japan running news

At the 48th Kanagawa Half Marathon at Yokohama's Nissin Olio Group's Isogo Plant, Jinya Ozaki (Teikyo Univ.) outran tough competition from National University Ekiden champion Komazawa University and Hakone Ekiden winner Aoyama Gakuin University to take 1st in the men's race in 1:02:04. AGU's Sho Fukutomi was 2nd in 1:02:07, with Komazawa's Rinta Muta 3rd in 1:02:08. High schooler Nichika Maeda (Miura Gakuen H.S.) took the women's race in 1:16:30. But it was another high schooler who made headlines. 3rd-year Koki Matsuo (Shiritsu Funabashi H.S.) ran 1:02:47, taking 28 seconds off the fastest half marathon time ever run by a Japanese-born high school student. Last summer Matsuo ran the 5000 m at the National High School Track and Field Championships, and in November he went under 14 minutes for 5000 m, his time of 13:55.07 putting him into the top class of high school running. At last fall's Chiba Prefectural High School Ekiden Matsuo set a new CR of 2...

Fresh off last weekend's U20 National Championships , Anna Szbrucek  (Ushiku H.S.) and Rei Taya (Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S.) were back in the junior women's 2000 mSC to start off the first day of the 2025 National Sports Festival in Shiga. Szbrucek, born in Japan to Slovakian and Bulgarian parents, won the 3000 mSC at the U20 Nationals in 9:57.11, while Taya set an U18 NR of 10:06.59 in the same race. Here Szbrucek dominated, winning in 6:27.03. Taya was 2nd in 6:33.11 to break both the U18 NR of 6:36.81 and the U20 NR of 6:35.84. 3rd placer Mone Kakuchi (Nagano Higashi H.S.) was under both records too, and if there were an official steeplechase high school record for girls Szbrucek would now have two of them to her name. The U20 boys' 5000 m was also at a high level, with the top 13 all breaking 14 minutes. In a sprint finish Haruki Niizuma (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) outran James Karuri (Aomori Yamada H.S.) for the win 13:35.33 to 13:35.85, with Kaito Shudo (Kuras...