japan running news

Always a big draw on the springtime Japanese schedule, this year's Payton Jordan Invitational at California's Stanford University produced year-leading Japanese women's 5000 m and 10000 m marks.

In the 5000 m, 2018 National Corporate Road 10 km Championships winner Yui Fukuda (Toyota Jidoshokki) ran 15:20.08 for 8th overall to replace Minami Yamanouchi (Kyocera) on top the 5000 m list. In the 10000 m, Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) returned from placing as the top Japanese woman at March's World Half Marathon Championships to finish 5th overall in 31:57.91, the first Japanese woman to break 32 minutes so far this year.

On the men's side, after a solid run at December's Fukuoka International Marathon the U.S.-based Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project) passed on a springtime marathon in favor of a shot at the Japanese national record in the 10000 m. At Stanford Osako came up short, dropping out just after 6000 m. In the 1500 m, Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu) continued a stint i…

3rd last year, Meijo University returned to the top with its first national title since 2005 at today's National University Women's Ekiden Championships in Sendai.

Missing its star pair Anju Takamizawa and Riho Takamizawa (no relation), defending champion Matsuyama University was never in the race, 25th of 26 teams on the 6.4 km First Stage and eventually working its way up to 13th. 6 seconds out of 1st, Meijo took over the lead on the 5.6 km Second Stage and held it almost the entire rest of the way.

With a record of ten wins and four 2nd-place finishes in the last 14 years, last year's runner-up Ritsumeikan University went into 1st on the 4.8 km Fourth Stage thanks to a stage best run by Ayano Tanaka, setting up a duel between course record holder Kotona Ota (Ritsumeikan Univ.) and #1-ranked first-year Rika Kaseda (Meijo Univ.) on the day's longest stage, the 9.2 km Fifth Stage. Kaseda caught Ota within the first 3 km, but while it looked like the younger Kaseda mig…

For the second Universiade in a row Japan pulled off a near-sweep of the half marathon medals, taking all three men's individual medals, women's gold and bronze and both team golds. Komazawa University's Kei Katanishi and Naoki Kudo went 1-2, leaving national university half marathon champion Kengo Suzuki over 30 seconds behind to hold off Uganda's John Kateregga for bronze. Wataru Tochigi took 6th to make it 4 Japanese men in the top 6, the only misstep coming from Takato Suzuki of national champion Aoyama Gakuin University who finished only 12th after scratching in the 10000 m.

Not so for women's gold medalist Yuki Munehisa. Munehisa had led most of the women's 10000 m only to get dropped in the last kilometer and wind up outside the medals in 4th. In the half marathon she was bound and determined not to end up the same way again, doing all the heavy lifting to drop Turkey's Esma Aydemir with teammate Saki Fukui in a supporting role. Munehisa finally pul…

Ai Hosoda became the first Japanese medalist of the Taipei 2017 Summer Universiade, winning bronze in the women's 10000 m to wrap the first day of athletics competition.

【#台北ユニバーシアード】
女子10000m
細田あいが銅メダル🥉
（写真：奥井隆史） #陸上#ユニバーシアードpic.twitter.com/tq9XLAU99r — スポーツナビ・陸上編集部 (@sn_gorin) August 24, 2017
Leading the field with a sub-32 best, 19-year-old Yuki Munehisa led the first 9000 m on the race before being overtaken by Daria Maslova (Kyrgyszstan),  Sanjivani Jadhav (India) and Hosoda. On the last lap Maslova kicked away to gold in 33:19.27 less than 3 seconds ahead of Jadhav, with Hosoda 6 seconds behind for bronze. Munehisa fell to 4th, with third team member Natsuki Sekiya, a favorite to medal in the 5000 m, off her game at 12th in 35:21.19.

【#ユニバーシアード】
多田修平(関西学院大)
3組1着 0.0 10.29
スタートから1位をキープし、安定したレース展開でした！
準決勝進出です！！#青春に駆けろpic.twitter.com/I5UBAidmIE — 日本学生陸上競技連合 (@iuauj) August 23, 2017
With the rest of the day devoted to qualifying rounds Hosoda's medal was the day's only …

The IUAU has announced a 38-member team for the Aug. 23-28 Summer Universiade in Taiwan, with 24 men and 14 women representing 26 universities. Rio Olympian Kazuya Shiojiri (Juntendo Univ.) leads the team in men's long distance, with newly sub-10.10 Shuhei Tada (Kwansei Gakuin Univ.) an expected favorite in men's sprints. Javelin throw and heptathlon collegiate record holders Haruka Kitaguchi (Nihon University) and Meg Hemphill (Chuo University) lead the women's team. The complete team roster:
Men Sprints Shuhei Tada (Kwansei Gakuin University)
Yusuke Tanaka (Nihon Wellness University)
Jun Yamashita (Tsukuba University)
Sho Kitagawa (Juntendo University)
Takamasa Kitagawa (Juntendo University)
Shusei Nomoto (Waseda University)
Taio Kanai (Hosei University)
Ryo Kajiki (Josai University)
Long Distance Wataru Tochigi (Juntendo University)
Kazuya Shiojiri (Juntendo University)
Takato Suzuki (Aoyama Gakuin University)
Kengo Suzuki (Kanagawa University)
Naoki Kudo (Komazawa Univ…

by Brett Larner

【#世界陸上 🇬🇧 #TBS 8月開幕】
《 #関東インカレ ２日目・桐生祥秀》
期待された桐生のスイッチは入らず。しかし、今季の走りのレベルは「９秒８台レベル」と土江コーチ
続きはhttps://t.co/Yye7JlUp3n#桐生祥秀#TBS#世界陸上pic.twitter.com/3f4yeOjkXq — TBSテレビ陸上 ８月は世界陸上ロンドン (@tbsrikujou) May 26, 2017
Day two of the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships saw one of the the country's greats, Rio Olympics men's 4x100 m silver medalist Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.), lining up in the meet's 100 m for the final time of his college career. Heading into the semi-finals with the fastest time in the heats, Kiryu easily topped the semis with a 10.15 +1.8 m/s to take the top spot among the qualifiers for the final. There he ran 10.24 -0.5 m/s to add one last Kanto 100 m title to his collection. Anchoring Toyo's 4x100 m team he brought them home in 4th in 39.56, leaving just one more event, the 200 m, before he wraps up his final appearance at Japan's best meet.

#関東インカレ 橋岡優輝 6回目 8m04 +0.1
跳んだ直後の雄叫び、記録が分かり喜びを爆発させる様子、スタンドの盛り上がりが凄かった 😆 pic.twitter…

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20161230/ath16123013030006-n1.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

【富士山女子駅伝】
スタートしました！#富士山女子駅伝pic.twitter.com/sx0ES9dPE0 — 日本学生陸上競技連合 (@iuauj) December 30, 2016
Running through the foothills of Mt. Fuji on a seven-stage, 43.8 km course from Fujisan Hongu Sengen Shrine to Fuji Sports Park Field in Shizuoka, on Dec. 30 Kyoto's Ritsumeikan University won a fourth-straight Mount Fuji Women's Ekiden in 2:25:43.  It was Ritsumeikan's tenth National University Women's Invitational Ekiden Championships title and left the school undefeated since the National Championships moved to the hilly Mt. Fuji course in 2013.  Meijo University was 2nd, with 2016 National University Women's Ekiden championMatsuyama University taking 3rd.

Conditions at the start were good, with 10-degree temperatures, 44% humidity and a gentle north wind.  Running the First Stage on a new course circling Sengen Shrine, Matsuayama's Rio de Janeiro 3000 m steeple…

by Brett Larner

Hosoda/Nittai wins in 16:12.23 to complete Kanto Regionals 5000/10000 double title. pic.twitter.com/GBan2hf1RQ — Japan Running News (@JRNHeadlines) May 22, 2016
D1 10000 m champs Ai Hosoda (Nittai Univ.) and Patrick Wambui (Nihon Univ.) came back on a hot and windy final day of the 95th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships to score double titles with wins in the 5000 m.  In the women's 5000 m Hosoda ran steady in a lead group of four before holding off a strong charge from first-year Natsuki Sekiya (Daito Bunka Univ.) to win by half a second in 16:12.18.

Monster kick from Wambui/Nihon to complete Kanto Regionals 5/10 double in 13:47.18. pic.twitter.com/GF8xfpo8fg — Japan Running News (@JRNHeadlines) May 22, 2016
After a 2:42 opening 1000 m Wambui went to the front to shake things down to another group of four.  Like the women's race it came down to a duel over the last lap, fourth-year Kazuma Taira (Waseda Univ.) staying with Wambui until 150 m…

by Brett Larner

After a DNS in the final at last year's Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, 2014 D1 men's 100 m champ Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.) was back on top with another title to add to his frosh year success.  With a slow start and relaxed finish Kiryu led the semifinals in 10.27 into a -0.2 m/s headwind.  The wind built to -1.4 m/s for the final, slowing to Kiryu to 10.35, but he was still in another class from the rest of the field as he easily took the win.  His dream of Japan's first sub-10 remains ahead of him.

The day's other big star was heptathlon national high school record holder Meg Hemphill (Chuo Univ.).  After competing in two events yesterday Hemphill won the women's 100 mH final in 13.53 with a -0.4 m/s headwind.  Hemphill gets into her main event on Saturday with the first half of the heptathlon.

The lone distance running final, the women's 10000 m, saw the Kanto Region's #1-ranked woman so far this year, third-year…

by Brett Larner

Japan's contingent ran well at Saturday's World University Cross Country Championships in Cassino, Italy, scoring two individual and two team medals in a field made somewhat softer by the absence of South Africa, whose team management reportedly forgot to apply for visas, and the United States which elected not to send a team to compete internationally. 

In the women's 6.2 km, Moeno Shimizu (Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) and Maki Izumida (Rikkyo Univ.) were part of a tight four-way battle for the podium, both outlasting Jennifer Louise Nesbitt (Great Britain) but unable to top winner Sevilay Eytemis (Turkey).  Eytemis scored gold in 21:57, Shimizu taking silver three seconds back and Izumida bronze a stride behind.  With women's team scoring based on the first three of six finishers Japan took the gold thanks to Shimizu, Izumida and Nanako Kanno (Ritsumeikan Univ.), 8th overall in 22:27.  Nesbitt's 4th-place finish led Great Britain to the team silver, with hos…