japan running news

The performance of the 2nd day of Japan's 110th National Track and Field Championships came c/o the latest monster to come out of Kyoto's Rakunan H.S. , 400 m hurdler Taiju Goto . In the opening round heats Goto, who turned 17 last month, closed hard to win his heat in 48.31, a PB by nearly a second and the fastest-ever U18 time anywhere in the world. And at only 0.42 off the senior NR held by the great Dai Tamesue , there's a lot of optimism for more in the final and the rest of the season. Another great performance came in the men's 200 m heats, where Soshi Mizukubo moved up to all-time #2 on the Japanese lists with a 20.07 (+0.5) PB to win Heat 3, 0.04 off another antique NR held by another legend, Shingo Suetsugu . By comparison the 100 m seemed pretty tame, with veteran Shuhei Tada scoring his first national title in 5 years in only 10.17 (+0.1) in what seems like an off-year for the event in Japan. After leading the women's 200 m heats in 23.01 (+0.1) Abiga...

Saturday is the first day of the Tokyo World Athletics Championships . A quick guide to Japanese athletes in action in the morning and evening sessions: 7:30 - Women's 35 km Race Walk Yukiko Umeno (Juntendo Univ.) - 2:46:53 - 1st, Nationals Masumi Fuchise (Kenso) - 2:52:38 - 3rd, Nationals Maika Yagi (Chiba Kogyo Ginko) - 2:56:18 -  4th, Nationals Prognosis : Umeno is 16th in the field on season best and 20th in the Road to Tokyo rankings. Top 8 is a stretch. 7:30 - Men's 35 km Race Walk Masatora Kawano (Asahi Kasei) - 2:21:47 -  1st, Nationals 2024 Satoshi Maruo (Aichi Seiko) - 2:24:24 -  2nd, Nationals Hayato Katsuki (SDF Academy) - 2:24:38 -  1st, Nationals Prognosis : One of Japan's best chances to score a medal and rack up top 8 placings at this World Championships. Kawano is ranked #2 behind the legend Evan Dunfee of Canada, Katsuki has the 4th-best SB, and Maruo is ranked #5. 9:00 / 10:40 - Women's Discus Throw Qualification Nanaka Kori (Niigata Alb...

Day 6 of athletics at the Paris Olympics saw almost every Japanese athlete eliminated, with only one moving on thanks to a successful appeal. After missing out on making the 5000 m final, Nozomi Tanaka had a lucky break in the first women's 1500 m heat when she collided with another runner with 200 m to go. Although Tanaka finished 11th in 4:04.28, she was advanced to the semifinals on appeal. Yume Goto ran a PB of 4:09.41 for 13th in Heat 2 and will run the repechage round. In the men's javelin throw, Roderick Genki Dean threw a season best 82.48 m in the first qualification group, unluckily coming in at 13th and missing a place in the field of 12 for the final. With no repechage round to help him out Dean's first Olympics since London 2012 comes to an end. Women's long jump NR holder Sumire Hata jumped 6.31 m (+0.4) for 26th in the qualifying round and likewise missed out on a place in the final. Two of the three Japanese men in the 110 mH made the semifinals, bu...

Getting stuck in the shinkansen cancelation headaches yesterday means we're a day late getting to the weekend's track roundup, but better late than never. At the top of the list, women's 100 mH national record holder Mako Fukube (NKK) took 0.04 off her own record to win in 12.69 (+1.2) at the All-Star Night Games in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa in her last race before the Paris Olympics. Other Paris team members won their races too: 4x400 m squad member Takuho Yoshizu (GK Line) took the win in the men's 400 m in 45.89. Men's 400 m hurdler Daiki Ogawa (Toyo Univ.) set a meet record 49.09 for the win. Sumire Hata (Sumitomo Denko) set a women's long jump MR of 6.61 m (+0.8). Marina Saito (Suzuki) and Momone Ueda (Zenrin) both threw over the old MR held by world champion and Paris teammate Haruka Kitaguchi , Saito getting the win with a final attempt of 58.45 m, Ueda next at 57.93 m and 3rd-placer Yuki Yamamoto (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) also going over the old MR at 57...

  Off and on rain throughout the day, sometimes heavy, impacted a lot of events on the last day of Japan's National Track and Field Championships , U20 National Championships, and Olympic trials, but at least 6 of the 12 finals saw people seal up places at the Paris Olympics, and one saw a new youth record by its winner. Complete results here . Men's 100 m Final   -0.2 m/s Fastest in the semifinals, Ryuichiro Sakai  did it again in the final to add the 2024 national title to his 2023 win in 10.13 (-0.2). Akihiro Higashida  and Hiroki Yanagita  went a close 2-3 in 10.14, both of them pretty much guaranteeing that they'll be on the Paris team with Abdul Hakim Sani Brown , who sat Nationals out after running the Olympic standard earlier this season. Former NR holder Yoshihide Kiryu  took 5th in 10.20 and will only have a shot at being in Paris as a relay alternate. 1. Ryuichiro Sakai (Osaka Gas) - 10.13 2. Akihiro Higashida (Sekisho) - 10.14 3. Hiroki Yanagita...

Japan's Olympic trials, National Track and Field Championships and National U20 Championships , wrap up Sunday in Niigata at Denka Big Swan Stadium. Light rain is forecast in the afternoon and evening, ut with 7 new National Championships meet records and an U20 national record so far, there's a good chance of one outright national record, maybe two, on the last day of the meet.  Live results will be here . The final schedule: Women's Shot Put Final  14:45 Already having made a comeback in her main event with a win in the women's discus throw, local  Nanaka Kori  will be going for a repeat on her 2023 national title in the shot put. She's the only woman over 16 m this season, and one of only two in the field to have ever done it, along with #3-ranked Fumiko Ono . Nanaka Kori (Niigata Albirex RC) - 16.19 m SB / 16.57 m PB Honoka Oyama (Imamura Byoin) - 15.75 m SB / 15.78 m PB Fumika Ono (Tsukuba Univ.) - 15.74 m SB / 16.37 m PB Haruka Osako (Somay-Q) - 15.28 m SB / P...

Women's pole vault national record holder Misaki Morota kicked off the evening session on the fourth day of athletics competition at the Hangzhou Asian Games with a new NR and a silver medal. Morota cleared every height from 3.80 m to 4.40 m on her first attempt, then did it again at 4.48 m, 7 cm over her old record. China's Ling Li and Chung Niu only jumped once each, both clearing 4.30 m on their first attempts, leaving all three women to go for 4.53 m. Li made it on her first attempt, but both Morota and Niu failed, leaving Li in gold, Morota in silver and Niu in the bronze position. Li went on from there to make it over 4.63 m, breaking her own Games record by 3 cm. In the men's 200 m final, Koki Ueyama took the final in 20.60 (-0.2), beating Saudi Abdullah Akbar Mohammed by 0.03 to win Japan's first athletics gold medal in Hangzhou. Chun-Han Yang of Taiwan edged out veteran Femi Ogunode of Qatar for bronze, 20.74 to 20.75. A few minutes later Shunya Takayama...

  The biggest international championships outside the Olympics are underway in Hangzhou, China, with 12,500 athletes from 45 countries representing 60% of the world’s population competing across 61 sports at the 19th Asian Games . Athletics runs Sept. 29 to Oct. 5, and while official event entry lists haven’t been released yet JRN has pieced them together from the national team entry lists in the events where Japanese athletes will be competing. Additions and corrections welcome, and we’ll update the lists below as official entry and start lists are released. Complete meet schedule and results here .  4 Japanese athletes and one relay team arrive in Hangzhou ranked #1 in their events. The gold medalist at July’s Asian Championships, NR holder Sumire Hata leads the women’s long jump field at 6.97 m, with a 21 cm margin over India’s Shaili Singh and another 11 cm over China’s Shiqi Xiong and Sri Lanka’s Lakshini Sandaradura . Kentaro Sato is the fastest in the men’s 400 m f...

The Budapest World Championships got off to a rocky start for the Japanese team as it came up empty-handed in the opening event in one of its two best shots at a medal. Silver medalist in the last two global championships, Koki Ikeda took the men's 20 km race walk out hard only to fade abruptly at 15 km and finish 15th in 1:19:44. Two-time defending world champion Toshikazu Yamanishi faded even earlier, ultimately landing 24th overall and 4th out of the four Japanese men in the race in 1:21:39. 24-year-old Yuta Koga took the top Japanese spot at 12th in his World Championships debut with a 1:19:02 season best, 1:15 out of the medals in a race that saw gold medalist Alvaro Martin of Spain clock a world-leading 1:17:32 and 2nd through 6th set new national records. Eiki Takahashi was 21st in 1:20:25. Fresh from doing her final training in St. Moritz, women's 5000 m NR holder Ririka Hironaka bookended the day with a good comeback run in the 10000 m after a long season of rec...