Kobayashi and Yamashita Break National Records at National High School Championships

The 2018 National High School Track and Field Championships took place in the midst of a heatwave that saw temperatures in nearby Nagoya go over 40˚C on a nearly daily basis. Track events mostly suffered, but all the same there were two new high school national records and five other meet records, all but one on the field.

The only record on the track came in the girls' 100 m hurdles, where Ayumi Kobayashi (Funabashi H.S.) broke the high school national record with a mark of 13.34 (-0.3 m/s), bettering the 2007-era record by 0.05 seconds. The other new national record was in the boys' discus throw, where Kosei Yamashita (Gifu Shogyo H.S.) threw 58.02 m to surpass the previous record by almost a meter and a half.

The only record on the boys' side was a meet record 65.98 m Yuki Taneichi (Hirosaki Jitsugyo H.S.) in the hammer throw, less than a meter and a half off the high school national record. 2nd-placer Daisuke Kumon (Imabari Meitoku) was also under the old meet record, just 10 cm off Taneichi's mark at 65.88 m Meet records were tied or broken in four girls' field events including the hammer throw, where a 54.60 m throw by Momoko Watanabe (Tsuruga H.S.) led the top three under the old meet record.

In distance events, the lone noteworthy mark came in the girls' 3000 m where 18-year-old Marta Mokaya (Oita Tomei H.S.) ran a quick 8:51.41 PB on the final day of the championships to win the national title. Her fellow Kenyan teammate Benuel Mogeni did the double in the boys' distance events, winning the 1500 m in 3:47.65 and the 5000 m in 14:05.49.

71st National High School Track and Field Championships

Mie, Aug. 2-6, 2018
complete results

Girls
100 m - Midori Mikase (Eniwa Kita H.S.) - 11.74 +0.0 m/s
200 m - Aiko Iki (Kyoto Tachibana H.S.) - 23.78 +0.8 m/s
400 m - Saki Takashima (Soyo H.S.) - 53.78
800 m - Mami Yamaguchi (Kitakyushu Municipal H.S.) - 2:07.98
1500 m - Agnes Mukari (Kurashiki H.S.) - 4:17.17
3000 m - Marta Mokaya (Oita Tomei H.S.) - 8:51.41 - PB
100 mH - Ayumi Kobayashi (Funabashi H.S.) - 13.34 -0.3 m/s - HS NR
400 mH - Saori Oike (Tokushima Shiritsu H.S.) - 59.00
5000 mRW - Ai Murakami (Shokei Gakuen H.S.) - 23:24.86
4x100 m Relay - Ritsumeikan Keisho H.S. - 45.68
4x400 m Relay - Soyo H.S. - 3:40.99
High Jump - Sawa Otaki (Hamamatsu Nishi H.S.) - 1.75 m
Pole Vault - Reina Tanaka (Kanonji Daiichi H.S.) - 3.90 m - MR
Long Jump - Ayaka Kora (Sonoda Gakuen H.S.) - 6.14 m -0.5 m/s
Triple Jump - Chiaki Kawazoe (Matsuyama Kita H.S.) - 12.61 m -1.3 m/s - MR
Shot Put - Fumika Ono (Seibudai H.S.) - 14.55 m
Discus Throw - Maki Saito (Tsuruoka Kogyo H.S.) - 49.51 m - MR
Hammer Throw - Momoko Watanabe (Tsuruga H.S.) - 54.60 m - MR
Javelin Throw - Asuka Nishikawa (Sakuya Konohana H.S.) - 50.87 m
Heptathlon - Kyoka Ikeda (Toba H.S.) - 5063

Boys
100 m - Justin Junpei Tsukamoto (Josai H.S.) - 10.43 -0.3 m/s
200 m - Yuki Takagi (Tokai Shizuoka Shoyo H.S.) - 21.13 -1.6 m/s
400 m - Shushi Mori (Hokkaido Sakae H.S.) - 47.14
800 m - Aaron Clay (Soyo H.S.) - 1:50.05
1500 m - Benuel Mogeni (Oita Tomei H.S.) - 3:47.65
5000 m - Benuel Mogeni (Oita Tomei H.S.) - 14:05.49
110 mH - Ryuto Abe (Fukuoka Ohori H.S.) - 14.09 +1.6 m/s
400 mH - Haruto Deguchi (Higashi Fukuoka H.S.) - 51.17
3000 mSC - Philemon Kiplagat (Kurashiki H.S.) - 8:49.06
5000 mRW - Kazuki Yanagibashi (Ryukoku Toyama H.S.) - 21:11.94
4x100 m Relay - Yachiyo Gakuen H.S. - 40.10
4x400 m Relay - Hosei Daini H.S. - 3:13.92
High Jump - Ryotaro Shibata (Yashiro H.S.) - 2.09 m
Pole Vault - Yosuke Osaki (Akaishi Shogyo H.S.) - 5.00 m
Long Jump - Taiki Kaihoko (Seibudai Chiba H.S.) - 7.67 m +3.9 m/s
Triple Jump - Motoki Matsuda (Yamagata Chuo H.S.) - 15.70 m +3.5 m/s
Discus Throw - Kosei Yamashita (Gifu Shogyo H.S.) - 58.02 m - HS NR
Hammer Throw - Yuki Taneichi (Hirosaki Jitsugyo H.S.) - 65.98 m - MR
Javelin Throw - Kentaro Nakamura (Seifu Nankai H.S.) - 69.84 m
Shot Put - Hayate Inafuku (Gifu Shogyo H.S.) - 18.14 m
Octathlon - Toma Komai (Nishi Joyo H.S.) - 5934

© 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Rui Aoki and Shunsuke Kuwata Making U.S. Debut at United Airlines NYC Half

When the National University Half Marathon was canceled in 2011 after the massive earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan 2 days before the race, JRN talked to the New York Road Runners about bringing 2 collegiate runners to the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon the next weekend as a show of support. It wasn't possible to pull it together in the immediate aftermath of the disasters, but a year later we brought 2 young 2nd-years from Hakone Ekiden CR breaker Toyo University , Kento Otsu and Yuta Shitara , who had been the top 2 Japanese collegiate finishers at the Ageo City Half Marathon in November before Hakone. Shitara ran 1:01:48, at the time the fastest-ever by a Japanese man on U.S. soil, with Otsu running a solid 1:03:15. Thanks to that great start the Ageo-NYC partnership became a regular thing, and except for the pandemic it's continued every year since, expanding this year to June's New York Mini 10 km when 2 runners from Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden runne...

Kuwata Runs Fastest-Ever Half Marathon by Japanese Man Outside Japan at United Airlines NYC Half

When the NYRR changed the United Airlines NYC Half course back in 2018 to more or less its current Boston-style hilly one-way version it seemed like it had been repurposed from a fast course to something more tactical. That went out the window last year with new course records of 59:09 and 1:07:04 from Abel Kipchumba and Sharon Lokedi , and this year's results backed that up. Hellen Obiri ground Lokedi down and took over 30 seconds off her CR, winning in 1:06:33 with Lokedi only 6 seconds off what she ran in 2025 but a distant 2nd in 1:07:10. British road 10 km NR holder Megan Keith rolled up hard late in the race to finish 3rd in 1:07:13 less than 10 seconds off old CR too. The men's race saw a big group of 18 attack the hilly first half on sub-59 pace, American Joe Klecker leading through 5 km in 13:57 and Houston Marathon winner Zouhair Talbi through 10 km in 27:56. Right up in it was Shunsuke Kuwata , a 20-year-old 2nd-year at 2025 National University Ekiden champ Koma...

16 Women and 26 Men on the Current Olympic Trials Qualifier List

Last weekend's Nagoya Women's Marathon and the Tokyo Marathon the weekend before brought the main part of the first year of qualification for the Marathon Grand Championship Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials to be held in Nagoya in October, 2027, to an end. There are still a few races like the Nagano Marathon and overseas World Athletics platinum label races this season where people might qualify, but for the most part we're not likely to see many new additions until August's Hokkaido Marathon, where the qualifying period opened last year. As of right now 16 women and 26 men have qualified, although the first woman to make the cut, Ai Hosoda , announced that she was retiring after Tokyo earlier this month. Out of the 16 women to have qualified so far, Mikuni Yada is the fastest with her 2:19:57 debut at Osaka Women's in January. Including Hosoda that makes 2 qualifiers for the Edion corporate team, but Daihatsu has the biggest share of the field so ...

japan running news

Search This Blog