japan running news

Following up the pair of silvers and single bronze medal on the first two days of track and field competition at the 2019 Napoli Summer Universiade, women's javelin national champion Haruka Kitaguchi (Nihon Univ.) was the only Japanese athlete to win a medal on the third and fourth day of the international competition, throwing 60.15 m to take silver behind Lithuanian gold medalist Liveta Jasiunaite's winning 60.36 m throw.

A gold medalist in the men's 4x100 m at the 2017 Universiade, Jun Yamashita (Tsukuba Univ.) was 0.03 from a bronze in the men's 200 m this time around, running 20.58 (+0.5 m/s) behind Ireland's Marcus Lawler. Paulo Andre Camilo (Brazil) won gold in 20.28. Masaki Toyoda (Hosei Univ.) was also 4th in the men's 400 m hurdles, running 49.27. Alison Santos (Brazil) led all three medalists under 49 seconds with a 48.57 for gold.

The three other Japanese finalists over the third and fourth days all finish 6th through 8th in their events. Track and…

by Brett Larner



After building up through the prefectural and regional qualifying rounds, the high school track and field season hits its peak this weekend with the 69th National High School Track and Field Championships at Okayama's City Light Stadium.  Fresh back from Poland, the entry lists feature much of the Bydgoszcz World U20 Championships team including top-8 placers Naoki Kitadani (Kobe Shiritsu Kagaku Gijutsu H.S.) in the men's 400 m, Nozomi Tanaka (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) and Rika Kaseda (Narita H.S.) in the women's 3000 m and Masaki Ejima (Eda H.S.) in the men's pole vault.  A notable absence is sprint sensation Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Josai Prep H.S.), sidelined with injury earlier this season.

Watch live streaming of the National High School Track and Field Championships above.  Click here for alternate cameras.  Complete entry lists, the championships schedule and results are available in Japanese here.  Soka University Associate Professor Bruce Carrick ha…

by Brett Larner



The third day of the World U20 Championships was a good one for the Japanese contingent. Just behind PB runs from Americans Marcus Krah and Amere Lattin, Takumu Furuya ran an Asian junior record of 13.31 for bronze in the men's 110 m hurdles, Japan's first medal of the Championships.  Of the ten other athletes in action today, eight advanced through their heats and semi-finals.



Naoki Kitadani and Kazuki Matsukiyo lead the way in the men's 400 m semis, both running PBs to make the final.  Jun Yamashita also delivered a PB in the opening round heats of the men's 200 m, running 20.89 for 3rd in Heat 4 to advance along with Wataru Inuzuka, 4th in Heat 1.  Yamashita ran another PB of 20.67 in the semi-finals to make it to the final, but Inuzuka was cutoff after finishing only 6th in 21.40.

Along with Furuya the other men's hurdlers were also strong, both Tatsuhiro Yamamoto and Yoshiro Watanabe advancing in the 400 m hurdles with Watanabe winning his heat…

by Brett Larner



In a super-fast women's 3000 m that saw winner Beyenu Degefa (Ethiopia) break the World U20 Championships record in 8:41.76 and silver and bronze medalists Dalila Abdulkadir Gosa (Bahrain) and Konstanza Klosterhalfen (Germany) run national junior records, Japan's Nozomi Tanaka ran a PB of 9:01.16 for 8th, well out of the medals but ticking another box on the JAAF's target number of top eight finishes.  Wakana Kabasawa was next, 9th in 9:10.20.  The daughter of sub-2:30 amateur marathoner Chihiro Tanaka, Tanaka came in at #7 on the all-time Japanese junior list, only the second runner after 1500 m national record holder Yuriko Kobayashi to make the all-time lists for both 1500 m and 3000 m.  In the men's long jump final Yuki Hashioka came up short of a top eight placing, jumping 7.31 m for 10th.



The day's biggest success came from hurdler Takumu Furuya, who ran a PB 13.40 to win his 110 mH heat before returning to win again in the semi-finals in 13.…