japan running news

  With three days of athletics competition left at the 2024 Paris Paralympics Japan is well onto the medal table with four silvers and two bronze medals, but it has yet to score gold. Kenya Karasawa took silver in the T11 men's 5000 m on the first day of competition, running an Asian record 14:51.48 to finish between Brazilians Julio Cesar Agripino dos Santos , whose 14:48.85 world record earned him gold, and Yeltsin Jacques , bronze in 14:52.61. Japan's Shinya Wada was 4thin 15:16.41. Tomoki Sato and Tomoya Ito followed Karasawa in the evening session with silver and bronze in the T52 men's 400 m. Belgian Maxime Carabin won gold in 55.10, Sato close behind in 56.26 for silver and Ito an easy bronze in 1:01.08. It took another two days for Japan's next medal to come, this one from Shuta Kawakami in the T13 men's 100 m. Gold and silver medalists Skander Djamal Athmani of Algeria and Salum Ageze Kashafali of Norway were far ahead in 10.42 (-0.1) and 10.47, b...

The Chuo Hatsujo corporate team has announced on its social media that Kengo Yajima is leaving its team. Born in 1996, Yajima is 27 years old. At Chiba's Shiritsu Funabashi H.S. he made the National High School Championships 5000 m and ran the Third Stage at the National High School Ekiden, contributing to Funabashi's 6th place finish. At Hosei University he ran both the Izumo Ekiden and Hakone Ekiden, anchoring Hosei at Hakone his 3rd year to bring them in for 6th overall. Joining Chuo Hatsujo in 2019, he ran 5000 m and 10000 m PBs of 14:15.09 and 29:12.15. He ran the New Year Ekiden national championships twice, placing 29th on the Fifth Stage in 2020 and 27th on the Seventh Stage in 2021. Most notably, he ran as a guide runner for blind corporate league athlete Shinya Wada , helping Wada break the marathon national record and medal on the track in the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics. "The last four years on the team have been a great and valuable experience," Yajima sa...

With five 180˚ turnaround points and serious hills in its last 12 km the Osaka Marathon course isn't the fastest around, but that didn't hold back record-breaking runs in both the women's and men's races. Great conditions, 5˚~7˚C, light clouds and very light winds definitely helped. The women's race went steadily on 2:22 pace, an early group of six shaking down to just four, Japan's Momoko Watanabe (Tenmaya), favorite Vivian Kiplagat (Kenya) and Ethiopian duo Helen Bekele Tola and Beyenu Degefa , by 30 km with Australian a few seconds behind. Bekele made the winning break, pulling away to win in a course record 2:22:16. Watanabe, who came into the race with a best of only 2:30:42 PB, led Degefa in the home straight but lost out in the last kick. Degefa was 2nd in 2:23:07 and Watanabe 2:23:08 for 3rd, clearing the 2:24:00 auto-qualifying standard for MGC Race Olympic marathon trials qualification. Only getting faster with age, the 43-year-old Weightman ran K...

Sapporo's Hokkaido Marathon is always a key developmental race on the Japanese calendar, giving top-level people experience training for and running a summer marathon, and in some recent years serving as a route to the MGC Race, Japan's Olympic marathon trials. That was the case in the race's return this year after cancelations in 2020 and 2021, with four men and one woman making the cut for the the 2024 Olympics MGC in September next year. The top 3 Japanese men had to clear 2:14 and 4th-6th needed 2:12 or better to make it. Pacers took a lead group of almost 50 through halfway on a steady pace around 2:10:30 in good conditions by summertime Sapporo standards, cool and thinly cloudy. Just past the half mark, debuting college student Luka Musembi (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) took off, taking his projected finish down to mid-2:09 and gapping the rest of the field. Dominic Nyairo (NTT Nishi Nihon) was the next to make a move, closing to within 10 seconds of Musembi but unable to ...

Tokyo Paralympics women's T12 marathon gold medalist and world record holder Misato Michishita (Mitsui Sumitomo) broke her own Asian area record to win the 5000 m on the first day of this weekend's National Para Track and Field Championships , just down the road in Kobe from the National Championships and U20 National Championships in Osaka. Running 18:31.72 with help from guide runner Megumi Kawaguchi , Michishita took over 17 seconds off her old record and over a minute off her own meet record to win by more than 2 minutes. T11 class Asian record holder Natsumi Inouchi (Mizuho FG) also took over a minute off the 5000 m meet record in her division, winning in 21:02.24. Wheelchair athlete Tsubasa Kina (Ryukyu Sports) won the T53/54 class in 12:22.22. The next day she was back in the 1500 m, where she was 2nd by 0.26 sec to NR holder Wakako Tsuchida (Willraise) 3:32.38 to 3:32.64. The meet record also went in the T12 men's 5000 m, with Asian record holder Tadashi Horiko...

A few years back the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon reworked its course to try to minimize the headwinds for which it's famous. In its 70th running today that paid off more than ever before, with 25~30 kph winds from the northwest keeping things controlled in the first 10 km and then giving enough of a boost to the pace from there to 35 km to help put the top two under the course record of 2:08:01. Straight into the wind over the first 10 km the race went out reasonably, 2:08:16 pace through 5 km and 2:08:37 pace through 10 km. But after rounding the 10 km turnaround and picking up the tailwind things got faster, a sub-15 split over the next 5 km taking the projected finish time to mid-2:07 and going down as far as 2:07:12 before the last pacers stepped off at 30 km. At that point there were still over a dozen people left in the lead group, most of them debuting or doing a first serious marathon and only a few experienced athletes like #1-ranked Shuho Dairokuno (Asahi Kasei) and H...

After coming up empty-handed last month in the Sapporo Olympic marathons, Japan scored three marathon medals on the streets of Tokyo proper at today's final day of the Tokyo Paralympic Games . The T54 men's wheelchair marathon was the first race off the line, followed ten minutes later by the T54 women's wheelchair marathon and another ten minutes later by the men's and women's T12/T46 marathons. As cold rain started to pour down just as the race began, Swiss favorite Marcel Hug  went head-to-heat with surprise challenger Yong Zhang  of China in the T54 men's race. The pair steadily built a lead over the rest of the field until Hug, showing frustration at Zhang's refusal to lead, broke away on the series of hills just after 40 km to take gold in 1:24:02 to Zhang's 1:24:22. American Daniel Romanchuk  took the top spot in the chase pack, beating Canada's Brent Lakatos , who had trouble on a corner and lost ground early in the race, by 13 seconds for br...

Rain ahead of an approaching cold front brought a different dynamic to the fifth day of track and field competition at the Tokyo Paralympic Games .  In the T11 men's 1500 m final, Brazil's Yeltsin Jacques  set a world record 3:57.60 to add the gold to his 5000 m win. Japan's Shinya Wada  moved up from the bronze medal position in the 5000 m to take silver in 4:05.27, with 5000 m silver medalist Kenya Karasawa  bumped down to 4th by Russian Fyodor Rudakov , 4:05.55 to 4:08.84. In the T36 men's 400 m final, Takeru Matsumoto  was 7th in 59.15. Aimi Toyama  was also 7th in the T20 women's 400 m, building on her qualifying round performance with a time of 59.90.  Tomoki Suzuki  was 9th in the T54 men's 1500 m in 2:53.60, less than 3 seconds out of the medals in a tight pack race.  © 2021 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Track and field competition at the Tokyo Paralympics started Friday at the main Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. The biggest news for Japan was in the T52 men's 400 m, where Tomoki Sato  pulled off a last-second reversal to take gold over American Raymond Martin  55.39 to 55.59. Veteran Hirokazu Ueyonabaru made it a double medal for Japan, taking bronze in 59.95. Another big result for the home team came in the T11 men's 5000 m, where Kenya Karasawa  and Shinya Wada  took silver and bronze in 15:18.12 and 15:21.03. Karasawa made a long push from 500 m for the win but was caught with 150 m to go by Brazil's Yeltsin Jacques , who pushed on to take gold in 15:13.62.  Kakeru Ishida  placed 5th in the T47 men's 100 m final in 11.05. In the T11 women's long jump final, Chiaki Takada  also took 5th with a jump of 4.74 mm (+1.7) on her first attempt.  Track and field action at the Tokyo Paralympics continues through Sept. 5. © 2021 Brett Larner, all righ...

Japan will field a team of 20 women and 26 men for track and field competition at the Tokyo Paralympics, spanning most of the Paralympics' duration with a daily schedule from Aug. 27 to Sept. 5.  The complete schedule can be found here . Many of Japan's medal chances come in the marathon, including women's T12 world record holder Misato Michishita  and veteran Wakako Tsuchiya  in the T54 class, and Shinya Wada  in the men's T11 class and Tsutomu Nagata  in the men's T46 class. A breakdown of who's who on the Japanese team: Women 100 m Kaede Maegawa - T63 Momoka Muraoka - T54 Mana Sasaki - T13 Uran Sawada - T12 Chiaki Takada - T11 Saki Takakuwa - T64 Yuka Takamatsu - T38 200 m Sae Tsuji - T47 400 m Mana Sasaki - T13 Yuka Takamatsu - T38 Ayumi Takemura - T38 Aimi Toyama - T20 Sae Tsuji - T47 1500 m Anju Furuya - T20 Sayaka Makita - T20 Moeko Yamamoto - T20 Marathon Yumiko Fujii - T12 Tsubasa Kina - T54 Misato Michishita - T12 Mihoko Nishijima - T12 Wakako Ts...

World Para Athletics Championships Day Two Highlights London, England, 7/15/17 click here for complete results Men's 100 m T47 Final (+0.1 m/s) 1. Petrucio Ferreira dos Santos (Brazil) - 10.53 - WR 2. Yohansson Nascimento (Brazil) - 10.80 3. Michal Derus (Poland) - 10.91 ----- 8. Tomoki Tagawa (Japan) - 11.54 Women's 200 m T38 Final (+0.5 m/s) 1. Sophie Hahn (Great Britain) - 26.11 - WR 2. Lindy Ave (Germany) - 27.02 - PB 3. Kadeena Cox (Great Britain) - 27.15 - PB ----- 6. Yuka Takamatsu (Japan) - 29.56 - PB Women's 200 m T47 Final (+0.6 m/s) 1.Deja Young (U.S.A.) - 25.10 2. Anrune Liebenberg (South Africa) - 25.53 - AR 3. Lu Li (China) - 25.71 - PB ----- 6. Sae Tsuji (Japan) - 26.84 - PB Women's 200 m T53 Final (+0.5 m/s) 1. Samantha Kinghorn (Great Britain) - 28.61 - WR 2. Angela Ballard (Australia) - 29.09 3. Hamide Kurt (Turkey) - 30.02 - PB ----- 8. Keiko Konishi (Japan) - 33.97 Men's 5000 m T11 Final 1. Samwel Kimani (...

http://www.sankei.com/smp/west/news/170126/wst1701260031-s1.html translated and edited by Brett Larner 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics marathoner and 2012 London Paralympics bronze medalist Shinya Wada , 39, ran in the Jan. 29 Osaka Half Marathon that was held at the same time as the Osaka International Women's Marathon.  With the Tokyo Olympics coming onto the horizon just three years distant his goal was to take his 1:14:29 half marathon best down to the 1:10 level. At December's Fukuoka International Marathon Wada ran 2:32:11, breaking his own T11 category (fully blind) Japanese national record by 1:35.  Wada also holds the T11 national records on the track for 800 m, 1500 m, 5000 m and 10000 m.  At the London Paralympics he won bronze in the 5000 m. In Rio he finished in the top eight in the 1500 m, the 5000 m, and, in the T12 category (use of a guide runner optional), the marathon.  Despite such success, Wada feels pressure.  "Athletes from other co...

by Brett Larner photos by Ekiden News , Reiko.K and STITCHrunner click here for more photos by Ekiden News For the third year in a row, the staff of the Ekiden News website brought the experience of the elite time trial meet to the average runner, putting on the Otona no Time Trial meet, Time Trials for Grown-Ups, at Kinuta Park Field in Tokyo's western-central suburb of Setagaya on July 26.  Despite extreme heat over 500 amateur runners from back-of-the-packers to sub-15 seekers, kids to adults, took part in 1000 m, 1500 m and finely-graded 5000 m races, mirroring the experience of elite time trial meets like the Nittai University Time Trials and Golden Games in Nobeoka.  London Paralympics 5000 m bronze medalist Shinya Wada Each heat featured pacing from top-tier Japanese elite athletes, including sub-62 half marathoners Takuya Fukatsu , Tomoya Onishi and Yuki Yagi from the Asahi Kasei corporate team, London Paralympics men's 5000 m bronze medalist Shin...

by Brett Larner Following Asian Records by Japanese athletes in both the men's 5000 m T-11 and T-12 divisions, Masahiro Okamura  became the third Japanese man at the London Paralympics to set a new Asian Record, running 2:28:51 for 4th in the men's marathon T-12.  All three of the medalists ahead of him likewise set area records, with winner Laso Suarez  (Spain) setting a world record of 2:24:50.  5000 m Asian Record holder Shinya Wada  took a distant 5th in 2:40:08, with 2004 Athens Paralympics marathon gold medalist Yuichi Takahashi  7th in 2:42:09. 2012 London Paralympics Men's Marathon T-12 Sept. 9, 2012 click here for complete results 1. Laso Suarez (Spain) - 2:24:50 -  WR 2. Moreno Serna (Colombia) - 2:26:39 - AR 3. Abderrahim Zhiou (Tunisia) - 2:26:56 - AR 4. Masahiro Okamura (Japan) - 2:28:51 - AR 5. Shinya Wada (Japan) - 2:40:08 6. Gabriel Macchi (Portugal) - 2:40:13 7. Yuichi Takahashi (Japan) - 2:42:09 8. Joaquim Machado (Port...

2012 London Paralympics  Men's 5000 m - T11 London, U.K., 9/7/12 click here for complete results 1. Cristian Valenzuela (Chile) - 15:26.26 - PB 2. Jason Joseph Dunkerley (Canada) - 15:34.07 - PB 3. Shinya Wada (Japan) - 15:55.26 - AR 4. Francis Thuo Karanja (Kenya) - 15:56.67 - PB 5. Nuno Alves (Portugal) - 16:06.28