japan running news

Most of the weekend's focus was on the MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials in Tokyo, but at the same time the National University Track and Field Championships were going on to the southwest in Gifu. The highlights of the meet were a pair of junior national records, one in the men's triple jump by Riku Ito (Kindai Kogyo Univ.) who jumped 16.34 m (+0.6 m/s) for the win, and another in the women's hammer throw by Momoko Watanabe (Tsukuba Univ.), whose 60.49 m throw was good for 2nd behind winner Miharu Kodate (Ryutsu Keizai Univ.).

The women's triple jump also saw a meet record, with winner Kanna Kawai (Osaka Seikei Univ.) jumping 13.65 m (+0.3 m/s). The highest-level race of the meet was probably the men's 4x100 m relay, where Tsukuba University led the top three under 39 seconds in 38.73.



88th National University Track and Field ChampionshipsNagaragawa Field, Gifu, Sept. 12-15, 2019
complete results

Men

100 m Final-0.0 m/s
1. Akihiro Higashida (Tsukuba Univ.) - 10.…

Ten-time national champion Ritsumeikan University added an eleventh National University Women's Invitational Ekiden Championships title to its resume, winning the Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden title for the fifth-straight year since the National Championships' 2013 move to the Mt. Fuji course.

プライベートで観戦した富士山女子駅伝。
7区の3km地点では富士山をバックに走る選手の後ろ姿を撮ることができました。
頂上に向かって走っている感じがして良いなと思いました。 pic.twitter.com/oOMzD3cdxr — 馬場遼 (@bmbryo126) December 30, 2017
Running on a hilly course under perfect blue skies and the watchful eye of Mt. Fuji looming above, Ritsumeikan got off to a slow start as third-year Ena Kagayama was only 13th on the 4.1 km opening stage. Ritsumeikan's next two runners Naruha Sato and Ayano Tanaka picked up the slack with new course records on their stages to put Ritsumeikan up where it feels most comfortable in 1st.

On the race's longest stage, the 10.5 km Fifth Stage, the team's lead fell as close as 13 seconds over Daito Bunka University, one of the two teams…

https://www.independent.co.ug/ugandas-cheptegei-runs-2nd-fastest-15km-race/
Zevenheuvelenloop 15 kmNijmegen, Netherlands, 11/19/17
click here for complete results

Men
1. Joshua Cheptegei (Uganda) - 41:16
2. Amdework Walelegn (Ethiopia) - 42:40
3. Noah Kipkemboi (Kenya) - 42:43
4. Yenew Alamirew (Ethiopia) - 43:33
5. Mekonnen Gebremedhin (Ethiopia) - 43:35
6. Ryohei Sakaguchi (Japan/Tokai Univ.) - 43:36
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12. Tomoki Ota (Japan/Waseda Univ.) - 44:48
16. Junnosuke Matsuo (Japan/Tokai Univ.) - 45:30
33. Ryoji Tatezawa (Japan/Tokai Univ.) - 48:00

Women
1. Birke Debele (Ethiopia) - 48:52
2. Mercyline Chelangat (Uganda) - 48:54
3. Evaline Chirchir (Kenya) - 48:54
4. Sofia Assefa (Ethiopia) - 48:56
5. Rose Chelimo (Bahrain) - 49:08
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7. Rika Kaseda (Japan/Meijo Univ.) - 50:24
9. Rino Goshima (Japan/Chuo Univ.) - 52:13
12. Kanade Furuya (Japan/Matsuyama Univ.) - 53:46
14. Naruho Sato (Japan/Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 54:45
61. Yuki Munehisa (Japan/Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) - 1:01:36

3rd last year, Meijo University returned to the top with its first national title since 2005 at today's National University Women's Ekiden Championships in Sendai.

Missing its star pair Anju Takamizawa and Riho Takamizawa (no relation), defending champion Matsuyama University was never in the race, 25th of 26 teams on the 6.4 km First Stage and eventually working its way up to 13th. 6 seconds out of 1st, Meijo took over the lead on the 5.6 km Second Stage and held it almost the entire rest of the way.

With a record of ten wins and four 2nd-place finishes in the last 14 years, last year's runner-up Ritsumeikan University went into 1st on the 4.8 km Fourth Stage thanks to a stage best run by Ayano Tanaka, setting up a duel between course record holder Kotona Ota (Ritsumeikan Univ.) and #1-ranked first-year Rika Kaseda (Meijo Univ.) on the day's longest stage, the 9.2 km Fifth Stage. Kaseda caught Ota within the first 3 km, but while it looked like the younger Kaseda mig…