japan running news

by Brett Larner

Led by men'x 4x100 m relay silver medalist Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.), eight members of Japan's Rio de Janeiro Olympic team top the entry lists at this weekend's 85th National University Track and Field Championships in Kumagaya, Saitama.  Kiryu is entered in both the 100 m and 200 m. The men's 400 m features his Toyo University teammate Julian Walsh and Walsh's Rio 4x400 m partners Nobuya Kato (Waseda Univ.) and Takamasa Kitagawa (Juntendo Univ.).  Another Toyo Olympian, Daisuke Matsunaga, leads the men's 10000 m race walk, while Juntendo University's Kazuya Shiojiri, a last-minute add to the Rio team in the men's 3000 m steeplechase, is entered in the 5000 m and 10000 m along with the steeple.  Going for a triple of his own is Kohei Yamashita (Tsukuba Univ.) in the men's triple jump.  The only female collegiate Rio Olympian in athletics, Anju Takamizawa (Matsuyama Univ.) is set to add the 2016 national collegiate title to her res…

by Brett Larner

Empty-handed so far despite strong showings by the rest of the Japanese Olympic team, the eighth day of athletics at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics finally brought Japan two medals, one controversial, one beautiful.

In the men's 50 km race walk, Koichiro Morioka was out of the front-end action early, while Takayuki Tanii and Hirooki Arai were part of a nine-man chase group behind breakaway leader Yohann Diniz of France.  Tanii fell off the pace, but Arai stayed up front as the pack dwindled, then overtook Diniz.  In 3rd behind Beijing World Championships gold medalist Matej Toth (Slovakia) and London Olympics gold medalist Jared Tallent (Australia) in the final stages of the race, Arai was caught by Canada's Evan Dunfee.  With 1 km to go, Arai made a move to retake Dunfee.  As he passed he bumped Dunfee hard; Dunfee seemed to lose his balance, then a few seconds later appeared to cramp up.  Arai pulled away for bronze by 14 seconds, Dunfree coming through in a na…

by Brett Larner

Day three of competition at the IAAF World Junior Championships was a big one for Japan, with two individual medals and a near miss on a third.  In the men's 400 m Nobuya Kato and Kaisei Yui made history with their runs, the first time two Japanese athletes had qualified for a world-level final, and Kato took it one step further when he ran 46.17 for silver behind winner Machel Cedenio (Trinidad and Tobago).  Yui, who ran a PB 46.68 to make the final, was 7th in 47.08 between two American athletes. 

In the men's long jump, Shotaro Shiroyama (Japan) jumped 7.83 m to unexpectedly win bronze, with teammate Kodai Sakuma 5th in 7.71 m.  Chinese athletes Jianan Wang and Qing Lin went 1-2, Wang winning with a jump of 8.08 m.  In the women's 3000 m Nozomi Musembi Takamatsu, the daughter of Japanese and Kenyan parents, ran a 6-second PB of 9:02.85 but came up just over 2 more seconds short of the podium as she was beaten by American Mary Cain in 8:58.48 and Kenyans …