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Goto Drops 2nd-Straight WR - National Championships Day Three Highlights


Just over a month since his 17th birthday, Taiju Goto proved his 48.31 U18 WR in the men's 400 mH heats yesterday wasn't a fluke as he bettered that in the final on the last day of the 110th National Track and Field Championships in Nagoya. Slow in the start, Goto picked up momentum coming up to 200 m before really getting into gear, pulling away from the rest of the field in the last 100 m to win in 48.09, another U18 WR, a new U20 NR, and a run that made him the first high schooler ever to with the Nationals 400 mH. Now only 0.20 off the senior NR, Goto joins the list of Rakunan H.S. talent to be re-writing the record books that includes Yoshihide Kiryu, Ryuji Miura, Keita Sato and Toshinari Takaoka.


Another Nationals MR went down, this one in the women's 3000 mSC thanks to NR holder Miu Saito. Having taken 3rd in the 5000 m 2 days ago, Saito started out a little on the conservative side with company from last year's winner Manami Nishiyama in the first 1000 m before really opening up. Soloing it the rest of the way, she set a new MR of 9:30.30, the 2nd-fastest time ever by a Japanese woman behind only her own 9:24.72 NR at last fall's Tokyo World Championships. Nishiyama was less than a second off her PB in 9:41.84 for 2nd, with Yuzu Nishide 3rd in 9:50.92.


The men's 5000 m was the other great race of the day, with all 3 men who broke the 3000 m NR at May's Seiko Golden Grand Prix meet making the final. The youngest of them, Yu Shibata of Josai University, was obviously tired from his 13:28.05 win in Heat 3 on Friday and faded early to finish last in 13:59.12, but the other 2, Nagiya Mori and Ryuto Igawa, were right up in it throughout the race, covering moves when they needed to and waiting until Rui Aoki made a play for the win in the last 400 m to really work. With a 3:36.53 PB for 1500 m a few weeks back Mori had the closing speed to edge away from Igawa over the last 150 m, but the surprise was his Honda teammate Shota Nakano. Nakano came up from behind to catch Igawa for 2nd and just missed getting Mori, Mori taking the national title in 13:22.41, Nakano next in 13:22.56, and Igawa 3rd in 13:22.97. Mori secured his place on the 5000 m team for September's Nagoya Asian Games, and as one of only 2 men to have cleared the AG 1500 m standard it's likely we'll see him in a rare by Japanese men's standards 1500/5000 m double.

110th National Track and Field Championships

Day Three Highlights
Paloma Mizuho Stadium, Nagoya, 14 June

1. Abigail Fuka Ido (Toho Ginko) - 23.19 
2. Remi Tsuruta (MKFM) - 23.47
3. Ami Takahashi (Tsukuba Univ.) - 23.55
4. Aoi Sato (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 23.62
5. Aiko Iki (Osaka Gas) - 23.73
6. Nanako Matsumoto (Toho Ginko) - 23.83
7. Shuri Aono (ND Software) - 23.85
8. Aiha Yamagata (Fukuoka Univ.) - 23.86

1. Soshi Mizukubo (Miyazaki Sports) - 20.14
2. Akira Hayashi (Keio Univ.) - 20.59
3. Hiroki Shigetani (Green Cross) - 20.79
4. Sota Miwa (Koizumi) - 20.80
5. Tomoru Funaki (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 20.84
6. Yuki Michael Orisa (GK Line) - 20.85
7. Ryotaro Hama (Hosei Univ.) - 20.85
8. Mitsuhiro Numata (Legalis) - 21.01

1. Yuki Joseph Nakajima (Fujitsu) - 45.60
2. Shinya Hayashi (Tsukuba Univ.) - 45.75
3. Fuga Sato (Mizuno) - 45.95
4. Rikuya Ito (Sumitomo Denko) - 46.18
5. Kenki Imaizumi (Uchi Yoko AC) - 46.48
6. Tsuyoshi Kobata (Kwansei Gakuin Univ.) - 46.52
7. Seinosuke Irizuki (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 46.61
8. Kentaro Shirahata (Toyo Univ.) - 46.81

1. Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 4:11.80
2. Mizuki Michishita (Sekisui Kagaku) - 4:14.49
3. Airi Tajima (Juntendo Univ.) - 4:14.53
4. Ayu Henmi (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 4:16.42
5. Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 4:16.91
6. Jerusha Yuri Mayaka (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 4:17.21
7. Miori Kida (Juntendo Univ.) - 4:17.57
8. Yua Nagamori (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) - 4:17.69
9. Mahiro Hasegawa (Iwatani Sangyo) - 4:17.79
10. Iroha Kodama (Iwatani Sangyo) - 4:18.20
11. Chikako Mori (Sekisui Kagaku) - 4:18.59
12. Mana Aiba (Daito Bunka Univ.)- 4:20.29

1. Nagiya Mori (Honda) - 13:22.41
2. Shota Nakano (Honda) - 13:22.56
3. Ryuto Igawa (Asahi Kasei) - 13:22.97
4. Rui Suzuki (Waseda Univ.) - 13:24.60
5. Rui Aoki (Sumitomo Denko) - 13:25.62
6. Tomoya Ogikubo (Hiramatsu Byoin) - 13:26.74
7. Yota Mashiko (Waseda Univ.) - 13:27.08
8. Yuto Imae (GMO) - 13:27.72
9. Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) - 13:31.60
10. Yoshihiro Kusuoka (Teikyo Univ.) - 13:32.14

1. Shunsuke Izumiya (Sumitomo Denko) - 13.17
2. Tatsuki Abe (Eternal Hospitality) - 13.28
3. Taiga Yokote (Digiverse) - 13.44
4. Ryo Tokuoka (Kagotani) - 13.66
5. Hayato Higuchi (Tsukuba TP) - 13.75
6. Aoba Oguchi (Hosei Univ.) - 13.89
7. Ryota Fujii (Tottori Sports) - 13.90
8. Hiroto Miyamoto (Juntendo Univ.) - 13.95

1. Honoka Aoki (Zenrin) - 55.92
2. Satsuki Umehara (Sumitomo Denko) - 56.22
3. Moe Matsuoka (Suzuki) - 56.93
4. Akane Minamisawa (MDK) - 57.19
5. Rachel Mayu Gardner (Waseda Univ.) - 57.33
6. Rene Shinto (VIDA) - 57.36
7. Meri Masuko (Hasegawa) - 57.38
8. Ruru Hiraki (Osaka Seikei Univ.) - 57.95

1. Taiju Goto (Rakunan H.S.) - 48.09 - U18 WR, U20 NR
2. Kazuki Kurokawa (Sumitomo Denko) - 48.84
3. Kaito Tsutsue (ST-Wako) - 49.05
4. Masaya Oda (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 49.58
5. Hiromu Yamauchi (Toho Ginko) - 49.82
6. Shunta Inoue (Fujitsu) - 49.83
7. Ken Toyoda (Toyota) - 49.93
8. Yusaku Kodama (Nojima T&F) - 49.98

1. Miu Saito (Panasonic) - 9:30.30 - MR
2. Manami Nishiyama (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 9:41.84
3. Yuzu Nishide (Daihatsu) - 9:50.92
4. Nozomi Kondo (Meijo Univ.) - 9:59.59
5. Yuna Onishi (Josai Univ.) - 10:03.60
6. Ayana Yamashita (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 10:07.62
7. Yuka Komatsu (Kraftia) - 10:09.31
8. Satsuki Horio (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 10:12.53
9. Yukina Honjo (Wacoal) - 10:13.10
10. Ayaka Koike (Denso) - 10:13.73

1. Hirokazu Sakai (Senko) - 2.20 m
2. Yuto Seko (Yamada Holdings) - 2.20 m
3. Naoto Hasegawa (Niigata Albirex RC) - 2.20 m

1. Akari Funada (Niconiconori) - 13.69 m (+0.8)
2. Mariko Morimoto (Orico) - 13.54 m (+0.4)
3. Maoko Takashima (Kraftia) - 13.22 m (+0.7)

1. Daichi Morishita (Sekisho Shoji) - 18.69 m
2. Hitoshi Okumura (Senko) - 18.06 m
3. Hayate Inafuku (Sakaguchi Nasen) - 17.79 m

© 2026 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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Anonymous said…
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June 22, 2026 at 6:17 PM
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