japan running news

It's a busy weekend on the track across the country. In long distance action the main event is Sunday's 10000 m national championships, held this year a month and a half before the rest of the National Track and Field Championships in an effort to help people produce better performances to maximize their world rankings points. The 10000 m will be held in Osaka's Nagai Stadium just after the Golden Grand Prix Osaka meet, which maxes out this time around with the 3000 m steeplechase.

22 women are entered in the 10000 m including 6 of the 7 who have cleared the 31:50.00 Doha World Championships standard and the only one who has cleared the 31:25.00 Tokyo Olympics standard. That would be the currently world-ranked #3 Hitomi Niiya (Nike Tokyo TC), who lapped 2nd place the last time she ran Nationals back in 2013 en route to a still-standing championships record 31:06.67. #16-ranked Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post), jointly #22-ranked Kaori Morita (Panasonic) and Mizuki Matsuda (Daiha…

The National Championships 10000 m will be held six weeks earlier than the rest of the meet this year in a bid to help people produce better performances to increase their positions in the world rankings ahead of next year's Tokyo Olympics. The 10000 m will take place May 19 in Osaka as part of the Golden Grand Prix meet.

The women's race includes six of the seven Japanese women who have cleared the 2019 Doha World Championships standard of 31:50.00, the only absence being Harumi Okamoto (Mitsui Sumitomo Denko), 31:28.20 at December's Corporate Women's Time Trials meet. Of them, only #2-ranked Hitomi Niiya (Nike Tokyo TC) has cleared the more demanding 31:25.00 Tokyo Olympic standard with a 31:22.63 in her silver medal-winning run at last month's Asian Athletics Championships.

With no Japanese men under either the 27:40.00 Doha standard or the 27:28.00 Olympic standard the men's race includes four Japan-based Kenyans to try to pull them along to at least the D…

At its Dec. 17 board of directors meeting  the JAAF finalized its revised selection policy for track and field events at the 2019 Doha World Championships.

Athletes who have cleared the IAAF's newly released entry standards and win their event at the National Championships to be held in Fukuoka in late June will be named to the national team. Gold medalists at April's Doha Asian Championships who also win at the National Championships will likewise be named to the team. National Championships winners who do not have the standard will have until Sept. 15 to hit it in order to join the final team roster.

Up to three athletes can qualify per event. Selection of additional athletes beyond National Championships winners will be based on the following criteria:
The highest-ranked Japanese athlete in the Sept. 16 edition of the IAAF world rankings to have cleared the entry standard in their event.Doha Asian Championships gold medalists who have cleared the entry standard in their eve…

As regional corporate track meets wound themselves down, the weekend's biggest results came at the Golden Grand Prix meet in Osaka. A quick women's 3000 m saw 10 of the 11 starters go under 9 minutes, six in PB times. Japan-based Ethiopian Shuru Bulo (Toto) led the way in 8:47.24, with the Pre Classic-bound Rina Nabeshima (Japan Post) running 8:51.72 to land 4th both overall and on the Japanese all-time rankings. First-year Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu (Meijo Univ.) ran 8:58.63 for 8th overall, just missing the 1994-era national collegiate record by 0.31 seconds.

The men's 3000 m was also solid, with seven men breaking 8 minutes, six of them Japanese and five in PB times. Kenyan Evans Keitany (Toyota Boshoku) won in 7:54.05 with Hazuma Hattori (Toenec) just behind in a best of 7:54.73. Shota Onizuka (Tokai Univ.) broke into the all-time Japanese collegiate top ten, running 7:57.56 for 6th. Australian Ryan Gregson won the men's 1500 m in 3:37.72 over American Patrick Casey…

by Brett Larner

It's a busy weekend ahead both at home and abroad. The main road action happens overseas, with London Olympian and 2:07:48 marathoner Arata Fujiwara in Mongolia to run the Ulanbaatar Marathon where a victory will earn him a horse. A group of five Japanese men and women led by 1:01:37 runner Ken Yokote and 2017 National Corporate Half Marathon champion Ami Utsunomiya is in Sweden on a corporate league junket to the Göteborgsvarvet Half Marathon to gain valuable experience running and going to laundromats internationally.

Back home, many of their corporate league brethren and sistren will instead be lining up at one of four regional corporate league track championships. Up north in Akita, the East Japan Region meet features top-level Japan-based Africans Jonathan Ndiku, William Malel and Wesley Ledama, with Yuta Shitara, Masato Kikuchi and Azusa Sumi leading the Japanese crowd. The Kansai Region meet happens at the same time in Osaka, with the Chugoku Region meet, wh…

http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/kawasaki-seiko-golden-grand-prix

by Brett Larner

Organizers announced that 17,000 fans turned out on a spectacular spring day for the final track and field meet at Tokyo's 1964 Olympics National Stadium, Sunday's Golden Grand Prix Tokyo. Many were there to relive memories of Abebe and Tsuburaya, of Taniguchi and Yamashita's 1991 World Championships medals, and of Seko, Takahashi and Noguchi's wins at the old Tokyo International Marathon, but there's no question that the main draw was the meet-closing men's 100 m featuring Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.) up against the likes of Justin Gatlin (U.S.A.), Christophe Lemaitre (France) and Mike Rodgers (U.S.A.). Strong winds precluded fast times as multiple medalist Gatlin duly took 1st in 10.02 (-3.5) over Rodgers and Lemaitre. Kiryu was just 5th in 10.46, but fans seemed happy to see him in action regardless of the outcome.

Along the way they were treated to a great men's high jump that saw Moscow World Championships gold medalist Moscow Bohdan…