japan running news

https://www.triathlon.org/news/article/japanese_triathlete_tsudoi_miyazaki_dies_in_training_incident_in_franc

With the Oregon 22 World Championships coming to a close on July 25, next year and beyond are already on the horizon. Having missed her likely spot on the Japanese team after an injury kept her out of May's 10000 m National Championships, Seira Fuwa (19, 2nd yr., Takushoku Univ.) and her coach Toshiharu Igarashi traveled to Eugene to watch the women's 10000 m in person. Coach Igarashi talked about their reasons for going and their plans for the future. "I went to see the 2011 Daegu World Championships, and the atmosphere was really something unique," he said. "The difference between watching it on TV and experiencing it in the stadium was incredible." To help Fuwa prepare for her own upcoming debut at the international level, he wanted her to get the same experience of the level and atmosphere at an early stage in her career. Igarashi suggested the trip to the U.S. to her on May 4 right after announcing her withdrawal from the National Championships. ...

The same day most of Japan's team from the Oregon 22 World Championships made it back home, the Cali 22 World U20 Championships team took off from Tokyo ahead of next week's meet. 9 women representing 5 universities and 3 high schools across 6 events and 25 men from 17 universities and 3 high schools across 15 events are entered . But if the numbers in Eugene were anything to go by it's likely the number of them who make it to the starting line will be smaller.  The women are surprisingly absent from the 3000 m, usually an area of strength for them, but the women's team does include Moe Matsuoka (Chuo Univ.), 4th-fastest U20 worldwide in the 400 mH this year, 10000 mRW top 2-ranked Ai Oyama (Kagoshima Joshi H.S.) and Ayane Yanai (Ritsumeikan Univ.), and 2022 worldwide #5 and #6 Momoko Tsuji (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) and Aoi Murakami (Nittai Univ.) in the javelin throw. Notable names among the men's entries include Oregon 4x100 m team member and worldwide #6 jun...

The final day of the Oregon 22 World Championships opened with a medal-winning walk from Masatora Kawano in the men's 35 km race walk. Teammate Daisuke Matsunaga went out hard, opening a lead of over a minute at one point before being reeled in early in the second half and fading to 26th. Kawano stayed in the lead group the entire way, the only person there never to take the lead at any point, covering any move without making any contribution to the race. When Italy's Massimo Stano made his final move for the win Kawano was right there, but he couldn't quite close it down and was consigned by the Italian to silver, 2:23:14 to 2:23:15. Sweden's Perseus Karlstrom took bronze in 2:23:44. Japan's Tomohiro Noda patiently worked his way up into the top 8 together with Canadian Evan Dunfee , but while Dunfee was able to carry his momentum all the way to final finishing position of 6th, Noda faded and was re-taken, ultimately just outside the top 8 at 9th in 2:25:29 ...

A Japanese men's 4x400 m relay had only made a World Championships final once before in 2003, but this year's squad of Fuga Sato , Kaito Kawabata , Julian Walsh and Joseph Nakajima exceeded expectations, running the 2nd-fastest time in the heats to make the Oregon 22 World Championships final. Sato put the team into contention with Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago for 2nd, Kawabata and Walsh kept them there, and Nakajima surprised by holding off Jamaican Anthony Cox by just 0.06 in a season best 3:01.53. That was better than any team in Heat 2, and, granted, over two and a half seconds behind the United States, but not even Japanese TV announcers seemed to have expected the squad to make the final let alone have a medal within the realm of possibility. Another big run in the final will do a lot to make up for the disappointment of a second-straight 4x100 m exchange failure. Both Japanese women in the 100 m hurdles went on to the semifinals on time, Mako Fukube taking 4th...

The men's race walks were expected to be Japan's only real chance at medals at the Oregon 22 World Athletics Championships , but in the women's javelin throw Haruka Kitaguchi came through with the country's first-ever women's field event medal at the World Championships as she took bronze. Kitaguchi came to Eugene in good form with a first-ever Japanese win in a Diamond League event under her belt and got off strong when she led the qualifying round with a 64.32 m throw on her first attempt. Kitaguchi opened with a 62.07 m that put her in bronze medal position behind Australians Kelsey-Lee Barber and Mackenzie Little , where she stayed until the fourth round. There China's Shiying Liu threw 63.25 m to move into 2nd by 3 cm over Little, pushing Kitaguchi down to 4th. It took until the final round for Kitaguchi to respond. Summoning up a big throw, she bettered Liu by just 2 cm to overtake her at 63.27 cm. American Kara Winger also came up a big closer, throw...

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1126034/yamanishi-new-member-athletes-commission

Ten years after his last appearance on the Japanese national team with a 9th-place finish at the London Olympics, Roderick Genki Dean put himself in good position in the qualification round of the men's javelin throw on Day 7 of the Oregon 22 World Athletics Championships . With all 12 qualifiers for the final going over 80 m Dean was right on the cusp with his first two throws, hitting 79.26 m and 79.33 m. But on his third attempt he pulled out a season best 82.34 m to make the cut, positioning himself at 7th going into the final. Teammate Kenji Ogura couldn't quite get there, throwing 78.48 m on his first attempt and unable to better it on his other two. Dean looks to be in good position to better his London performance in Saturday's final if he can replicate the same kind of form. Neither of the other Japanese athletes in action advanced to the next round in their events. Running in Heat 2, all-time Japanese #2 Hyuga Endo only needed to finish 10th in 13:24.55 to mak...

Day 5 of the Oregon 22 World Championships saw only two Japanese athletes in action, with Koki Ueyama and Shota Iizuka running the men's 200 m semifinals. Ueyama took 6th in SF 3 in 20.48 +0.3, with Iizuka bowing out in Heat 1 at 20.77 -0.1 for 7th. Day 6 kicked off with the women's javelin throw qualification round. Haruka Kitaguchi only threw once, but that was all it took for her to put herself at the top of the field at 64.32 m. Sae Takemoto also made it to the final with a 59.15 m throw on her second attempt. Wearing a heavy brace on her left knee and in visible pain, Momone Ueda somehow managed three throws. The best of them was only 50.70 m, putting her ahead of only two athletes who didn't manage any marks, but given the condition she seemed to be in Ueda's performance was one of the grittiest we've seen in Eugene. In the women's 5000 m heats, NR holder Ririka Hironaka took the same approach as in the 10000 m, going out on PB pace in front and tr...

On July 18, JAAF sprint director  Hiroyasu Tsuchie announced that another coach and three more athletes at the Oregon 22 World Championships, 200 m and 4x100 m team member Yuki Koike , 110 m hurdler Shunsuke Izumiya , and 400 m hurdler Takayuki Kishimoto , have tested positive for COVID-19. They bring the total number of people on the Japanese national team to have tested positive at the Championships to 15. "The impact is enormous," said Tsuchie. "Our team this team included a core of younger athletes who had been set to gain valuable experience." The first athletes to test positive were three of the marathoners, but it has now spread to the sprints and hurdles squads. Koike reported having a fever the morning of the 200 m heats, and when his test results came back positive he was forced to withdraw from what would have been his first race, the 200 m heats. He has also withdrawn from the 4x100 m relay. Tsuchie commented, "Up to this point he had been peaking ...

With both teammates out with COVID it was down to Mizuki Matsuda to represent Japan in the women's marathon at the Oregon 22 World Championships . As the front group went out at World Championships record pace Matsuda let go of both them and a chase group centered around Great Britain's Jess Piasecki and Americans Sara Hall and Emma Bates , all alone by 3 km and running that way the rest of the race. As far back as 17th at one point, by the end of the first 14 km lap she was in 16th, 24 seconds behind the chase group which now included U.S. record holder Keira D'Amato . As the leading trio went through halfway in 1:09:01 and the chase quartet in 1:10:17 Matsuda was up to 13th in 1:10:38. From there until 40 km it was a steady advance up through the field in pursuit of a top 8 finish, Matsuda closing to within 2 seconds of D'Amato in 8th. But D'Amato had superior closing speed, and held her off 2:23:34 to 2:23:49. Up front Ethiopian Gotytom Gebreslase , 3rd-placer...

With the last-second withdrawal of NR holder Kengo Suzuki after a positive COVID test the day before the race, it was up to newbies Yusuke Nishiyama and Gaku Hoshi to represent Japan in the men's marathon at the start of Day 3 of the Oregon 22 World Championships . Nishiyama, who won February's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon in 2:07:47 in his debut, told JRN pre-race that his goals were top 8 and a PB, in that order. He stayed in the lead group for much of the race, but although he dropped off in the later stages and missed both goals, his 2:08:35 for 13th was still the fastest-ever by a Japanese man at the World Championships. Teammate Hoshi, 1st at February's Osaka Marathon in 2:07:31 in his debut, struggled to match Nishiyama, fading to 38th in 2:13:44. In between, longtime Japan-based Mongolian NR holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir , 40, made good on one of his two goals for his 10th-straight World Championships, beating his best-ever Worlds time of 2:16:41 by 5:02 as he ran 2:11...

The biggest news of the Oregon 2022 World Championships Day Two on the Japanese front was the announcement that its top marathon hopes Kengo Suzuki and Mao Ichiyama had both had positive COVID tests along with their coaches and have withdrawn from their races. But there was more positive news. Women's 5000 m NR holder Ririka Hironaka ran 30:39.71 for 12th in the 10000 m, a PB by exactly 21 seconds over the time she ran for 7th at the Tokyo Olympics last summer and moving her up to all-time Japanese #2, 19 seconds off the NR at age 21. Hironaka led the first half of the race and executed almost perfectly even splits: 1000 m: 3:04.80 2000 m: 3:04.04 3000 m: 3:03.03 4000 m: 3:03.20 5000 m: 3:04.21 (15:19.28) 6000 m: 3:07.02 (lost rhythm when Eilish McColgan took lead) 7000 m: 3:04.05 9000 m: 6:06.94 10000 m: 3:02.62 Of course she got dropped easily once things really got moving, Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey winning in 30:09.94 by 0.08 over Hellen Obiri , but not everyone's a co...

The Oregon 22 World Championships kicked off with Japan's two best medal chances coming through for gold and silver in the men's 20 km race walk, and most of its other top people performing up to potential. 2019 world champ and Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist Toshikazu Yamanishi set the tone with a fast start and threw in a series of surges whenever the pace slowed much beyond 4:00/km. In the late going he made a move for real, with only Tokyo silver medalist Koki Ikeda and Kenya's Samuel Gathimba able to stay with him. Ikeda took his turn with a surge of his own, and Gathimba dropped back to deal with 2019 bronze medalist Perseus Karlstrom of Sweden. But Yamanishi wasn't going to let Ikeda get away, and over the last 2 km he pulled away for a second-straight gold medal in a season-best 1:19:07. Ikeda scored silver in 1:19:14, with Karlstrom 4 seconds back for bronze again. Hiroto Jusho was 8th in 1:20:39, making for what will probably be the best Japanese team perf...

On July 14 World Athletics announced that the 2025 World Championships in Athletics will be held in Tokyo at the National Stadium used for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. It will be Tokyo's 2nd time to host the World Championships, 34 years after the last time in 1991. It will also be Japan's 3rd time following the 2007 Osaka World Championships, making it the first country to host the World Championships three time. JAAF director Mitsugi Ogata commented, "It's a great honor, but with it comes great responsibility." World Athletics hopes to have the Championships take place in late August, but in view of the hot conditions at the Tokyo Olympics and its road events having been moved to Sapporo, he said, "we are thinking in terms of mid-September. In terms of both athlete safety and the potential for top-level performances, from the beginning we have to face the fact that mid-September is the ideal timing in Japan.  We also very strongly want to have...

 https://worldathletics.org/news/press-releases/tokyo-2025-world-athletics-championships It's worth noting that the warmup track outside the stadium used for last year's Tokyo Olympics was destroyed after the end of the Tokyo Paralympics and the space was returned to its original use as a baseball diamond.

Update: Women's 10000 m member Narumi Kobayashi  was pulled from the team after testing positive in her pre-departure COVID test at Narita Airport. She is not reported to be experiencing any symptoms. No athlete will be added to the team in her place. Japan's final team for the Oregon 22 World Championships stands at 67 athletes, 41 men and 26 women. Its only real medal prospects are in the men's race walks, with top 8 prospects in a few of its other traditionally and recently strong events. Tokyo Olympics men's 20 kmRW silver medalist Koki Ikeda is the single best shot Japan has at an individual medal, among entrants the fastest in the world this year at 1:18:53 and #3 in the rankings. Defending world champ and Olympic bronze medalist Toshikazu Yamanishi is right there too off a win at March's WA Race Walking Team Championships. Eiki Takahashi is 3rd-fastest and Hiroto Jusho 11th in the field, so chances are very good of at least one other finish in the top ...

Takushoku University women's ekiden head coach Toshiharu Igarashi has revealed that he will take U20 and collegiate 10000 m record holder Seira Fuwa , 19, to watch the Oregon 2022 World Championships women's 10000 m in person. Last December Fuwa ran 30:45.21 for 10000 m, the 2nd-fastest Japanese time ever and easily clearing the 31:25.00 World Championships qualification standard. All she needed to do to make the Japanese team was finish top 3 at May's National Championships, but an injury to her right Achilles tendon in January made her give up on competing at Nationals and focus instead on treating the injury. Last month on Takushoku's official team social media Igarashi posted that Fuwa has started training again. "She isn't back to full-on workouts yet, but she's back to rhythm of regular running at a jogging pace," he wrote. He also posted, "I'm going to take Fuwa to America to see the Oregon World Championships in person." His ho...

The Hokuren Distance Challenge series continued Saturday in Kitami , where the biggest news came in the women's 3000 m. National ekiden champion Meijo University 's Yuma Yamamoto took over 6 seconds off Masako Saito 's collegiate record dating back to 1994, running 8:52.19 for 6th. 19-year-old Agnes Mwikali (Kyocera) took the top spot in a PB 8:45.86, with high schoolers Janet Nyiva (Kurashiki H.S.) and Susan Kamotho (Oita Tomei H.S.) running impressive U20 times of 8:47.89 and 8:50.24. The top 9 were all under 9 minutes, very deep for a domestic Japanese race. 2019 World University Games half marathon gold medalist Yuka Suzuki (Daito Bunka Univ.) ran her 2nd PB for 5000 m this week, taking the top spot in the A-heat in 15:30.14 with a 2:59 final 1000 m. The men's 3000 m saw former 1500 m NR holder Nanami Arai (Honda) run a PB 7:48.50 for the win, moving him up to all-time Japanese #5. Hazuma Hattori (Toenec), younger brother of marathoner Yuma Hattori , was 2n...

As part of the countermeasures established by the Tokyo Marathon Foundation to ensure the safety of participants by preventing clusters of new coronavirus infections at the 2021 Tokyo Marathon held on Sunday, Mar. 6, 2022, the TMF established a countermeasure review committee and study group to develop effective measures for dealing with infectious disease risk for the purpose of conducting a safe and secure event. A summary of the results from PCR testing done on runners before the race by event medical partners F Medical Equipment Co., Ltd. and Tokyo TMS Clinic are as follows. The complete report is linked at the bottom. Of 19.527 tests conducted on runners in the three days prior to the race, 108 positive cases were discovered, a positivity rate of 0.55%. No defective tests were discovered. None of the participants who tested positive had temperatures measured at 37.5˚C or higher when they came to runner check-in at the event expo. In telephone interviews Tokyo TMS Clinic doctors f...

Update: On July 7 the JAAF added team members in five events after receiving notification from World Athletics that they had moved up from borderline positions. 41 men and 27 women will represent Japan at the Oregon 2022 World Championships later this month. Full squads of three will compete in the men's 200 m, men's 400 m, men's 110 mH, men's 3000 mSC, men's marathon, men's 20 kmRW and men's 35 kmRW, the 20 km featuring four athletes given the inclusion of defending world champion Toshikazu Yamanishi (Aichi Seiko). On the women's side the 5000 m, 10000 m, javelin throw, and marathon will have complete squads. Teams will also compete in all the relays except women's 4x400 m. A complete team breakdown with rank in each event quota: Men's 100 m (48) 28. Ryuichiro Sakai (Osaka Gas) - 10.02 (+1.1) 36. Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Tumbleweed TC) - 10.04 (+0.8) Men's 200 m  (56) 40. Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) - 20.46 50. Koki Ueyama (Sumitomo Denko)...

Japan's main early summer track series, the Hokuren Distance Challenge , is underway across Hokkaido. Following last month's special last chance edition for people to go for Oregon 2022 World Championships qualifying times, two regular meets have already happened this month. At the July 2 Shibetsu Meet , Benard Koech (Kyudenko) won the day's biggest race, the men's 5000 m A-heat, in 13:26.03 by a fraction of a second over Muthoni Muiru (JR Higashi Nihon). The biggest surprise was World Championships 3000 mSC squad member Kosei Yamaguchi (Aisan Kogyo) outkicking lone Worlds 5000 m entrant Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Kaijo) for top Japanese honors at 3rd overall in 13:33.45. Endo was 5th in 13:35.59, doing the race as a workout after winning the 3000 m in 7:52.50 where he beat another Worlds steepler, Ryoma Aoki (Honda) by 5 seconds. After missing the Tokyo Olympics 10000 m by a fraction of a second, Kazuki Tamura (Sumitomo Denko) came close to a full comeback from a lon...

At the July 3 Hakodate Half Marathon in Hakodate, Hokkaido, 30 km national record holder and Tokyo Olympics marathon team member Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) won in a course record 1:08:28, improving her PB by 40 seconds. Her Tenmaya teammate Natsumi Matsushita , already qualified for the MGC 2024 Olympic marathon trials, was 2:16 behind in 2nd, with Tokyo Olympics 10000 m squad member Yuka Ando (Wacoal) 4th. Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) won the men's half marathon in 1:02:17, beating top Japanese man Shun Sadakata (Mazda) by 29 seconds. National record holder Yusuke Ogura (Yakult) was 12th in 1:03:39, with former NR holder Yuta Shitara (Honda) 28th in 1:05:48. Miharu Shimokado (S.I.D. Group) won the accompanying full women's full marathon in 2:43:16, Shintaro Miyakawa (Tokyo Police) taking the men's race in 2:22:25. Hakodate Half Marathon Hakodate, Hokkaido, 3 July 2022 half marathon results marathon results Women's Half Marathon 1. Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) - 1:08:28...

As Australia's Village Roadshow Theme Parks Gold Coast Marathon returned for the first time since 2019, Lindsay Flanagan became its first American winner female or male, taking 6 seconds off the course record and over 2 minutes off her PB to take 1st in 2:24:43. Accompanied by dedicated male pacers and a large group of men in a race that never saw a lead women's group congeal, Flanagan went through halfway in 1:11:59 and then sped up even further, clocking her two fastest 5 km splits of the race, 16:52 and 16:47, from 20 to 25 km and 25 to 30 km. The effects of that came down on her after 30 km as she slowed beyond 3:30/km, but with a rally over the last km she held on to crack Ruth Chebitok 's 2018 CR of 2:24:49. Post-race Flanagan and her coach, Australian NR and Oceania AR holder Benita Johnson , were elated, having just met each other in person a few days before the race after a year of online coaching. Like Flanagan, 2nd-placer and local favorite Lisa Weightman , the...