Japan's 110th National Track and Field Championships kicked off Friday at the same stadium that will host September's Asian Games. From an international point of view the biggest result was the return of Paris Olympics women's javelin throw gold medalist Haruka Kitaguchi. After a rough year Kitaguchi threw 62.86 m on her fifth attempt, her best throw since last June's Ostrava Golden Spike meet and enough to give her the win by over a meter. It was still almost 4.5 m short of Kitaguchi's NR, but it was a big step back in the right direction.
On the track there were a lot of surprising results on the first day, with multiple meet records, near-misses on MR, and fastest-ever qualifying rounds. The race of the day was the women's 5000 m final, where 4-time national champ and NR holder Nozomi Tanaka tried to make it 5 in a row. With the race going at 15:15-20 pace Tanaka broke away with 4 laps to go, opening a substantial lead over Aichi local Yuma Yamamoto and the rest of the field. Stadium announcers started going on about Tanaka winning a 5th-straight 5000 m title, but with 2 laps to go it was pretty clear that Yamamoto had matched Tanaka's speed and was starting to pull her back.
Over the last 300 m the gap between them shrank rapidly, and in the home straight Yamamoto went by to win in a 14:59.86 PB, only the 6th Japanese woman to break 15 minutes and just a fraction of a second off Tanaka's MR. Tanaka who plans to double in the 1500 m as usual, was next in 15:00.93, with 3000 mSC NR holder Miu Saito 3rd in 15:11.30 just off her best.
The men's 3000 mSC final was another great one, with Ryoma Aoki and Hibiki Obara going all the way to the line. It looked like the up-and-coming Obara had it in the home straight, but Aoki dipped in at the finish line for the win in 8:18.63 over Obara's 8:18.66. Those were good for all-time Japanese #2 and #3, and 3rd-placer Sanetada Ono got into the all-time top 10 too with an 8:21.27 for 9th in the record books. That was also good enough to put Ono at #2 on the collegiate list.
Middle-distance results were at a high level across the board, by Japanese standards at least. After last year's national champ Kazuto Iizawa led the first heat in the men's 1500 m in a conservative 3:41.48, Heat 2 was unexpectedly the fastest qualifying heat ever at the National Championships. Ojiro Honda led a 7-way battle for the 6 qualifying spots with a 3:37.53 PB, 4 of the other 6 in the group also ran PBs, and the 2 who didn't, all-time #8 and #9 Keita Sato and Keisuke Morita, ran the 2nd-fastest times of their careers. Honda missed Sato's U20 NR by just 0.35, but he, 3rd-placer Takumi Nakagawa and 6th-placer Koki Terada all landed in the all-time collegiate top 5.
The men's 800 m heats saw all-time JPN #4 Hiroki Minamoto lead Heat 2 in 1:45.76, taking 0.06 off the Nationals MR set by NR holder Ko Ochiai 2 years ago. Ayano Shiomi ran the fastest-ever qualifying round time in the women's 800 m, just missing her PB with a 2:01.82 to win Heat 2. And one other MR went down in the women's 100 mH. After a fast first round, NR holder Mako Fukube was just 0.03 off her record with a 12.72 (-0.2) Nationals MR to win semi-final 1. 2nd in the same semi, Masumi Aoki ran 12.79, good for all-time JPN #4, with all-time #2 Hitomi Nakajima running a solid 12.77 to win SF2.
While the women's 5000 m was a straight final, men had to go through a qualifying round that pulled the top 6 from 3 heats to line up in Sunday's final. Heat 1 seemed solid, with Shunpei Yamaguchi running 13:34.82 to lead all 6 qualifiers under 13:37, but the other 2 heats both crushed that. It took 13:30.83 to survive Heat 2, won by Yoshihiro Kusuoka in a 13:26.92 PB, and 13:28.80 to get through Heat 3, where Yu Shibata won in 13:28.05. Along with Shibata, the other 2 men who broke the 3000 m NR at last month's Seiko Golden Grand Prix meet in Tokyo, Nagiya Mori and Ryuto Igawa, both advanced, setting up a great final Sunday.
110th National Track and Field Championships
Day One Highlights
Paloma Mizuho Stadium, Nagoya, 12 June
1. Yuma Yamamoto (Sekisui Kagaku) - 14:59.89 - PB
2. Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 15:00.93
3. Miu Saito (Panasonic) - 15:11.30
4. Rina Kusu (Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:14.01
5. Kana Mizumoto (Edion) - 15:14.25
6. Nanaka Izawa (Starts) - 15:14.29 - PB
7. Momoka Kawaguchi (Uniqlo) - 15:15.00 - PB
8. Risa Yamazaki (Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:15.24 - PB
9. Mikuni Yada (Edion) - 15:25.63
10. Mizuki Michishita (Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:27.91
1. Ryoma Aoki (Honda) - 8:18.63 - PB
2. Hibiki Obara (GMO) - 8:18.66 - PB
3. Sanetada Ono (Tokai Univ.) - 8:21.27 - PB
4. Yutaro Niinae (Aisan Kogyo) - 8:22.62
5. Tetsu Sasaki (Waseda Univ.) - 8:27.23
6. Soma Nagahara (Juntendo Univ.) - 8:29.46
7. Hayate Sato (Fujisan GX) - 8:31.32 - PB
8. Daichi Shibata (Chuo Univ.) - 8:32.98
9. Hinata Yuda (Hosei Univ.) - 8:37.97
10. Yasunari Kusu (Ami AC) - 8:38.12
1. Misaki Morota (At Home) - 4.25 m
2. Akari Osakaya (Ehime T&F) - 4.25 m
3. Mitsuki Kobayashi (Nittai Univ.) - 4.10 m
1. Yuki Hashioka (Fujitsu) - 7.89 m (+0.4)
2. Natsuki Yamakawa (Team SSP) - 7.88 m (-0.5)
3. Hibiki Tsuha (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 7.84 m (0.0)
1. Minato Miyao (Toyo Univ.) - 16.64 m (-1.7)
2. Atsuhiro Fukai (LitteCrew) - 16.20 m (+0.5)
3. Kosei Shirosaki (Global Arena) - 16.20 m (-0.4)
1. Maki Saito (Taihei Dengyo) - 55.56 m
2. Nanaka Kori (Niconiconori) - 53.58 m
3. Koko Konda (Tokyo Joshi Taiiku Univ.) - 51.80 m
1. Masateru Yugami (Toyota) - 60.66 m
2. Yuji Tsutsumi (Alsok) - 60.60 m
3. Shinichi Yukinaga (Shikoku Univ. AC) - 58.13 m
1. Haruka Kitaguchi (JAL) - 62.86 m
2. Sae Takemoto (Orico) - 61.74 m
3. Momone Ueda (Zenrin) - 61.03 m
Midori Mikase (Sumitomo Denko) - 11.33 (+0.6) - 1st, SF1
Abigail Fuuka Ido (Toho Ginko) - 11.37 (+0.5) - 1st, SF2
Manaka Miura (Ehime T&F) - 11.42 (+0.5) - 2nd, SF2
Aiha Yamagata (Fukuoka Univ.) - 11.46 (+0.5) - 3rd, SF2
Arisa Kimishima (DSK) - 11.46 (+0.6) - 2nd, SF2
Aiko Iki (Osaka Gas) - 11.48 (+0.5) - 4th, SF2
Akiha Kobari (Surugadai Univ.) - 11.50 (+0.6) - 3rd, SF1
Sakura Maeda (Fukuoka Univ.) - 11.52 (+0.6) - 4th, SF1
Naoki Nishioka (Tsukuba Univ.) - 10.09 (+0.7) - 1st, SF2
Fukuto Komuro (Chuo Univ.) - 10.12 (+0.4) - 1st, SF1
Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei) - 10.13 (+0.2) - 1st, SF3
Shuhei Tada (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.14 (+0.2) - 2nd, SF3
Ryunosuke Mizuno (Waseda Univ.) - 10.14 (+0.2) - 3rd, SF3
Shoma Yamamoto (Hiroshima Univ.) - 10.16 (+0.7) - 2nd, SF2
Sota Miwa (Koizumi) - 10.18 (+0.7) - 3rd, SF2
Yoshiki Kinashi (Eternal Hospitality) - 10.23 (+0.4) - 2nd, SF1
Nanako Matsumoto (Toho Ginko) - 52.42 - 1st, H1
Yuzuki Nakao (Sonoda Gakuen Univ.) - 53.26 - 2nd, H1
Yuzuki Kojima (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 53.64 - 1st, H3
Yuna Iwata (Suzuki) - 53.66 - 2nd, H3
Akari Saito (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 53.80 - 3rd, H3
Shizuho Moriyama (Ichigo) - 53.81 - 1st, H2
Harumi Kumagae (Aomori T&F Assoc.) - 53.90 - 3rd, H1
Aoi Teramoto (At Home) - 54.31 - 2nd H2
Ayano Shiomi (Iwatani Sangyo) - 2:01.82 - 1st, H2
Rin Kubo (Sekisui Kagaku) - 2:03.09 - 1st, H3
Salina Hillier (Warabeya) - 2:04.07 - 1st, H1
Suzuka Watanabe (Iwatani Sangyo) - 2:04.60 - 2nd, H1
Kurumi Sugure (Tsukuba Univ.) - 2:04.86 - 3rd, H1
Airi Ikezaki (Daiso) - 2:04.86 - 4th, H1
Ichigo Nomura (More) - 2:05.03 - 2nd, H3
Mahiro Hasegawa (Iwatani Sangyo) - 2:05.97 - 2nd, H2
Hiroki Minamoto (NTN) - 1:45.76 - MR - 1st, H2
Nanaki Manno (Kansai Univ.) - 1:45.94 - 2nd, H2
Sota Okamura (Kanoya Taiiku Univ.) - 1:46.10 - 3rd, H2
Yugo Shikata (4 Directions) - 1:46.60 - 4th, H2
Shuta Azuma (Fujisan GX) - 1:47.43 - 1st, H1
Mikuto Kaneko (Arcyell) - 1:47.57 - 2nd, H1
Sho Tanabe (Chuo Univ.) - 1:48.72 - 1st, H3
Kairu Yamaga (Ikuei Univ.) - 1:49.06 - 2nd, H3
Ojiro Honda (Waseda Univ.) - 3:37.53 - PB - 1st, H2
Keisuke Morita (Subaru) - 3:37.62 - 2nd, H2
Takumi Nakagawa (Juntendo Univ.) - 3:37.76 - PB - 3rd, H2
Tomoki Nakano (Toenec) - 3:37.92 - PB - 4th, H2
Takumi Shiobara (Fujisan GX) - 3:37.97 - PB - 5th, H2
Koki Terada (Chuo Univ.) - 3:38.02 - PB - 6th, H2
Kazuto Iizawa (Sumitomo Denko) - 3:41.48 - 1st, H1
Juda Hyodo (Honda) - 3:41.58 - 2nd, H1
Takayoshi Oba (Josai Univ.) - 3:41.65 - 3rd, H1
Ryo Higuchi (Univ. of Kansas) - 3:42.13 - 4th, H1
Ryoto Aoki (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 3:42.19 - 5th, H1
Kizuku Ushiroda (Juntendo Univ.) - 3:42.43 - 6th, H1
Yoshihiro Kusuoka (Teikyo Univ.) - 13:26.92 - PB - 1st, H2
Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) - 13:27.53 - 2nd, H2
Rui Suzuki (Waseda Univ.) - 13:27.80 - 3rd, H2
Rui Aoki (Sumitomo Denko) - 13:27.88 - 4th, H2
Yota Mashiko (Waseda Univ.) - 13:28.02 - 5th, H2
Yu Shibata (Josai Univ.) - 13:28.05 - 1st, H3
Yohei Ikeda (Kao) - 13:28.16 - 2nd, H3
Shota Nakano (Honda) - 13:28.39 - 3rd, H3
Ryuto Igawa (Asahi Kasei) - 13:28.42 - 4th, H3
Daichi Fujita (Chuo Univ.) - 13:28.68 - 5th, H3
Riki Koike (Soka Univ.) - 13:28.80 - 6th, H3
Yuichiro Nishikawa (Sumitomo Denko) - 13:30.83 - 6th, H2
Shunpei Yamaguchi (Waseda Univ.) - 13:34.82 - 1st, H1
Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko) - 13:35.38 - 2nd, H1
Nagiya Mori (Honda) - 13:35.48 - 3rd, H1
Tomoya Ogikubo (Hiramatsu Byoin) - 13:35.98 - 4th, H1
Yuto Imae (GMO) - 13:36.14 - 5th, H1
Kaisei Okada (Chuo Univ.) - 13:36.63 - 6th, H1
Mako Fukube (NKK) - 12.72 (-0.2) - MR - 1st, SF1
Hitomi Nakajima (Hasegawa) - 12.77 (+0.2) - 1st, SF2
Masumi Aoki (77 Ginko) - 12.79 (-0.2) - 2nd, SF1
Yumi Tanaka (Fujitsu) - 12.88 (-0.2) - 3rd, SF1
Yuki Omatsu (CDL) - 13.03 (+0.2) - 2nd, SF2
Shu Muraoka (NSD) - 13.05 (+0.2) - 3rd, SF2
Chisato Kiyoyama (Ichigo) - 13.17 (+0.2) - 4th, SF2
Mao Shimano (Watanabe Pipe) - 13.18 (-0.2) - 4th, SF1
© 2026 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Comments
In the Women's 100m I thought Midori Mikase was outstanding in the semi finals and has a good chance of getting a National Record if everything falls into place in the final.