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 Waseda University's Shunpei Yamaguchi running 13:17.19 for 4th, the 4th-fastest ever by a Japanese-born collegiate runner and overall all-time collegiate #9.
Held in conjunction with the Chitose meet, the National Corporate Championships 10000 m men's title went to Shota Nakano in 28:17.07, Momoka Kawaguchi taking the women's title in 32:14.00.
The 2nd stop in the HDC series was July 8 in Abashiri. Janet Jepkoech had the best individual performance of the meet, winning the women's 5000 m by 40 seconds in 14:52.74. On the men's side, Tokai University had a great team result with Junpei Nakano, Yuta Minamisaka and Shu Nagamoto all breaking 13:40 for 5000 m across 3 different heats. In Heat 2, Miyazaki Nichidai H.S. student Yuta Fujii ran an 11-second PB of 13:47.07 for 3rd. In the women's 10000 m Deborah Chemutai ran a 31:39.52 PB for the win, leading Rika Kaseda and 5000 m national champion Yuma Yamamoto under 31:45. Emmanuel Maru won the men's 10000 m in 27:35.59, with Koku Gakuin University's Hiromichi Nonaka 2nd in 27:41.33, Chuo University's Yuto Miyake 3rd in a 27-second PB 27:44.45, and KGU's Itsuki Takaishi getting under 28 for the first time in 27:57.71 for 4th.
A lot of people are racing the Europe and the U.S. right now too. Highlights:
- Japan's first runner sub-10, Yoshihide Kiryu ran a heavily wind-aided 9.99 (+4.1) for 4th at the Raiffeisen Austrian Open Eisenstadt meet on July 1.
- Yuki Hashioka jumped 7.97 m (+1.4) for 5th in the men's long jump at the July 3 Meeting Stanislas Nancy in France.
- Also July 3, men's 2-mile Asian record holder Keita Sato stepped up from his focus on the 1500 m to run the 2-mile at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meet. Ranked last, he finished 18th of 19 in 8:27.79.
- At the July 4 Meeting Maia Cidade do Desporto in Portugal, Koki Fujihara was 6th in the men's long jump at 7.46 m (0.0).
- The July 4 Meeting National Est Lyonnais in France had Waseda's Soma Nagahara in the 3000 mSC, where he was last in 8:30.30 in his European debut. Yuki Murao was 14th in the B-heat in 8:48.72.
- Better luck for Toyo University's 2026 men's triple jump national champ Manato Miyao, who took 3rd in 16.19 (+1.1) at the Meeting International Bouvet-Bionda despite a canceled flight that saw him arrive a day late just a few hours before the start of the meet.
- A member of Japan's mixed 4x400 m relay team at last fall's Tokyo World Championships, Takuho Yoshizu made his European debut with a 46.42 for 5th at the Meeting voor Mon Polsstokgala in Belgium on July 4, then improved on that with a 46.38 for 2nd at the Joensuu Motonet GP meet in Finland on the 8th. Men's javelin throw national champ Yuta Sakiyama was in Joensuu too, turning in his weakest performance of the season with a throw of 76.17 m for 5th.
- Women's high jump national champion Nagisa Takahashi was at the July 5 Opolski Festival Skokow in Poland, finishing only 11th with a 1.80 m clearance.
- At the Folksam Grand Prix Karlstad meet in Sweden on the 8th, Shunta Inoue was 5th in the men's 400 mH in 50.06. Men's high jump NR holder Naoto Tobe cleared 2.05 m to take 5th as well.
© 2026 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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