japan running news

The Asian Athletics Championships wrapped up Saturday in Gumi, South Korea with a string of record-setting performances. At the top of the list was the men's 200 m final , where Towa Uzawa ran a championships record and PB 20.21 (+0.8) to win gold, putting him at all-time Japanese #4 and all-time Asian #6. Saudi Abdul Abdu I Atafi and India's Animesh Kujur took silver and bronze in 20.31 and 20.32, with veteran Shota Iizuka 4th in a season best 20.66 that put him one step closer to a 14-straight year under 20.50. NR holder Rin Kubo turned in one of the fastest performances of her career so far in the women's 800 m final , just losing out to China's Wu Hongjiao . Wu delivered a meet record 2:00.08 for gold, Kubo just behind her in 2:00.42 for silver and India's Pooja Pooja a few strides back in 2:01.89 for bronze. Ayano Shiomi was 5th in 2:03.59. Yuta Sakiyama came up with a PB 83.75 m throw on his final attempt in the men's javelin , good enough for all-...

The Gumi Asian Athletics Championships rolled on Thursday and Friday. In top Japanese results: Gold medal favorite Rachid Muratake came through in the men's 110 mH final , the only athlete under 13.3 at 13.22 (+0.7) for the win over China's Liu Junxi and Qin Weibo . Yumi Tanaka added a silver to the count in the women's 100 mH final , 2nd in 13.061 (-0.1) in a photo finish with bronze medalist Wu Yanni of China, 13.068. Indian Jyoti Yarraji won gold in 12.96. Kenyan-born Kazakhstani Daisy Jepkemei outran Ririka Hironaka and Mikuni Yada in the women's 10000 m for gold in 30:48.44, but both Japanese women brought A-game. Hironaka's 30:56.32 for silver was her best time since 2023 and a great step back in the right direction after another round of injury and recovery, with Yada's 31:12.21 for bronze a PB by almost 8 seconds. The up-and-coming Yutaro Niinae ran a season best 8:24.41 for silver in the men's 3000 mSC , 3 seconds behind Indian gold medali...

Day two of the Gumi Asian Athletics Championships got started with a pair of Japanese medals in the men's hammer throw . China's Wang Qi built up from an opening throw of 69.80 m, throwing further every attempt until his winning 74.50 m in the last round. Shota Fukuda sat in 2nd at 71.89 m after his second attempt, but teammate Tatsuto Nakagawa overtook him with a final throw of 71.97 m for silver, knocking Fukuda back to bronze. NR holder Misaki Morota took bronze in the women's pole vault , clearing 4.13 m. China's Niu Chunge dominated, tying Morota's NR of 4.48 m for gold, with Xu Huiqin taking silver at 4.23 m. Japan's Akari Osakaya was 6th at 3.98 m. One of Japan's anticipated golds didn't materialize in the men's 400 m , where Qatari Ammar Ismail Y Ibrahim outran NR holder Kentaro Sato for the win in 45.33. Sato held off Sri Lanka's Kalinda Kumarage for silver 45.50 to 45.55, with Fuga Sato 5th in 45.59. But the first Japanese gol...

The Gumi Asian Athletics Championships got moving with a silver in the men's 20 km race walk from #2 ranked Kento Yoshikawa , part of a breakaway trio with China's Wang Zhaozhao and India's Servin Sebasthiyan . The #1-ranked Wang pulled away in the last km to win in 1:20:37, Yoshikawa close behind in 1:20:46 and Sebasthiyan taking bronze in 1:21:14. Ryo Hamanishi was just out of the medals in 4th in 1:21:58. China's Su Lingdan was untouchable in the women's javelin throw with a 63.29 m PB for gold, but Momone Ueda and Sae Takemoto took silver and bronze. Ueda threw a season best 59.39 m on her final attempt, overtaking Takemoto's 4th-round 58.94 m. Another bronze came in the women's triple jump . China's Li Yi beat Uzbekistan's Sharifa Davronova by 6 cm for gold 13.80 m to 13.74 m, with Mariko Morimoto beating Maoko Takashima by 1 cm for bronze. Morimoto was 13.65 m on her 5th jump, but although Takashima came back with a big final attempt...

The 2025 Asian Athletics Championships kick off today in Gumi, South Korea and run through Saturday. Meet schedule, entry lists and results will be on the meet site. Day One streaming is above, with other days here . The top tier of Japanese athletes like Ryuji Miura and Nozomi Tanaka who've already hit their qualifying marks for the Tokyo World Championships are mostly skipping the Asian Championships, giving the next tier of people a chance to get into Tokyo via an area title or score enough world rankings points to have a shot at making the Tokyo quota. From that point of view the race of the day is the men's 10000 m. Between people who've hit the standard, qualifiers via cross country, and area champions, the only person in the quota of 27 on points is 2024 Japanese national champ Jun Kasai . He was scheduled to run but is out with injury. Next in line is India's Gulveer Singh , who missed the standard by just 0.22 with a 27:00.22 at The Ten earlier this season. ...

November's National University Ekiden is the second stop of the three-race university men's ekiden season. Even more than the season-opening Izumo Ekiden, it's pretty much a given that however many teams there are in the field from the Tokyo-area Kanto Region, where almost all the best high schoolers go for university in order to have the chance to run the Hakone Ekiden, the top team from outside Kanto will finish behind all of them. Not including two select teams that don't count in scoring, the 15 Kanto teams at last year's Nationals took the top 15 spots in the field of 25 schools. Koku Gakuin University , Komazawa University , Aoyama Gakuin University , Soka University , Waseda University , Josai University , Rikkyo University and Teikyo University filled the 8-podium to earn places at the 2025 National University Ekiden, with the other 7 having to run yesterday's Kanto Region Qualifier alongside 13 other Kanto-area teams to try to make the return trip. ...

A native of Shimabara, Nagasaki, Ryota Kondo , 25, visited Nagasaki City Hall ahead of September's Tokyo World Championships where he will represent Japan in the marathon. At February's Osaka Marathon Kondo set a debut marathon national record of 2:05:39, finishing 2nd overall and in the top Japanese spot to earn himself a place on the Japanese national team for the World Championships. "I like to go hiking in Oehara, or up the steep slopes in Nagayo and Nameshi," he told city officials. "Climbing steep hills strengthens my legs and hips." At the Tokyo World Championships the men's marathon will start at 8:00 a.m. on September 15. The race is likely to happen in lingering late-summer heat. "I tend to be pretty positive about things," Kondo said. "I think the hot conditions will prevent a lot of other athletes from performing up to their full ability. The way I see it, when things get tough it's an opportunity." Kondo is the third ...

The Kanto Regional University Track and Field Association ( KGRR ) has announced that it has added scholarship bonuses to the Hakone Ekiden, Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships and Kanto Region University Women's Ekiden. Scholarship bonuses are already awarded at the Twilight Games, Kanto Region University Newcomers and Kanto Region 10000 m Time Trials track meets, but at a board meeting in March the KGRR made the decision to add the additional events to the list for the 2025-2026 academic year which began in April. At the May 8-11 Kanto Regionals meet, men's and women's D1 top 3 placers earned ¥30,000, ¥20,000 and ¥10,000 scholarships [~$210, $140 and $70 USD]. D2 athletes earned ¥20,000, ¥10,000 and ¥5000 [~$140, $70 and $35]. Men's and women's MVP earned ¥50,000 [~$350] in the D1 division and ¥30,000 in D2 [~$210]. The overall winning teams earned ¥100,000 [~$700] in D1 and ¥70,000 [~$500] in D2. At the Hakone and Kanto Women's ekidens, winn...

Representatives from the towns of Taragi, Yunomae, Asagiri and Mizukami met with the Kumamoto Track and Field Association last week to finalize plans for a new Okukuma Women's Ekiden to be held for the first time on Mar. 15 next year. The new event will have two divisions, one for high school teams and one for collegiate and corporate league teams, with both divisions racing 16 km in 5 legs. Applications will be open from Dec. 1 through Feb. 6 next year. The area launched the Okukuma Ekiden for men in 2022, and since then participating teams have called for a women's event to be added. The women's race will be held in March because at that point in the season there are typically a lot of college and corporate league teams doing training camps nearby in Miyazaki, which organizers think will make it easier to assemble a good field. The course is planned to start in front of Asagiri Station and follow Route 219 to a turnaround point in Mizukami before finishing in front of Y...

Australians represented big time at Sunday's Seiko Golden Grand Prix in Tokyo, winning six events and taking one more top 3 spot and another six top 5 placings. The first Aussie win of the day came courtesy of Rose Davies in the women's 3000 m, where she outran main competition Helen Ekalale by 6 seconds to win in a meet record 8:43.38. Yuma Yamamoto broke into the all-time Japanese top 10 with an 8:50.64 PB for 3rd.  After a disappointing run in the 5000 m two weeks ago at the Shaoxing Keqiao Diamond League meet, Jude Thomas made it an Australian double win a MR win in the men's 3000 m in 7:39.69. The top 7 all broke the old MR, with Nagiya Mori continuing his quick rise with an all-time JPN #2 7:41.58 for 4th. The men's race was marred by a fall right at the start. Having set half marathon and road 5 km national records in his last two races, Tomoki Ota appeared to get clipped from behind by 10000 m NR holder Kazuya Shiojiri when Shiojiri veered to the outside...

Without an in-country Diamond League meet Sunday's Seiko Golden Grand Prix at the Tokyo Olympics stadium is the main event of the Japanese outdoor season. Along with the Asian Championships in South Korea in 2 weeks and July's National Championships, this is one of the best chances for Japanese athletes to score some serious world rankings points to boost their chances of making the home team for September's Tokyo World Championships. Set to be sunny in the morning, for most of the meet it looks like it'll be cloudy but hot and humid with temps peaking at 30˚ and high humidity after rain most of the day on Saturday. TVer is streaming the first part of the meet , the women's and men's javelin throw and 3000 m, men's 100 m, women's high jump and men's long jump, here starting at 10:46 a.m. Japan time, with the rest of the meet streaming here starting at 10:51 a.m. and broadcast on TBS starting at 1:00 p.m. If you've got a VPN you should be good ...

On May 13 the Uniqlo women's corporate team announced that it had appointed Aoyama Gakuin University head coach Susumu Hara as special advisor. Hara became head coach at AGU in 2004, turning from a team that had been absent from the Hakone Ekiden for decades into a winning program by 2015. In the 11 editions since its first win in 2015, AGU has won Hakone 8 times under Hara's leadership. In 2019 he became a professor in AGU's Department of Global Studies, and in 2024 he was named chair of the KGRR collegiate federation's ekiden committee. Along with Hara, Uniqlo announced that Ann Quinn , known for her success with wheelchair tennis star and People's Honor Award recipient Shingo Kunieda , has been hired as mental coach for the women's team. The Uniqlo women's team was founded in 1997. It won last October's Princess Ekiden , going on to finish 9th at the Queens Ekiden national championships in November. Shigeo Hasegawa became head coach in April this...

https://iau-ultramarathon.org/2026-iau-24h-asia-and-oceania-championships-announcement.html

The 104th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships wrapped with another windy day. In the D2 men's pole vault Hiroto Shinotsuka (Ikuei Univ.) delivered the day's only new meet record, clearing a PB 5.37 m to win by 20 cm. Arie Flores (Nittai Univ.) impressed again, edging Shihori Sato (Juntendo Univ.) in the last 50 m to win the D1 women's 200 m final 23.26 to 23.34 (+2.5) in her 8th race over the 4 days of the meet. Sarah Wanjiru (Daito Bunka Univ.) made it another 5000/10000 double title, running most of the D1 women's 5000 m final with company from Daisy Cherop (Josai Kokusai Univ.) but pulling away to win easily in 15:49.26. Once dropped Cherop folded, ultimately fading to 5th with 2nd going to Airi Tajima (Juntendo Univ.) in 16:09.22. Both the D1 and D2 men's 5000 m were great 3-way last lap battles. 1st-year Rui Suzuki (Waseda Univ.) impressed in the D1 race, throwing in a big surge to catch up to 4th-year Kenyans Victor Kimutai (Josai Un...

Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post) was back from the dead yet again to win today's Sendai International Half Marathon women's race. Starting out with company from Selly Kaptich (Kyudenko) and Yuri Mitsune (Hitachi), Suzuki was always a step ahead. Putting away Mitsune early in the 2nd half, it took until the last km for her to break Kaptich, winning in 1:11:00 with Kaptich 8 seconds back in 2nd. Mitsune faded over a minute, just hanging on to 3rd in 1:12:02 over Mayuka Fujita (Route Inn Hotels). Ibuki Kaneko (Komazawa Univ.) frontran the early going in the men's race, 7 seconds up on the main group at 5 km in 14:51 but out of the top 20 by 10 km. Andrew Lorot (YKK) took clear control in the 2nd half, 12 seconds ahead by 15 km and pulling away all the way home to the win in 1:01:41. After facing criticism for making the Tokyo World Championships marathon team off the JAAF's JMC series rankings in spite of not having broken 2:10 in his last two marathons, Naoki Koyama (Hon...

Day 3 of the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships was mostly filled by qualifying rounds, with the only track finals being the men's 10000 m race walks. Yushi Nakajima (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) had the fastest time of the day, winning a close D1 men's race in a 39:41.90 PB. Sota Arai (Heisei Kokusai Univ.) also PBd to win the D2 race in 42:39.62 by just 0.40 over Takuma Hachimura (Rikkyo Univ.), with Kotaro Wake (Kokushikan Univ.) taking the D3 title in 41:49.89. On the field the most interesting competition came in the D1 men's triple jump. Manato Miyao (Toyo Univ.) opened with a 15.66 m (0.0) jump that ended up being his best of the day. Koki Kanai (Juntendo Univ.) equalled that on his 4th attempt, with his 2nd-best jump of 15.54 m (-0.7) putting him ahead of Miyao's 15.53 m (-0.6). Enter Gai Kitagawa (Tokai Univ.), who equalled Kanai and Miyao at 15.66 m on his last jump. With a 5th attempt of 15.57 m (-0.2) that was enough for him to take the...