japan running news

The Tokyo World Athletics Championships might have just ended, but there's still a lot of track action happening in Japan with some late-season championships and pre-ekiden season time trial meets. The highlight at the Sept. 24 Kizuna Time Trials meet in Machida in western Tokyo was a solid 13:34.01 win in the fast heat by collegiate marathon record holder Asahi Kuroda (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.), not quite a PB but a good shakeout ahead of the Oct. 13 Izumo Ekiden . The top 21 in Kuroda's heat went sub-14 minutes, 11 of them from Aoyama Gakuin, with 2nd-year Sota Orita continuing to struggle at AGU after a promising senior of high school, running only 13:58.77 for 21st. Brian Kiptoo (Comodi Iida) almost tied Kuroda's time with a 13:34.61 win in the fast heat at the Sept. 27-28 Tokai University Time Trials meet south of Yokohama, where the top 20 broke 14 minutes in the fast heat plus another 2 in the B-heat. 5000 m NR holder Suguru Osako (unattached) made a return to comp...

  Japan-based Kenyans dominated at the revamped and improved Kumamoto Kosa Road Race across all three of its main distances. Agnes Ngetich  from the Canon  team got things started in the women's 5 km, blasting a 14:48 that left Japanese NR holder Nozomi Tanaka  almost 40 seconds behind. Tanaka, whose 15:25 was technically a NR, was only 10 seconds up on Nanami Watanabe , who continued a good season with a 15:35 for 3rd only 1 second off Tanaka's previous NR iteration. Kosa's 10 km race has historically been for high school boys, but this year's race had an excellent field of corporate league runners. Triple Hakone Ekiden CR breaker Vincent Yegon , now with the Honda  corporate team, won in 28:05 by 1 second over  Festus Kiprono . Mangata Kibet  was 3rd in 28:13, with Kenyans taking the top 6 spots. Top high schooler Mahiro Kubo  from local Omuta H.S.  ran a solid 29:58, good enough for the win a lot of years but only 14th against his older c...

This was the last weekend where Japanese athletes could turn in qualifying marks for the June 27-30 National Championships and Olympic Trials in Niigata ahead of the June 5 deadline. For middle and long distance the big meet was the Nittaidai Challenge Games, aka the Nittai University Time Trials , Saturday and Sunday in Yokohama. In a bid to firm up her world rankings score enough to get into the Kenyan Olympic Trials, Mirriam Cherop (Shin Nihon Jusetsu) took the first main race Saturday, winning the women's 1500 m fast heat in 4:13.49 after a 61-second first lap. Airi Tajima (Juntendo Univ.) was 2nd with a PB 4:19.02 and Runa Shoji (Kantaiheiyo Univ.) 3rd in 4:20.55, both clearing the 4:21.50 Trials standard. The top nine in the men's 1500 m fast heat were all under the 3:45.00 standard, led by Yudai Noguchi (Toenec) in 3:42.18 in a photo finish with Nao Kurihara (Josai Univ.) National record holder Kazuki Kawamura (Toenec) was 4th in 3:43.62. With a target number of 3...

Fresh off a near-miss on the world-leading men's 10000 m time with a 27:06.88 Japanese collegiate record at Nittai University on Apr. 22 , Tokyo Kokusai University 1st-year Richard Etir had the run of the day at Thursday's Golden Games in Nobeoka with the fastest outdoor 5000 m in the world so far this year, outkicking 10 mile world best holder Benard Koech (Kyudenko) and other top-level Japan-based Kenyans to win the B-heat in a new collegiate record of 13:00.17. With attendance reported by the JAAF at 22,000, fans lined the track beating on metal sponsor boards with batons to push Etir and the rest of the five-strong lead pack on to meet record times. All of them were well under the 13:10.69 MR set by Hyuga Endo last year, Koech just catching Emmanuel Kiplagat (Mitsubishi Juko) for 2nd in 13:00.38, Kiplagat 3rd in 13:00.90, Michael Temoi (GMO) 4th in 13:01.48 and Benson Kiplangat (Subaru) 5th in 13:02.74. Etir's predecessor at TKU, Vincent Yegon (Honda) was 6th i...

This weekend's 300th edition of the Nittai University Time Trials series in Yokohama turned out some of the fastest times in its history as athletes across the country build toward peaking for championship ekiden season. On Saturday Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) and Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) ran two of the fastest women's 5000 m marks ever on Japanese soil, Akidor taking 11 seconds off her PB to win in 14:44.83 and Kamau 6 seconds off hers for 2nd in 14:48.26. 3rd-place Yui Komatsu (Matsuyama Univ.) was almost lapped, running 15:47.79. Steeplechase champ Reimi Yoshimura (Daito Bunka Univ.) dropped out mid-race. The men's 10000 m was fast too. Richard Etir (CJAC) outkicked Obirin University 1st-year Nelson Mandela Mbithi and Josphat Ledama Kisaisa (Kao) for the win in 27:27.51, Mbithi 2nd in 27:29.92, one of the fastest-ever Japanese collegiate times, and Kisaisa 3rd in 27:30.45. 4th-placer Boniface Murua (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) got under 28 min...

Three big pre-ekiden season meets happened this weekend and produced some big results. Saturday at the Nittai University Time Trials in Yokohama, Richard Kimunyan (Hitachi Butsuryu) and Benard Koech (Kyudenko) pushed each other under Josphat Ndambiri 's longstanding 10000 m Japan all-comers record of 26:57.36, Kimunyan setting the new record at 26:54.76 and Koech next in 26:55.04. Those times made them the only Kenyans under 27 minutes this year worldwide, with the Hachioji Long Distance meet still to come next month. Three others were under 27:30 led by Jonathan Ndiku (Hitachi Butsuryu) in 27:12.84, with Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) the top Japanese man at 6th in 27:53.00. Justus Soget (Honda) took the 5000 m A-heat in 13:24.01, the top five all under 13:30 and another Fujitsu runner, Olympian Hiroki Matsueda , filling the top Japanese spot at 8th in 13:34.62. Harumi Okamoto (Yamada Holdings) won the women's 5000 m A-heat in 15:49.72, and Kenyan Hellen Ekarare (Toyota Ji...

As we saw with multiple national records at last Friday's long distance National Championships , the Japanese distance world keeps getting faster and faster. High school athletes are no exception. Breaking 14 minutes for 5000 m is the gold standard for a top-level high school runner. This season 22 boys have done it not including foreign student athletes, almost double the previous record for a single season, 12 in 2010. In 2010, Kenta Murayama , now part of the Asahi Kasei corporate team but then running for Miyagi's Meisei H.S., was the fastest high schooler at 13:49.45. Future Tokyo Olympics marathon trials winner Shogo Nakamura ran 13:50.38 that year while at Iga Hakuho H.S. Since then the number of boys under 14 minutes has held steady, with 10 in 2015, 10 in 2016 and 11 in 2019, showing how exceptional this season's number is. Leading this new generation is Tokyo Nogyo Daini H.S. 3rd-year Kosuke Ishida . While at Fukuoka's Asakawa J.H.S. Ishida ran 3:49.72 for 1...