japan running news

by Brett Larner

20-year-old Miyuki Uehara (Team Daiichi Seimei) became only the second Japanese woman ever to qualify for an Olympic 5000 m final, boldly fruntrunning her heat to make it through on the fifth day of athletics competition at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.  Just 6th at June's National Championships, her 15:21.40 PB was enough to put her on the Olympic team over three athletes ahead of her without the Olympic standard.  Pre-race her coach Sachiko Yamashita, the 1991 Tokyo World Championships marathon silver medalist and 1992 Barcelona Olympics marathon 4th-placer, told her simply, "Be aggressive."  Uehara took that to heart.

Rocketing out at sub-15 pace close to the Japanese national record while the rest of the field completely ignored her, she quickly had a lead of at least 50 m. It's been relatively common in recent years to see Japanese runners frontrun on the track at world-level championships but rarely so dramatically.  Leading past 3000 m without …

by Brett Larner

National record holder Daichi Sawano (Team Fujitsu) was the lone Japanese athlete in action in a final on Day Four of athletics competition at the Rio de Janeiro, waiting out heavy rain before getting started in the men's pole vault.  Sawano easily cleared 5.50 m on his first attempt but struggled at 5.65 m, seeming to clear it on his third attempt but brushing the bar just enough to be eliminated.  His 7th-place overall finish in the final checks only the second box in the JAAF's modest goal of one medal and five top eight placings in Rio, a goal that at this point looks tough to achieve despite widespread Japanese success in a variety of other sports.

National champion Keisuke Nozawa (Mizuno) blasted a 48.62 PB to win Heat 4 of the men's 400 m hurdles, frontrunning the entire race to make the semifinals.  Teammate Yuki Matsushita (Mizuno) was the first non-qualifier in 49.60.  In one of two men's 110 m hurdles heats run as heavy rain set in, national …