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Weekend Track Roundup


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 season. Clay responded with a 1:44.32 PB for 800 m at the Edmonton Athletics Invitational, bringing himself 0.87 short of Ochiai's NR. Men's 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura was 2nd in 8:10.30, with women's 3000 m NR holder Nozomi Tanaka 2nd to last in 8:37.85. Women's javelin throw NR holder Haruka Kitaguchi lost the momentum of her comeback so far this season, taking last with a best throw of only 56.24 m. In the men's 1000 m B-heat Soma Nagahara was 2nd in 2:21.47 and Yuki Murao 7th in 2:25.49.
  • Kaisei Okada continued a great season with a 13:19.77 win in the men's 5000 m at the Sunset Tour meet in Los Angeles, joining his former Rakunan H.S. teammate Keita Sato as the only Japanese collegiate men to go under 13:20 twice in the same season. Yu Shibata was 6th in 13:39.07 and Ryo Kurimura last in 14:23.51. Women's 800 m NR holder Rin Kubo was 8th of 9 in 2:03.07 with her Sekisui Kagaku teammate Hitomi Niiya 5th in the 5000 m in 15:49.46. Hayate Sato was 9th in the men's 3000 mSC in 8:32.05, Kazuyoshi Tamogami taking 7th in the 800 m B-heat in 1:48.56.
  • Another Rakunan H.S. grad, men's triple jump national champion Manato Miyao continued a good European debut tour with another 3rd-place finish, this one a 16.30 (0.0) at the World Jump Day meet in Linz, Austria. Yasser Mohammed Triki of Algeria won by well over a meter at 17.58 m (0.0).
  • Koki Fujihara took 5th in the men's long jump at the Meeting of Braga in Portugal with a best attempt of 7.79 m (+1.4). American winner Damarcus Simpson was the only one to clear 8 m, winning in 8.03 m (-0.6).
  • Ippei Takeda ran 10.40 (+0.6) for 6th in the men's 100 m at the Grand Prix Nove Mesto nad Metuji meet in the Czech Republic, but his best performance there was in the first-round heats where he ran 10.38 (+0.7) for 2nd in Heat 3 to make the final.
  • After two good performances in Europe so far this month Takuho Yoshizu had an off day at the Moore-Guldensporenmeeting in Belgium, running only 47.57 for 6th in the men's 800 m. Next up Yoshizu will race at the Night of Athletics meet next week.
© 2026 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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