japan running news

  The Japanese men's 110 mH national record holder at 13.04 and a semifinalist in the Paris Olympics 110 mH, Shunsuke Izumiya (Sumitomo Denko) turned in the biggest performance at this year's National Corporate Track and Field Championships. Doing his annual shot at the long jump at Corporate Nationals, Izumiya beat his 2022 best of 8.00 m and last year's winning mark of 8.10 m with a new PB of 8.14 m (+0.7) on his first and only successful attempt. That was good enough to take the win over Hibiki Tsuha by 11 cm and moved Izumiya up to all-time Japanese #10 in the long jump. NR holder Shotaro Shiroyama (Zenrin) was 3rd with a first attempt jump of 7.81 m (+0.5). Other standout performances: Shoto Uno (Orico) got into the sub-10.1 club with a 10.09 (+1.4) win in the men's 100 m final. 400 m specialists Fuga Sato (Mizuno) and Kentaro Sato (Fujitsu) stepped down to the 200 m, beating Uno to go 1-2 in 20.67 (+0.4) and 20.79 with Uno 3rd in 20.90. Nanako Matsumoto (T...

Japan's National Track and Field Championships and U20 National Track and Field Championships, doubling as its trials for the Paris Olympics team, got rolling Thursday at Niigata's Denka Big Swan Stadium. Highlights below, complete results here . Finals Men's 3000 m SC Final One of the favorites, Seiya Sunada fell on the barrier coming into the home straight on the second lap and ultimately finished 2nd to last. Yutaro Niinae took over after a 2:52 first 1000 m and led the rest of the way, pushing the pace until by the bell it was just him, Chuo University 's 19-year-old Daichi Shibata and mile NR holder Ryoma Aoki . All three were still together in the last 100 m, but Aoki had the gear to win it in 8:24.21, his first time under 8:30 since last October. Shibata was next in 8:24.68, a PB by 18 seconds, and Niinae 3rd in 8:25.45, a 3-second PB. Already 27th of 36 in the Paris quota, Aoki is pretty much a lock to make the Paris Olympics along with NR holder Ryuji Miura...

Japan's Olympic trials, doubling as the National Championships and National U20 Championships , start tomorrow at Niigata's massive Denka Big Swan Stadium. In a lot of events it's more of a question of whether anyone is going to make the Paris team than who is going to fill the three spots, but it's still a National Championships and there's a lot of good competition ahead. Live results will be here . Breaking down the senior events on Thursday's schedule with top people making the starting lists: Finals Men's Hammer Throw Final  - 15:00 Defending national champ Shota Fukuda  is the only one close to the Paris quota of 32, currently at 39th. A win close to his 73.91 m season best would put him just 2 or 3 points out of the quota. Ryota Kashimura  and Tatsuto Nakagawa  have both thrown over 72 m recently and could take the national title away if Fukuda is off his best. Shota Fukuda (Sumitomo Denko) - 73.91 m SB / PB Ryota Kashimura (Yamada Holdings) - 72.92 m...

Entry lists are out for Japan's National Championships at the end of the month in Niigata. Top three there with the standard or inside their event quota is the primary way for people who haven't yet to score places on the Paris Olympics team, and it's notable that three people with the standard, Abdul Hakim Sani Brown in the men's 100 m, Ryuji Miura in the men's 3000 mSC, and Shunsuke Izumiya in the men's 400 mH, are giving Nationals a miss. One effect of their absence is that it improves the chances that other people are going to make the Paris quota on points, especially in the 100 m and steeple where Sani Brown and Miura are the only ones with the standard and likely to still be that way post-Nationals. Whether that's intentional only they can say, but it's interesting that one outcome of the World Athletics world rankings system is that in a way it encourages top talent to skip their National Championships to help out their teammates. But the mos...

  The National Corporate Track and Field Championships in Gifu were the main track action this weekend, but there were also two big time trial meets in the greater Tokyo area. At the Nittai University Time Trials meet in Yokohama Saturday, Charles Kamau Wanjiku (Musashino Gakuin Univ.) was right up there with the best in the corporate leagues, soloing a 27:29.56 to win the B-heat by over 40 seconds. Antipas Kibet (Komori Corp.) won what was technically the A-heat in 27:57.48, with the next three runners including Taisei Nakamura (Yakult) squeezing under 28 minutes, in Nakamura's case in 27:59.96. Erika Tanoura (Sekisui Kagaku) won the women's 5000 m A-heat in 15:47.07, but there wasn't much difference from the B-heat where Momoa Yamada (Tamagawa Univ.) won in 15:50.92. The women's 3000 m was low-key, with Harumi Okamoto (Yamada Holdings) taking the A-heat in 9:10.92 and the next four runners all getting under 9:12. The men's 1500 m saw one noteworthy perform...

Sumire Hata moved up a level globally with a 6.97 m +0.5 m/s Japanese national record to win the women's long jump gold medal on day 3 of the Bangkok Asian Athletics Championships. Already in first with a 6.74 m +1.7 m/s jump in the 4th round, Hata closed with the 6.97 m jump, the 4th-furthest in the world so far this year, to increase her margin over silver medalist Shaili Singh of India to 0.43 m. Bronze medalist Jiawei Zhong was another 8 cm back at 6.46 m. Another big gold came in the men's 100 m, where Hiroki Yanagita followed up on his 10.10 PB in the first round with a dominating 10.02 +0.0 m/s for gold, winning by 0.17 and moving up to all-time Japanese #7. National champion Ryuichiro Sakai was 6th in 10.26. With many of the main names in Japanese men's spring struggling this season as they hit mid and late career phases, Yanagita's jump up in performance couldn't have come at a better time. Still another was in the men's 110 mH. Shunya Takayama was...

As expected the senior men's 5000 m was the race of the day at the start of Japan's 107th National Track and Field Championships and 39th U20 National Championships . 10 mile WB holder Benard Koech (Kyudenko) held the pace steady at exactly 2:40/km through 3000 m, too much for NR holder Suguru Osako (GMO) who dropped out shortly after that. The pace slowed to 2:46 for the 4th km, prompting steeplechase Olympian Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) to launch a long surge, 2:33 for the last 1000 m and 60' for the last lap, that carried him to the win in 13:19.85. Indoor 5000 m NR holder Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko) and Kanta Shimizu (Subaru) closed in the final 200 m but were too far back, two-time national champ Endo taking 2nd in 13:20.84 and Shimizu 3rd in a PB 13:21.18. U20 NR holder Keita Sato (Komazawa Univ.) started conservatively and spent most of the race moving up through the field. Out of range when Endo and Shimizu went, Sato showed the influence of workouts he learned ...

Sunday is the 40th edition of Sendai's Morinomiyako Ekiden , the National University Women's Ekiden Championships . NTV will be broadcasting the race live starting at noon local time, with coverage also on @JRNLive . 26 teams are racing for the national title, the complete course covering 38.1 km in 6 legs. Last year Meijo University led start-to-finish en route to a fifth-straight win, taking 5 of the 6 individual stage titles with 3 of them in course record time. 2 of the stage winners have graduated, but in their place Meijo has a very strong class of first-years led by Nanaka Yonezawa , 8:59.57 for 3000 m and 15:31.33 for 5000 m. 4 others are under 9:15 for 3000 m or under 15:50 for 5000 m, making solid support for the 4 returning members from last year. A lot depends on 4th-year Narumi Kobayashi , who ran a 10000 m  collegiate record 31:22.34 last year but hasn't run well most of her senior year so far. 4th-year Yuma Yamamoto on the other hand is fresh off a 15:16....

Streaming of Day 2 of the 91st University Track and Field Championships in Kyoto will be on all day Saturday. Highlights include the men's and women's 100 m and 4x100 m relay finals, with three Toyo University  runners in the men's 100 m final, and the women's 3000 mSC where collegiate and meet record holder Reimi Yoshimura  (Daito Bunka Univ.) makes her final appearance before graduating next spring. © 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Both 3000 mSC were great, but the women's race was the unexpected highlight of day 3 of the National Track and Field Championships Saturday in Osaka. Tokyo Olympian Yuno Yamanaka (Ehime Ginko) took it out on NR and World Championships qualifying standard pace with a 3:10 first 1000 m despite steady rain, and while it wasn't a surprise to see collegiate record holder Reimi Yoshimura (Daito Bunka Univ.) go with her, relative unknowns Yuzu Nishide (Daihatsu) and Manami Nishiyama (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo). The next 1000 m was only 3:18, but none of the three could stay with Yamanaka. But even though she closed in 3:10 to win in a meet record 9:38.19, all three closed back on over the last lap. Nishide overcame at least two flubbed jumps to take 2nd in 9:38.95, Nishiyama 3rd in 9:39.28, and Yoshimura 4th in 9:39.86. The entire group moved up to all-time Japanese 2nd-5th with the NR just 5 seconds away, and even though they were short of the standard at least Yamanaka and possibl...

Japan's biggest collegiate meet wrapped up Sunday with some of the best races at the 101st Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships . Things started at 8:15 a.m. with the D2 men's half marathon , a start on the track at the 2020 Olympic stadium and run up to the nearby Kaigakan road loop, where the field ran 19 laps of 1 km before going back to finish on the stadium. Luka Musembi (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) took things out just under 3:00/km and more or less led through 15 km in 45:10 before Kenzo Ijichi (Koku Gakuin Univ.) dropped the fastest split in the race, 14:39 from 15 to 20 km, to open an 11-second lead over a chase pack including Musembi, sub-61 and sub-62 Komazawa University teammates Chikaro Yamano and Kyosuke Hanao , three runners from Aoyama Gakuin University , and his KGU teammate Genta Tsuru . Hanao tried to close it down over the last km, but Ijichi was too far away and took the win in 1:02:50. Hanao was 2nd in 1:02:56, with AGU's Ryo Nishikubo w...