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Track Star Suzuki to Make Marathon Debut in August

A Rio Olympian in the women's 5000 m, Ayuko Suzuki (26, Japan Post) is planning to run the August 26 Hokkaido Marathon. Japan Post head coach Masahiko Takahashi made the announcement on June 25. It will the first marathon for the proven track talent Suzuki, whose training partner Hanami Sekine  debuted in 2:23:07 in Nagoya this March.

Suzuki, who finished 2nd in Friday's 10000 m at the National Track and Field Championships, is aiming to make the marathon team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. At the Hokkaido Marathon her goal is to qualify for the MGC Race Olympic marathon trials event to be held in Tokyo in September, 2019. To qualify, she must win in a sub-2:32:00 time or finish inside the top six Japanese women and under 2:30:00.

source article:
https://www.jiji.com/jc/article?k=2018062501112&g=spo
translated and edited by Brett Larner
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Yugami and Kanai Set National Records - Japanese National Championships Day Three Highlights

Masateru Yugami (Toyota) and Taio Kanai (Fukui Pref. Sports Assoc.) wrapped up the last day of the 2018 Japanese National Track and Field Championships in style, delivering national records in the men's discus throw and men's 110 m hurdles.

Coming into Nationals with a best of only 59.30 m, Yugami threw PBs on five-straight throws, breaking the national record set last year by rival Yuji Tsutsumi (Alsok) on his last three. By the time the dust settled he held a new record of 62.16 m, an improvement of almost a minute and a half over Tsutsumi's record. "I'm happy to get this," he said afterward, "but I know other athletes are coming up too and I hope that we can take it further together."

With a 0.7 m/s tailwind, the #4-ranked Kanai won the 110 mH final in 13.36, a PB by 0.17 and bettering both the year-old meet record and 2004-era national record. 3000 mSC winner Kazuya Shiojiri (Juntendo Univ.) came up short of the national record, but his 8:29.14 …
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Ishizawa, Seko and Yamagata the Stars of Japanese National Championships Day Two

The 100 m final got most of the attention on the second day of the 102nd Japanese National Track and Field Championships, but arguably the best race of the day came in the women's 3000 m steeplechase. 4 of the top 5 women ran PBs and broke 10 minutes, winner Yukari Ishizawa (Edion) coming in at all-time Japanese #5 in 9:53.22, runner-up Nana Sato (Starts) all-time JPN #9 in 9:56.95, and 5th-placer Manami Nishyama (Matsuyama Univ.) running a PB 10:04.70 to land all-time Japanese collegiate #9.

The women's 100 m final provided one of the bigger surprises of the day, with the relatively unheralded Nodoka Seko (Crane) outrunning defending national champ Kana Ichikawa (Mizuno) and national record holder Chisato Fukushima (Seiko) to win in 11.64 (+0.8 m/s). A tense men's 100 m final saw 2013 national champ Ryota Yamagata (Seiko) better national record holder Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei) and 2017 London World Championships 4x100m relay team members Aska Cambridge (Nike) and Sh…
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Marathoner Matsuda Dominates 10000 m - Japanese National Championships Day One Highlights

Returning from her stellar 2:22:44 marathon debut in Osaka in January, Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) delivered the highlight of the opening day of competition at the 102nd Japanese National Track and Field Championships in Yamaguchi. Starting with a conservative 3:20 for the first 1000 m the pace gradually picked up thanks in large part to National Corporate Half Marathon runner-up Yuka Hori (Panasonic). Anxious to avoid a repeat of last year when she was outkicked by Matsuda over the last lap, 2016 national champ Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post) launched a long surge from four and a half laps out, a move only Matsuda could follow. With one lap to go Suzuki had opened a 2 second lead, but it was nowhere near a margin of safety. Summoning up the same winning move as last year, Matsuda blew by Suzuki to win by 5 seconds in 31:52.42. Hori held on to 3rd in 32:05.52.

The day's other track final was the men's 10000 m. On a roll since his 2:06:54 breakthrough at the Tokyo Marathon in February…
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Two-Time 10000 m Winner Osako Backs Out of National Championships

On May 30 long-distance runner Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project) announced on his Twitter feed that he is withdrawing from a shot at a third-straight 10000 m national title at next month's Yamaguchi National Championships. His management company said that he is not injured and instead wants to focus on "preparing for what comes next."

At last December's Fukuoka International Marathon Osako, 27, ran 2:07:19, what was at the time the 5th-fastest time ever by a Japanese man, to finish 3rd overall. He won February's National Cross-Country Championships and ran the World Half Marathon Championships in March. Osako skipped a spring marathon in order to try to break the 10000 m national record earlier this month at the Payton Jordan Invitational, but he dropped out of that race near the 6000 m mark.

source article:
http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20180530/ath18053020220001-n1.html
translated and edited by Brett Larner
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Getting a Late Start at Age 25 - Minami Yamanouchi

Back in 2010 JRN spotted 17-year-old high school student Minami Yamanouchi at a local 14 km road race in northern Ibaraki, where she beat the high school boys' course record by more than four minutes. At the time we wrote, "If Yamanouchi keeps running post-high school and lands at the right team, university or pro, we may have been lucky to see the first appearance of a future great." Now 25 and coached by former half marathon national record holder Atsushi Sato at the Kyocera corporate team, in the last few weeks Yamanouchi has really come into her own.

Minami Yamanouchi (Kyocera) took the top Japanese spot at 4th overall in the 5000 m at the April 28 Oda Memorial Meet in Hiroshima, one of the top-level track meets in Japan. A former amateur runner, she only joined the corporate leagues last August. Seeing her progress in less than a year of serious training, her coach Atsushi Sato, the 6th placer in the 2009 World Championships marathon, called her "exceptional.&qu…
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Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. Stars Tanaka and Goto Go Own Route in Joining Club Team

Key players in Hyogo Prefecture's first National Women's Ekiden in 14 years in January, following their graduation from Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. at the end of this month Nozomi Tanaka and Yume Goto will join a club team at the start of the spring season. Both have enrolled at Doshisha University where they will study in the Sports Health Science Department but will run for the ND 28 Athlete Club based in Amagasaki.

Tanaka is the all-time #2 Japanese high school girl over 3000 m with a best of 8:54.27 and beat a field of Kenyan student runners to win last fall's National Sports Festival 3000 m. Goto won the Sixth Stage at the National Women's Ekiden and took 4th in 1500 m at the National Sports Festival.



Regarding their decision to join a club team, Tanaka and Goto commented, "Ccorporate leaguers and university runners seem like they're focused on ekidens, so we've chosen a way that'll give us more freedom to run track." Neither will join the Doshisha…
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National Championships Broadcast Generates 13.1% Viewership Ratings

According to measurements by Video Research Ltd., NHK's Saturday evening broadcast of the Japanese National Track and Field Championships generated average viewership ratings of 13.1%. With excitement surrounding the possibility of seeing Japan's first-ever sub-10 clocking in the men's 100 m final, Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) tied the meet record of 10.05 to win his first national title Saturday evening.

Source article: 
https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20170626-00000039-jij-spo
translated by Brett Larner
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Sani Brown and Ichikawa Do the Double on Day Three of Japanese National Championships

Mid-day rain meant a track too wet for fast times in most of the finals on the last day of the 101st Japanese National Track and Field Championships Sunday at Osaka's Yanmar Stadium Nagai, but first-time 100 m national champions Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) and Kana Ichikawa (Mizuno) didn't let that stop them from scoring the sprint double with 200 m national titles to wrap the day.

Having already downed 100 m and 200 m national record holder Chisato Fukushima (Sapporo T&F Assoc.) in the 100 m, Ichikawa was out in front throughout the 200 m, shy of the London standard in 23.63 (-0.2) but still winning by more than 0.10. Not her usual self, Fukushima was only 5th in 24.01.

In the men's race the general assumption seemed to be that Sani Brown would drop Japan's first sub-20, but at 20.32 (+0.3) he wasn't close, even if under the London standard. Kenji Fujimitsu (Zenrin) was next in 20.47, with Rio Olympics 4x100 m silver medalist Shota Iizuka of…
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20,000+ Fans Agree - Sani Brown the Star of Japanese National Championships Day Two

Over 20,000 fans packed Osaka's Yanmar Stadium Nagai Saturday to try to catch a piece of history on the second day of the 101st Japanese National Track and Field Championships. After a red-hot round of men's 100 m heats and sufficiently fiery semi finals led by 18-year old Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) and backed by Rio Olympics 4x100 m relay silver medal trio Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.), Ryota Yamagata (Seiko) and Aska Cambridge (Nike) plus 20-year-old newcomer Shuhei Tada (Kwansei Gakuin Univ.) there was an expectation in the air for Japan's first sub-10 clocking almost as heavy as the approaching storm front.

With conditions improving throughout the late afternoon and into the early evening ahead of the 8:38 p.m. start time for the 100 m final all signals looked go.  Then, in the last km of the women's 3000 m SC two events before the 100 m, a few drops of rain. A light drizzle during the men's 400 m final. Then, in the ten minutes between the 40…
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Sani Brown Brings the Heat on Day One of Japanese National Championships

2015 World Youth Championships 100 m and 200 m gold medalist Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) brought the heat to the first day of the 101st Japanese National Track and Field Championships in Osaka's Yanmar Stadium Nagai, running a PB 10.06 (+0.4) in the opening round of heats and 10.06 (+0.5) in the semifinals to lead the field into the final.

There's a major air of excitement around the men's 100 m in Japan, its 4x100 m silver medal in the Rio Olympics fueling hopes of seeing the country's first-ever sub-10 clocking. At the time they won that silver medal only two members of the team, Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.) and Ryota Yamagata (Seiko) had ever broken 10.10 with a legal wind, along with alternate Kei Takase (Fujitsu). Earlier this month another of the four, 200 m specialist Shota Iizuka (Mizuno), ran 10.08 (+1.9). Shortly after that a newcomer, 20-year-old Shuhei Tada (Kwansei Gakuin Univ.) jumped into the picture with a 10.08 (+1.9). The momentum w…
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Japanese National Track and Field Championships Preview

The 101st edition of Japan's National Track and Field Championships takes place Friday through Sunday at Osaka's Yanmar Stadium Nagai. It's a strange time in some ways. Despite the overall upward trend spurred on by the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the count of athletes who might make the London World Championships off their performances at Nationals is low. The marathon, walks, combined events and relays aside, based on current qualifying times only the men's 100 m, women's 5000 m and women's 10000 m could field full three-member squads, and not many events look set to join that list. The progress over the last few years in men's distance on the track seems to have stalled, with nobody qualified for London in the 5000 m and the only man qualified in the 10000 m already a scratch. Is it a just a hiccup or a sign of problems in the buildup to 2020?

Visit the JAAF's National Track and Field Championships website for entry and start lists, live results, photos an…
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List of Japanese Athletes Qualified for 2017 London World Championships

It's 50 days to go to the 2017 London World Championships and just over a week out from the 101st Japanese National Track and Field Championships in Osaka where the country's best will be trying to earn places on the London team. Athletes will have the chance to chase standards in the weeks after Nationals, but excluding the marathon, walks and combined events, all of which are held separately from the National Championships, the following is a list of Japanese athletes already holding valid qualifying marks for London.

Things are looking very thin right now, with only the men's 100 m, women's 5000 m and women's 10000 m currently capable of fielding complete contingents, although at least the men's 200 m, men's pole vault and conceivably the men's 10000 m could join that short list. With sixteen women currently holding the London standard the women's 10000 m looks to be the toughest to make even if marathon squad members Yuka Ando (Suzuki Hamamatsu…
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Fukushima Breaks 200 m National Record - 100th National Championships Day Three

by Brett Larner
videos c/o JAAF
click here for Day One results, video and report
click here for Day Two results, video and report



With over 16,000 fans in attendance Japan celebrated the end of its 100th National Track and Field Championships with a new national record in the second-to-last event of the day Sunday at Nagoya's Paloma Mizuho Stadium, sunshine and temperatures near 30 degrees following two days of rain.  Taking advantage of a strong but legal 1.8 m/s tailwind, national record holder Chisato Fukushima (Hokkaido Hi-Tech AC) shaved 0.01 off her 6-year-old 200 m national record with a 22.88 win, adding the 200 m to her schedule for August's Rio de Janeiro Olympics.  Two more records came from runner-up Ami Saito (Kurashiki Chuo H.S.), whose 23.46 broke both the national junior and high school records if short of the 23.20 Rio standard.



The men's 200 m, the final event of the championships, also came up fast with the same 1.8 m/s tailwind.  2010 World Junior Champion…
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