japan running news

On Nov. 2 the Asahi Kasei corporate team issued a statement denying the allegations of doping regulation violations issued a day earlier by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) in its announcement of the provisional suspension of team member Koki Ikeda , 26, the silver medalist in the men's 20 km race walk at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and 2022 Oregon World Championships. Team management filed a petition with the AIU asking for the provisional suspension to be reversed and stated that it would "assert and prove to the AIU that no rules whatsoever had been violated." The AIU claims that Ikeda's biological passport, which collects detailed blood data over time and allows for monitoring of changes, contained suspicious readings that suggested use of a prohibited method. Asahi Kasei management said that after holding a hearing with Ikeda and consulting with experts in the field, they "believe no rules have been violated" and said they would "work diligently to...

On July 23 the Fujitsu corporate team announced that men's 20 km race walk world record holder and 2019 50 km world champion Yusuke Suzuki , 36, and three-time men's 400 m national champion Julian Walsh , 27, are retiring at the end of the month. Suzuki competed in the 2012 London Olympics in the 20 km race walk. In 2015 he set a world record of 1:16:36 for 20 km at the National Race Walk Championships in Nomi. At the 2019 Doha World Championships he won the 50 km race walk, the first time a Japanese athlete won gold at an international championships including the Olympics. After that, he suffered setbacks from overtraining and other issues and did not try to make the Tokyo Olympic team in 2021. After leaving Fujitsu Suzuki will become a coach at Niigata University of Food and Agriculture . "I want to give the next generation of athletes the same kind of support that I received in my time as an athlete," he said. A member of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro and 2021 Tokyo Ol...

Tokyo Olympics and Oregon World Championships women's 5000 m team member Kaede Hagitani placed 3rd in the Mar. 31 Hasetsune 30K Trail Race , finishing in 4:06:01. Starting and finishing at the Akigawa Keikoku Rivertio campground and hotel, Hasetsune covers 30 km across the three Tokura peaks in western Tokyo's Okutama mountain range. Yuri Yoshizumi won the women's race in 3:40:49. Hagitani graduated from Nagano Higashi H.S. where she was teammates with Narumi Kobayashi and others on the roads and track. In her 3rd year at Nagano Higashi she took 5th in the 1500 m at the National High School Championships and 7th in the National Sports Festival 3000 m. Along with Kobayashi she helped Nagano Higashi take the runner-up spot at the National High School Ekiden. Entering the Edion corporate team after graduating, Hagitani ran 15:05.78 for 5000 m in 2020, at the time the 7th-best ever by a Japanese woman. In 2021 she was 4th at the National Championships, earning a spot on th...

On Mar. 26 the JAAF board of directors met to finalize a variety of issues for the upcoming year. One topic was the bonuses to be paid to medalists at this summer's Paris Olympics. Gold medalists will receive 3 million yen [~$19,800 USD] , silver medalists 2 million yen [~$13,200] , and bronze medalists 1 million yen [~$6,600] . Athletes who finish 4th through 8th in finals will receive from 800,000 yen to 400,000 yen [~$5300 to ~$2650] . All amounts are the same as those that were offered for last summer's World Championships. For relays, all athletes who compete during the heats or final will receive half the above amounts. At the 2004 Athens Olympics gold medalists received a 5 million yen bonus [~$45,000 USD at the exchange rate at that time] . For the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Olympics that was increased to 10 million yen [~$93,000 in 2008 and ~$125,000 in 2012] . For the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and 2021 Tokyo Olympics it was further increased to 20 millio...

A member of Japan's women's 5000 m teams at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and 2022 Oregon World Championships, Kaede Hagitani , 22, has announced on her Twitter feed that she is quitting the Edion corporate team and the sport of running. "I've decided to leave both the Edion team and track and field as of the end of April," she wrote. "I'll treasure everything I've learned in athletics and the experience I got there for the rest of my life. I'll keep doing things the best way I can no matter what comes next. Thanks to everyone who cheered me on and supported me along the way." Hagitani was one of the most talented runners of her generation, her 3000 m best of 8:48.12 from 2020 ranking her at all-time Japanese #3, and her 5000 m best of 14:59.36 putting her at all-time Japanese #5. A graduate of last year's National High School Girls Ekiden champ Nagano Higashi H.S. , she won her stage at the National Corporate Women's Ekiden twice after j...

Men's rankings here For the second year in a row 5000 m NR holder Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) took the top spot in JRN's overall Japanese women's rankings, and she got there the same way. After running her 5000 m NR and a 10000 m PB at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Hironaka ran big again at the 2022 Oregon World Championships. Her 30:39.71 in the 10000 m was a 21-second improvement on her PB and the 2nd-fastest ever by a Japanese woman. This time she missed making the 5000 m final, but her 15:02.03 in her heat still ended up being the 2nd-fastest Japanese time of the year. Post-Worlds Hironaka dropped off a bit, unable to break 15 minutes in the fall track time trial season. But at November's National Corporate Women's Ekiden she delivered the women's ekiden performance of the year, fighting off tough competition to hang onto the lead for the Japan Post team on the race's most competitive stage. Given her lack of experience with the 10000 m, her big jump up in...

2022 Oregon World Championships marathoner Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) announced on her social media on Sept. 18 that she had gotten married earlier that day to an ordinary, non-athlete man. "I'm grateful to him for accepting my wish not to retire and to keep competing," she wrote. Along with the text she posted a picture of herself with her new husband, a graduate of Aoyama Gakuin University. One of Japan's top domestic athletes, the 29-year-old Matsuda won her marathon debut at the 2018 Osaka International Women's Marathon. She was named alternate to the Tokyo Olympics team after finishing 4th at the MGC Olympic marathon trials. She was 9th at July's World Championships in Oregon. Having announced that she won't retire now that she is married, fans can look forward to more from her. photo © 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved source article: https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/13eb3a4dde977d4fe6112e18d7d07a6af5409a3f translated by Brett Larner

With the Oregon 22 World Championships coming to a close on July 25, next year and beyond are already on the horizon. Having missed her likely spot on the Japanese team after an injury kept her out of May's 10000 m National Championships, Seira Fuwa (19, 2nd yr., Takushoku Univ.) and her coach Toshiharu Igarashi traveled to Eugene to watch the women's 10000 m in person. Coach Igarashi talked about their reasons for going and their plans for the future. "I went to see the 2011 Daegu World Championships, and the atmosphere was really something unique," he said. "The difference between watching it on TV and experiencing it in the stadium was incredible." To help Fuwa prepare for her own upcoming debut at the international level, he wanted her to get the same experience of the level and atmosphere at an early stage in her career. Igarashi suggested the trip to the U.S. to her on May 4 right after announcing her withdrawal from the National Championships. ...

The final day of the Oregon 22 World Championships opened with a medal-winning walk from Masatora Kawano in the men's 35 km race walk. Teammate Daisuke Matsunaga went out hard, opening a lead of over a minute at one point before being reeled in early in the second half and fading to 26th. Kawano stayed in the lead group the entire way, the only person there never to take the lead at any point, covering any move without making any contribution to the race. When Italy's Massimo Stano made his final move for the win Kawano was right there, but he couldn't quite close it down and was consigned by the Italian to silver, 2:23:14 to 2:23:15. Sweden's Perseus Karlstrom took bronze in 2:23:44. Japan's Tomohiro Noda patiently worked his way up into the top 8 together with Canadian Evan Dunfee , but while Dunfee was able to carry his momentum all the way to final finishing position of 6th, Noda faded and was re-taken, ultimately just outside the top 8 at 9th in 2:25:29 ...

A Japanese men's 4x400 m relay had only made a World Championships final once before in 2003, but this year's squad of Fuga Sato , Kaito Kawabata , Julian Walsh and Joseph Nakajima exceeded expectations, running the 2nd-fastest time in the heats to make the Oregon 22 World Championships final. Sato put the team into contention with Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago for 2nd, Kawabata and Walsh kept them there, and Nakajima surprised by holding off Jamaican Anthony Cox by just 0.06 in a season best 3:01.53. That was better than any team in Heat 2, and, granted, over two and a half seconds behind the United States, but not even Japanese TV announcers seemed to have expected the squad to make the final let alone have a medal within the realm of possibility. Another big run in the final will do a lot to make up for the disappointment of a second-straight 4x100 m exchange failure. Both Japanese women in the 100 m hurdles went on to the semifinals on time, Mako Fukube taking 4th...

The men's race walks were expected to be Japan's only real chance at medals at the Oregon 22 World Athletics Championships , but in the women's javelin throw Haruka Kitaguchi came through with the country's first-ever women's field event medal at the World Championships as she took bronze. Kitaguchi came to Eugene in good form with a first-ever Japanese win in a Diamond League event under her belt and got off strong when she led the qualifying round with a 64.32 m throw on her first attempt. Kitaguchi opened with a 62.07 m that put her in bronze medal position behind Australians Kelsey-Lee Barber and Mackenzie Little , where she stayed until the fourth round. There China's Shiying Liu threw 63.25 m to move into 2nd by 3 cm over Little, pushing Kitaguchi down to 4th. It took until the final round for Kitaguchi to respond. Summoning up a big throw, she bettered Liu by just 2 cm to overtake her at 63.27 cm. American Kara Winger also came up a big closer, throw...

Ten years after his last appearance on the Japanese national team with a 9th-place finish at the London Olympics, Roderick Genki Dean put himself in good position in the qualification round of the men's javelin throw on Day 7 of the Oregon 22 World Athletics Championships . With all 12 qualifiers for the final going over 80 m Dean was right on the cusp with his first two throws, hitting 79.26 m and 79.33 m. But on his third attempt he pulled out a season best 82.34 m to make the cut, positioning himself at 7th going into the final. Teammate Kenji Ogura couldn't quite get there, throwing 78.48 m on his first attempt and unable to better it on his other two. Dean looks to be in good position to better his London performance in Saturday's final if he can replicate the same kind of form. Neither of the other Japanese athletes in action advanced to the next round in their events. Running in Heat 2, all-time Japanese #2 Hyuga Endo only needed to finish 10th in 13:24.55 to mak...

Day 5 of the Oregon 22 World Championships saw only two Japanese athletes in action, with Koki Ueyama and Shota Iizuka running the men's 200 m semifinals. Ueyama took 6th in SF 3 in 20.48 +0.3, with Iizuka bowing out in Heat 1 at 20.77 -0.1 for 7th. Day 6 kicked off with the women's javelin throw qualification round. Haruka Kitaguchi only threw once, but that was all it took for her to put herself at the top of the field at 64.32 m. Sae Takemoto also made it to the final with a 59.15 m throw on her second attempt. Wearing a heavy brace on her left knee and in visible pain, Momone Ueda somehow managed three throws. The best of them was only 50.70 m, putting her ahead of only two athletes who didn't manage any marks, but given the condition she seemed to be in Ueda's performance was one of the grittiest we've seen in Eugene. In the women's 5000 m heats, NR holder Ririka Hironaka took the same approach as in the 10000 m, going out on PB pace in front and tr...

On July 18, JAAF sprint director  Hiroyasu Tsuchie announced that another coach and three more athletes at the Oregon 22 World Championships, 200 m and 4x100 m team member Yuki Koike , 110 m hurdler Shunsuke Izumiya , and 400 m hurdler Takayuki Kishimoto , have tested positive for COVID-19. They bring the total number of people on the Japanese national team to have tested positive at the Championships to 15. "The impact is enormous," said Tsuchie. "Our team this team included a core of younger athletes who had been set to gain valuable experience." The first athletes to test positive were three of the marathoners, but it has now spread to the sprints and hurdles squads. Koike reported having a fever the morning of the 200 m heats, and when his test results came back positive he was forced to withdraw from what would have been his first race, the 200 m heats. He has also withdrawn from the 4x100 m relay. Tsuchie commented, "Up to this point he had been peaking ...

With both teammates out with COVID it was down to Mizuki Matsuda to represent Japan in the women's marathon at the Oregon 22 World Championships . As the front group went out at World Championships record pace Matsuda let go of both them and a chase group centered around Great Britain's Jess Piasecki and Americans Sara Hall and Emma Bates , all alone by 3 km and running that way the rest of the race. As far back as 17th at one point, by the end of the first 14 km lap she was in 16th, 24 seconds behind the chase group which now included U.S. record holder Keira D'Amato . As the leading trio went through halfway in 1:09:01 and the chase quartet in 1:10:17 Matsuda was up to 13th in 1:10:38. From there until 40 km it was a steady advance up through the field in pursuit of a top 8 finish, Matsuda closing to within 2 seconds of D'Amato in 8th. But D'Amato had superior closing speed, and held her off 2:23:34 to 2:23:49. Up front Ethiopian Gotytom Gebreslase , 3rd-placer...

With the last-second withdrawal of NR holder Kengo Suzuki after a positive COVID test the day before the race, it was up to newbies Yusuke Nishiyama and Gaku Hoshi to represent Japan in the men's marathon at the start of Day 3 of the Oregon 22 World Championships . Nishiyama, who won February's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon in 2:07:47 in his debut, told JRN pre-race that his goals were top 8 and a PB, in that order. He stayed in the lead group for much of the race, but although he dropped off in the later stages and missed both goals, his 2:08:35 for 13th was still the fastest-ever by a Japanese man at the World Championships. Teammate Hoshi, 1st at February's Osaka Marathon in 2:07:31 in his debut, struggled to match Nishiyama, fading to 38th in 2:13:44. In between, longtime Japan-based Mongolian NR holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir , 40, made good on one of his two goals for his 10th-straight World Championships, beating his best-ever Worlds time of 2:16:41 by 5:02 as he ran 2:11...

The biggest news of the Oregon 2022 World Championships Day Two on the Japanese front was the announcement that its top marathon hopes Kengo Suzuki and Mao Ichiyama had both had positive COVID tests along with their coaches and have withdrawn from their races. But there was more positive news. Women's 5000 m NR holder Ririka Hironaka ran 30:39.71 for 12th in the 10000 m, a PB by exactly 21 seconds over the time she ran for 7th at the Tokyo Olympics last summer and moving her up to all-time Japanese #2, 19 seconds off the NR at age 21. Hironaka led the first half of the race and executed almost perfectly even splits: 1000 m: 3:04.80 2000 m: 3:04.04 3000 m: 3:03.03 4000 m: 3:03.20 5000 m: 3:04.21 (15:19.28) 6000 m: 3:07.02 (lost rhythm when Eilish McColgan took lead) 7000 m: 3:04.05 9000 m: 6:06.94 10000 m: 3:02.62 Of course she got dropped easily once things really got moving, Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey winning in 30:09.94 by 0.08 over Hellen Obiri , but not everyone's a co...

The Oregon 22 World Championships kicked off with Japan's two best medal chances coming through for gold and silver in the men's 20 km race walk, and most of its other top people performing up to potential. 2019 world champ and Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist Toshikazu Yamanishi set the tone with a fast start and threw in a series of surges whenever the pace slowed much beyond 4:00/km. In the late going he made a move for real, with only Tokyo silver medalist Koki Ikeda and Kenya's Samuel Gathimba able to stay with him. Ikeda took his turn with a surge of his own, and Gathimba dropped back to deal with 2019 bronze medalist Perseus Karlstrom of Sweden. But Yamanishi wasn't going to let Ikeda get away, and over the last 2 km he pulled away for a second-straight gold medal in a season-best 1:19:07. Ikeda scored silver in 1:19:14, with Karlstrom 4 seconds back for bronze again. Hiroto Jusho was 8th in 1:20:39, making for what will probably be the best Japanese team perf...

Update: Women's 10000 m member Narumi Kobayashi  was pulled from the team after testing positive in her pre-departure COVID test at Narita Airport. She is not reported to be experiencing any symptoms. No athlete will be added to the team in her place. Japan's final team for the Oregon 22 World Championships stands at 67 athletes, 41 men and 26 women. Its only real medal prospects are in the men's race walks, with top 8 prospects in a few of its other traditionally and recently strong events. Tokyo Olympics men's 20 kmRW silver medalist Koki Ikeda is the single best shot Japan has at an individual medal, among entrants the fastest in the world this year at 1:18:53 and #3 in the rankings. Defending world champ and Olympic bronze medalist Toshikazu Yamanishi is right there too off a win at March's WA Race Walking Team Championships. Eiki Takahashi is 3rd-fastest and Hiroto Jusho 11th in the field, so chances are very good of at least one other finish in the top ...

Takushoku University women's ekiden head coach Toshiharu Igarashi has revealed that he will take U20 and collegiate 10000 m record holder Seira Fuwa , 19, to watch the Oregon 2022 World Championships women's 10000 m in person. Last December Fuwa ran 30:45.21 for 10000 m, the 2nd-fastest Japanese time ever and easily clearing the 31:25.00 World Championships qualification standard. All she needed to do to make the Japanese team was finish top 3 at May's National Championships, but an injury to her right Achilles tendon in January made her give up on competing at Nationals and focus instead on treating the injury. Last month on Takushoku's official team social media Igarashi posted that Fuwa has started training again. "She isn't back to full-on workouts yet, but she's back to rhythm of regular running at a jogging pace," he wrote. He also posted, "I'm going to take Fuwa to America to see the Oregon World Championships in person." His ho...