japan running news

On July 21 the Uniqlo women's team announced that 2-time Olympic 10000 m runner Yuka Takashima had joined its lineup as of July 16. Born in Yamaguchi in 1998, Takashima anchored Okayama's Kojokan H.S. to its first-ever National High School Ekiden win in 2005. After graduating she joined the Denso corporate team, playing a key role in its 3-straight National Corporate Women's Ekiden titles. In 2015 she ran the 10000 m at the 2015 Beijing World Championships. In the spring of 2016 Takashima transferred to the Shiseido corporate team, where she made the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics team in the 10000 m. She played an important role for the team in its ekidens, and in 2022 anchored Shiseido to its first national title in 16 years. In 2023 she was 2nd in the 10000 m National Championships, securing her place on her 2nd Olympic team at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Takashima's PBs are 15:26.33 for 5000 m, 30:57.26 for 10000 m, and 2:26:13 for the marathon. In March this year T...

Hakone Ekiden organizers KGRR have announced details for the qualifying half marathon for next year's 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The Yosenkai qualifying race will be held Oct. 17 in Tachikawa, Tokyo. The combined times of the 10 fastest finishers from each participating team will be used for team scoring, with the 10 fastest teams going on the the main event next January and top-placing individuals from teams that do not qualify being names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team. One change from previous years is that the number of runners each school can enter has been increased from 14 to 16. Teams will still only be allowed to have from 10 to 12 athletes on the starting line, but the move gives coaches greater flexibility in making the final decision on their starting rosters. No changes have been made to the qualifying times of 34:00 for 10000 m or 1:13:00 for the half marathon, and the new earlier starting time of 8:30 a.m. introduced last year in an effort to mitigate ...

This year's Hokuren Distance Challenge series wrapped up Saturday in Shibetsu with a pair of new national records from international competitors. South Korea's Na Yeon Park took the win in the women's 1500 m with a new NR of 4:13.87, only a 0.38 PB but enough to get her under the old record she'd previously just missed. In the men's 5000 m A-heat, Chuo University 1st-year Chien Tzu Chieh went under 13:40 for the first time, running a new Taiwanese NR of 13:39.61 for 8th in a race won by Reitaku University 's Brian Kiputwu in 13:28.09. Other good performances in Shibetsu included a 2:01.80 win by Ayano Shiomi in the women's 800 m, the 3rd-best time of her career, 3 more men joining the sub-3:40 club in the 1500 m led by Juntendo University 's Shuntaro Kawaguchi in 3:38.46, and Dolphine Omare and Lucy Nduta going sub-15 in the women's 5000 m A-heat in 14:56.70 and 14:57.25. Overseas Japanese results from the weekend: At the London Diamond Lea...

Stop 4 on the 2026 Hokuren Distance Challenge happened Wednesday in Fukagawa . Things were pretty low-key, with the main results coming in the men's 1500 m and women's 800 m. In the men's 1500 m, Korean NR holder Jae Ung Lee ran the 2nd-fastest time of his career, 3:37.75, for the win. All 3 of his sub-3:39 performances to date have now happened at the HDC series, with a 3:38.55 in Shibetsu in June last year followed by his 3:36.01 NR in Kitami a month later. Atsuki Urushibata was 2nd in 3:38.98, his first time under 3:40. American Nicole Montgomery took almost a second off her PB to win the women's 800 m in 2:02.29, with the top 5 all running PBs under 2:07. Japan's #2 800 m runner Ayano Shiomi opted to step up in distance, running a 6-second PB of 4:11.12 for 2nd in the women's 1500 m. Margaret Ekalale won in 4:10.49. Women's 800 m NR holder Rin Kubo was in Canada for The Jerome Classic meet, where she was 3rd in a 3-way sprint finish in 2:02.57. K...

Domestically the main event on the track this weekend was the 3rd stop on the 2026 Hokuren Distance Challenge tour in Kitami . The race of the day there was the women's 3000 m, where Janet Jepkoech ran a PB 8:38.44 to lead the top 6 under 9 minutes, 5 of them in PBs including Mizuki Michishita in 8:56.75 and Jepkoech's Nitori teammate Rion Furukawa in 8:56.80. The men's 3000 m had similar results, Juda Hyodo running a PB 7:52.61 to lead the top 4 under 8 minutes, with 6 of the top 7 running PBs. Caroline Kariba was the only woman to break 15 minutes in the 5000 m with a 14:52.84 for the win, with Shunya Kikuchi the only man under 13:30 at 13:29.53. Things were busy overseas: The Asian U23 Athletics Championships happened in Ordos, China. Daily highlights here: Day 1 ・ Day 2 ・ Day 3 ・ Day 4 Men's 800 m NR holder Ko Ochiai ran 2:15.24 for 7th in the 1000 m at the Monaco Diamond League meet, 2 seconds better than Allon Clay 's national best from earlier this ...

The Suffolkland Shibetsu Half Marathon took place on July 12 in Shibetsu, Hokkaido, with corporate league runners, collegiate athletes and amateur runners all taking to the city streets under breaks in the cloudy skies. A total of around 1900 people entered the event's 39th edition. In the men's race, Yu Miyazaki of Toyo University won in 1:02:22, the 6th-fastest time in Shibetsu Half history. Kaede Hagitani , a 2021 Tokyo Olympian in the 5000 m, won in 1:13:02 as a step toward next month's Hokkaido Marathon. "This was a good run that helped me figure out what areas I need to work on for the Hokkaido Marathon," she said post-race. "The scenery along the course was relaxing." Miyazaki, who took 3rd on the opening leg at the 2023 National High School Ekiden while at Ibaraki's Toyodai Ushiku H.S. and anchored Toyo at last fall's Izumo Ekiden, took 27 seconds off the PB he had run at November's Ageo City Half Marathon. It was his second PB i...

The first edition of the Asian U23 Athletics Championships in Ordos, China wrapped with a trio of gold medals in distance events from Japanese athletes. Sotaro Osaka started it off in the men's half marathon race walk, winning an exciting race against China's Kaiyuan Yang by just 1 second, 1:26:11 to 1:26:12. Taisei Yoshizako was just over a minute back in bronze in 1:27:15, clear of 4th place by 7 minutes. Kana Mizumoto kept the momentum going in the women's 10000 m, outrunning China's Yiting Yang by 18 seconds for gold in 33:24.87. In an extremely tactical men's 1500 m Takumi Shiobara and Ryo Higuchi replicated Osaka and Yoshizako's RW performance, Shiobara taking gold in 3:53.57 over Qatari Zakaria Elahlaami and Higuchi in bronze position in 3:54.55. Airi Tajima added another bronze to the day's total in the women's 1500 m, 3rd in 4:21.09 behind Chinese duo Yuan Li and Shuqi Ye . The men's high jump is one of Japan's strongest event...

Only 7 Japanese athlete were in action on the 3rd day of the Asian U23 Athletics Championships in Ordos, China, but between them they produced Japan's first double gold medal day of the games. Yoshihiro Kusuoka , the top guy at Teikyo University and the only one in the race with a best under 28 minutes, had an easy win in the men's 10000 m in 29:29.34. Silver medalist S.P. Madappagoudra of India ran a PB 29:33.54, with China's Jinzhi Jiang running 29:42.54 for bronze. The fastest man in the race with a best of 44.98 from June's National Championships, Hosei University 's collegiate record holder Shinya Hayashi backed Kusuoka's performance up in the 400 m, running 45.26 to win gold in a race that saw silver and bronze medalists Ngoc Tuong Ta of Vietnam and Zhexuan Shao of hosts China both run PBs. Ami Takahashi picked up silver in the women's 100 mH in 13.31 behind gold medalist Bo An Yi of Taiwan, with teammate Yuka Fukui 5th in 13.68. Takuma Sekin...

After leading the first day of competition, Yuto Yamamoto took Japan's only gold medal on Day 2 of the Asian U23 Athletics Championships in Ordos, China with a 7395 win in the decathlon. Yamamoto started the second day with a 71-point lead over China's Chenghao Zhu , and with 1st-place finishes in the pole vault and 1500 m built that to a final margin of victory of 109 points. Zhu dropped to bronze in 7071, overtaken by teammate Jiawei Wang who took silver with 7286. Silver medals came in the men's 200 m, where Kota Uematsu ran a wind-aided 20.58, the women's 800 m with Kurumi Sugure 2nd in 2:09.42 and Yuri Nishida 7th in 2:12.08, the women's 5000 m thanks to a 16:50.52 by Koharu Chugo , and the men's 3000 mSC where Tetsu Sasaki came up less than 3 seconds short of another Waseda University gold in 8:56.99 behind Qatari Zakaria Elahlaami . Bronze medals went to Ami Takahashi with a 23.66 (+1.5) in the women's 200 m and Aoi Murakami in the women...

The first edition of the Asian U23 Athletics Championships kicked off Thursday in Ordos China with Japanese athlete picking up medals in 4 of the 6 finals in which they competed. With a 13:20.64 best in April this year Waseda University 's Rui Suzuki had an easy win in the men's 5000 m, running 14:01.24 to pick up Japan's first gold. Sota Orita of 2026 Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University struggled, though, running only 15:02.19 for 6th despite having run 13:38.09 in April. Sora Murata and Mitsuki Kobayashi picked up silver and bronze in the women's pole vault behind winner Lingxia Wei of China, with Aiha Yamagata adding another silver to the count with an 11.44 (+0.7) in the women's 100 m between Chinese gold and bronze medalists Kunzhi Xue and Xiajun Liu . One more bronze came in the women's hammer throw, where 2025/2026 national champ Raika Murakami threw a PB of 68.83 m on her 4th attempt. Yuto Yamamoto led the men's decathlon standing...

There's already been a lot going on on the track since the start of July, so let's get to it. The women's 100 mH was the main event at the July 5 Fuse Sprint meet in Tottori, with Hitomi Nakajima turning in the 3rd-fastest time of her career, 12.75 (-0.4), for the win, a time only one other Japanese woman has ever beaten. Yumi Tanaka and Masumi Aoki both turned in quality performances too at 12.89 and 12.97 for 2nd and 3rd. All-time Japanese #4 Midori Mikase had a good one in the women's 100 m too, winning in 11.36 (+0.7). The Hokuren Distance Challenge series kicked off July 4 in Chitose . Tuning up for her 1500-5000-10000 triple at September's Nagoya Asian Games, Nozomi Tanaka won the 1500 m in 4:08.53, then came back to win the 5000 m in a 15:00.61 season best. Bigger news was 3000 mSC NR holder Miu Saito in 2nd, running a PB 15:02.68 to come in at all-time Japanese #8. Collegiate record holder Richard Etir led the men's 5000 m in a 13:08.44 SB, with ...

The Hokkaido Marathon happens Aug. 30 in Sapporo. Although it's not a top-tier race on the global schedule, the JAAF gives it special status in qualification for the MGC Race Los Angeles Olympics marathon trials, with 3 spots available to men who run under 2:12:00 and women under 2:32:00. Compare that to the criteria for making the trials by running the WA platinum label Sydney Marathon the same day, where men have to run under 2:06:30 and women 2:23:30 regardless of how they place. It's hard to see that as anything other than disincentivizing Japanese runners from racing abroad, with protecting the JAAF's financial interest in domestic races being the priority over getting the best athletes into the Olympic trials. But anyway, there are pretty good fields of people willing to not step out of line. All 6 women with marathon finishes to their name have run under 2:30 in the last 3 years led by veteran Hitomi Niiya with a 2:21:50 in Tokyo 2 years ago. Most are in the 2:26-2...

Fresh off a 1:00:41 Australian all-comers record at the Launceston Half at the end of May, Haftu Strintzos lived up to the potential he showed there with a negative split 2:06:20 Australian NR and CR to win the ASICS Gold Coast Marathon . Post-race Strintzos was quick to give credit to the expert pacing trio of 2:06:00 runner Tsubasa Ichiyama , who paced Yuki Takei 's 2:07:33 CR last year, 2:07:14 American Ethan Shuley , and 2:07:34 runner Shinsaku Kudo who paced Gold Coast 2 years ago. The trio kept things going slightly hotter than the 3:01 target pace, on track for 2:06:50 most of the way. Ichiyama stopped at 25 km and Kudo at 30 km, and at that point it was down to Strintzos, 2:06:26 runner Hidekazu Hijikata , and the debuting Jinya Ozaki . Shuley was tasked with going to 30 km but, critically, kept it going for another 2 km over the only significant hill on the Gold Coast course. Just as Strintzos did in Launceston, when Shuley stepped off at 32 km Strintzos got to work, spl...

After a great season so far that has included a win on the New Year Ekiden First Stage in January and a 1:00:58 PB at the National Corporate Half in February, Shumpei Tomita (Logisteed) added another one with a 1:00:52 CR for the win at the China Airlines Gold Coast Half Marathon . Pacer James Hansen and 2-time winner Brett Robinson went out fast, with Australian 10 km NR holder Sam Clifford and Chuo University student Daichi Fujita closing it up to make a lead quartet that hit 5 km in 14:12. Clifford soon dropped off, and when Hansen stepped off at 10 km in 28:44 it was down to just Robinson and Fujita. Fujita, who came into the race with only a 1:03:57 best, couldn't hang with the more experienced Robinson and faded, although to his credit he hung on for a new PB of 1:02:55 in 12th. Robinson looked like he had a 3rd title down, but by 15 km, hit in 43:33, he'd been run down by the front end of the chase pack, Tomita, veteran Kazuto Kawabata and debuting Australian Ed ...

The China Airlines Gold Coast Half Marathon and ASICS Gold Coast Marathon happen this weekend, with the half kicking off at 6:15 a.m. local time Saturday and the marathon 6:15 a.m. Sunday. Both races feature a load of Japanese talent facing off against top-tier Australian competition and other elites from around the world. See our earlier detailed field listing for the half marathon and the marathon. JRN's Brett Larner will be doing a guest spot on the webcast of the marathon as usual. © 2026 Brett Larner , all rights reserved

The Hakodate Half Marathon and Marathon took place June 28 on a course starting and finishing at Hakodate Dotsuku Sports Garden. 4,448 people ran the half marathon, with another 3,866 in the marathon for a total participant number of 8,314. Cheered on by the crowds, runners chased PBs through the exotic atmosphere of Hakodate's streets. A record-breaking 9.271 people entered the race, 5,037 in the half marathon and 4,234 in the marathon. At the opening ceremony mayor Jun Oizumi told onlookers, "I hope that the warm cheers of our local people along the course give runners strength, and that they enjoy the race til the very end." When the starting gun fired at 9:00 a.m. the runners rook off. True to the mayor's words, locals and official cheering squads supported them with loud cheering and performances. At Midorinoshima, a longstanding local restaurant served up curry and other dishes, giving participants a taste of Hakodate's delicious local cuisine. Jin Yuasa ...

It was a high-level men's race at this year's Lake Saroma 100 km Ultramarathon . In cooler conditions than usual at Lake Saroma Tatsuya Inagaki and Masato Tanaka went out hot with a 34:50 opening 10 km, way ahead of pace for Alexsandr Sorokin 's 6:05:35 WR and even the unofficial 5:59:20 run by Sibusiso Kubheka last year. Tanaka lost touch with Inagaki before 40 km, but with halfway splits of 2:54:59 and 2:56:05 both were still far under Kubheka's mark. Running 3rd through 5th at that point, Chiharu Kuzukubo , Hirofumi Nakamura and Toru Somiya were all under Sorokin's WR pace too, with 6th-placer Takatoshi Oe just off in 3:02:49. Inagaki couldn't sustain that kind of performance, and by 60 km Tanaka was back in touch. 10 km Tanaka was 5 minutes ahead and still on 5:54:46 pace, with Oe moving up to 3rd and just over 3 minutes behind Inagaki. 70 km is the marathon's 30 km of the 100 km, and Tanaka began to slow rapidly, over 6 hour pace at 80 km with Oe ...

Following an earlier announcement of the half marathon teams for September's Copenhagen World Road Running Championships , on June 26 the JAAF announced the mile and 5 km squads that will join them. No women were named to the mile. Women 5 km Kana Mizumoto (Edion) - 15:06.98 Rina Kusu (Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:10.91 Half Marathon Yumi Yoshikawa (Canon) - 1:09:14 Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 1:09:20 Rina Shimizu (Noritz) - 1:09:22 Yuna Takahashi (Shimamura) - 1:09:23 Men Mile Ojiro Honda (Waseda Univ.) - 3:37.53 (1500 m) Tomoki Nakano (Toenec) - 3:37.92 (1500 m) 5 km Yota Mashiko (Waseda Univ.) - 13:20.35 Rui Suzuki (Waseda Univ.) - 13:20.64 Half Marathon Tomoya Ogikubo (Hiramatsu Byoin) - 1:00:22 Yuma Nishizawa (Toyota Boshoku) - 1:00:26 Neo Namiki (Subaru) - 1:00:29 Daisuke Sato (Chuo Univ.) - 1:00:40 © 2026 Brett Larner , all rights reserved

The Gold Coast Marathon is always a big stop on the Japanese calendar, with both the men's and women's CR of 2:07:33 and 2:24:22 set by Japanese athletes in the last 2 years and 5 of the last 7 races won by Japanese men. 3 athletes on the entry list in both the women's and men's races have run faster than those times in the last 3 years, and with solid Japanese contingents there's a good chance of new CR. Almaz Kebede , 2022 winner Lindsay Flanagan and Antonina Kwambai have all run 2:23 since 2024 and have 2:25-level Japanese women Aika Murakami and Kaede Kawamura to deal with. The lack of jet lag for the Japanese tends to play in their favor relative to African athletes, so it should be at least a 5-way race up front. Vanessa Wilson is the top domestic entrant with a 2:28:34 in Berlin 2 years ago. 2:06 Kenyans Benson Tunyo , Dominic Ngeno and Elisha Rotich make up the front end of the men's field, with last year's 3rd-placer Ryoma Takeuchi and rece...

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Over the weekend the Gold Coast Marathon announced its elite fields for the China Airlines Half Marathon the day before the main race. For the last couple of years there's been a friendly rivalry between Gold Coast and Tasmania's Launceston Half a month earlier to produce the fastest times ever on Australian soil. Gold Coast has had the women's record for a few years since American Keira D'Amato ran 1:06:39 in 2023, and last year it added the men's record with a 1:01:08 from Andy Buchanan . Launceston took the men's record this year with a 1:00:41 from Haftu Strintzos , and women's winner Izzi Batt-Doyle ran a course record 1:08:46, the fastest time ever by an Australia in Australia. NR holder Batt-Doyle is the favorite again in the women's race at Gold Coast. Women-only half marathon NR holder Rino Goshima has run as fast as 1:08:03, but since moving up to the marathon she hasn't anything near that kind of time, and a 33:12 at the B.A.A. 10 km ...