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.

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...

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...

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