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.

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and

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