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 w...

by Brett Larner videos c/o JAAF click here for Day Two results, video and report  click here for Day Three results, video and report The 100th edition of the Japanese National Track and Field Championships kicked off Friday at Nagoya's Paloma Mizuho Stadium amid on and off rain, the chance to make the Rio de Janeiro Olympic team there for the top end of the field. The race of the day was the women's 10000 m, where Japan Post teammates Ayuko Suzuki and Hanami Sekine worked together to both break the JAAF's tough selection standards.  The only woman in the field to have already broken the JAAF's 31:23.17 standard, Suzuki pushed the pace just under JAAF standard territory from the start.  Sekine, with a 31:48.90 best, alternated the lead, the two of them keeping it skimming just under standard pace and taking over when the other slowed.  The rest of the field disappeared one by one, 31:37.32 runner Yuka Takashima , in her debut in the Shiseido team uniform...