japan running news

Takekawa
Hosei univ.
5m60
7lefts#boutakachannel#polevaultpic.twitter.com/WCuSQ6Qfmr — Boutaka Channel (@BoutakaChannel) May 26, 2018
A great D1 men's pole vault brought most of the entertainment value to the thid day of the 97th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships Saturday at Sagamihara Gion Stadium in the back corners of the Kanagawa badlands. Kosei Takekawa (Hosei Univ.) cleared 5.60 m to set a new Kanto Regionals meet record, beating Kanto Region record holder Masaki Ejima (Nihon Univ.) who could only clear 5.50 m this time out the gate.



The D1 men's 3000 mSC final was also solid, with Takekawa's teammate Ryoma Aoki (Hosei Univ.) running a PB 8:42.11 for the win over Tsubasa Komuro (Toyo Univ.), whose 8:43.62 was a school record. For comparison, at almost the same time the U.S.-based Yusuke Uchikoshi (Boise State Univ.) and Takeshi Okada (UC Berkeley) ran only 8:48.03 and 9:10.41 at the NCAA West Preliminary Round meet in Sacramento.
97th Kanto Region…

by Brett Larner

#関東インカレ
1部200
予選5組(桐生君) pic.twitter.com/T4NQK1hC74 — たけはら (@imoo47910) May 27, 2017
Following up on his 100 m title and anchor run for Toyo University's 4x100 m team, Rio Olympics men's 4x100 m silver medalist Yoshihide Kiryu rolled on through day three of his final Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, winning his 200 m heat in 20.79 +1.3 m/s. Where he easily dominated all three rounds of the 100 m, this time Kiryu had pressure. In Heat 3, second-year Jun Yamashita (Tsukuba Univ.) ran 20.71 -0.5 m/s to take the top spot heading into the semi-finals.

男子1部 棒高跳び
優勝🥇 来間弘樹(順大)

5m55 大会新記録🎉
おめでとう🎊#関東インカレpic.twitter.com/uUEpxeuuYf — はる (@haru__800) May 27, 2017
After a raft of meet records on the second day of Regionals, two more events saw new records on day three. In the D2 men's javelin throw, little-known Ryoma Nakaura (Ibaraki Univ.) threw a meet record 71.93 m to win by over six meters. The competition of the day came in the D1 men's po…

by Brett Larner

Toyo University fourth year Daisuke Matsunaga delivered the biggest result of the third day of competition at the 2016 Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, breaking the men's 10000 m national university record by two seconds to win in 38:16.76.  Meet records also came in the D1 women's hammer throw and D1 men's pole vault, Hitomi Katsuyama (Tsukuba Univ.) breaking her own record by nearly two meters with a throw of 62.61 m and Koki Kuruma (Juntendo Univ.) clearing 5.40 m to tie the existing Kanto Regionals record.

Kuruma's Juntendo teammate Kazuya Shiojiri returned from a 3rd-place finish as the top Japanese man in Thursday's D1 10000 m and the fastest time in the 3000 mSC heats on Friday to win the D1 3000 mSC final, just missing the 39-year-old meet record by 2 seconds to take first in 8:37.84.  Soyoka Segawa continued the Daito Bunka University domination of the women's steeple, claiming the title in 10:10.68.

The Kanto Regio…

by Brett Larner

Japan's contingent ran well at Saturday's World University Cross Country Championships in Cassino, Italy, scoring two individual and two team medals in a field made somewhat softer by the absence of South Africa, whose team management reportedly forgot to apply for visas, and the United States which elected not to send a team to compete internationally. 

In the women's 6.2 km, Moeno Shimizu (Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) and Maki Izumida (Rikkyo Univ.) were part of a tight four-way battle for the podium, both outlasting Jennifer Louise Nesbitt (Great Britain) but unable to top winner Sevilay Eytemis (Turkey).  Eytemis scored gold in 21:57, Shimizu taking silver three seconds back and Izumida bronze a stride behind.  With women's team scoring based on the first three of six finishers Japan took the gold thanks to Shimizu, Izumida and Nanako Kanno (Ritsumeikan Univ.), 8th overall in 22:27.  Nesbitt's 4th-place finish led Great Britain to the team silver, with hos…

by Brett Larner

Last year's runner up Daito Bunka University came back strong to take down defending champion Tokyo Nogyo University in course record time at Sunday's Nikko Irohazaka Women's Ekiden in Nikko, Tochigi.  The most famous ekiden stage in Japan is the Fifth Stage at the university men's Hakone Ekiden, a 23.2 km run up a mountain with roughly 875 km of climb followed by descent and flat in the last few km.  Nikko Irohazaka, the newest addition to the university women's calendar, takes almost identical dimensions and divides it into six stages, the toughest with 400 m of climb in 3.5 km.

Making its Nikko Irohazaka debut, Nittai University took an early lead with a First Stage win by Nanako Yasaku, who put Nittai 8 seconds ahead of Daito Bunka.  Tokyo Nogyo took over on the Second Stage with a new course record run by Moeno Shimizu, Daito Bunka 13 seconds back on total time at the start of the Third Stage.  DBU's Soyoka Segawa broke the course record on…

by Brett Larner
photos by @tetsujiman

Yoshihide Kiryu/Toyo wins men's 100m in 10.19 +0.5 at National Univ Championships. pic.twitter.com/c7RkDHNyna — Japan Running News (@JRNHeadlines) September 12, 2015
Fans and media were mostly plugged in for the first men's final of the second day of the Japanese National University Track and Field Championships Sept. 12 at Osaka's Yanmar Stadium Nagai, with sprint sensation Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.) returning from injuries that kept him out of June's National Championships and August's World Championships to win the 100 m final in 10.19.  Kiryu claimed to be at only 80% fitness but had no trouble putting away his two strongest competitors, Kazuma Oseto (Hosei Univ.) and Takuya Nagata (Hosei Univ.), who were well back in 10.29 and 10.33.  Hours later Kiryu was back to run second on Toyo's 4x100 m, where he turned in another strong run to put Toyo into the lead before they ultimately fell back to 6th.



Toyo also dominated …

by Brett Larner
videos by naoki620 and JRN



A day after becoming the first man in 78 years to win four-straight Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships 1500 m titles, Enock Omwamba (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) added another title to his collection, winning a third-straight 5000 m in 13:35.35.  Omwamba and 1500 m runner-up Patrick Wambui (Nihon Univ.) went out front from the start, initially with some company from Japanese athletes but soon on their own.  Wambui made it a good race, at one point going to the front and knocking Omwamba back to 5th, but in the last km he was no match as Omwamba kicked away to win by just over 2 seconds.  Hiroki Matsueda (Juntendo Univ.) was an unexpected 3rd in 13:52.08, just holding off 30 km national collegiate record holder Yuma Hattori (Toyo Univ.).



After winning the D2 10000 m Thursday night with a solid 59-second final lap, Hironori Tsuetaki (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) did it again in the D2 5000 m with a 2:32 last 1000 m that put away 2015 Nationa…