japan running news

The JAAF announced the lineups today for the Japanese women's and men's marathon teams for this fall's Doha World Championships . Having scheduled Japan's new MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials event for two weeks before the World Championships the JAAF has specified that nobody can double, meaning that, including alternates, three of the four women and all four men named would have to give up a chance at being part of the Tokyo Olympics in order to get a guaranteed spot on a lesser national team. That means a team drawn from the middle and lower end of the list of trials qualifiers, a good mix of relatively inexperienced younger athletes likely to develop further for the 2024 Paris Olympics, mid-career runners without much chance of making the top few spots at the trials, and aging veterans who've shrewdly sussed out that being on a national team is better for their brands than going for a higher-level one they know they can't make. It's a B-team t...

Bolder Boulder 10 km Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A., 5/27/19 complete results Women - Individual 1. Hiwot Yemer (Ethiopia) - 32:49 2. Meseret Tola (Ethiopia) - 32:55 3. Aliphine Tuliamuk (U.S.A.) - 33:00 4. Margearet Muriuki (Kenya) - 33:21 5. Rahma Chota (Ethiopia) - 33:29 ----- 7. Kayoko Fukushi (Japan) - 33:56 9. Yuka Ando (Japan) - 34:19 21. Kotomi Tsubokura (Japan) - 36:37 Women - Team 1. Ethiopia - 8 2. U.S.A. Red - 24 3. Kenya - 29 4. Japan - 37 5. U.S.A. White - 40 Men - Individual 1. Bernard Ngeno (Kenya) - 28:29 2. Terela Delesa (Ethiopia) - 28:58 3. Joseph Panga (Tanzania) - 29:03 4. Tsegay Tuernay (Eritrea) - 29:09 5. Gabriel Geay (Tanzania) - 29:13 ----- 26. Atsumi Ashiwa (Japan) - 31:29 27. Masaya Taguchi (Japan) - 31:52 34. Shohei Tomita (Japan) - 32:43 Men - Team 1. Ethiopia - 20 2. Tanzania - 22 3. Eritrea - 29 4. Bahrain - 31 5. U.S.A. Red - 33 ----- 10. Japan - 87 © 2019 Brett Larner, all ...

At a junior high school in Machida, Tokyo today, 24 students practicing for the school's sports festival suffered symptoms of heatstroke, of which 8 were taken to the hospital by ambulance as of this writing. According to the Tokyo Fire Department and other sources, the incident occurred just past 12:30 the afternoon of Monday, May 27 at Minami Naruse J.H.S. in the Tokyo suburb of Machida. A spokesperson for the Machida Board of Education confirmed that the students had been practicing for this Saturday's sports festival since midmorning for two and a half hours including breaks. Students began to stream into the school nurse's office complaining that they weren't feeling well and had sharp headaches. In Tokyo over the weekend 107 people were known to have been taken to the emergency room for treatment for suspected heatstroke. translated by Brett Larner

Japan's best collegiate meet wrapped up Sunday with day four of the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships at Kanagawa's Sagamihara Gion Stadium. The biggest result of the day came in the women's steeplechase, where first-year  Reimi Yoshimura (Daito Bunka Univ.) doubled from her 1500 m Kanto title on Friday to win by almost 35 seconds in a new meet record of 9:57.46. Her time also broke her own Kanto Region record, a pretty impressive wrap to just her second month of collegiate competition. A few hours later her senior teammate Natsuki Sekiya , last year's double 5000 m and 10000 m winner but skipping the 10 this year in favor of last weekend's 10000 m National Championships , took a close race against Rino Goshima (Chuo Univ.) to win the 5000 m title. Her victory meant that three different DBU women took the top spot in all four events from 1500 m to 10000 m, boding well for the team's chances in ekiden season this fall. In D1 men...

The third day of the 2019 Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships , Japan's most competitive collegiate meet, saw few finals, most of the day being dedicated to qualifying rounds for the last day's finals. One exception was the D1 men's pole vault final, where Kanto Region record holder Masaki Ejima (Nihon Univ.) cleared 5.61 m to break the meet record. Another meet record came in the D2 men's 10000 m racewalk, where Katsuya Ishii (Keio Univ.) set a D2 record of 41:21.44. His time was over two minutes slower than that of D1 winner Koki Ikeda (Toyo Univ.). Other winners of finals included Sayaka Nakamura (Kanagawa Univ.) with a jump of 12.96 m (+2.5 m/s) in the women's triple jump, Genku Hiratsuka (Nihon Univ.) clearing 2.11 m in the men's high jump, Masanari Ito (Juntendo Univ.) with a toss of 62.95 m in the D1 men's hammer throw, Yugo Sakai (Keio Univ.) with a 7.70 m (+4.6 m/s) in the D2 men's triple jump, Koichi Ishii (Ryutsu ...

Just over 2 months out from Japan's 2020 Tokyo Olympic marathon trials, the Sept. 15 MGC Race , 13 of the 34 men and 9 of the 15 women to have qualified for the trials will be tuning up the first weekend of July. In Australia, 7 male qualifiers will run the Gold Coast Marathon and Asics Half Marathon . Half marathon national record holder and former marathon national record holder Yuta Shitar a (Honda) leads the way in the marathon, a surprising step in what has so far been a solid recovery season from the injuries that held him back for most of last year following his 2:06:11 marathon national record. Yuma Hattori (Toyota), 2:07:27 for the win in Fukuoka last December, and Taku Fujimoto (Toyota), 2:07:57 two months earlier in Chicago, head the list in the half, where 3 of their Toyota teammates with sub-62 bests including Minato Oishi , the fastest Japanese man so far this year in the half marathon, are likewise entered. 3rd in the marathon last year on the Gold Coast, Jo ...

Day Two of Kanto Regionals dawned windy, bringing loads of performances that exceeded the meet records but missed the books thanks to a tailwind over the limit. The D1 men's 1500 m wasn't one of them. A slow 72 second first lap led to a 2:22 split at 800 m, a full 5 seconds slower than what the women's final went through it in. Yudai Noguchi (Juntendo Univ.) made a break for it from around 700 m out, but it wasn't until just into the last lap that former indoor mile national record holder and captain of 2019 Hakone Ekiden champion Tokai University's Ryoji Tatezaw a went after him with rookie first-year teammate Kazuto Iizawa in tow. In the home straight Tatezawa reeled Noguchi in and looked to have a senior year title sealed up, but at the last second Iizawa pulled even with him. Both throwing their arms straight forward at the line and Tatezawa going into full dive mode, when the results came up on the screen Iizawa had taken his team captain down by the t...

Japan's best university meet got started Thursday at rural Kanagawa's Sagamihara Gion Stadium with Day One of the 98th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championship s. The main finals of the day were the 10000 m, where windy and hotter than usual conditions kept times on the slower side. In the women's 10000 m defending champ Natsuki Sekiya (Daito Bunka Univ.) gave it a miss after having run Sunday's 10000 m National Championships, leaving the door open for her 2nd-year teammate Yuka Suzuki (Daito Bunka Univ.) to take the win in 33:02.93 over last year's 2nd and 3rd-placers Rino Goshima (Chuo Univ.) and Yukina Ueda (Tsukuba Univ.). The graduation of Patrick Mathenge Wambui (Nihon Univ.), Dominic Nyairo (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) and Kazuya Shiojiri (Juntendo Univ.), top 3 in the D1 10000 m in that order for the last 3 years, gave others the chance to step up onto the podium this year. James Bunuka (Surugadai Univ.) took the opportunity to win his...

With regard to the ongoing problem of the improper use of iron injections to improve performance in long distance athletes, on May 22 JAAF director Mitsugi Ogata said that the federation is considering a plan in which following the introduction of blood testing at this year's National High School Ekiden Championships, the coaches of any athletes whose testing results indicated possible iron injection abuse would be called before a hearing to give an explanation. No penalty would be imposed. The JAAF intends to build up a database of the collected blood test results and monitor the trends in the situation. "It is important that we first get a handle on what the current situation actually is," commented Ogata. "We can then track changes and assess the effectiveness of our efforts to combat the problem." The JAAF's new guidelines prohibiting misuse of iron injections are scheduled to be released by the end of the month. When utilized as intended, the inje...

https://www.athleticsintegrity.org/disciplinary-process/provisional-suspensions-in-force The AIU announced today that Kenyan-born Bahraini Eunice Jepkirui Kirwa has been provisionally suspended for a positive test for EPO. Prior to disappearing at the end of 2017 after winning the Macao International Marathon  Kirwa was a familiar face in Japan, winning all seven of her races there between 2015 and 2017, taking 2nd in another in 2013, and medaling at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, 2015 Beijing World Championships and 2016 Rio Olympics. It was notable that despite her string of international medals Kirwa never ran the big European and American races after hitting that level, her only appearance in the World Marathon Majors a DNF at the 2014 Boston Marathon and her only times running the biggest European marathons coming in 2012 and 2013 in Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt, all in the 2:21-2:23 range and making the top three twice. Details of Kirwa's case are still forthc...

Four hours after a collective sigh of relief 17,000-strong as Yuki Koike 's successful handoff to Yoshihide Kiryu brought the Golden Grand Prix Osaka meet to a close with a world-leading 38.00 win for the Japanese men's 4x100 m relay team, the acton continued at Osaka's Nagai Stadium with the women's and men's 10000 m National Championships . Held six weeks out from the rest of the National Championships this year to try to maximize performances and world rankings points in both the 5 and 10, the 10000 m Nationals started at 7:30 p.m. with the women's race. Championships record holder Hitomi Niiya (Nike Tokyo TC) started unusually slowly, sitting mid-to-rear pack as 2016 national champion Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post) and-two defending national champ Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) led the way, but after a 3:15 for the third 1000 m she lost patience and went to the front. From there it was a familiar race, Niiya holding the pace relentlessly as the competitio...

Reports on Saturday's World Triathlon Series Yokohama: WTS Yokohama: Luis Wins, Yee 5th Unbeaten Zafares Wins as US Sweep Podium in Japan WTS Yokohama: 10 Things We Learnt

We hereby announce the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Marathon Team qualifying standards for the MGC Final Challenge. men: 2:05:49 women: 2:22:22 These times are one second faster than the fastest times run by Japanese men and women within the MGC Race qualifying period. The fastest athlete under these standards at one of the MGC Final Challenge series races will earn the third and final spot on the Tokyo 2020 team following the two to be decided at September's MGC Race. MGC Final Challenge series races: Men: 73rd Fukuoka International Marathon Tokyo Marathon 2020 75th Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon Women: 5th Saitama International Marathon 39th Osaka International Women's Marathon Nagoya Women's Marathon 2020 For more information on the overall Tokyo 2020 Olympic team qualification process please click here . The official MGC site:  http://www.mgc42195.jp/ source press release: https://www.jaaf.or.jp/news/article/12712/ translated and edited by Brett Larne...

It's a busy weekend on the track across the country. In long distance action the main event is Sunday's 10000 m national championships , held this year a month and a half before the rest of the National Track and Field Championships in an effort to help people produce better performances to maximize their world rankings points. The 10000 m will be held in Osaka's Nagai Stadium just after the Golden Grand Prix Osaka meet, which maxes out this time around with the 3000 m steeplechase. 22 women are entered in the 10000 m including 6 of the 7 who have cleared the 31:50.00 Doha World Championships standard and the only one who has cleared the 31:25.00 Tokyo Olympics standard. That would be the currently world-ranked #3 Hitomi Niiya (Nike Tokyo TC), who lapped 2nd place the last time she ran Nationals back in 2013 en route to a still-standing championships record 31:06.67. #16-ranked Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post), jointly #22-ranked Kaori Morita (Panasonic) and Mizuki Matsud...

At the May 12 Sendai International Half Marathon , Akito Terui (25, ND Software) finished 6th overall in 1:03:01. As a member of the Kanto Student Alliance team Terui ran the fastest time on the anchor stage at the 2017 Hakone Ekiden. Running for the Nanyo, Yamagata-based ND Software team, Terui embraces the slogan 'From the Northeast to the World.' In Sendai he beat a number of athletes who have qualified for September's MGC Race, the new trials event that will determine the marathon team for the Tokyo Olympics, marking him as a potential contender for future Olympic teams. In one of the nation's leading half marathons Terui made his presence felt among the elite competitors. Starting off in the third group, mid-race he began to move up through the field to finish as the 4th Japanese man. Three runners he beat in the final stages, 7th-place Daichi Kamino (New Balance), 8th-place Yoshiki Takenouchi (NTT Nishi Nihon) and 10th-place Masato Imai (Toyota Kyushu), w...

Entry lists for the 98th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships , Japan's most competitive collegiate meet, were released May 14. The meet begins May 23rd at Kanagawa's Sagamihara Gion Stadium. Celebrating its 25th anniversary as a D1 program, Yamanashi Gakuin University will field its new Kenyan first-year Boniface Murua in the 10000 m on the 23rd and in the final day's 5000 m on the 26th. At 181 cm Murua has a long and dynamic stride that was in full evidence when he ran 14:06.27 at the Setagaya Time Trials meet immediately after his arrival in Japan in April, and in his 28:17.36 follow-up at the Nittai University Time Trials later that month. Asked about his Kanto Regionals debut, the Japanese Murua has learned was just enough for him to answer, "I'll do my best!" 3rd in the 800 m last year, third-year Daichi Setoguchi is also entered for the third year in a row. "I've been 5th and 3rd, so this year I want to deliver the win...

The IAAF World Relays in Yokohama were the weekend's main track action, but the first round of regional corporate championships and a few other meets brought distance action across the country. The women's 10000 m was the highlight at the Kansai Region Corporate Championships , with Wacoal teammates Yuka Ando and Mao Ichiyama recovering from decent runs at the London Marathon last month to go 1st and 5th, Ando the fastest in 32:43.18. Their fellow MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials qualifier Madoka Nakano (Noritz) was 2nd in 32:50.18, doubling the next day in the 5000 m where she was 5th in 16:07.24. Former Hakone Ekiden rivals and now teammates at NTT Nishi Nihon, Kenyans Patrick Wambui and Dominic Nyairo went 1-2 in the men's 10000 m in 28:41.84 and 28:43.86. Ryota Motegi (Sumitomo Denko) just missed the meet record in the men's 1500 m, winning in 3:44.12. At the Chubu Region Corporate Championships Kenyans Rodgers Chumo Kwemoi (Aisan Kogyo) and Mac...

2018 Jakarta Asian Games marathon silver medalist Keiko Nogami (Juhachi Ginko) turned in one of the best performances of her career Sunday, taking almost two minutes off her half marathon best to win the Sendai International Half Marathon in 1:09:27. One of just fifteen women to have qualified for Japan's MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials, Nogami quickly dropped the more accomplished Rei Ohara (Tenmaya), also an MGC qualifier, to run the last 3/4 of the race alone en route to the fastest winning time in Sendai since 2009. Ohara was next in 1:10:25, with 10000 m collegiate record holder Hikari Yoshimoto (Daihatsu) 3rd in a PB of 1:12:39. Locally-based Kenyan Alexander Mutiso (ND Software) won the men's race with the same kind of margin as Nogami, running 1:01:10 for the win, Sendai's fastest time since 2010. Back on the roads for the first time since his crash-and-burn shot at a 2:04 at March's Tokyo Marathon, Yuki Sato (Nissin Shokuhin) was 2nd in 1:02:30 ...

https://www.iaaf.org/competitions/iaaf-world-relays/news/iaaf-world-relays-yokohama-2019-day-2

https://www.iaaf.org/competitions/iaaf-world-relays/news/world-relays-yokohama-day-1

The National Championships 10000 m will be held six weeks earlier than the rest of the meet this year in a bid to help people produce better performances to increase their positions in the world rankings ahead of next year's Tokyo Olympics. The 10000 m will take place May 19 in Osaka as part of the Golden Grand Prix meet. The women's race includes six of the seven Japanese women who have cleared the 2019 Doha World Championships standard of 31:50.00, the only absence being Harumi Okamoto (Mitsui Sumitomo Denko), 31:28.20 at December's Corporate Women's Time Trials meet. Of them, only #2-ranked Hitomi Niiya (Nike Tokyo TC) has cleared the more demanding 31:25.00 Tokyo Olympic standard with a 31:22.63 in her silver medal-winning run at last month's Asian Athletics Championships. With no Japanese men under either the 27:40.00 Doha standard or the 27:28.00 Olympic standard the men's race includes four Japan-based Kenyans to try to pull them along to at lea...