Asian Junior Championships Day Four Highlights

Japan capped the final day of its role as host nation for the Asian Junior Athletics Championships with a pair of championships records that erased marks set by China way back in that nation’s 90’s heyday.

Nozomi Tanaka, newly-graduated from high school and opting for the club runner life like her mother, sub-2:30 amateur Chihiro Tanaka, got the party started with a 9:04.36 record in the girls’ 3000 m that took almost 6 seconds off Li Xin Lan’s 1997 mark. Her high school and club teammate Yuna Wada wasn’t far off Lan’s old record with a 9:14.13 for silver more than 20 seconds ahead of China’s Fan Liu.

The Japanese girls’ 4x400 m likewise took down a Chinese record set in 1997, running 3:38.20 for gold. India and Sri Lanka were a distant 2nd and 3rd, with China nowhere to be found in the final. One member of Japan’s 4x400 m squad, Kasumi Yoshida, doubled after winning an individual gold in the 400 m hurdles earlier in the day in 58.43. Her teammate Natsumi Murakami missed silver by 0.04, finishing just behind Taiwan’s Jui Hsuan Yang 58.89 to 58.92.

Karin Odama rounded out the day’s girls’ medal haul with a gold in the heptathlon, scoring 5133. The only event of the day in which Japanese girls didn’t take gold was the 200 m, where Yanan Tao of China took the top spot in 24.01. Japan’s Miku Yamada missed getting into the medals by 0.05, running 24.52 for 4th.

On the boys’ side Japan scored two golds, Yusuke Shirao joining Yoshida on top of the 400 m hurdles in 50.52 and Kyohei Tomori clearing 2.16 m for the first time to win the high jump. As in the 10000 m, despite being Asia’s distance power the Japanese boys missed the low-hanging fruit of gold in the 5000 m, Ajeet Kumar of India running a PB 14:15.24 to beat Japan’s Ren Tazawa by 2 seconds and Kiyoto Suzuki finishing out of the medals in 4th.

Japanese boys also picked up bronze in the 200 m and triple jump courtesy of Justin Junpei Tsukamoto and Shunsuke Izumiya. Where the girls dominated the 4x400 m, it was the only event of the day where the boys came up empty-handed, finishing 4th in 3:10.01 almost 2 seconds behind gold medalist Sri Lanka.

In the final medal count Japan came out on top with 14 gold medals, 15 silver and 13 bronze. China was next, with 11 gold, 8 silver and 4 bronze. The success of its national team in this championships is bound to buoy hopes for Japan's next big hosting gig two years down the road. Watch complete replays of all four days of the 18th Asian Junior Athletics Championships here.

18th Asian Junior Athletics Championships

Day Four Highlights
Gifu, 6/10/18
click here for complete highlights

Girls
Girls’ 200 m Final +0.1 m/s
1. Yanan Tao (China) – 24.01
2. Amasha De Silva (Sri Lanka) – 24.47 – PB
3. Jisna Mathew (India) – 24.48
-----
4. Miku Yamada (Japan) – 24.52

Girls’ 3000 m
1. Nozomi Tanaka (Japan) – 9:04.36 – MR
2. Yuna Wada (Japan) – 9:14.13
3. Fang Liu (China) – 9:35.69

Girls’ 400 m Hurdles Final
1. Kasumi Yoshida (Japan) – 58.43
2. Jui Hsuan Yang (Taiwan) – 58.89 – PB
3. Natsumi Murakami (Japan) – 58.92
-----
5. Moeka Sekimoto (Japan) – 1:00.17

Girls’ 4x400 m Relay Final
1. Japan – 3:38.20 – MR
2. India – 3:41.11
3. Sri Lanka – 3:45.16

Girls’ Heptathlon
1. Karin Odama (Japan) – 5133
2. Cai Juan Chen (Taiwan) – 4925
3. Diana Geints (Kazakhstan) – 4804 – PB

Boys
Boys’ 200 m Final -0.2 m/s
1. Tai Sheng Wei (Taiwan) – 21.05
2. Min Kyu Shin (South Korea) – 21.06
3. Justin Junpei Tsukamoto (Japan) – 21.09 – PB
-----
6. Yuki Takagi (Japan) – 21.59

Boys’ 5000 m Final
1. Ajeet Kumar (India) – 14:15.24 – PB
2. Ren Tazawa (Japan) – 14:17.26
3. Seyedamir Zamanpour (Iran) – 14:25.25 – PB
-----
4. Kiyoto Suzuki (Japan) – 14:26.03

Boys’ 400 m Hurdles Final
1. Yusuke Shirao (Japan) – 50.52
2. Bassem Mohamed Awad Hemeida (Qatar) – 50.55
3. Mahdi Pirjahan (Iran) – 51.18 – PB

Boys’ 4x400 m Final
1. Sri Lanka – 3:08.70
2. Thailand – 3:09.20
3. Malaysia – 3:09.60
-----
4. Japan – 3:10.01

Boys’ High Jump Final
1. Kyohei Tomori (Japan) – 2.16 m – PB
2. Nuh Abdulkadir Ibrahim Anuh (Qatar) – 2.14 m
3. Hao Zhang (China) – 2.12 m
-----
13. Ryuta Bando (Japan) – 1.95 m

Boys’ Triple Jump Final
1. Kamalraj Kanagaraj (India) – 15.75 m -0.3 m/s
2. Gyu Min Yu (South Korea) – 15.56 m -0.3 m/s – PB
3. Shunsuke Izumiya (Japan) – 15.47 m +0.1 m/s

© 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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."...

Batt-Doyle and Strintzos Break Records at Launceston Half

Australians Isobel Batt-Doyle and Haftu Strintzos turned in record-breaking performances to win the McGrath Launceston Running Festival Peppers Silo Half Marathon in Tasmania. Running with a private male pacer, NR holder Batt-Doyle dusted the field with the fastest half marathon ever by an Australian woman on Australian soil, a 1:08:46 CR that put her 2 and a half minutes ahead of runner-up Genevieve Gregson . Last year's runner-up Yumi Yoshikawa was almost a minute back from Gregson in 3rd in 1:12:03, but was almost run down by club runner Ayaka Shimoyamada . Starting slow in her international debut, Shimoyamada moved up from 7th over the 2nd half of the race to finish 4th in 1:12:06, kicking hard in the home straight to try to catch Yoshikawa and momentarily blacking out after finishing. Kaho Onishi was 7th in 1:12:45 in her own international debut. The men's half had pacing set at 2:53/km to try to deliver the first-ever sub-61 half marathon on Australian soil. CR holde...

CHN and JPN National Records Go Down - Weekend Track Update

There weren't any Japanese athletes in action at the Rabat Diamond League meet Sunday, but 2 lower-tier domestic meets produced new national records. At the Nittai University Time Trials meet in Yokohama, Samuel Kibathi (Toyota) led the top 5 in the men's 10000 m under 28 minutes in 27:39.97. In 3rd, China's Wenjie Wang took just over a second off his own NR from the same meet last year, setting a new record of 27:47.53. His teammate Haoran Tang was 6th in a 28:27.44 PB, with the top Japanese time in the race being a 28:33.39 for 8th from Jin Yuasa (Toyota). Amazingly, Wang and Tang were back the next day on day 2 of the Nittai meet, Wang running a PB of 13:35.58 for 4th in the A-heat and Tang winning the B-heat in a PB of 13:38.80. Isaac Ndiema took the A-heat in 13:26.49, with the fastest Japanese time going to Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu) with a 13:35.94 for 5th behind Wang. Other Nittai highlights: Deborah Chemutai (Univ. Ent.) won a photo finish against Yua Nagamori ...

japan running news

Search This Blog