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Aussies Dominate, Ota Dislocates Shoulder at Golden Grand Prix

Australians represented big time at Sunday's Seiko Golden Grand Prix in Tokyo, winning six events and taking one more top 3 spot and another six top 5 placings. The first Aussie win of the day came courtesy of Rose Davies in the women's 3000 m, where she outran main competition Helen Ekalale by 6 seconds to win in a meet record 8:43.38. Yuma Yamamoto broke into the all-time Japanese top 10 with an 8:50.64 PB for 3rd.  After a disappointing run in the 5000 m two weeks ago at the Shaoxing Keqiao Diamond League meet, Jude Thomas made it an Australian double win a MR win in the men's 3000 m in 7:39.69. The top 7 all broke the old MR, with Nagiya Mori continuing his quick rise with an all-time JPN #2 7:41.58 for 4th. The men's race was marred by a fall right at the start. Having set half marathon and road 5 km national records in his last two races, Tomoki Ota appeared to get clipped from behind by 10000 m NR holder Kazuya Shiojiri when Shiojiri veered to the outside...
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Seiko Golden Grand Prix Streaming and Preview

Without an in-country Diamond League meet Sunday's Seiko Golden Grand Prix at the Tokyo Olympics stadium is the main event of the Japanese outdoor season. Along with the Asian Championships in South Korea in 2 weeks and July's National Championships, this is one of the best chances for Japanese athletes to score some serious world rankings points to boost their chances of making the home team for September's Tokyo World Championships. Set to be sunny in the morning, for most of the meet it looks like it'll be cloudy but hot and humid with temps peaking at 30˚ and high humidity after rain most of the day on Saturday. TVer is streaming the first part of the meet , the women's and men's javelin throw and 3000 m, men's 100 m, women's high jump and men's long jump, here starting at 10:46 a.m. Japan time, with the rest of the meet streaming here starting at 10:51 a.m. and broadcast on TBS starting at 1:00 p.m. If you've got a VPN you should be good ...
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AGU's Hara Named Special Advisor to Uniqlo Women's Team

On May 13 the Uniqlo women's corporate team announced that it had appointed Aoyama Gakuin University head coach Susumu Hara as special advisor. Hara became head coach at AGU in 2004, turning from a team that had been absent from the Hakone Ekiden for decades into a winning program by 2015. In the 11 editions since its first win in 2015, AGU has won Hakone 8 times under Hara's leadership. In 2019 he became a professor in AGU's Department of Global Studies, and in 2024 he was named chair of the KGRR collegiate federation's ekiden committee. Along with Hara, Uniqlo announced that Ann Quinn , known for her success with wheelchair tennis star and People's Honor Award recipient Shingo Kunieda , has been hired as mental coach for the women's team. The Uniqlo women's team was founded in 1997. It won last October's Princess Ekiden , going on to finish 9th at the Queens Ekiden national championships in November. Shigeo Hasegawa became head coach in April this...
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Kanto Regionals Day Four Highlights

The 104th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships wrapped with another windy day. In the D2 men's pole vault Hiroto Shinotsuka (Ikuei Univ.) delivered the day's only new meet record, clearing a PB 5.37 m to win by 20 cm. Arie Flores (Nittai Univ.) impressed again, edging Shihori Sato (Juntendo Univ.) in the last 50 m to win the D1 women's 200 m final 23.26 to 23.34 (+2.5) in her 8th race over the 4 days of the meet. Sarah Wanjiru (Daito Bunka Univ.) made it another 5000/10000 double title, running most of the D1 women's 5000 m final with company from Daisy Cherop (Josai Kokusai Univ.) but pulling away to win easily in 15:49.26. Once dropped Cherop folded, ultimately fading to 5th with 2nd going to Airi Tajima (Juntendo Univ.) in 16:09.22. Both the D1 and D2 men's 5000 m were great 3-way last lap battles. 1st-year Rui Suzuki (Waseda Univ.) impressed in the D1 race, throwing in a big surge to catch up to 4th-year Kenyans Victor Kimutai (Josai Un...
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Lorot and Suzuki Win Sendai, Kiyama and Kipyegon in Sagamihara

Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post) was back from the dead yet again to win today's Sendai International Half Marathon women's race. Starting out with company from Selly Kaptich (Kyudenko) and Yuri Mitsune (Hitachi), Suzuki was always a step ahead. Putting away Mitsune early in the 2nd half, it took until the last km for her to break Kaptich, winning in 1:11:00 with Kaptich 8 seconds back in 2nd. Mitsune faded over a minute, just hanging on to 3rd in 1:12:02 over Mayuka Fujita (Route Inn Hotels). Ibuki Kaneko (Komazawa Univ.) frontran the early going in the men's race, 7 seconds up on the main group at 5 km in 14:51 but out of the top 20 by 10 km. Andrew Lorot (YKK) took clear control in the 2nd half, 12 seconds ahead by 15 km and pulling away all the way home to the win in 1:01:41. After facing criticism for making the Tokyo World Championships marathon team off the JAAF's JMC series rankings in spite of not having broken 2:10 in his last two marathons, Naoki Koyama (Hon...
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Kanto Regionals Day Three Highlights

Day 3 of the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships was mostly filled by qualifying rounds, with the only track finals being the men's 10000 m race walks. Yushi Nakajima (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) had the fastest time of the day, winning a close D1 men's race in a 39:41.90 PB. Sota Arai (Heisei Kokusai Univ.) also PBd to win the D2 race in 42:39.62 by just 0.40 over Takuma Hachimura (Rikkyo Univ.), with Kotaro Wake (Kokushikan Univ.) taking the D3 title in 41:49.89. On the field the most interesting competition came in the D1 men's triple jump. Manato Miyao (Toyo Univ.) opened with a 15.66 m (0.0) jump that ended up being his best of the day. Koki Kanai (Juntendo Univ.) equalled that on his 4th attempt, with his 2nd-best jump of 15.54 m (-0.7) putting him ahead of Miyao's 15.53 m (-0.6). Enter Gai Kitagawa (Tokai Univ.), who equalled Kanai and Miyao at 15.66 m on his last jump. With a 5th attempt of 15.57 m (-0.2) that was enough for him to take the...
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Flores and Aoki Break MR - Kanto Regionals Day Two Highlights

Following up her collegiate record 51.71 last weekend in Shizuoka, Arie Flores (Nittai Univ.) lit up a windy 2nd day of the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships with a solo 52.82 MR, over half a second under the old record and beating 2nd place by a second and a half. With her Japanese citizenship transfer from Peru still in processing it's only a matter of time before Flores officially erases the 2008-era 51.75 m NR. She wasn't the only athlete to set a new MR despite the windy conditions. The D1 women's and men's 1500 m finals were nothing special time-wise, but in the D2 men's race Ryuto Aoki (Rikkyo Univ.) set a D2 MR 3:44.92 for the win, with the next 3 all running new PBs. Women's hammer throw 3rd-placer Misaki Takako (Tsukuba Univ. Grad School) also set a D2 MR with a throw of 54.37 m. But except for Flores, the races of the day were the D1 and D2 men's 100 m finals. With a massive +4.5 m/s tailwind, #1-ranked Hiroki Yanagita (T...
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