japan running news

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 ...

3 Japanese women and 7 men competed at this weekend's World Athletics Indoor Championships in Kujawy Pomorze, Poland, and out of those 5 made their finals. NR holder Nozomi Tanaka was in the 3000 m final, where she was 13th of 14 finishers in 9:07.77 in a race where it took 8:58.18 to get into the medals. Neither Mako Fukube nor Chisato Kiyoyama made the women's 60 mH final, 100 mH NR holder Fukube making the semifinals where she was 7th in SF3 in 8.06 but Kiyoyama eliminated in the first-round heats with an 8.15 for 7th in H5. Fukube was actually faster in the heats, tying her PB with an 8.02 in H6 to move on to the semis. On the men's side, Shusei Nomoto came in hot in the 60 mH, tying his PB of 7.57 to make the semis and then running a 7.49 NR for 3rd in SF3 to make the final on time. There he ran 7.49 again, 0.06 out of the medals in 6th. Teammate Ryota Fujii ran 7.81 for 6th in his opening round heat and didn't make the semifinals. Allon Tatsunami Clay was a...

Japan is sending a team of 3 women and 7 men to this weekend's Kujaway Pomorze World Athletics Indoor Championships in Poland. A quick look at the lineup with best times in last 3 years: Women 3000 m Nozomi Tanaka (New Balance) - 8:33.52 (2025) 60 mH Mako Fukube (NKK) - 8.02 (2026) Chisato Kiyoyama (Ichigo) - 8.09 (2026) Men 60 m Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei) - 6.53 (2024) Yoshiki Kinashi (Tsukuba Univ. Grad School) - 6.60 (2026) 800 m Allon Tatsunami Clay (Penn State Univ.) - 1:45.17 (2026) 60 mH Shusei Nomoto (Ehime T&F) - 7.59 (2026) Ryota Fujii (Tottori Sports Assoc.) - 7.71 (2024) High Jump Naoto Hasegawa (Niigata Albirex RC) - 2.30 m (2026) Tomohiro Shinno (Kraftia) - 2.30 m (2026) © 2026 Brett Larner , all rights reserved

Earlier this month at the Shizuoka International Meet, Shiga Gakuen H.S. 3rd-year Ko Ochiai and Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S. 2nd-year Rin Kubo won the men's and women's 800 m races. Both outran older and more experienced athletes to score 1st, but Ochiai's win was especially notable. His time of 1:46.54 bettered both the U20 and high school Japanese records set by Allon Clay when he was a student at Soyo H.S. "I was going for the records," said Ochiai. "I wanted to race some good college and corporate league people to get the best experience I could before the National Championships." At last October's Yogibo Athletics Challenge meet in Niigata Ochiai had gone out with a similar pace. "I ran according to plan and didn't have to rush it," he said. Over the winter he focused on improving both speed and stamina. "I had a lot left in the tank. With 300 m to go I couldn't move last time, but this time I had enough left to kick over ...

Even more than in Osaka , top-level Japanese athletes turned out in big numbers for the 83rd Tokyo Track and Field Championships , stretched out over a leisurely four-day schedule this weekend at Komazawa Stadium. Despite terrible weather conditions throughout the long weekend they brought new meet records in eighteen events, breaking some records that had stood for over 50 years. All three men's sprints saw new meet records. 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics men's 4x100 m relay silver medalist Aska Cambridge (Nike) ran a meet record 10.29 (+0.3) to win his 100 m opening heat, improved that to 10.26 (-0.3) to take his semifinal, then took the record further again with a 10.22 (-0.8) win in the final. Keigo Yasuda (Daito Bunka Univ.) tied the men's 200 m meet record at 20.97 (-1.0) to win the final. Daichi Inoue (Nihon Univ.) ran 46.81 to break the previous men's 400 m meet record of 47.05, set in 1996 before he was born. Men's middle distance also had new meet r...

2019 men's 800 m national champion and Soyo H.S. 3rd-year Aaron Tatsunami Clay will enroll in America's Texas A&M University next September, it was learned on Nov. 14. Until then he plans to remain based at Soyo in preparation to go for the win at next year's National Championships and to clear the 2020 Tokyo Olympics qualifying standard. The prestigious Texas A&M is where Donovan Brazier (U.S.A.), winner of the gold medal in the men's 800 m at this fall's Doha World Championships, is enrolled. Soyo H.S. head coach Mitsuru Zeniya , 53, who accompanied Clay on a visit to see the university, was supportive of Clay's decision and goals, saying, "He just barely missed the World Championships qualifying standard. If he trains with athletes who are stronger than him he'll grow more." Last year at the October Niigata Autumn Time Trials meet Clay set a national high school record of 1:47.51 for 800 m. At the National Championships in June...

Held in the stadium where Japan saw its first-ever sub-10 clocking for 100 m, Saturday's new Athlete Night Games in Fukui meet produced four national records highlighted by an incredible men's long jump competition. Yuki Hashioka (Nihon Univ.) opened with a jump of 8.32 m +1.6 m/s that shattered the national record dating way back in 1992 by 7 cm. Hibika Tsuha (Toyo Univ.) followed him with a jump of 8.21 m + 2.0 m/s that put him into the all-time Japanese top three, then bettered that with an 8.23 m +0.6 m/s. Out of nowhere, Shotaro Shiroyama (Zenrin) knocked them both back in the record books on his third jump with a new national record of 8.40 m +1.5 m/s, the #2 mark in the world so far this year and only his second time clearing 8 m with a legal wind. Japanese fans were quick to compare the trio's results to this season's Diamond League meets. DL Shanghai 🥇8m24🥈8m16🥉8m14 DL Lausanne 🥇8m32🥈8m19🥉8m13 DL London 🥇8m37🥈8m32🥉8m11 DL Fukui 🥇8...

Day two of the 2019 Japanese National Track and Field Championships saw heavy rain hit the roofless Hakatanomori Field midway through the desultory late afternoon schedule, impacting the men's javelin throw, women's pole vault and women's long jump and leaving the track slick for the evening's main events. Just before the first wave of rain struck, Haruka Kitaguchi (Nihon Univ.), the only woman in the javelin throw to have cleared the Doha World Championships standard, opened with a national championships record 62.68 m that pretty much wrapped up her win. On her fourth throw Kitaguchi extended the record to 63.68 m, her final winning mark and securing her a place in Doha. In the final round of throws Yuka Mori (Nikoniko Nori) unexpectedly bettered Kitaguchi's first-round record with a PB of 62.88 m as the first few drops began to fall. By the time the men's javelin got started it was a full on downpour, with race officials desperately trying to push a ...

https://www.iaaf.org/competitions/iaaf-world-relays/news/world-relays-yokohama-day-1

Battered by the winds of the passing Typhoon #25, Jakarta Asian Games 100 m bronze medalist Ryota Yamagata (Seiko) ended a long season with a national title in the senior men's 100 m on the second day of the Fukui National Sports Festival . A 5.2 m/s headwind meant there was no chance of Yamagata achieving his goal of finally breaking 10 seconds on the same track where Yoshihide Kiryu did it last year, but Yamagata duly dispatched rivals Yuki Koike (ANA) and Takumi Kuki (NTN) to take the win in 10.58. The wind was almost as much of an issue in the senior women's 100 m, where Nodoka Seko (Crane) won in 12.21 (-2.8 m/s), and the junior races. Senior women's discus throw winner Nanaka Kori (Kyushu Kyoritsu  Univ.) doubled back with a win in the shot put, throwing 15.84 m. Junior high schooler Asuka Ishimatsu (Hamanomiya J.H.S.) beat older competition to win the junior women's 1500 m in 4:26.07, while Aaron Clay (Soyo H.S.) took the longest men's event of the...