Sumire Hata 6.97 m Women's Long Jump NR - Asian Athletics Championships Day 3 Highlights

Sumire Hata moved up a level globally with a 6.97 m +0.5 m/s Japanese national record to win the women's long jump gold medal on day 3 of the Bangkok Asian Athletics Championships. Already in first with a 6.74 m +1.7 m/s jump in the 4th round, Hata closed with the 6.97 m jump, the 4th-furthest in the world so far this year, to increase her margin over silver medalist Shaili Singh of India to 0.43 m. Bronze medalist Jiawei Zhong was another 8 cm back at 6.46 m.

Another big gold came in the men's 100 m, where Hiroki Yanagita followed up on his 10.10 PB in the first round with a dominating 10.02 +0.0 m/s for gold, winning by 0.17 and moving up to all-time Japanese #7. National champion Ryuichiro Sakai was 6th in 10.26. With many of the main names in Japanese men's spring struggling this season as they hit mid and late career phases, Yanagita's jump up in performance couldn't have come at a better time.

Still another was in the men's 110 mH. Shunya Takayama was just off the Asian Championships record, clocking 13.29 +0.6 m/s for the win by 0.10 over China's Xu Zhouyi with Kuwait's Yaqoub Alyouha a distant 3rd in 13.56. Taiga Yokochi was 5th in 13.59.

Gold also came in the men's 3000 mSC, where Olympian Ryoma Aoki fought off Qatari Yaser Salem Bagharab for the win 8:34.91 to 8:37.11. Seiya Sunada, a national champion over 400 m in junior high school, led the early phase of the race before falling off, but after losing touch he came back over the last lap to take bronze in 8:39.17, just short of retaking Bagharab.

Reimi Yoshimura also took bronze in the women's 3000 mSC in a hard-fought photo finish against India's Priti. 10 seconds behind gold medalist Parul Chaudhary, Yoshimura struggled to stay with Priti when she was overtaken in the home straight but held position and got in on the lean, 9:48.48 to Priti's 9:48.50. Chikako Mori was 5th in 9:56.67.

Japanese athletes finished out of the medals in the rest of the day's finals. Misaki Morota came close, finishing 4th in the women's pole vault at 4.00 m, with teammate Megumi Dainobu 7th at 3.80 m. Maki Saito was 4th too in the women's discus throw at 54.19 m, with Nanaka Kori 5th in 53.72 m. Arisa Kimishima took 5th in the women's 100 m final in 11.56 +0.0 m/s, 0.16 out of the medals. In the men's shot put, Hitoshi Okumura took 9th at 17.69 m.

In the women's heptathlon, Yuki Yamasaki sat in 3rd after the first day at 3359, Uzbekistan's Ekaterina Voronina leading in 3448 and India's Swapna Barman 2nd in 3392. Karin Odama was not far back in 5th at 3308. In the 400 m semi-finals, Yusaku Kodama led the qualifiers for the final in 49.45. Kaito Tsutsue was the fastest non-qualifier at 50.09.

Complete results are here. The Asian Athletics Championships continue through Sunday.

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...

World Marathon Majors Japanese Entries

We're back from a short summer break. A week and a half out from the first race of the season's four World Marathon Majors races, here's a look at Japanese athletes scheduled to run. Everything right now is about qualifying for the MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to be held in the fall of 2027 in Nagoya. The JAAF makes no mistake about wanting to keep its top people racing domestically where it can get a share of revenue from the TV broadcast and race operations, so anyone who decides to race overseas has to do it in a WA platinum label race and hit either 2:06:30 or 2:23:30, regardless of place, course or weather if they want to make the trials. At the same time concessions are make for domestic races, like for example the late-August Hokkaido Marathon where up to 3 men and 3 women can qualify if they go 2:12:00 or 2:32:00. As a result, you get things like last year where amateur runner Yudai Fukuda made the trials by finishing 3rd Jap...

Nakajima Breaks 100 mH NR Twice, Kitaguchi Returns - August Track Roundup

Catching up on what's been happening in track and field this month during our summer break: Men's 3000 m NR holder Nagiya Mori was just off his 5000 m PB at the IFAM Oordegem meet in Belgium on Aug. 1, taking 16th in 13:15.01. Shota Nakano was 26th of 28 in 13:35.02. This year's national champion Ryoma Aoki ran the 3000 mSC but didn't finish. Naoto Hasegawa was the only Japanese athlete at Mutaz Essa Barshim 's What Gravity Tour stop at the Monaco Athletics Festival meet on Aug. 5. Having cleared 2.30 m for the first time earlier this year Hasegawa only managed 2.18 m in Monaco, taking 7th of 10. There were a lot of good performances at the Fuji Hokuriku World Trial meet in Fujiyoshida on Aug. 9, but the one that got the headlines was a 12.62 (-0.2) NR in the women's 100 mH by Hitomi Nakajima . Nakajima actually did it twice, running 12.62 (+2.0) in the heats before repeating in the final. Masumi Aoki also ran big in the heats, with a 12.68 (+2.0) for al...

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