japan running news

A fixture on runners' schedule for 79 years, the Fuji Mountain Race took place July 24 in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi. 3521 runners from across the country and around the world took on the challenge of racing up Mt. Fuji. The event is divided into 2 distances, the Summit Course of 21 km with 3000 m of ascent, and the Fifth Stage Course of 15 km with 1480 m climb. The Summit Course turns steep after the Seventh Stage, with runners slipping and stumbling on the loose rock on the trail as they near the peak. In the Summit Course race Ruy Ueda , 32, won for the second year in a row. Yuri Yoshizumi , 40, achieved an 8th-straight victory in the women's summit race. A local Fujiyoshida resident, post-race Yoshizumi said, "I mostly train on Mount Fuji too. All the local people cheering me on helped me to push harder." Takashi Mino won the men's title in the Fifth Stage Course, with Mirei Sugai taking the women's title. 79th Fuji Mountain Race Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi, 24 ...

On July 24 the organizing committee of September's Nagoya Asian Games announced the courses for the marathon and race walk events. The marathon will cover two laps of a roughly 20 km course starting and finishing at Paloma Mizuho Stadium. Athletes will turn right at Mizuho Sports Park West after leaving the stadium and then enter the 20 km loop. The course heads north along the same roads used for the Nagoya Women's Marathon, then turns left at Uchiyama-cho. From there it turns right at Sakuradori Otsu near the Nagoya TV tower, then makes a U-turn at Meijo Park before returning to Mizuho Sports Park West. Although there is minimal elevation change overall, there are some undulations in front of Nagoya City Hall, a key section of the Nagoya Women's Marathon, that are sure to play a critical role in how the Asian Games races unfold. The race walk events will be held on a 1 km loop in the area of Nagoya City Hall, Nagoya Castle, and Aichi Prefectural Government building. A te...

The JOC announced the full lineups for the men's and women's teams for September's Nagoya Asian Games . Being hosted in Japan the Asian Games are a pretty big deal, and it's pretty close to the maximum of 2 athletes per event. The men's and women's triple jump, the women's 400 m and the women's discus throw only have 1 athlete on the Japanese team, and it's a big FU to the shot putters apparently as nobody was named to either the men's or women's teams even though people ranked lower in the World Athletics Asian rankings than top JPN shot putters Daichi Morishita and Chiharu Saka did make the team in other events. But, let's focus on what it is, not what it isn't. Going off this week's Asian rankings 8 men and 5 women are ranked #1 in their event, with a total of 19 men and 14 women ranked in the top 3. Factor in a limit of 2 per nationality and the relays and Japan's chances of scoring a great medal haul are looking good. M...

On July 21 the Uniqlo women's team announced that 2-time Olympic 10000 m runner Yuka Takashima had joined its lineup as of July 16. Born in Yamaguchi in 1998, Takashima anchored Okayama's Kojokan H.S. to its first-ever National High School Ekiden win in 2005. After graduating she joined the Denso corporate team, playing a key role in its 3-straight National Corporate Women's Ekiden titles. In 2015 she ran the 10000 m at the 2015 Beijing World Championships. In the spring of 2016 Takashima transferred to the Shiseido corporate team, where she made the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics team in the 10000 m. She played an important role for the team in its ekidens, and in 2022 anchored Shiseido to its first national title in 16 years. In 2023 she was 2nd in the 10000 m National Championships, securing her place on her 2nd Olympic team at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Takashima's PBs are 15:26.33 for 5000 m, 30:57.26 for 10000 m, and 2:26:13 for the marathon. In March this year T...

Hakone Ekiden organizers KGRR have announced details for the qualifying half marathon for next year's 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The Yosenkai qualifying race will be held Oct. 17 in Tachikawa, Tokyo. The combined times of the 10 fastest finishers from each participating team will be used for team scoring, with the 10 fastest teams going on the the main event next January and top-placing individuals from teams that do not qualify being names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team. One change from previous years is that the number of runners each school can enter has been increased from 14 to 16. Teams will still only be allowed to have from 10 to 12 athletes on the starting line, but the move gives coaches greater flexibility in making the final decision on their starting rosters. No changes have been made to the qualifying times of 34:00 for 10000 m or 1:13:00 for the half marathon, and the new earlier starting time of 8:30 a.m. introduced last year in an effort to mitigate ...

This year's Hokuren Distance Challenge series wrapped up Saturday in Shibetsu with a pair of new national records from international competitors. South Korea's Na Yeon Park took the win in the women's 1500 m with a new NR of 4:13.87, only a 0.38 PB but enough to get her under the old record she'd previously just missed. In the men's 5000 m A-heat, Chuo University 1st-year Chien Tzu Chieh went under 13:40 for the first time, running a new Taiwanese NR of 13:39.61 for 8th in a race won by Reitaku University 's Brian Kiputwu in 13:28.09. Other good performances in Shibetsu included a 2:01.80 win by Ayano Shiomi in the women's 800 m, the 3rd-best time of her career, 3 more men joining the sub-3:40 club in the 1500 m led by Juntendo University 's Shuntaro Kawaguchi in 3:38.46, and Dolphine Omare and Lucy Nduta going sub-15 in the women's 5000 m A-heat in 14:56.70 and 14:57.25. Overseas Japanese results from the weekend: At the London Diamond Lea...

Stop 4 on the 2026 Hokuren Distance Challenge happened Wednesday in Fukagawa . Things were pretty low-key, with the main results coming in the men's 1500 m and women's 800 m. In the men's 1500 m, Korean NR holder Jae Ung Lee ran the 2nd-fastest time of his career, 3:37.75, for the win. All 3 of his sub-3:39 performances to date have now happened at the HDC series, with a 3:38.55 in Shibetsu in June last year followed by his 3:36.01 NR in Kitami a month later. Atsuki Urushibata was 2nd in 3:38.98, his first time under 3:40. American Nicole Montgomery took almost a second off her PB to win the women's 800 m in 2:02.29, with the top 5 all running PBs under 2:07. Japan's #2 800 m runner Ayano Shiomi opted to step up in distance, running a 6-second PB of 4:11.12 for 2nd in the women's 1500 m. Margaret Ekalale won in 4:10.49. Women's 800 m NR holder Rin Kubo was in Canada for The Jerome Classic meet, where she was 3rd in a 3-way sprint finish in 2:02.57. K...