japan running news

With temperatures reported as high as 35˚C and sunny conditions, a total of 3,858 people were reported to have run Sunday's Lake Saroma 100 km and 50 km Ultramarathon . The conditions were bad enough that 3 runners were taken to the hospital with heatstroke and world champion Haruki Okayama had to drop out mid-race, but that didn't stop Hong Kong's Kok Wai Tse from running strong over the 2nd half of the race to come from behind with an excellent 6:28:39 for the win. At halfway Tse was almost 2 minutes behind a lead group that included Hideaki Yamauchi and Hideo Nojo , but when they faded in the heat Tse was there to take over. He ultimately finished over 13 minutes ahead of 2nd-place Shion Oe , who likewise had a more conservative start and spent most of the race with eventual 3rd-placer Naoki Matsuo . Yamauchi was ultimately 4th in 6:47:32, splitting 3:07:39/3:39:53, with Nojo 5th in 6:49:37 with even more painful splits of 3:07:30/3:42:07. In the women's race Mik...

Soka University 's Stephen Muthini broke the course record at the Hakodate Half Marathon Sunday to win in a PB 1:01:08. Muthini led from the early going, dragging a lead group of 10 behind him. Past 10 km he picked up the pace, cutting the lead group down to 6, including 2025 Tokyo World Championships marathon team member Yuya Yoshida (GMO). Near 15 km Takuma Yamakawa of Komazawa University went to the front, but Muthini was quick to retake the lead and gradually pulled away from Yamakawa and Yoshida. Yoshida ended up 2nd behind Muthini in a PB of 1:01:23, with Yamakawa 3rd also in a new PB of 1:01:25. Times were fast across the board, with 8 of the top 10 men running lifetime PBs. Yoshida, a 2-time winner of the Fukuoka International Marathon including a 2:05:16 CR last December, is Japan's leading hope of ending its dry spell of World Championships marathon medals, the last being Tsuyoshi Ogata 's bronze at the 2025 Helsinki World Championships. His Tokyo Worlds team...

110 teams took part in the 72nd National Oga Ekiden in Akita Saturday, with 30 teams in the open division, 12 universities, 44 high school boys' teams and 24 high school girls' teams. The Shingenden Kogyo corporate team won the open division for the 2nd year in a row, with Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University winning the 7-stage, 64.8 km university division in 3:14:28. In the 5-stage, 21.0975 km high school girls' race, Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. took the win in 1:10:43. Right from the start it was a tough race against Sendai Ikuei H.S. , which fielded 3 teams. Ritsumeikan Uji's lead runner Yui Ueda and Sendai Ikuei A's Rikka Kuroda both clocked 14:09, and a great stage-winning run from 2nd runner Nodoka Ashida put Ritsumeikan Uji out front. But Sendai Ikuei B's Miriam Njeri closed down the lead from 1:14 to 24 seconds on the 3rd leg, and her teammate Non Tachibana rode that momentum to overtake Ritsumeikan Uji for the lead. It came down to the anchor...

https://www.athletics.com.au/news/historic-elite-female-field-set-to-descend-on-iconic-tcs-sydney-marathon-course-in-2025/ Paris Olympics women's marathon alternate Ai Hosoda  is scheduled to run in Sydney.

Fresh off the announcement of the elite fields for the ASICS Gold Coast Marathon come the fields for the China Airlines Gold Coast Half Marathon a day earlier on July 5. The top 3 Australian women from the June 1 Launceston Half Marathon , CR breaker Jessica Stenson , Caitlin Adams and Sarah Klein , are back together, with domestic competition Leanne Pompeani and Tara Palm and a group mostly from this year's National Corporate Half Marathon led by Yuri Mitsune , Wakana Itsuki and Aiwa Sakaguchi . The main domestic protagonists from Launceston, Isaac Heyne , Brett Robinson , Liam Boudin , Sam Clifford , Andy Buchanan and Ryan Gregson , are all on the Gold Coast too, but where they faced a group from the Marugame Half in Launceston this time it's a massive National Corporate Half contingent led by sub-61 men Yuma Nishizawa , Hideyuki Tanaka and Yoshiki Oshiro . 2:05 marathoner Kenya Sonota is also on the list, quietly down near the bottom of the elite field with only a 1...

Australia's Gold Coast Marathon is back for its 45th running with title sponsorship from longtime partner ASICS. Two-time winner Rodah Tanui is the top name in the women's race with a 2:23:14 in Copenhagen two years ago, with her strongest competition coming from Olympian Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh , who set a Mongolian NR of 2:26:32 in Tokyo last year. Zerihun Alemtsehay and Caroline Kilel both have recent sub-2:30 times, and debuting Ethiopian Tegest Ayalew looks to have a sub-2:30 in her too. Pacing is planned to be a 1:12:00 first half, an ambitious goal for pretty much everyone except maybe Tanui. Up front in the men's race are a solid trio of 2:07 runners made up of Ethiopians Gizealew Ayana and Japan-based Derese Workneh , and Kenyan Mathew Samperu . The top tier of Japanese men come in at the 2:08 level, including Mizuki Higashi , Yuki Takei , and Ryoma Takeuchi , a pacer at Gold Coast last year. Past winner Yuki Kawauchi has only run under 2:20 once in 2024 a...

On June 25 the JAAF announced that director Mitsuki Ogata is stepping down and will be replaced by vice-chair Yuko Arimori . A two-time Olympic marathon medalist, Arimori will be both the first woman and first Olympian to lead the JAAF. Arimori was born in 1966 in Okayama. In 1985 she graduated from Shujitsu H.S. and entered Nittai University . After graduating in 1989 she joined the Recruit corporate team under the leadership of head coach Yoshio Koide . In January, 1990 she ran 2:32:51 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon, at the time a debut marathon national record. The next year she placed 4th at the Tokyo World Championships, then took the silver medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Four years later Arimori followed that up with a bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. She retired from competition in 2007. After retiring, Arimori became active in a wide range of area, including as chair of Special Olympics Japan, a sports organization for intellectually-challen...

https://agerpres.ro/english/2025/06/22/romanian-long-distance-runner-delvine-relin-meringor-gets-three-year-doping-suspension--1461627 With Meringor's disqualification Hikari Onishi  moves into 6th in the Nagoya results, Natsuki Omori  to 7th, and New Zealand's Camille French  to 8th. Read the full ADAK decision here .

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdxlyvkvlx3o

On June 19 the KGRR , organizers of the Hakone Ekiden , published a press release on the new criteria for making the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team for the prestigious race. The new process will assign a single place on the team to 10 different universities, with an additional 6 spots for individuals. The Kanto Region Student Alliance team is intended to broaden the opportunities for schools to participate in Hakone, making it possible for traditionally strong schools that failed to qualify to still be represented and for new programs to be able to take part for the first time. It was first created in 2003 for the 79th Hakone Ekiden under the name Kanto Region Select Team. From 2007 to 2013 its team results counted in overall placing, but after being eliminated in 2014 it was brought back a year later in a non-scoring capacity under its new name and has been a part of the event ever since with the exception of Hakone's 100th running in 2024. Nomination to the Student All...

Just a 3-minute walk away from the east exit of Ageo Station in a narrow side street is a new coffee shop, GOAT Coffee, that roasts its own beans. Its stylish interior feels like a British tailor's shop, and jazz plays over the speakers. Its owner is Kohei Arai , 28, an Ageo native and former long-distance athlete who ran in both the Hakone Ekiden and New Year Ekiden. Serial injuries forced him to retire 4 years ago, but in April he achieved another of his dreams with the opening of the cafe. Arai graduated from Urawa Jitsugyo Gakuen H.S. in 2015 and entered Daito Bunka University . His coach and teammates found him to be an important part of the team, and he ran the Hakone Ekiden as a 1st-year. All 3 times he ran Hakone during college he was put on the 21.3 km First Stage, but when he looks back on it now all he remembers is "causing problems for everyone else." During his 2nd year he had a stress fracture in his left leg that took almost a year to work through. As a 4t...

In March this year it was learned that Genki Dean , 33, a javelin thrower who represented Japan in the Paris Olympics, had gotten married. His partner was Yuka Sato , 32, another javelin thrower who retired last fall. Reporters broke the news of their "javelinuptials" with a wry smile. As a 20-year-old 3rd-year at Waseda University Dean had a massive breakthrough with what was at the time the 2nd-best mark in Japanese history, qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics. He struggled with injury for years, but last year he returned to the Olympics when he represented Japan in Paris. This season he is competing around the world in hopes of qualifying for the Tokyo World Championships. But against that backdrop was an ongoing struggle with another woman, his ex-fiancee. "I met him in 2017, and we clicked right away and became lovers," she said. The pair started living together, and she soon got pregnant. According to her, at first Dean was really happy about it and cried ...

Having bettered the Japanese women's 400 m national record by 0.04 in winning May's Shizuoka International Meet in a 51.71 collegiate record, on June 18 it was learned that Nittai University 3rd-year Arie Flores , 21, has completed the naturalization process and been granted Japanese citizenship. Born in Shizuoka, Flores is the daughter of a Japanese-Peruvian father and Italian-Peruvian mother. Because her citizenship application had not been finalized yet in May, her win in Shizuoka was done under Peruvian citizenship and was not counted as a new Japanese NR. The approval of Flores' application means she is able to run in July's National Championships. She hopes to compete in September's Tokyo World Championships. source article: https://www.jiji.com/jc/article?k=2025061800441&g=spo translated by Brett Larner

After tuning up with a 3:40.19 win in the men's 1500 m A-heat in Fukagawa on Wednesday , South Korean Jae Ung Lee turned in the performance of the day at the second Hokuren Distance Challenge meet in Shibetsu Saturday. Going to the front after 900 m, Lee ran a 3:38.55 for the win, just enough to achieve his goal of breaking the 1993-era Korean national record of 3:38.60 and almost 6 seconds up on nearest Japanese competitor Rikuto Iijima (Ami AC), 2nd in 3:44.27. Na Yeon Park also repeated her Fukagawa win, slightly slower this time in 4:15.58 over Rose Wangui (Daiso), 2nd in 4:16.09. Other standout performances included an 8:55.45 win in the women's 3000 m by Yvonne Jepchirchir Chepkosgei (Higo Ginko), a 7:52.11 win by Isaac Ndiema (Mazda) in the men's 3000 m, and a 14:55.45 win by Caroline Kariba (Japan Post) in the women's 5000 m. No Japanese athletes hit the qualifying standards for next month's National Championships at any distance. The next meet in t...

Streaming of the Hokuren Distance Challenge Shibetsu Meet, part 2 of this year's 5-meet time trial series, starts today at 14:00 local time, with the main program kicking off at 16:00. Start lists are here , with live results here . Shibetsu will be the last main chance for people to hit qualifying standards for next month's National Championships. © 2025 Brett Larner , all rights reserved

  On June 12 the Kyudenko corporate team announced that it is terminating its contract with longtime team member Benard Koech of Kenya as of June 30. On June 11 the Athletics Integrity Unit had issued a provisional suspension against Koech on charges of violation of doping regulations. The charges were based on abnormal values in his biological passport data, which suggested use of a banned substance or method rather than actual detection of one. After receiving notification from the AIU, Kyudenko questioned Koech, who responded that he had "not done anything that would break doping rules." Kyudenko said that while it believed Koech's statement, the provisional suspension would interfere with a period in which he was expected to compete, and as a result, "with deep regret we have decided to terminate his contract with us on June 30, 2025." Japanese Olympic silver race walker Koki Ikeda was in the same way provisionally suspended by the AIU last November due ...

This year's Hokuren Distance Challenge time trial meet series is divided into parts, with the first two meets in mid-June targeting people trying to hit the qualifying standards for next month's National Championships, and the last three meets in mid-July more geared toward last-chance World Championships qualification. The first meet in Fukagawa yesterday in humid conditions was relatively low-key. Emmanuel Maru had a good solo 27:26.89 win in the men's 10000 m A-heat win, emerging from a pack of 10 out of which only 3 others got under 28 minutes, all in the mid-27:50 range. The talented Caroline Kariba had the best women's performance of the meet, winning the 3000 m by over 20 seconds in 8:51.60. There were also near-misses on the South Korea women's and men's 1500 m NR, with Na Yeon Park winning the women's race in 4:15.07 and Jae Ung Lee the men's in 3:40.19. Japanese athletes who cleared the National Championships qualifying standards : Women...

The 5-meet Hokuren Distance Challenge series kicks off today in Fukagawa, Hokkaido. Timetable and entry lists are here . Streaming starts at 13:30 local time, with the main program starting at 15:30. Live results are here . The best race of the day looks to be the men's 10000 m A-heat at 20:00, where 26:54.76 man Richard Kimunyan  (Logisteed) and sub-27:15 runners Emmanuel Maru  (Toyota Boshoku) and Evans Keitany  (Toyota Boshoku) lead a field with 15 people with bests under 28:00. Tatsuhiko Ito  (Honda) leads the Japanese entries at 27:25.73. © 2025 Brett Larner , all rights reserved

The National University Track and Field Championships wrapped up Sunday with another collegiate record. Following Mao Shimano 's 100 mH hurdle record Saturday , the Toyo University men dominated in the 4x400 m relay final. Running with a completely different lineup from when it set the 3:04.08 meet record 2 years ago, the Toyo team of Rui Yamasaki , Kira Hirakawa , Kentaro Shirahata and Katsuo Tsujiura ran 3:03.64 for the win, 0.07 under the old collegiate record set by Nihon University in 2000 before any of them had been born. The women's 4x400 m final wasn't quite up to collegiate record level, but the top 2 teams still both broke the meet record. Sonoda Gakuen University scored the win in 3:35.41 with a lineup that included Hinata Tochio and Yuzuki Nakao from its 2023 MR-setting lineup with the addition of 2nd-year twins Ayu Yoshii and Mayu Yoshii . Ritsumeikan University was 2nd in 3:36.28, but that was good enough to break SGU's old record of 3:36.71. Af...

After a wind-aided 12.93 at the Fuse Sprint meet, Nihon Joshi Taiiku University 's Mao Shimano turned in the biggest performance of the 3rd day of this year's National University Track and Field Championships . Running the women's 100 mH final with a -1.8 m/s headwind, Shimano took 0.02 off her own collegiate record with a 13.02 for the win. That was also way under the old meet record of 13.23, and despite the wind 2nd-placer Rei Honda of Juntendo University made it under too with a 13.12 for 2nd. Another meet record fell in the women's 5000 m. After winning the 10000 m in a 31:48.44 MR on Thursday, Daito Bunka University 3rd-year Sarah Wanjiru took 5 seconds off her own 5000 m MR, dropping her only real competition Daisy Cherop of Josai Kokusai University on the last lap to win in 15:30.04 and complete the distance double. The 1st-year Cherop was 2nd in 15:39.52, with Juntendo's Airi Tajima 3rd in 15:57.14 in a 3-way sprint finish against Sayo Imanishi o...

Sarah Wanjiru of Daito Bunka University  opened the first day of the 2025 National University Track and Field Championships by lapping the field to break the women's 10000 m MR , and day 2 of the meet saw that repeated in the women's 10000 m race walk. Collegiate record holder and Ritsumeikan University 4th-year Ayane Yanai lapped the entire field to win the 10000 mRW by almost 2 minutes, chopping almost 35 seconds off the 2007-era meet record with a 44:18.02 for the win. 2nd-placer Satsuki Ishida of Mukogawa Joshi University had a close one over 3rd-placer Toko Nakajima of Waseda University , finishing just 5 seconds up in 46:14.57 to 46:19.75. The most unexpected result came in the men's 1500 m. Better known as a half marathoner and long distance track runner, Waseda's Tomonori Yamaguchi won his 1500 m heat in 3:44.21 on Thursday to make Friday's final. There he took over after a slow 61-second first lap, cruising the next 2 laps in 57 each before kicking...

Usually held in September right before ekiden season, this year's National University Track and Field Championships moved to early June to avoid conflicts with the Tokyo World Championships. Doubling up on her solo 10000 m win a month ago at Kanto Regionals , Sarah Wanjiru lapped the entire field to win the women's 10000 m in 31:48.44. That was 16 seconds under the old meet record set by fellow Daito Bunka University runner and future Olympic 6th-placer Yuka Suzuki , and missed Wanjiru's PB by just over a second. Less than a second separated the next 3 finishers, with newcomer Mei Hosomi from Meijo University getting 2nd in 33:23.46, Wanjiru's DBU teammate Mariya Noda 3rd in 33:23.77, and Asahi Shirakawa from Tsukuba University off the podium in 33:24.17. Less than 2 weeks after rocking a 27:29.15 for 2nd in the National University Ekiden Kanto Region Qualifier 10000 m , Nihon University 's Shadrack Kipkemei found himself in another close race, this one aga...