for 2nd, more than 70 sec up on 3rd place. Shunpei Yamaguchi (3rd yr., Waseda ...

https://www.paralympic.org/news/rabat-2026-records-fall-stars-rise-inaugural-grand-prix-season While Yudai Shimazu 's 14:03.45 debut as a para athlete in Rabat was a T13-class world record by over 17 seconds, his actual PB is 13:33.83 from last May's Golden Games in Nobeoka. Expect him to take this WR, and others in his class, a lot further. His other current PBs vs. the existing T13 WR : 3000 m : 7:58.34 (Kitami 2024) / 8:07.64 (Mikey Brannigan/USA 2017) 10000 m: 28:24.69 (Hachioji 2024) / 31:41.85 (Said Gomez/PAN 1988) half marathon: 1:01:32 (Yamaguchi 2025) / no existing record marathon: 2:11:20 (Osaka 2024) / 2:22:25 (Carlos Talbot/USA 1988)

  https://www.irunfar.com/this-week-in-running-april-27-2026 complete results

And now back to our regular schedule. Two of Japan's best current marathoners, Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko), 6th in the Paris Olympics and 2nd in Berlin last fall in a 2:06:15 PB, and Shunya Kikuchi (Chugoku Denryoku), 7th in Osaka last year in a PB of 2:06:06, were supposed to be in on the wild action at the Boston Marathon and London Marathon , but both ended up scratching with injury. It's hard not to wonder what kind of dent they might have made, especially Akasaki. In Kikuchi's absence London didn't have any elite-level Japanese athletes, and the only one in Boston was Mao Uesugi (Tokyo Metro), 2:22:11 in Nagoya last year. Uesugi went out relatively strongly but faded hard in the hills to finish only 26th in 2:34:38. One other Japanese woman, Sherry Drury , ran the BAA Mile held the Saturday before the marathon, finishing 6th in 4:43.26. Bigger news the same day as the BAA Mile came in Spain, where Tomoya Ogikubo (Hiramatsu Byoin) followed up his 1:00:22 half ma...

Sorry to have been silent for a while. JRN associate editor Mika Tokairin  was in Taiwan for Ironman Penghu, where she won her age group to qualify for Kona for the first time. Right after that we moved for the first time in 14 years, and immediately after that I headed to the U.S. to help Keita Sato  get settled in his new training base in Flagstaff. We'll be resuming normal operations shortly with a big roundup of results over the last 2 weeks. Brett Larner

Saturday's Kanakuri Memorial Meet in Kumamoto was the weekend's main event in Japanese track, but there were good results at the Nittai University Time Trials meet in Yokohama too. Emmanuel Maru (Toyota Boshoku) led the men's 5000 m A-heat at Kanakuri in 13:14.06, with Tomonori Yamaguchi (SGH) clocking the fastest Japanese time in 13:16.38 in his first race as a corporate leaguer. Waseda University duo Rui Suzuki and Yota Mashiko went 6-7 in 13:20.64 and 13:22.87, the 18-year-old Mashiko shaving 0.04 off the U20 NR. In 8th, Yamato Yoshii (Toyota) ran a PB of 13:23.92. 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura (Subaru) continued to struggle after a weak indoor season, finishing 18th of 20 finishers in 13:45.10. 19-year-old Festus Kimorwo (Kurosaki Harima) was under 13:20 in the B-heat too, winning in a 13:19.59 PB. 2 more collegiate men broke 13:30, Daichi Fujita (Chuo Univ.) 8th in 13:28.93 and Riki Koike (Soka Univ.) 9th in 13:29.09. The top 6 in the men's 800 m A-hea...

https://run.outsideonline.com/road/road-racing/why-is-japan-so-much-better-at-running-than-everyone-else/ photo © 2026 Brett Larner , all rights reserved

Japan's outdoor Grand Prix season kicks off Saturday in Kumamoto at the Kanakuri Memorial Meet . Streaming will be at the link above starting at 9:30 a.m. local time. Complete timetable and start lists . Main events and some noteworthy entries: GP Women's 800 m Heat 2  - 12:10 p.m. All-time JPN #4 Ayano Shiomi , 2:01.01 GP Men's 800 m Heat 2  - 12:30 p.m. GP Women's 3000 mSC  - 2:45 p.m. All-time JPN #4 Yuzu Nishide , 9:38.95 All-time JPN #5 Manami Nishiyama , 9:39.28 South Korean NR holder Ha-Rim Cho , 9:53.09 GP Men's 3000 mSC  - 3:05 p.m. All-time JPN #2 Ryoma Aoki , 8:18.75 All-time JPN #5 Yutaro Niinae , 8:19.54 All-time JPN #7 Hibiki Obara , 8:22.64 All-time U20 JPN #2 Tetsu Sasaki , 8:29.05 All-time U20 JPN #3 Soma Nagahara , 8:30.37 GP Women's 1500 m Heat 2  - 3:35 p.m. Teresiah Muthoni , 4:02.54 Margaret Ekalale , 4:09.64 all-time JPN #3 Ran Urabe , 4:07.90 All-time JPN #6 Tomoka Kimura , 4:09.79 All-time U20 #5 Mei Sakiyama , 4:13.67 GP Men's 1500...

2026 Hakone Ekiden champion Aoyama Gakuin University held a press conference Apr. 4 at its Sagamihara campus announcing that it was adding a women's ekiden team to its track and field program. In its first year the team has only 2 members, Nodoka Ashida of Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. , and Kairi Ikeno of Suma Gakuen H.S . The team's head coach will be Susumu Hara , who coached the AGU men to their second Hakone threepeat this year and had a hand in the GMO corporate team's first-ever New Year Ekiden win. At the press conference he talked about the reasons for launching a women's team, and the harsh realities facing women's track and field. AGU is the undisputed leader in the evolution of the university men's ekiden circuit, but adding a women's team represents a new challenge. Hara cited 3 objectives in expanding the AGU program: "creating an environment where female athletes can balance competition and life events," "expanding the opportunities...