Skip to main content

Weekend Track Roundup


The Tokyo World Athletics Championships might have just ended, but there's still a lot of track action happening in Japan with some late-season championships and pre-ekiden season time trial meets.

The highlight at the Sept. 24 Kizuna Time Trials meet in Machida in western Tokyo was a solid 13:34.01 win in the fast heat by collegiate marathon record holder Asahi Kuroda (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.), not quite a PB but a good shakeout ahead of the Oct. 13 Izumo Ekiden. The top 21 in Kuroda's heat went sub-14 minutes, 11 of them from Aoyama Gakuin, with 2nd-year Sota Orita continuing to struggle at AGU after a promising senior of high school, running only 13:58.77 for 21st.


Brian Kiptoo (Comodi Iida) almost tied Kuroda's time with a 13:34.61 win in the fast heat at the Sept. 27-28 Tokai University Time Trials meet south of Yokohama, where the top 20 broke 14 minutes in the fast heat plus another 2 in the B-heat. 5000 m NR holder Suguru Osako (unattached) made a return to competition ahead of next month's Tokyo Legacy Half and December's Valencia Marathon, running 14:05.88 for 4th in the B-heat and then 14:05.83 for 22nd in the A-heat a few minutes later. Tokyo Worlds 1500 m team member Kazuto Iizawa (Sumitomo Denko) stepped down to the 800 m at Tokai with a 1:46.17 PB for the win.


Osako's alma mater Waseda University has put a new spin on the time trial meet format, getting a road loop on its Tokorozawa campus certified as a 5 km road course and registering its Road to Waseda series to the World Athletics calendar. 4 of the 5 heats in the series' 5th edition on Sept. 28 saw winning times under 14 minutes, with the fastest time going to Kaisei Okada, 1st in Race 1 in 13:41. 2nd through 4th in Race 1 all clocked 13:44, with the top 4 in Race 4, all from Teikyo University, clocking 13:45 and the win going to Yoshihiro Kusuoka. Chuo's top man Shunsuke Yamato was a DNF in Race 1 after 2 laps of the course.


The U20 National Championships also happened on the 27th and 28th in Shizuoka. The biggest news there was a new U20 national record of 71.86 m in the boys' hammer throw by Keita Takahashi (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.), and an U18 NR of 10:06.59 in the girls' 3000 m SC by Rei Taya (Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S.). New meet records included 46.51 in the boys' 400 m by Takumi Kubo (Takigawa Daini H.S.), 3:46.08 in the boys' 1500 m by Konosuke Tamura (Josai Univ.), 11.60 (+1.0) in the girls' 100 m by Kokoa Yamazaki (Asahikawa Shiho H.S.), and 9:57.11 in the girls' 3000 m SC by Anna Szbrucek (Ushiku H.S.).

Last but not least was the 73rd National Corporate Track and Field Championships Friday through Sunday in Yamaguchi. Highlights there included:
  • Abigail Fuuka Ido (Toho Ginko) set a meet record 23.19 (-0.5) to win the women's 200 m final after having unexpectedly making the semifinals at Worlds.
  • Part of the NR-breaking mixed 4x400 m at Tokyo Worlds, Nanako Matsumoto (Toho Ginko) won the corporate 400 m inn 53.47.
  • Women's 100 mH Worlds team members Hitomi Nakajima (Hasegawa) and Yumi Tanaka (Fujitsu) won their heats in 12.91 (+0.9) and 13.10 (+1.2) before bowing out, leaving Masumi Aoki (77 Ginko) to win the final in 12.99 by 0.01 over Chisato Kiyoyama (Ichigo).
  • Fresh off Minori Hayakari's longtime NR falling at Worlds, her National Corporate Championships 3000 mSC meet record also went down, this time to Manami Nishiyama (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) who bettered it by 7 seconds to win in 9:41.96. Momoa Yamada (Shimamura) just missed at 9:50.97, with Ayaka Koike (Denso) getting under 10 minutes in 9:59.63.
  • Worlds team member Nagisa Takahashi (Senko) cleared 1.85 m to take the women's high jump title, while Sumire Hata (Sumitomo Denko) took the women's long jump at 6.26 m (+1.3) on her final attempt. Maoko Morimoto (Kyudenko) did the same in the women's triple jump, opening at 13.30 m (-0.2) for the win.
  • NR holder Nanaka Kori (Niigata Albirex RC) was also back from Worlds with a 53.05 m throw to take the women's discus throw. 2 of the 3 women from the Worlds javelin throw squad competed, and of course went 1-2. Momone Ueda (Zenrin) won at 56.69 m, with Sae Takemoto (Orico) 2nd at 56.20 m.
  • Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) won the men's 100 m final in 10.16 (+0.7) after running the lead leg on Japan's 4x100 m team at Worlds. His teammate there, Hiroki Yanagita (Toyo Univ.) actually ran faster in the first-round heats, clocking 10.13 (+0.3), with Waseda' Naoki Inoue equalling Koike at 10.16 (+0.8), but neither college student was eligible to run the final. 200 m Worlds team member Shota Iizuka (Mizuno) was 5th in the 100 m final in 10.26.
  • Fuga Sato (Mizuno) likewise won the men's 200 m in 20.68 (-0.5), 0.01 off his best, after running both the 400 m and 4x400 m at Worlds.
  • Mixed and men's 4x400 team member Kenki Imaizumi (Uchida Ginko) won the 400 min 46.05.
  • Gideon Kiplagat (Aisan Kogyo) turned in the weekend's fastest 5000 m time, 13:31.55, to win the A-heat.
  • Anthony Maina (Toyota Kyushu) got the win in the men's 10000 m by just 0.56 in 27:59.32 over Gideon Ronoh (Logisteed).
  • Tomohiro Shinno (Kyudenko) came back from a disappointing 2.21 m exit in the men's high jump heats at Worlds to win here in 2.28 m, his 2nd-best jump of the season.
  • After running the 110 mH at Worlds, Shunsuke Izumiya (Sumitomo Denko) was back in his other love, the long jump, winning with an opening jump of 8.06 m (+0.4).
  • Masateru Yugami (Toyota) also came back from a disappointing first-round exit in the men's discus throw at Worlds, throwing almost 2.5 m better here to win in 58.87 m.
  • Yuta Sakiyama (Ehime T&F Assoc.) was almost up to the level of his performance in the Worlds men's javelin throw, winning with a final attempt of 77.06 m.
© 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
It was also good to see Wakana Kabasawa running very well after a long absence from injury (similar to Honami Maeda's injury) being the top Japanase finisher in the 5000m in 15:32.72 which was faster than Yuma Yamamoto's time in the World Championships (15:36.29) and also announcing her intention to run a marathon in the future! But where is her teammate Seira Fuwa? Is she injured? She has not been announced as a runner in the Princess Ekiden from what I've read.

Reference: https://www.rikujyokyogi.co.jp/archives/185498
October 2, 2025 at 5:14 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...
8 comments
Read more

Kipyegon Repeats, Toyo Wins Hakone Ekiden Qualifier in First Appearance in 21 Years

Back for the first time in 21 years after a disastrous 14th-place finish at the 102nd Hakone Ekiden this past January, Toyo University hit one out of western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park with a solid win at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, the half marathon that serves as the official qualifying race for the 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The top 10 teams in the Hakone auto-qualify for the following year, with the rest having to run the Yosenkai in October with a squad of 10 to 16 runners out of which the top 10 score on aggregate time, with the 10 fastest schools joining the Hakone field and top individuals from non-qualifying teams names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team to make up the complete Hakone field of 21. Driven in large part by an aggressive run from 3rd-year Yu Miyazaki , one of only 2 Japanese athletes to go with the big African contingent up front, Toyo won in 10:31:30, 1:03:09 or 2:59.6/km per athlete. As the first team to have broken the 3:00/km average pace barrie...
1 comment
Read more

Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...
2 comments
Read more