japan running news

by Brett Larner

Following up on Sunday's double silver medal haul, girls' 3000 m favorite Nozomi Musembi Takamatsu and 10000 m race walk entrant Minoru Onogawa delivered PB performances to bring Japan a pair of gold medals on the fifth day of athletics competition at the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympics.

#1-seeded Takamatsu, 4th at the Eugene World Junior Championships in a then-PB 9:02.85, showed the wisdom of her conservative opener by outclassing the crowd of Africans who PBd in the qualifying round.  Sitting on #2 seed Alina Reh (Germany) through 2000 m, Takamatsu dropped a 2:55 final 1000 m to take over a second off her best and score gold in 9:01.58, almost four seconds better than Reh's silver medal-winning time.  Berhan Demiesa Asgedom (Ethiopia), who PBd in the qualifying round, ran another PB of 9:06.10 to pick up the bronze medal.

In the boys' 10000 m race walk, Onogawa likewise sat on Noel Ali Chama Almazan (Mexico), twice taking the lead before breaking away fo…

by Brett Larner

The last two days of qualification rounds at the 2014 Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China saw three Japanese athletes advance to the medal-earning A finals in their events.  2014 National High School Champion Kenta Oshima led the way in the boys' 100 m, winning his heat in 10.62 (-0.5).  Jun Yamashita followed suit in the boys' 200 m, running a PB of 21.11 (-0.4) for 2nd in his heat to make the medal round.  Tomomi Kawamura missed making it a 100% success rate for Japan's sprinters, her 25.10 in the girls' 200 m only good for 4th in her heat and a place out of the medals in the B final.  In the girls' javelin, Nagisa Mori, only 5th at the Naitonal High School Track and Field Championships earlier this month, threw a PB of 50.72 for 5th in the qualification round and making the A final.

The finals get underway Saturday, with five Japanese athletes competing for medals.  Oshima returns for the boys' 100 m final.  The girls' 800 m features 2014 Na…