Skip to main content

Ishida and Rakunan Break National Records at Junior Olympics



At the weekend's Junior Olympics in Yokohama's Nissan Stadium, Asakawa Junior High School 9th-grader Kosuke Ishida won in 8:17.84 to take almost 1.5 seconds off the 3000 m junior high school boys national record. A totally solo run in heavy rain, Ishida won by a margin of almost 16 seconds over his closest competition. The record followed his 1500 m junior high school national record of 3:49.72 at the Sept. 23 Nittai University Time Trials meet in Yokohama, cementing his position at the top of next year's incoming high school class.



Held together with the Junior Olympics, the JAAF Relay Championships saw another record fall in the men's 4x100 m. In the first qualifying heat Kyoto's Rakunan High School, alma mater of Japan's first sub-10 man Yoshihide Kiryu, set a new high school national record of 39.57, the team of Ryo Wada, Daisuke Miyamoto, Yoshinobu Imoto and Kentaro Hiraga shaving 0.07 seconds off the record it had previously set in 2012 with Kiryu anchoring. Kiryu was on-hand to congratulate the Rakunan boys, running third for the Toyo University team which won the heat in 39.22. Rakunan went on to run 40.04 for 7th in the final, Toyo taking 2nd behind Chuo University 39.30 to 39.47.



© 2017 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Comments

TokyoRacer said…
Wait a minute. A 3:49 1500 is the equivalent of just over a 4-minute mile. A 9th grader ran a 4-minute mile? Only a few high schoolers in history have ever done that.
Brett Larner said…
The kid's got talent. I noticed at the end of the 1500m video he was talking to Coach Morozumi from Tokai University. I guess that means he's probably headed to Saku Chosei H.S.
Anonymous said…
3:49.7 = 4:07-4:08 mile
Metts said…
3:49 + 17 seconds = 4:06 mile, about?

Most-Read This Week

Updates on Transfers

April 1 is the start of Japan's new academic and fiscal year, and there's always a wave of transfer announcements to go with it. Some notable ones yesterday: 800 m NR holder Rin Kubo skipped university to go straight to 2023 Queens Ekiden national champion Sekisui Kagaku after her graduation from Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S. Multiple NR holder Nozomi Tanaka rejoined the Toyota Jidoshokki women's team after having left it to pursue a solo pro career as a New Balance athlete. Already on the team for this fall's Nagoya Asian Games in the 10000 m, Ririka Hironaka announced a switch from her longtime home at Japan Post to the Uniqlo women's team. Collegiate marathon record holder Asahi Kuroda joined the 2026 national champion GMO corporate team after graduating from 2026 Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University last week. Hakone Ekdien First Stage CR holder Rui Aoki joins the Sumitomo Denko corporate team after running his final race for 2025 Izumo Ekiden w...

Chien Breaks TPE NR, Iwata Betters ID-Class WR - Weekend Track Roundup

The last weekend of the academic and fiscal year saw at least 5 meets with good results domestically and abroad. Kicking things off Friday was the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne, where Tomohiro Shinno and Naoto Hasegawa took 1st and 3rd in the men's high jump, both of them only clearing 2.18 m along with 2nd-placer Roman Anastasios . 12 other Japanese athletes were in action on the second day of the meet on Saturday, where 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura ran 3:42.84 for 6th in the men's 1500 m. Nagiya Mori had a better one in the men's 3000 m with a 7:45.40 for 4th. Both Yota Mashiko and Rui Suzuki cleared 8:00 too, Mashiko's 7:53.84 the 2nd-fastest ever by a Japanese-born high schooler. Abigail Fuka Ido and Nagisa Takahashi both placed 3rd in their events, Ido going 23.85 (-0.9) in the women's 200 m and Takahashi clearing 1.82 m in the women's high jump. 8 Japanese men were at The TEN in California to run 10000 m. In the B-heat won by Edward Marks in ...

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...