JAAF Postpones National Championships and All Other Major Meets Through End of June

As part of an effort to halt the effort of the novel coronavirus, the JAAF has announced that it will postpone the 104th National Championships Combined Events, scheduled for June 13~14 in Nagano, and the 104th National Track and Field Championships, scheduled for June 25~28 in Osaka. Potential dates and venues are being explored for these events to be rescheduled in late September or early July. This will include the previously postponed 10000 m National Championships originally scheduled for May 9. Further details will be announced as soon as they have determined.

In addition to the National Championships, all meets organized by the JAAF from April through June have been canceled or postponed. The JAAF has also requested that the organizers of other meets it supports during this time period likewise cancel or postpone their events. Further details will be announced by the JAAF and by individual meet organizers as the situation evolves. A list of JAAF-organized and supported meets that have been canceled or postponed as of this writing is below.

JAAF executive Mitsugi Ogata commented, "There are still many issues to be resolved, but we ask for your support moving forward. Under the present circumstances of society I believe that all athletes entered the 2020 season with very complicated feelings. But I ask all athletes and support staff to place priority on preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus and to act appropriately. Under these circumstances please keep working toward achieving your goals, whatever they may be. By working together now to fight the spread of the virus all of us in the sports world can help to elevate the place of sports in society once the light at the end of the tunnel comes into sight. Now is the time for all of us to unite our efforts!

Canceled and Postponed Events
April 11: 29th Kanaguri Memorial Meet - canceled
April 12: 104th National Championships 50 km Race Walk - canceled
April 18-19: 74th Izumo Track and Field Meet - postponed
April 19: 22nd Nagano Marathon - canceled
April 19: 68th Hyogo Relay Carnival - canceled
April 24-26: Tokyo Combined Events Meet 2020 - canceled
April 26: 10th Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon - canceled
April 29: 54th Oda Memorial Meet - canceled
May 2: 36th Shizuoka International Meet - postponed to Oct.~Dec.
May 4: 31th Golden Games in Nobeoka - canceled
May 5: 2020 Mito Invitational - canceled
May 5-6: Ready Steady Tokyo Olympic Test Meet - canceled
May 6: Kinami Memorial Meet - postponed
May 9: 104th National Championships 10000 m - postponed
May 10: Seiko Golden Grand Prix 2020 Tokyo - postponed
May 10: 30th Sendai International Half Marathon - canceled
May 15-17: 68th National Corporate Championships - postponed
May 16-July 31: National Junior High School Championships Series - TBA for all meets by end of June
June 5-6: Denka Athletics Challenge Cup 2020 - postponed
June 7: Fuse Sprint 2020 - canceled
June 13-14: 104th National Championships Combined Events - postponed
June 25-28: 104th National Championships - postponed
Sept. 20: 36th National Elementary School Championships - TBA by end of June

source articles:
https://www.jaaf.or.jp/news/article/13734/
https://www.jaaf.or.jp/news/article/13736/
https://www.jaaf.or.jp/files/upload/202004/03_144848.pdf
translated and edited by Brett Larner

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."...

Australian Male Arrested on Drug Smuggling Charges After Entering Japan for Osaka Marathon

On Apr. 9 the Kinki Region Bureau of Health, Labor and Welfare's Drug Control Division arrested Matthew Inglis Fox , 38, an Australian business owner of no known fixed address, on charges of violating the importation regulations of the Narcotics Control Act by smuggling tablets containing marijuana elements from the United States. The suspect had entered Japan in February to run in the Osaka Marathon . The suspect was arrested on suspicion of smuggling approximately 12 pills containing marijuana by sending them from a U.S. airport to Osaka's Kansai Airport using an international courier service on Feb. 19. The Osaka branch of the Customs Service discovered the tablets in arriving cargo and suspected them to be narcotics. Customs contacted the Narcotics Control Division, which then began its investigation of the case. According to the Narcotics Control Division, the suspect denies the charges. Translator's note: Fox, who received a lifetime ban from the Ageo City Half Mara...

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

japan running news

Search This Blog