japan running news

Four big meets with distance action happened across Japan over the 2nd half of April. Highlights from each of them: Hyogo Relay Carnival - Kobe, 18-19 April Hirokazu Sakai (Senko) set a 2.25 m MR in the men's high jump. Sae Takemoto (Orico) threw 59.68 m to set a new MR in the women's javelin throw. Distance events were pretty low-key, with Ryota Natori (Konica Minolta) winning the men's 10000 m in 28:49.74 and Yuzu Nishide (Daihatsu) the women's 5000 m in 15:44.03. National University Individual Championships - Hiratsuka, 24-26 April Miori Kida  (1st yr., Juntendo Univ.) debuted with 4:19.14 MR in the women's 1500 m, going 0.12 under the previous record set last year. Sarah Wanjiru (4th yr., Daito Bunka Univ.) kicked off her senior year by chopping 25 seconds off her own 10000 m MR to by over a minute in 31:23.69. Mao Kimura (1st yr., Meijo Univ.) had a great debut in 32:31.56 for 2nd, more than 70 sec up on 3rd place. Shunpei Yamaguchi (3rd yr., Waseda ...

Tuesday's Oda Memorial Meet in Hiroshima was the biggest action of the holiday, with what was probably the biggest result of the day coming in the men's 3000 mSC . With an aggressive middle 1000 m and a last kick for the win, Yutaro Niinae (Aisan Kogyo) solidified his position as Japan's 2nd-best steepler with a career 2nd-best 8:25.43 to beat teammate Philemon Kiplagat by just 0.44. Niinae will represent Japan at next month's Asian Championships in Gumi, South Korea. Other meet highlights: Hitomi Nakajima (Hasegawa) and Chisato Kiyoyama (Ichigo) had breakthrough runs in the women's 100 mH final , going 1-2 in all-time Japanese #5 and #6 times of 12.93 and 12.94 (+1.8). 9 of Japan's 10 all-time best have now run their times since 2021. Tatsuki Abe (Juntendo Univ.) took the men's 110 mH final in 13.36 (+1.9). Australian Tess Kisropp-Cole set a meet record 2:02.74 to win the women's 800 m , with Ellie Sanford 2nd in 2:03.05 over 3 seconds ahead of...

  The Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon aside, a quick roundup of results from this past weekend: At the Nittai University Time Trials , aka the Nittaidai Challenge Games, Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) led a great men's 10000 m A-heat in 27:20.05, with the top six men all going under 27:28. James Mutuku (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) was the only other collegiate runner among them at 3rd in 27:23.09, with 2:06 marathoner Hidekazu Hijikata (Asahi Kasei) the top Japanese finisher at 8th in 28:23.27. Mutuku's YGU teammate Brian Kipyegon won the 5000 m A-heat in 13:30.88, James Karuri (Aomori Yamada H.S.) next in 13:33.67 and Kaisei Okada (Chuo Univ.) 3rd in 13:48.44. Soya Katayama (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) had the fastest 1500 m with a 3:46.19 to win the A-heat. In the women's races at Nittai, Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) was the only one to clear 16 minutes in the 5000 m A-heat, running 15:27.12 for the win. Lucy Nduta (Aomori Yamada H.S.) was likewise the only one u...

Increasingly heavy rain throughout the day couldn't hold back four meet records at the 57th Mikio Oda Memorial Meet Saturday in Hiroshima, a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze label meet. On the field, NR holder Haruka Kitaguchi (JAL) set a new MR of 63.45 m on her 3rd attempt, then took that up to a winning 64.50 m on her 5th attempt. On the track, Rose Wangui of Sera H.S. won the U20 women's 3000 m by over 23 seconds in a MR 9:03.03, over 10 seconds under the old MR. Australian Georgia Winkcup took 5 seconds off the women's 3000 mSC MR, winning in 9:46.27 by almost 10 seconds over Manami Nishiyama (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo). The top 7 in the men's 1500 m all broke the old MR, with Nanami Arai (Honda) getting the win in 3:40.24 with the top 5 all under 3:41. In other races, quadruple U20 NR holder Keita Sato of 2023 Hakone Ekiden champ Komazawa University scored the first major win of his career on the track, holding back in the 1st half of the men's 500...

This weekend's main event on the Japanese calendar is Saturday's Oda Memorial Meet in Hiroshima , a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meet. Streaming starts at 10:30 a.m. local time, with the first main field final happening at 11:45 and the first one on the track at 14:15. Check the full meet schedule here . Entry lists are here . Track event previews: Women's 1500 m Final - 14:15 No Japanese women have cleared the Budapest World Championships standard of 4:03.50, but four are currently in the quota of 56. Three of them, Yume Goto (Uniqlo), Mizuki Michishita (Wacoal) and Saki Katagihara (Tsukuba Univ.) are entered, along with Tokyo Olympian Ran Urabe (Sekisui Kagaku) who's looking for enough points to break into the top 56. Goto is closest to the standard at 4:09.41, but realistically this race will be mostly about points. Men's 1500 m Final - 14:25 The four fastest men in the 1500 m, NR holder Kazuki Kawamura (Toenec), Nanami Arai (Honda), Keisuke Mor...

Tough conditions at the Oda Memorial Meet Friday, heavy rain in the first half of the meet and strong winds in the second, held back the times, but most of the favorites still rose to the top. 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura (Juntendo Univ.) ran as the top Japanese man throughout the 5000 m A-heat, shrugging off brief challenges from Tokyo Olympian Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu) and Takuma Sunaoka (Konica Minolta) in the last 1000 m to kick past Cosmas Mwangi (Chugoku Denryoku) for the win in 13:32.42. The other Tokyo Olympian in the race, Yuta Bando (Fujitsu) was a distant 10th in 13:47.35. Nganga Waweru (Chugoku Denryoku) won the B-heat in 13:57.60 over teammate Taira Omori , 2nd in 13:59.19. Agnes Mukari (Kyocera) took the win in the women's 5000 m A-heat, easily dropping Tabitha Njeri (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) and Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) over the last lap to win in 15:22.90 after being part of a Kenyan lead trio the entire way. Mukari, Njeri and eventual 4th-placer N...

One of Japan's major spring meets, Hiroshima's Oda Memorial Meet kicks off Friday at 9:00 a.m. A dozen members of the Tokyo Olympic team and international competition from Australia and Kenya are spread across 13 events, with some of the main races happening as follows, local time: 14:15 - Men's 110 mH final 14:30 - Women's 100 mH final 14:45 - Men's Triple Jump final 14:50 - Men's 100 m final 15:25 - Women's 3000 mSC final 15:40 - Men's 3000 mSC final 18:20 - Women's 5000 m final 18:40 - Men's 5000 m final If you catch one thing in the meet make it the men's 5000 m. Already qualified for this summer's Oregon World Championships 3000 mSC, NR holder Ryuji Miura (Juntendo Univ.) is mostly giving the steeple a miss this season to work on his speed. A few weeks back he missed the 1500 m NR by a tiny margin in his first serious attempt at it, and here he'll be giving the 5000 m a go. His fastest competition is another Juntendo-bred steep...

The 55th Oda Memorial Meet went off as scheduled Thursday in Hiroshima with off and on rain leaving a wet track for most of the day.  In the women's 5000 m,  Teresia Muthoni  (Daiso) set a meet record 15:06.76 for the win, with runner-up Naomi Muthoni  (Univ. Ent.) the only other runner under the Olympic standard at 15:08.07. Japan-based Kenyans took five of the top six positions. Kazuna Kanetomo  (Kyocera) won the B-heat in 15:55.24. Kenyans swept the top three spots in the men's 5000 m A-heat, with local high schooler Cosmas Mwangi  (Sera H.S.) taking 1st in 13:22.80. Keita Sato (Rakunan H.S.), who turned 17 in January, was 4th in 13:42.50, the 4th-best time ever by a Japanese high schooler and over 3 seconds under the previous U18 national record. The men's 3000 m also turned out high-level results, with Keisuke Morita (Komori Corp.) leading the top six under 8:00 in a meet record 7:53.01. Another meet record came in the women's 3000 m steeplechase, w...

Back from a few months in Australia and in her new home at the Shiseido corporate team, Tomoka Kimura became the third Japanese woman to clear the 15:22.00 standard for this year's Doha World Championships, running an early-season outdoor world-leading 15:20.26 to win Hiroshima's Oda Memorial Meet . Tucked behind Kenyans Grace Kimanzi (Starts) and Helen Ekarare (Toyota Jidoshokki) through 4000 m, Kimura split under 3:00 for the last 1000 m to take the win. In her corporate league debut Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) was right behind her, just missing the Doha standard with a PB 15:23.58 for 2nd. Ekarare, one of six Japan-based Kenyans to have already cleared the standard, was 3rd in 15:25.28. In the men's 5000 m Richard Kimunyan (Hitachi Butsuryu) took the top spot in 13:43.33 a near photo-finish with Bernard Koech (Kyudenko). Daiji Kawai (Toenec) was the top Japanese man at 3rd in 13:51.56, 0.04 off his season best. 53rd Oda Memorial Meet Edion Stadium, Hiros...

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 "exce...

Japan's outdoor season rolled on April 28 with the 52nd Oda Memorial Meet , one of the events used in selection for Japan's national team for this summer's Jakarta Asian Games. Rosemary Monica Wanjiru (Starts) topped the day's results with a 15:08.61 meet record in the Women's Grand Prix 5000 m, easily leaving senior teammate Grace Kimanzi and veteran Ann Karindi (Toyota Jidoshokki) behind to take the top spot. #織田記念 グランプリ 女子5000m 山ノ内みなみさん(京セラ)15:21.31 pic.twitter.com/TW3Muk8tbB — Tさんrunner (@Runner_2653) April 29, 2018 Dropping a massive PB for 4th, Minami Yamanouchi (Kyocera) was the first Japanese women in 15:21.31. Longtime readers might remember Yamanouchi as a 17-year-old high schooler from Fukushima casually breaking high school boys' records and running sub-3 marathons for fun. Now 24, she has landed at the Kyocera corporate team under the tutelage of former men's half marathon national record holder and fellow Fukushima native Ats...

by Brett Larner Kenyan Rosemary Wanjiru (Team Starts) bettered her own world leading marks to break the Oda Memorial Meet women's 5000 m meet record Saturday in Hiroshima.  With an early lead from Ethiopian Shuru Bulo (Team Toto), Wanjiru took over in the second half of the race to win in 15:11.48, two seconds under both the old meet record and her previous world leading mark from the Kanaguri Memorial Meet earlier this month.  Bulo also cleared the old meet record, 2nd in 15:12.13.   Tomoka Kimura (Team Universal Entertainment) was 3rd in 15:27.68, coming up short of the London World Championships qualifying standard.  Already the fifth-fastest Japanese high school ever, Shuri Ogasawara (Yamanashi Gakuin Prep H.S.) confirmed that position was a 15:31.46 to beat top university placer Natsuki Sekiya (Daito Bunka Univ.) by almost 10 seconds.  Sekiya led the qualifiers for the Japanese team for August's Taipei World University Games. In the men's 5000 m, ...

by Brett Larner Japan-based Kenyans Rosemary Wanjiru (Team Starts) and Paul Kamais (Team Chugoku Denryoku) scored tight wins to take the Grand Prix 5000 m titles at the 50th Oda Memorial Track and Field Meet at Hiroshima's Edion Stadium on Saturday.  Wanjiru, a graduate of Aomori Yamada H.S. , led start to finish in the women's race, taking it out at 15:20 pace and closing in 2:58 to beat teammate Grace Kimanzi by just over a second.  Yuka Ando (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC), already the fastest Japanese woman so far this year for 10000 m, delivered the fastest 5000 m, 15:37.21, to take the top Japanese spot in 5th. Kamais, a brand-new graduate of Hiroshima's local National High School Boys Ekiden course record-setter Sera H.S. , alternated the lead with two-time World Championships 10000 m bronze medalist Paul Tanui (Team Kyudenko) throughout the men's race before closing in 2:33 for the win.  Shuho Dairokuno (Team Asahi Kasei) was the top Japanese finisher in 13:31.5...

http://www.sankei.com/sports/news/150330/spo1503300043-n1.html translated by Brett Larner Having run a wind-assisted 9.87 in the men's 100 m at the Texas Relays track meet in the United States, Yoshihide Kiryu (1st yr, Toyo Univ.) arrived back in Japan at Narita International Airport on Mar. 30, saying, "Next time I'll do it officially."  At the airport Kiryu was surrounded by throngs of reporters and other people on the scene, laughing as he said, "Things were pretty normal in the States, so I'm surprised to see so much buzz now that I'm back in Japan." This season Kiryu has moved the position of his left and right feet in the starting blocks 10 cm further apart, leading to a smoother first step or two.  Of the race where he beat London Olympics 5th placer Ryan Bailey (U.S.A.) Kiryu said, "I'm feeling more familiar with what it's like overseas and picked up a little confidence that I'm not going to lose to foreign athletes....

by Brett Larner videos by okukon With the Tuesday national holiday making it something of a perforated long weekend it was a busy one on the Japanese track circuit with a national record and a handful of world-leading performances. Decathlon national record holder Keisuke Ushiro  (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) topped the list with a new national record at the decathlon National Championships on the 26th and 27th in Wakayama.  On track to break his old record by more than 100 points at the end of the first day, Ushiro continued strong the second day.  With a solid 1500 m announcers predicted 8300 could be in range, but with just a 4:45:53 Ushiro came in with a breakable new record of 8143 that put him 4th in the world so far this season and left him the potential for more. Shortly after Ushiro's record, relative unknown Bernard Kimani  (Kenya/Team Yakult) brought the first world-leading mark of the weekend with a 13:18.92 to win the Nittai University Time Trials 500...

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/news/20130429-OYT1T00340.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner video by okuon On day two of the Oda Memorial Meet, April 29 at Hiroshima's Edion Stadium, men's 100 m youth world record holder and Rakunan High School senior Yoshihide Kiryu of Kyoto ran a world-leading 10.01 with a legal wind of + 0.9 m/s in the heats of the men's 100 m, the second-fastest time ever by a Japanese man, tying the world junior record, and setting a new high school national record.  The Japanese national record of 10.00 was set by Koji Ito in 1998. Update: Kiryu won the final in 10.03 with a +2.7 m/s wind. Ryota Yamagata (Keio Univ.) took 2nd in 10.04.   Click here for complete results .

2012 Oda Memorial Track & Field Meet Big Arch Stadium, Hiroshima, Apr. 28-29, 2012 click here for complete results Women's Grand Prix 5000 m 1. Sally Chepyego (Kenya/Team Kyudenko) - 15:19.27 2. Beatrice Wainaina Murugi (Kenya/Team Toyota Jidoshokki) - 15:38.71 3. Toshika Tamura (Matsuyama Univ.) - 15:49.11 4. Ayame Takagi (Meijo Univ.) - 15:54.80 5. Yoko Aizu (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 15:57.38 6. Azusa Kurusu (Juntendo Univ.) - 16:07.19 7. Yuka Ando (Team Mizuno) - 16:10.19 8. Sayuri Sendo (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) - 16:10.85 9. Michi Numata (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) - 16:18.85 10. Mika Tanimizu (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 16:22.46 Men's Grand Prix 5000 m 1. Charles Ndirangu (Kenya/Team JFE Steel) - 13:36.29 2. Jeremiah Karemi (Kenya/Toyokawa H.S.) - 13:40.64 3. Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta) - 13:42.27 4. Ryo Matsumoto (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 13:46.02 5. Yasuhito Ikeda (Team NTT Nishi Nihon) - 13:46.58 6. Yasuhiro Tago (Team Chugoku Denryoku)...

by Brett Larner As track season rolled on with the Oda Memorial Meet in Hiroshima and the Nobeoka Spring Time Trials Meet in Nobeoka on April 29, the biggest news came in the Oda women's 5000 m. Kenyan ace Sally Chepyego (Team Kyudenko), the 2001 World Junior Championships gold medalist over 3000 m, set her third PB of the month with a new clocking of 15:13.09, a meet record. Just behind her and also under the hold meet record, Hitomi Niiya , the 2007 Tokyo Marathon winner at age 18, came in with a 6-second PB of 15:17.84, 0.02 seconds faster than national record holder Kayoko Fukushi's best time of 2010 and the leading time by a Japanese woman thus far in the build-up to August's World Championships. What made Niiya's run big news was that she appeared running for Chiba Prefecture rather than for her sponsor since graduating from high school, 2008 national champion Team Toyota Jidoshokki. Late last month Toyota Jidoshokki announced that it was leaving its base in C...

by Brett Larner Entry lists are up for the 2011 Oda Memorial Track and Field Meet on Apr. 29 in Hiroshima, one of the big meets on the spring Japanese calendar. This year's meet features an extra round of distance events with separate 5000 m qualifier heats for the World University Games 5000 m teams alongside the regular open 5000 m heats. The university men's 5000 m may be the most exciting race of the day, with 2011 Hakone Ekiden champion Waseda University fielding big guns Shota Hiraga , Suguru Osako , Yuki Yagi and Yo Yazawa and rival Meiji University its ace Tetsuya Yoroizaka along with star first-year recruits Yuki Arimura and Genki Yagisawa . #1-ranked first-year Kazuto Nishiike will be debuting for Hosei University, while 2010 Kanto Regional 5000 m champion Taku Fujimoto (Kokushikan Univ.) will tune up to defend his title at May's Kanto Regionals. Like Waseda, Ritsumeikan University will be putting all its best people into the university women's 5000 m...

http://www.iuau.jp/ev2011/11univer/26univ110322.pdf translated by Brett Larner Due to the major earthquake disaster to strike northeastern Japan this year, the selection races for the 2011 World University Games men's and women's half marathon national teams were cancelled*. The following is an amendment to the information for selection published on the Inter-University Athletic Union of Japan website on Jan. 21, 2011 specifying the new selection criteria. The IUAU will consider the following in selection the World University Games team: 1. Those who have already broken the time standards established by the IUAU. 2. Apart from the men's and women's 5000 m and 10000 m, there are no specific selection races. Athletes' performances will be evaluated based on their times and marks. Athletes in the 5000 m and 10000 m must run in the meets specified below. 3. For the half marathon, the top two men and women in the 10000 m at the selection meet specified below will be ...