Kubo Leads Higashi Osaka Keiai to 4x800 m NR

Newly crowned women's 800 m national champion Rin Kubo, 16, anchored one of two 4x800 m teams from Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S. at a time trial meet in Higashi Osaka Friday, setting a new Japanese NR of 8:33.77. The team, which included Rin Kitamura, Runa Asano, Misa Tamura and Kubo, took 8 seconds off the old record, clocking individual splits of 2:07.4 for Kitamura, 2:11.2 for Asano, 2:13.1 for Tamura and a solid 2:01.9 for the 16-year-old Kubo whose official PB for a standard 800 m is 2:03.13. Higashi Osaka Keiai's B-team also broke the old high school NR in 8:55.06.

Overseas, three members of Japan's team for the Paris Olympics tuned up at the Monaco Diamond League meet. Women's javelin world champion Haruka Kitaguchi (JAL) ntook the win in style with a 65.21 m season best on her final throw, surpassing the leader since the first round, Australian Mackenzie Little, by 47 cm. After a good comeback run at the Paris Diamond League meet, Shunsuke Izumiya (Sumitomo Denko) fell on the 8th hurdle in the men's 110 mH and failed to finish. In the women's 5000 m, NR holder Nozomi Tanaka (NB) was 3rd in a 14:40.86 SB.

Back in Japan at the third Hokuren Distance Challenge meet in Shibetsu, longtime Japan resident Hellen Ekarare (Toyota Jidoshokki) continued a surprising jump in her performances this season, smashing an 8:37.16 PB, almost 6 seconds off her best, to win the women's 3000 m A-heat by 26 seconds over . After lucking into roll down spots on the Paris team in the 5000 m and 1500 m, Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) and Yume Goto (Uniqlo) ran 8:53.99 and 8:58.30 for 3rd and 4th, a PB for Kabasawa and SB for Goto.

Shota Nakano (Honda) turned in maybe the performance of the meet in the men's 3000 m, winning in a PB 7:46.37 that tied him with 10000 m NR holder Kazuya Shiojiri at all-time Japanese #6. Ahead of a shot at the 1500 m NR later in the HDC series, Kazuto Iizawa (Sumitomo Denko) was 5th in a PB 8:07.06.

Other events in Shibetsu were relatively low-key. South Korean Jaeung Lee ran a 3-second PB of 3:41.48 to win the men's 1500 m, Nana Kuraoka (Kagoshima Ginko) winning the women's race in 4:23.34. The 5000 m A-heats went to Japan-based Kenyans James Muoki (Konica Minolta) in 13:31.10 and Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Denko) in a 15:14.29 SB. Men's 10000 m winner Jin Yuasa (Chuo Univ. Club) was the only one in the top 12 not to run a PB or SB, winning in 28:17.37.

Over in Abashiri, Koku Gakuin University was at the front end of the Summer Distance Challenge meet with a 13:47.17 PB from 1st-year Yuta Asano to win the men's 5000 m and PBs from 3rd-year Goki Takayama and 2nd-year Hikaru Tsujihara to go 1-2 in the men's 10000 m in 28:25.72 and 28:27.93. 2nd-year Airi Tajima (Juntendo Univ.) won the women's 5000 m in a PB of 16:07.37.

Murayama and Sasaki Making U.S. Debut at New York Mini 10 km

Every year since 2012 that there's been a United Airlines NYC Half , JRN has partnered with the NYRR and November's Ageo City Half Marathon to bring two top-tier collegiate Japanese men to the NYC Half for what's usually been their international debuts. For years we've wanted to extend that program to include top collegiate women, but that has always faced 2 problems. For one, while the half marathon distance is the main focus for Japanese collegiate men due to the stage lengths at the Hakone Ekiden, few collegiate women run it. Those that do run the National University Women's Half Marathon in Matsue, held the same day as the NYC Half. This year, though, we're finally making it happen in a slightly different way. Amisa Murayama and Nazuki Sasaki of 2025 Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden national collegiate championship runner-up Tohoku Fukushi University are joining the field for the NYRR's Mastercard New York Mini 10 km on June 6. After running an 18:14 CR ...

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."...

Some Reflections on the Ekiden

by Brett Larner This ekiden season I've had a few thoughts kicking around, and watching this week's Hakone Ekiden a few of them became clearer. These are still in progress, but at the moment this is what I'm thinking in terms of running as a spectator sport and about the quality of Japanese men's distance running right now. Quality: Japanese men's running is coming up very, very quickly. I was in the lead car at November's Ageo City Half Marathon , where 18 men, 17 of them university runners, broke 63 minutes. As it was going on we all thought it was a slow race because there were so many people running that pace all the way, no separation at all in the mass of the pack. See the JRN header photo above, taken just past halfway. That's pretty unusual in Japan, especially at the university level; generally you'll get a handful of guys who run an aggressive pace and a mass running dead on a safe pace, 3:00/km in a half marathon, for example. Th...

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