Yamagata Breaks 100 m U20 NR, Yanagita 9.97 at National University Individual Championships

At the high school, university and corporate league levels, national championships on the track are at an odd time in the Japanese calendar. After regional championships in May, college students and corporate leaguers don't have their national championship meets until September right after summer mileage base building for ekiden season. High schoolers have their regional meets in June, then their Nationals in August. The National University Track and Field Individual Championships, aka the All Japan University Track & Field Challenge Meeting, happens more when you'd expect, ever mid-June in Kanagawa, but without a team component, no relays, no team scoring, and missing a few events, it's not a major event and doesn't usually bring in much of the main collegiate talent.

Two weeks out from the outright National Championships, this year was an exception at the Individual Championships with seven new meet records. The biggest out of them was in Saturday's women's 100 m. After coasting through her opening heat in the 100 m in 11.68 (+0.8), Fukuoka University 1st-year Aiha Yamagata got people talking with an 11.36 (+3.4) to win her semifinal, under the U20 NR by 0.07 but wind-aided. In the final Yamagata backed that up with an 11.41 (+1.7), 0.06 under the meet record and a new U20 NR by 0.02.

And she wasn't done. Coming back Sunday in the 200 m, Yamagata ran 24.48 (+0.6) and 23.77 (+2.8) to win her heat and semi, then dropped a 23.53 (+1.4) meet record just 0.08 off the U20 NR to win the final. With three years still ahead of her Takahashi looks to have good shots at both that and the 11.32 collegiate record in her.

Other meet records were mostly in women's events:

Akari Funada (Mukogawa Joshi Univ.) cleared the triple jump meet record by 35 cm, jumping 13.48 (+0.5) on her 3rd attempt and going on to go over the old record of 13.13 on her 4th and 5th attempts too.
Women's discus throw U20 NR holder Maki Saito (Tokai Univ.) broke her own MR by almost 2 m, opening with a winning 57.50 m throw and bettering her old 55.66 m MR from last year on her 3rd, 5th and 6th attempts. 2nd-place Honoka Shiroma (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) threw only 47.25 m.
Women's hammer throw collegiate and U20 NR holder Raika Murakami (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) threw 64.15 m on her 5th attempt, breaking the 63.44 m MR she set last year and good for the win.
Sota Haraguchi (Juntendo Univ.) was one of two men to set a new MR, clearing 2.23 m in the high jump on his 1st attempt.
Hiroki Kitahara (Niigata Iryo Fukushi Univ.) threw 59.95 m on his 5th attempt in the men's discus throw, bettering the old MR by almost 2 m.

Paris-bound Hiroki Yanagita (Toyo Univ.) opened with a 10.23 (+1.1) in the men's 100 m heats, then dropped a wind-aided 9.97 (+3.5) in the semifinals. Former NR holder Yoshihide Kiryu's 10.01 MR was out of reach in the final, but Yanagita still ran a career 5th-best 10.13 (+1.4) for the win, a return to form ahead of Nationals after a disappointing May. Yuhi Mori (Daito Bunka Univ.) had a great day, breaking 10.20 for the first time with a 10.13 (+1.9) to win his opening heat, then taking his semi in 10.16 (+0.7), then running 10.19 for 2nd behind Yanagita in the final.

In distance races, Daito Bunka University 2nd-year Sarah Wanjiru added another title to her already extensive resume with a 15:42.8 for the win in the 5000 m, beating Sayuki Ota (Ritsumeikan Univ.) by almost 5 seconds. Only three men started in the 5000 m, with Riki Koike (Soka Univ.) soloing a 13.47.3 that came just 2 seconds short of the MR, while teammates Kosei Shiraishi and Kyosuke Hiramatsu of Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University jogged together to both finish in 14:28. For whatever reason, the 5000 m were the only events to be hand-timed.

Mayu Kawase extended Daito Bunka University's dynasty in the women's 3000 mSC with a 10:20.39 for the win in a very close race against Yuka Komatsu (Tsukuba Univ.), 2nd in 10:22.67. Suzuna Kinoshita (Chuo Univ.) won the women's 1500 m title in 4:25.11. Only two men started in the 3000 m SC, Rintaro Ozono (Kanoya Taiiku Univ.) winning by 6 seconds over Kai Ogata (Kanto Gakuin Univ.) in 8:48.80. Shuta Azuma (Hiroshima Keizai Univ.) won the men's 1500 m in 3:49.40 in a four-way sprint finish.

Chepkirui Over Sato Again to Win 2nd-Straight Nagoya Women's Marathon, Chen Breaks Malaysian NR (updated)

This year's Nagoya Women's Marathon felt like a changing of the guard, with some the bigger domestic names over the last few years fading early and a lot of newer faces stepping up with quality debuts or second marathons. The front group was set to be paced for 2:20 flat with the 2nd group at 2:23:30 to hit the auto-qualifying time for the 2027 MGC Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials race in Nagoya. Up front things went out OK, but after a 33:10 split at 10 km Ayuko Suzuki , 2:21:22 here 2 years ago, lost touch, ultimately finishing 23rd in 2:33:28. Windy conditions started to play with pacers' ability to keep things steady and the pace slowed majorly over the next 10 km, but even with a 34:05 second 10 km there were big-name casualties. 2024 Nagoya winner Yuka Ando was next to drop, ending up 17th in 2:30:32. NR holder Honami Maeda was next, followed quickly by Bahraini Kenyan Eunice Chumba and debuting Wakana Kabasawa . Maeda faded to 21st in 2:31:21, whil...

Nagoya Women's Marathon Preview and Streaming (updated)

Japan's winter marathon season of 6 major races in 7-straight weekends wraps up Sunday with the world's largest women-only marathon, the Nagoya Women's Marathon . The weather is looking pretty good, 6˚ at the start rising to 10˚ by the finish and sunny skies, but a moderate 7 m/s NW wind means a headwind finish that might impact the potential for some fast times. Official streaming kicks off at 9:00 a.m. local time. Live results will be here . Sheila Chepkirui won last year in 2:20:40, breaking away from Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba at 30 km and hanging on for the win. Sato negative split a 2:20:59 PB for 2nd, Chumba fading to 3rd in 2:21:36. All 3 are back this time, but they have pretty serious competition from Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Selly Chepyego Kaptich , 2:20:03 in Barcelona 2023. And of course, Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda . Maeda ran 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024 to make the Paris Oly...

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...

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