Asian Championships Day 5 Japanese Results

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-time Japanese #5 and bronze behind Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem at 86.40 m and India's Sachin Yadav at 85.16 m. All-time JPN #2 Ryohei Arai was 9th at 74.21 m.
A Kenyan running under the Kazakhstan flag, Norah Jeruto Tanui soloed a 14:58.71 championships record for gold in the women's 5000 m. Japan's Yuma Yamamoto and Sora Shinozakura took turns leading the pack behind Tanui, where the race for silver came down to Yamamoto and India's Parul Chaudhary. Chaudhary had the strong kick, taking silver in 15:15.33 with Yamamoto less than 4 seconds off her PB in 15:16.86 for bronze. Shinozakura faded to 7th in 15:54.15.
Yukichi Ishii and NR holder Ko Ochiai missed out on medals in the men's 800 m final. Ishii was 4th in 1:46.74, over a second and a half behind Qatari bronze medalist AHA Abdalla, with Ochiai far off his best in 1:48.01 for 5th after having won his qualifying heat.
Remi Tsuruta made the women's 200 m final but was just out of the medals, running 23.29 (+0.3) for 4th. China's Chen Yujie outleaned Singapore's Veronica Pereira for gold 22.97 to 22.98, with China's Li Yuting just beating out Tsuruta for bronze in 23.23.
Shota Inoue took the men's 400 mH final out hard, leading through 300 m before getting passed by Qataris A.A.S. Al Saleck and BMAA Hemeida, then Taiwan's Chung Wei Ling. One of the Qataris was disqualified immediately after the finish, but when he was reinstated Inoue's final position was 4th in 50.02.
No medals in the men's pole vault, where Seito Yamamoto took 7th at 5.42 m and Tomoya Karasawa 8th at 5.32 m.

In the final medal count China took the top spot with 19 gold, 9 silver and 4 bronze. India was next with 8 gold, 10 silver and 6 bronze, with Japan 3rd at 5 gold, 11 silver and 12 bronze. Heavily represented by African-born athletes, Kazakhstan and Qatar tied for 4th with 3 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze, holding South Korea back to 6th with 2 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze. The main focus for Japanese athletes now turns to the July 4-6 National Championships in Tokyo on the same track where the world's greatest city will host the World Championships this September.

Nationally-Ranked Gakuho Ishikawa H.S. Withdraws From Region Championships Due to Bear Attacks

5th at last year's National High School Ekiden boys' race, Fukushima's Gakuho Ishikawa H.S. has withdrawn its boys' and girls' team from the Nov. 6 Tohoku Region Ekiden Championships in Fukushima. A school spokesperson commented, "We made this decision based on the likelihood of our students coming into contact with bears in the city when out running in the morning." The Akita Athletics Association had already made an announcement on its website on Oct. 31 that due to the high number of bear encounters within the city of Akita this year , the ekiden would be held on a track instead of as a road race. Organizers said that they are leaving it up to each individual school whether to participate, and that they will accept schools choosing not to participate due to safety concerns. The Gakuho Ishikawa boys and girls both won the Fukushima Prefecture High School Ekiden in October, earning them places at the Tohoku regional meet and December's National High...

Komazawa Back On Top With 17th National University Ekiden Title

#3-ranked Komazawa University came on strong over the second half of the National University Ekiden to take a record 17th national title, more than any other program in the national championship race's 57-year history. It had its share of dominant single-stage runs, but more than that this year's Komazawa lineup was consistent across the board, the only school to put all 8 of its runners into the top 5 on their stages, all but 2 of them in the top 3. Over the first 2 legs it was never more than 3 seconds out of 1st, moving up into that position by 1 seconds on the 3rd leg with a good run from 4th-year Yudai Kiyama . 3rd-year Kaisei Yasuhara was the weakest link with only the 5th-best time on the 4th leg, dropping Komazawa back to 4th and 35 seconds behind #2-ranked Chuo University 's Daichi Shibata . But on the next leg Komazawa 4th-year Aoi Ito turned it back around with the biggest run at this year's Nationals, running 35:01 for the 12.4 km 5th leg, 17 seconds unde...

Hofu Yomiuri Marathon Elite Field

Everything in Japanese marathoning is already about qualifying for the MGC Race, Japan's trials race for the L.A. Olympics. Scheduled the same day as the Fukuoka International Marathon, the Dec. 7 Hofu Yomiuri Marathon counts the same weight as Fukuoka, Tokyo and Osaka in men's qualification, with trials spots up to be had by the first 6 Japanese men under 2:09:00 and the first Japanese woman under 2:27:00. The only real contender to do that among the women is Mizuki Nishimura , running her first marathon off a 1:41:42 CR at the Kumanichi 30k in February. Given the Tenmaya corporate team's track record of success in the marathon, including the current women's NR of 2:18:59, her chances are pretty good. Ayumi Morita ran a 2:31:38 PB in Tokyo last year, but it's a big jump for her to get down to 2:26 and it'll mostly be a question of whether Nishimura executes the same way she did at Kumanichi. For men there are 6 under 2:09:00 in the last 3 years, with Ryoma T...

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