japan running news

by Brett Larner Daisuke Matsunaga (Toyo Univ.) became the first Japanese athletics medalist of the 2015 Gwangju World University Games on day two of competition, winning bronze in the men's 20 km in 1:22:06 after falling just over 30 seconds off a close race between eventual gold medalist Dane Bird-Smith (Australia) and Benjamin Thorne (Canada). 12 hours later, Keisuke Nakatani (Komazawa Univ.) repeated the feat in the final track final of the day, winning bronze in the men's 10000 m in 29:19.30 four seconds back from gold medalist Igor Maximov (Russia) and just losing out to Nicolae-Alexandru Soare (Romania) for silver.  After winning the 5000 m and 10000 m at May's Kanto Regional University Track and Field Championships and running a 28:31.84 best for 10000 m and winning the 3000 mSC national title in June, Hironori Tsuetaki (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) had a rare off day, finishing 9th in just 29:52.91. Sprinter Anna Doi (Daito Bunka Univ.) made it to the women...

by Brett Larner Despite a conservative early leading pace from Rina Koeda (Daito Bunka Univ.), Japanese women came up empty-handed in the first final of the 2015 Gwangju World University Games , the women's 10000 m.  Russian Alla Kuliatina took over from Koeda after 2000 m and led virtually unchallenged the rest of the race including a stunning 2:51.30 split from 7000 m to 8000 m that blew the race apart.  Kuliatina took the Games' first gold in 32:52.27, compatriot Gulshat Fazlitdinova just beating out China's Yingying Zhang for silver in 32:56.60.  Koeda stayed true to her opening pace, running 33:47.21 for 5th, with Sakie Arai (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) taking 9th in 34:24.92. In other events, both Takamasa Kitagawa (Juntendo Univ.) and Kentaro Sato (Josai Univ.) advance through the men's 400 m heats, Kitagawa winning his in 47.34.  Anna Doi (Daito Bunka Univ.), Tatsuro Suwa (Chuo Univ.) and Yuki Koike (Keio Univ.) likewise made it through the opening heat...

by Brett Larner Day three of competition at the IAAF World Junior Championships was a big one for Japan, with two individual medals and a near miss on a third.  In the men's 400 m Nobuya Kato and Kaisei Yui made history with their runs, the first time two Japanese athletes had qualified for a world-level final, and Kato took it one step further when he ran 46.17 for silver behind winner Machel Cedenio (Trinidad and Tobago).  Yui, who ran a PB 46.68 to make the final, was 7th in 47.08 between two American athletes.  In the men's long jump, Shotaro Shiroyama (Japan) jumped 7.83 m to unexpectedly win bronze, with teammate Kodai Sakuma 5th in 7.71 m.  Chinese athletes Jianan Wang and Qing Lin went 1-2, Wang winning with a jump of 8.08 m.  In the women's 3000 m Nozomi Musembi Takamatsu , the daughter of Japanese and Kenyan parents, ran a 6-second PB of 9:02.85 but came up just over 2 more seconds short of the podium as she was beaten by American Mary Cain i...

by Brett Larner photo courtesy of David Monti, Race Results Weekly Asian junior record holder Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.) brought Japan its first medal of the 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships, taking bronze in 10.34 (-0.6) behind Americans Kendal Williams and Trayvon Bromell .  Kiryu gave the nation a scare by barely making it to the final when he finished 4th in his semi-final.  In both the semi and final he displayed problems with the second half of his race, but what he had on the day proved enough for him to get on the podium and join past World Juniors medalists like Shota Iizuka and Genki Dean in the Japanese books. Further history was made when both Nobuya Kato and Kaisei Yui got through the semis to make the men's 400 m final, the first time two Japanese athletes have ever made a world-level final.  Both won their opening heats yesterday.  In semi-final 1, Yui ran a PB 46.68 to get into the final on time.  Kato, running semi-final 2, came...

by Brett Larner The men's 10000 m rounded out the day as the only final on the first day of competition at the 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships in Eugene, U.S.A.  After a slow first lap Keisuke Nakatani of 2013 National University Ekiden champion Komazawa University went to the front to get the race moving, tailed only by 2014 Hakone Ekiden winner Toyo University 's Hazuma Hattori .  Ranked 6th and 7th in the field by PB, the two Japanese athletes, both stage winners at January's Hakone Ekiden, were initially ignored by the faster Africans, allowing them to open a lead that at one point maxed at around 100 m.  Despite the gap, the pair's pace was never unrealistic as Nakatani held close to 29:10 pace, roughly 20 second slower than his best.  His projected finishing time based on his splits through 6000 m show how steadily he ran: 1000 m: 29:18.70 2000 m: 29:15.55 3000 m: 29:13.57 4000 m: 29:09.53 5000 m: 29:10.54 6000 m: 29:11.73 The slight su...

by Brett Larner After coming out on top of the 100 m qualifying heats and anchoring their 4x100 m teams to qualify for the finals yesterday, Japan's teen sprint sensations Yoshihide Kiryu  (Toyo Univ.) and  Anna Doi  (Daito Bunka Univ.) returned for record-setting finals on the second day of the 2014 Kanto Regional University Track and Field Championships , May 17 in Kumagaya, Saitama. Kiryu, ranked #1 in the D1 100 m after a 10.36 (-0.6) opening round on Friday, started Saturday with a 10.25 (+3.6) to lead the semifinals.  Three hours later he was back in more moderate wind for the final, where he dropped a 10.05 (+1.6) meet record to tie Beijing Olympics bronze medalist Shingo Tsuetsugu 's national university record.  His time, sixth in the world so far this season, was the closest Kiryu has come to his name-making 10.01 just over a year ago, bringing him one step closer to his career goal of Japan's first sub-10 clocking. Just over three hours later h...

by Brett Larner videos by naoki620 Train-stopping winds tore at what was left of the roof of the neighboring snow-damaged Kumagaya Dome, but the first day of Japan's biggest university meet, the Kanto Regional University Track and Field Championships , plowed ahead as scheduled on Friday, May 16 northwest of Tokyo in Kumagaya, Saitama.  Because Kanto is home to Japan's biggest sporting event, the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden university men's road relay championships,  the region is a national magnet for men's distance running talent to the extent that the Kanto Regionals meet is much more competitive than its national counterpart where Kanto distance men race others from weaker regions from across the country. That being the case, it was no surprise that the highlight of the day came in its final two events, the D2 and D1 men's 10000 m.  A school's D1 or D2 standing depends on the combined scoring of its overall track and field team, meaning that distance sp...

http://www.jiji.com/jc/zc?k=201307/2013073100713&g=spo http://www.saitama-np.co.jp/news/2013/07/31/08.html translated and edited by Brett Larner On the second day of the National High School Track and Field Championships, July 31 at Oita's Oita Bank Dome, Yoshihide Kiryu  (Rakunan H.S.) won the boys' 100 m in a meet record time of 10.19 s +0.1m/s.  In the heats he ran 10.50 s and in the semi-finals 10.32 s, winning both before the final where he took 0.05 s off the old meet record set nineteen years ago.  Kiryu also anchored Rakunan's 4x100 m relay team to win their semi-final in 40.50 s, sending them on to the final on Aug. 1. On the girls' side, London Olympian Anna Doi  (Saitama Sakae H.S.) won the 100 m final in 11.70 m. Like Kiryu anchoring her school's 4x100 m relay, Doi led Saitama Sakae to win their July 30 opening round heat in 45.23 s, a new high school national record.  First leg runner Emiri Hatsumi  was first out of the blocks and im...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20130714-1157211.html translated by Brett Larner With August's Moscow World Championships drawing near, the members of the Japanese national team are building toward their sharpening phase.  While the world focues on the Diamond League, some of the Japanese team's star members will be competing domestically at the Twilight Games and National High School Championships. The July 28 Twilight Games at Shibuya's Oda Field will feature three members of the Moscow team, Ryota Yamagata  (21, Keio Univ.) and Kei Takase  (24, Team Fujitsu) in the men's 100 m, with  Miyuki Fukumoto  (36, Konan Gakuen AC) leading the women's high jump.  Yamagata, who beat teen sensation Yoshihide Kiryu  (17, Rakunan H.S.) at last month's National Championships, comes to the Twilight Games in excellent shape after winning silver at last week's World University Games.  He is a strong contender in the race for Jap...

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/osaka/sports/article/news/20130114-OHO1T00058.htm translated by Brett Larner The new star of the proud Osaka track world, with a Kenyan father Nozomi Musembi Takamatsu (3rd yr., Kunei Joshi Gakuin J.H.S.) passed six people on the 3.0 km Third Stage of Sunday's National Women's Ekiden to break the 9 year-old course record with a new record of 9:10. The Kanagawa team ran 2:14:55 for the nine-stage, 42.195 race to set a new overall course record while taking its first win in 26 years , with the Hyogo team 2nd. With seven members including Takamatsu returning from last year's winning team, Osaka took 3rd. All eyes along Kyoto's historic streets were focused on the 15 year-old Takamatsu.  Taking up the tasuki in 8th place, her slender 157 cm, 39 kg body moved with spring and energetic grace as she advanced through the field.  "There were a lot of runners ahead of me, but I went after them with all my energy," she says.  Among the...

London, England, 8/9/12 click here for complete results Men's Decathlon Final Standings 1. Ashton Eaton (U.S.A.) - 8869 2. Trey Hardee (U.S.A.) - 8671 3. Leonel Suarez (Cuba) - 8523 ----- 20. Keisuke Ushiro (Japan) - 7842 Men's 4x400 m Relay Heat Two 1. Bahamas - 2:58.87 - Q 2. U.S.A. - 2:58.87 - Q 3. Russia - 3:02.01 - Q ----- 6. Japan (Takase/Kanemaru/Azuma/Nakano) - 3:03.86 Women's 4x100 m Relay Heat One 1. U.S.A. - 41.64 - Q 2. Trinidad & Tobago - 42.31 - Q 3. Netherlands - 42.45 - Q ----- 8. Japan (Doi/Ichikawa/Fukushima/Sano) - 44.25 (c) 2012 Brett Larner all rights reserved

by Brett Larner click here to watch the IAAF World Youth Championships live online The IAAF World Youth Championships get underway tomorrow, July 6, in Lille, France. As is to be expected, Japan's best medal chances among its team of 37 come in the sprints and long distances. Kazuma Oseto (Ogura Higashi H.S.) comes to the boys' 100 m as the #1 seed, his PB of 10.39 leading the field. His teammates Kazuya Tsukamoto (Heisei H.S.) and Tatsuro Suwa (Yotsukaichi Kogyo H.S.) are also in the top eight on the entry list by PB, making the chances of at least one medal very good. All three runners are also on the list for the sprint medley relay, where the Japanese team is ranked 4th by a slim margin behind South Africa. Akiyuki Hashimoto (Sensatsu Seishukan H.S.) is ranked 3rd in the men's 200 m with a best of 20.91, Oseto and Suwa entered to double with marks not far off Hashimoto's. In the girls' 100 m Anna Doi (Saitama Sakae H.S.) is ranked 3rd by PB, 11.6...