japan running news

Following up the Ritsumeikan University women's 4x100 m meet record in the qualifying heats on the first day of the 87th National University Track and Field Championships, Nittai University did Ritsumeikan one better in day two's final. Nittai came on strong on the third leg with a solid run from third year Mae Hirosawa, but it was first-year anchor Miku Yamada who really impressed, pulling away to open almost half a second on Ritsumeikan in the best first-year relay anchor performance since future Olympic silver medalist Shota Iizuka's 2010 Kanto Regionals run. Yamada crossed the line in 44.59 to take 0.23 off Ritsumeikan's day-old meet record and 0.21 off the 12-year-old national university record.



Just a week after missing out on a medal at the Jakarta Asian Games, Meg Hemphill (Chuo Univ.) rounded out her collegiate heptathlon career by tying the meet record of 5550 set last year by Jakarta bronze medalist Yuki Yamasaki. Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu (Meijo Univ.) cont…

Thursday saw the first day of the 87th National University Track and Field Championships get underway at Kanagawa's Todoroki Stadium. The most surprising result of the day came in the first heat of the women's 4x100 m relay qualifying round, where both Ritsumeikan University and Aoyama Gakuin University broke the meet record. Ritsumeikan was just 0.02 off the national collegiate record in 44.82 with AGU right behind in 44.89. No other team broke 45 seconds, promising a head-to-head race for the collegiate record and national title in tomorrow's final.

In the men's 4x100 m qualifying round national collegiate record holder Chuo University was the only team to break 39 seconds, marking itself as the heavy favorite in the final with a time of 38.90.



In early finals action, Rika Kaseda (Meijo Univ.) and Josphat Ledama Kisaisa (Obirin Univ.) won the women's and men's 10000 m, Kaseda in 33:29.20 and Kisaisa in 28:28.48. Mayu Nasu (Sonoda Gakuen Joshi Univ.) won the …

http://www.athleticsasia.org/index.php/k2-component/110-japan-leads-day-one-of-the-17th-asian-junior-athletics-championship-2016

by Brett Larner
videos by naoki620

detailed day-by-day National High School Championships coverage:
Day One ・ Day Two・ Day Three・ Day Four・ Day Five

Despite sometimes extreme conditions with temperatures in the mid-30s throughout the five days of the 2015 Japanese National High School Track and Field Championships at Wakayama's Kimiidera Field performances were at a high level in most events, with thirteen new records set including two junior national records and two high school national records.



By far the star of the show was Haruko Ishizuka (Higashi Osaka Prep Keiai H.S.), who showed outstanding range in everything from 100 m to 800 m.  Including heats and semifinals she ran a total of fourteen races in five different events in five days, sometimes with less than an hour between them, but still produced a 57.06 400 mH junior national record and high school national record, #4 among juniors in the world this year, a 53.30 National High School Championships record in the 400 m, a s…