Outdoor Track Season Kicks Off at Chukyo and Setagaya

With the traditionally season-opening Oda Memorial Meet coming a week late this year the outdoor track season got started with two main time trial meets Saturday.

Runners from the Toenec corporate team dominated Aichi's Chukyo University Saturday Time Trials, with Daichi Takeuchi following up his runner-up finish at last month's Inuyama 10 km with a win in 13:42.57 over Kenyan Nicholas Kiplimo (Aichi Seiko). His teammate Daiji Kawai returned from a 2:10:50 at Lake Biwa to take 3rd in 13:51.52. The B-heat was also decently quick, winner Ryusei Takahashi (Aichi Seiko) just dipping under 14 minutes in 13:59.00.

Usually maxing out at 3000 m at this point in the season, this time around Tokyo's Setagaya Time Trials featured both women's and men's 5000 m and even a men's 10000 m. Kenyan Grace Kimanzi (Starts) won the women's 5000 m in 15:43.53, with Hakone Ekiden Fifth Stage winner Yuhei Urano (Koku Gakuin Univ.) taking the fastest men's heat in 13:52.80. Taiki Suzuki won what seemed to be mostly an intramural 10000 m time trial for the Raffine corporate team, running 29:15.19. In the 3000 m, the Sunbelx team showed off its new transplants from the now-defunct Nissin Shokuin team, with Yudai Okamoto and Masaki Toda going 1-2 in 8:05.96 and 8:07.40.

Chukyo University Saturday Time Trials

Umemura Field, Toyota, Aichi, 4/6/19

Men's 5000 m Heat 4
1. Daichi Takeuchi (Toenec) - 13:42.57
2. Nicholas Kiplimo (Aichi Seiko) - 13:51.15
3. Daiji Kawai (Toenec) - 13:51.52
4. Hazuma Hattori (Toenec) - 13:59.87
5. Shintaro Miwa (NTN) - 14:00.35

Men's 5000 m Heat 3
1. Ryusei Takahashi (Aichi Seiko) - 13:59.00
2. Hiroyuki Fujii (Aisan Kogyo) - 14:03.28
3. Bernard Muia (Toyota Boshoku) - 14:03.35
4. Satoshi Kondo (Toyota) - 14:03.75
5. Masanori Sakada (Aichi Seiko) - 14:09.14

Setagaya Time Trials

Kinuta Park Field, Setagaya, Tokyo, 4/6/19
complete results

Women's 5000 m Heat 1
1. Grace Kimanzi (Starts) - 15:43.53
2. Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:52.01
3. Nana Sato (Starts) - 16:05.48
4. Kyoka Kudo (Nittai Univ.) - 16:09.90
5. Narumi Kobayashi (Meijo Univ.) - 16:10.33

Men's 3000 m Heat 6
1. Yudai Okamoto (Sunbelx) - 8:05.96
2. Masaki Toda (Sunbelx) - 8:07.40
3. Yuji Osuda (Komori Corp.) - 8:07.53
4. Haruki Minatoya (DeNA) - 8:09.33
5. Keigo Yano (Kanebo) - 8:10.35

Men's 5000 m Heat 7
1. Yuhei Urano (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 13:52.80
2. Yoshihiro Hiraga (SDF Academy) - 13:54.39
3. Tomoki Yasuda (Kanagawa Univ.) - 13:55.36
4. Shun Yoshizato (Surugadai Univ.) - 13:57.56
5. Kei Fumimoto (Kanebo) - 13:59.23

Men's 10000 m Heat 1
1. Taiki Suzuki (Raffine) - 29:15.19
2. Ryota Komori (Teikyo Univ.) - 29:18.08
3. Kansuke Morihashi (Raffine) - 30:07.68
4. Futoshi Ebisawa (Raffine) - 30:16.51
5. Kenta Fukumura (Raffine) - 30:27.78

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Asian Games Preview - Entries, Timetable and Live Results

Back in Japan for the first time in 32 years and representing 60% of the world's population, with more athletes competing across all sports than at the Olympics, the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games are already underway. Athletics competition starts tomorrow and runs through Tuesday the 29th. Some of the biggest names on the entry list include: Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage (SRI) - men's javelin throw - 2026 World Ultimate Championships gold and 2026 Diamond League champion Haruka Kitaguchi (JPN) - women's javelin throw - 2026 World Ultimate Championships and 2024 Paris Olympics gold Birhanu Balew (BRN) - men's 5000 m/10000 m - 2026 Diamond League 5000 m champion Sanghyeok Woo (KOR) - men's high jump - 2025 Tokyo World Championships silver Hayato Katsuki (JPN) - men's marathon race walk - 2025 Tokyo World Championships bronze Abderrahman Samba (QAT) - men's 400 mH - 2025 Tokyo World Championships bronze Jiale Zhang (CHN) - women's hammer throw - 2025 Tokyo W...

Asian Games Competition Schedule

The daily athletics event schedule for September's Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games . Wednesday, Sept. 23 7:30 - Women's / Men's Half Marathon Race Walk Final Thursday, Sept. 24 10:00 - Women's Heptathlon 100 mH 10:20 - Mixed 4x400 m Relay Heats 10:30 - Men's Triple Jump Heats 10:40 - Women's Heptathlon High Jump 19:05 - Men's High Jump Heats 19:13 - Women's Heptathlon Shot Put 19:33 - Women's 100 m Heats 19:44 - Women's Triple Jump Final 20:08 - Men's 100 m Heats 20:55 - Men's Discus Throw Final 21:00 - Women's Heptathlon 200 m 21:25 - Women's 10000 m Final 22:15 - Mixed 4x400 m Relay Final Friday, Sept. 25 10:00 - Women's Heptathlon Long Jump 10:30 - Men's 400 m Heats 11:25 - Women's Heptathlon Javelin Throw 19:05 - Women's Shot Put Final 19:13 - Women's 100 m Semifinal 19:33 - Men's 100 m Semifinal 20:03 - Women's Pole Vault Final 20:11 - Women's Heptathlon 800 m 20:32 - Men's 10000 m Final 20:40 - M...

Updates to Japan's Home Team at Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games

This week the JAAF announced changes to the lineup for its home team at next week's Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games . The main change announced was the withdrawal of Ririka Hironaka from the women's 10000 m, leaving only Nozomi Tanaka to do it as part of a 1500-5000-10000 triple. In theory it seems like it would be pretty easy and swap in an alternate, but apparently not. No announcement of withdrawals for Tomonori Yamaguchi , who missed June's National Championships 5000 m with injury, or high jumper Ryoichi Akamatsu , who hasn't competed since early last October and made the Asian Games team based his 8th-place finish over a year ago at the Tokyo World Championships. Complete entry lists, schedule and results are available here . The latest Japanese team lineup, with current Asian ranking limited to 2 athletes per country, and best performance in 2025-26: Men 100 m 6 - Shuhei Tada (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.10 (+1.4) 9 - Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.06 (+1.4) 200 m 1 - Tow...

japan running news

Search This Blog