japan running news

by Brett Larner

While most of the rest of the racing world kicks back for the holidays in the lull between seasons, Japan's distance runners from junior high to pro are hitting the peak of their year with the month-long championship ekiden season.  The biggest race of the weekend is the National High School Ekiden Championships, lovingly broadcast live nationwide and commercial-free for 4 and 1/2 hours this Sunday from Kyoto on NHK starting at 10:05 a.m.  JRN will cover both the girls' and boys' races live on @JRNLive.

The top 12-ranked teams at Sunday's National High School Girls Ekiden Championships.  Click to enlarge.


In its 26th running the girls' race covers 21.0975 km in five stages, with 47 teams representing each of Japan's prefectures.  Defending champion Toyokawa H.S. of Aichi returns ranked #1 with a 5-runner 3000 m average of 9:13 led by senior Azusa Sumi in 9:00.89.  But it's going to be a very closely-matched race, with 4 other teams averaging …

by Brett Larner
photo by Kazuyuki Sugimatsu
video by Ekiden News

After two meet records yesterday, the fourth day of this year's National High School Track and Field Championships saw the meet's first national record.  Rising star Meg Hemphill (Kyoto Bunkyo H.S.) built up a steady lead over the two days of the women's heptathlon, and with 4666 points and only the 800 m left she needed to run just 2:26.14 to break both the high school and junior national records.  Instead of settling for an easy record she went out full-effort, running 2:17.87 to total 5519 and breaking not just the meet record and the two national records but landing at all-time #8 in the Japanese record books.  A relative newcomer, she looks set to be one of the more interesting Japanese track and field athletes in the next few years.

Hemphill brought the performance of the day, but there were other quality results.  Winning the 400 m national title on the first day of the meet and coming back the next day …

by Brett Larner

Days after jumping a PB 7.71 m for 5th in the boys' long jump at Oregon's World Junior Championships, Kodai Sakuma (Hosei Prep Daini H.S.) was the star of day three of the 2014 National High School Track and Field Championships in Kofu, Yamanashi.  In the long jump, Sakuma jumped a meet record and new PB of 7.80 m for 1st.  Doubling back in the 4x100 m he helped Hosei Daini take the win there as well, and on the strength of these two wins the Hosei Daini boys advanced to first in the overall school standings.  Another meet record fell in the boys' shot put, where Ayumu Ishiyama (Hanazono H.S.) threw a record 17.40 m to win by almost 60 cm.

Mai Shimizu (Shiga Gakuen H.S.) had a big throw of 46.36 m to win the girls' discus by nearly one meter, while Soyo H.S. turned heads in the girls' 4x100 m with a winning time of 45.88.  Other winners included Ryosuke Kashi (Shikama Kogyo H.S.), who took the boys' 5000 m race walk in 21:05.94, boys' 400 mH …

by Brett Larner

Just over a month out from the 2014 National High School Track and Field Championships regional qualifying action has wrapped up, with most regions holding their qualifiers the June 20-23 weekend after an earlier round in other regions the weekend before.  Nozomi Musembi Takamatsu (Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S.) brought one of the best performances of the weekend with a 9:10.08 to win the Kinki region girls' 3000 m, but with Nao Yamamoto (Tokuha Gakuen Kikugawa H.S.) running 9:10.39 to win the Tokai region qualifier the national meet should be close. Along with earlier standout results like the 13:56.55 win by Silas Kingori (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) and 14:13.67 runner-up finish by Hiroki Miura (Tohoku H.S.) last weekend in the Tohoku region boys' 5000 m, this weekend's best performances included:

Haruko Ishizuka (Higashi Osaka Prep Keiai H.S.) running 2:08.47 to win the Kinki girls' 800 m.Naoto Ozawa (Kusatsu Higashi H.S.) winning the Kinki boys' 1500 m in 3:49…

by Brett Larner

The 28th Fukuoka International Cross Country Meet played host to this year's Asian Cross Country Championships, the international championship races held within Fukuoka's regular senior men's 10 km, senior women's 6 km, junior men's 8 km and junior women's 6 km races.  In the senior men's 10 km, Japan-based Kenyan Jeremiah Karemi (Team Toyota Kyushu), two-time winner of Fukuoka's junior race, ran tough against an all-African Bahraini squad, outkicking its Aweke Yimer by 9 seconds for the win in 28:43.  Karemi's continuing development over the last year is especially noteworthy given that the last time Toyota Kyushu head coach Koichi Morishita, the Barcelona Olympics marathon silver medalist, took on a Kenyan it was future Beijing Olympics gold medalist Samuel Wanjiru. 2nd overall, Yimer took the Asian Championships gold medal with teammates Isaac Korir and Alemu Bekele taking silver and gold.  2010 5000 m national champion Yuki Mats…