japan running news

Domestically the main event on the track this weekend was the 3rd stop on the 2026 Hokuren Distance Challenge tour in Kitami . The race of the day there was the women's 3000 m, where Janet Jepkoech ran a PB 8:38.44 to lead the top 6 under 9 minutes, 5 of them in PBs including Mizuki Michishita in 8:56.75 and Jepkoech's Nitori teammate Rion Furukawa in 8:56.80. The men's 3000 m had similar results, Juda Hyodo running a PB 7:52.61 to lead the top 4 under 8 minutes, with 6 of the top 7 running PBs. Caroline Kariba was the only woman to break 15 minutes in the 5000 m with a 14:52.84 for the win, with Shunya Kikuchi the only man under 13:30 at 13:29.53. Things were busy overseas: The Asian U23 Athletics Championships happened in Ordos, China. Daily highlights here: Day 1 ・ Day 2 ・ Day 3 ・ Day 4 Men's 800 m NR holder Ko Ochiai ran 2:15.24 for 7th in the 1000 m at the Monaco Diamond League meet, 2 seconds better than Allon Clay 's national best from earlier this ...

The Suffolkland Shibetsu Half Marathon took place on July 12 in Shibetsu, Hokkaido, with corporate league runners, collegiate athletes and amateur runners all taking to the city streets under breaks in the cloudy skies. A total of around 1900 people entered the event's 39th edition. In the men's race, Yu Miyazaki of Toyo University won in 1:02:22, the 6th-fastest time in Shibetsu Half history. Kaede Hagitani , a 2021 Tokyo Olympian in the 5000 m, won in 1:13:02 as a step toward next month's Hokkaido Marathon. "This was a good run that helped me figure out what areas I need to work on for the Hokkaido Marathon," she said post-race. "The scenery along the course was relaxing." Miyazaki, who took 3rd on the opening leg at the 2023 National High School Ekiden while at Ibaraki's Toyodai Ushiku H.S. and anchored Toyo at last fall's Izumo Ekiden, took 27 seconds off the PB he had run at November's Ageo City Half Marathon. It was his second PB i...

The first edition of the Asian U23 Athletics Championships in Ordos, China wrapped with a trio of gold medals in distance events from Japanese athletes. Sotaro Osaka started it off in the men's half marathon race walk, winning an exciting race against China's Kaiyuan Yang by just 1 second, 1:26:11 to 1:26:12. Taisei Yoshizako was just over a minute back in bronze in 1:27:15, clear of 4th place by 7 minutes. Kana Mizumoto kept the momentum going in the women's 10000 m, outrunning China's Yiting Yang by 18 seconds for gold in 33:24.87. In an extremely tactical men's 1500 m Takumi Shiobara and Ryo Higuchi replicated Osaka and Yoshizako's RW performance, Shiobara taking gold in 3:53.57 over Qatari Zakaria Elahlaami and Higuchi in bronze position in 3:54.55. Airi Tajima added another bronze to the day's total in the women's 1500 m, 3rd in 4:21.09 behind Chinese duo Yuan Li and Shuqi Ye . The men's high jump is one of Japan's strongest event...

Only 7 Japanese athlete were in action on the 3rd day of the Asian U23 Athletics Championships in Ordos, China, but between them they produced Japan's first double gold medal day of the games. Yoshihiro Kusuoka , the top guy at Teikyo University and the only one in the race with a best under 28 minutes, had an easy win in the men's 10000 m in 29:29.34. Silver medalist S.P. Madappagoudra of India ran a PB 29:33.54, with China's Jinzhi Jiang running 29:42.54 for bronze. The fastest man in the race with a best of 44.98 from June's National Championships, Hosei University 's collegiate record holder Shinya Hayashi backed Kusuoka's performance up in the 400 m, running 45.26 to win gold in a race that saw silver and bronze medalists Ngoc Tuong Ta of Vietnam and Zhexuan Shao of hosts China both run PBs. Ami Takahashi picked up silver in the women's 100 mH in 13.31 behind gold medalist Bo An Yi of Taiwan, with teammate Yuka Fukui 5th in 13.68. Takuma Sekin...

After leading the first day of competition, Yuto Yamamoto took Japan's only gold medal on Day 2 of the Asian U23 Athletics Championships in Ordos, China with a 7395 win in the decathlon. Yamamoto started the second day with a 71-point lead over China's Chenghao Zhu , and with 1st-place finishes in the pole vault and 1500 m built that to a final margin of victory of 109 points. Zhu dropped to bronze in 7071, overtaken by teammate Jiawei Wang who took silver with 7286. Silver medals came in the men's 200 m, where Kota Uematsu ran a wind-aided 20.58, the women's 800 m with Kurumi Sugure 2nd in 2:09.42 and Yuri Nishida 7th in 2:12.08, the women's 5000 m thanks to a 16:50.52 by Koharu Chugo , and the men's 3000 mSC where Tetsu Sasaki came up less than 3 seconds short of another Waseda University gold in 8:56.99 behind Qatari Zakaria Elahlaami . Bronze medals went to Ami Takahashi with a 23.66 (+1.5) in the women's 200 m and Aoi Murakami in the women...

The first edition of the Asian U23 Athletics Championships kicked off Thursday in Ordos China with Japanese athlete picking up medals in 4 of the 6 finals in which they competed. With a 13:20.64 best in April this year Waseda University 's Rui Suzuki had an easy win in the men's 5000 m, running 14:01.24 to pick up Japan's first gold. Sota Orita of 2026 Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University struggled, though, running only 15:02.19 for 6th despite having run 13:38.09 in April. Sora Murata and Mitsuki Kobayashi picked up silver and bronze in the women's pole vault behind winner Lingxia Wei of China, with Aiha Yamagata adding another silver to the count with an 11.44 (+0.7) in the women's 100 m between Chinese gold and bronze medalists Kunzhi Xue and Xiajun Liu . One more bronze came in the women's hammer throw, where 2025/2026 national champ Raika Murakami threw a PB of 68.83 m on her 4th attempt. Yuto Yamamoto led the men's decathlon standing...

There's already been a lot going on on the track since the start of July, so let's get to it. The women's 100 mH was the main event at the July 5 Fuse Sprint meet in Tottori, with Hitomi Nakajima turning in the 3rd-fastest time of her career, 12.75 (-0.4), for the win, a time only one other Japanese woman has ever beaten. Yumi Tanaka and Masumi Aoki both turned in quality performances too at 12.89 and 12.97 for 2nd and 3rd. All-time Japanese #4 Midori Mikase had a good one in the women's 100 m too, winning in 11.36 (+0.7). The Hokuren Distance Challenge series kicked off July 4 in Chitose . Tuning up for her 1500-5000-10000 triple at September's Nagoya Asian Games, Nozomi Tanaka won the 1500 m in 4:08.53, then came back to win the 5000 m in a 15:00.61 season best. Bigger news was 3000 mSC NR holder Miu Saito in 2nd, running a PB 15:02.68 to come in at all-time Japanese #8. Collegiate record holder Richard Etir led the men's 5000 m in a 13:08.44 SB, with ...