japan running news

Only 7 Japanese athlete were in action on the 3rd day of the Asian U23 Athletics Championships in Ordos, China, but between them they produced Japan's first double gold medal day of the games. Yoshihiro Kusuoka , the top guy at Teikyo University and the only one in the race with a best under 28 minutes, had an easy win in the men's 10000 m in 29:29.34. Silver medalist S.P. Madappagoudra of India ran a PB 29:33.54, with China's Jinzhi Jiang running 29:42.54 for bronze. The fastest man in the race with a best of 44.98 from June's National Championships, Hosei University 's collegiate record holder Shinya Hayashi backed Kusuoka's performance up in the 400 m, running 45.26 to win gold in a race that saw silver and bronze medalists Ngoc Tuong Ta of Vietnam and Zhexuan Shao of hosts China both run PBs. Ami Takahashi picked up silver in the women's 100 mH in 13.31 behind gold medalist Bo An Yi of Taiwan, with teammate Yuka Fukui 5th in 13.68. Takuma Sekin...

After leading the first day of competition, Yuto Yamamoto took Japan's only gold medal on Day 2 of the Asian U23 Athletics Championships in Ordos, China with a 7395 win in the decathlon. Yamamoto started the second day with a 71-point lead over China's Chenghao Zhu , and with 1st-place finishes in the pole vault and 1500 m built that to a final margin of victory of 109 points. Zhu dropped to bronze in 7071, overtaken by teammate Jiawei Wang who took silver with 7286. Silver medals came in the men's 200 m, where Kota Uematsu ran a wind-aided 20.58, the women's 800 m with Kurumi Sugure 2nd in 2:09.42 and Yuri Nishida 7th in 2:12.08, the women's 5000 m thanks to a 16:50.52 by Koharu Chugo , and the men's 3000 mSC where Tetsu Sasaki came up less than 3 seconds short of another Waseda University gold in 8:56.99 behind Qatari Zakaria Elahlaami . Bronze medals went to Ami Takahashi with a 23.66 (+1.5) in the women's 200 m and Aoi Murakami in the women...

There was something in the air Sunday at Yamanashi's Fujisan no Meisui Stadium as the 7th edition of the Fuji Hokuroku World Trials meet tuned into a festival of records that changed the situation for Japan's home team at next month's Tokyo World Championships. At the top of the list, Abigail Fuuka Ido (Toho Ginko) ran 22.79 (+1.0) to take 0.09 off Chisato Fukushima 's almost decade-old women's 200 m national record. Both she and 2nd-place Ami Takahashi (Tsukuba Univ.) were under the old meet record, Takahashi in 23.20. Ido still has a way to go to hit the 22.57 Tokyo standard, but having gone from a 23.59 (+0.6) PB last year to a 23.18 (+0.2) PB at Nationals last month to this 22.79 NR, it doesn't seem out of range. Injured since last year before coming back at Nationals with a 45.81 for 4th in the final, Yuki Joseph Nakajima (Fujitsu) came out of nowhere with a 44.84 PB and MR for the men's 400 m win, just clearing the 44.85 Tokyo standard. Fuga Sato...

The National University Track and Field Championships wrapped up Sunday with another collegiate record. Following Mao Shimano 's 100 mH hurdle record Saturday , the Toyo University men dominated in the 4x400 m relay final. Running with a completely different lineup from when it set the 3:04.08 meet record 2 years ago, the Toyo team of Rui Yamasaki , Kira Hirakawa , Kentaro Shirahata and Katsuo Tsujiura ran 3:03.64 for the win, 0.07 under the old collegiate record set by Nihon University in 2000 before any of them had been born. The women's 4x400 m final wasn't quite up to collegiate record level, but the top 2 teams still both broke the meet record. Sonoda Gakuen University scored the win in 3:35.41 with a lineup that included Hinata Tochio and Yuzuki Nakao from its 2023 MR-setting lineup with the addition of 2nd-year twins Ayu Yoshii and Mayu Yoshii . Ritsumeikan University was 2nd in 3:36.28, but that was good enough to break SGU's old record of 3:36.71. Af...

Like at the Paris Olympics, there's no shortage of top 8 placings by Japanese athletes so far at the Lima World U20 Championships , but no medals yet. One of 4 Japanese athletes in action in finals on the third day of the championships, Koki Kanai was 70 cm out of the medals in the men's triple jump, going 15.60 m (+1.8) for 7th in the final. Gold medalist Ethan Olivier of New Zealand set a new Oceania U20 record of 17.01 m (+1.4) for the win. Kentaro Shirahata better Kanai's placing in the men's 400 m final, running 46.83 for 5th after having run PBs in both the heats and semifinals. Gold medalist Udeme Okon was the only athlete to break 46 seconds, running 45.69. Despite high expectations, Yamato Hamaguchi couldn't quite crack top 8 in the men's 3000 m final, running 8:24.60 for 9th. Teammate Tetsu Sasaki was a DNS. Gold medalist Andreas Fjeld Halvorsen of Norway and silver medalist Denis Kipkoech of Kenya raced each other to sub-8:21 times, Halvorsen ...