japan running news

The 2025 FISU World University Games wrapped Sunday in Rhine-Ruhr, Germany. In the men's 20 km race walk Atsuki Tsuchiya (Ritsumeikan Univ.) brought home one more medal for Japan, unable to match Italian Andrea Cosa 's 1:19:48 WUG record for gold but just holding off Ukrainian Mykola Rushchak for silver 1:20:08 to 1:20:10. Keisuke Hara (Kyoto Univ.) wasn't far back in 4th, finishing in 1:20:26, with Taisei Yoshizako (Tokyo Gakugei Univ.) 12th in 1:23:11. As a team the three athletes's combined scores were good enough to take gold. The women's 20 km race walk squad couldn't match the men's performance. With Australian Elizabeth McMillen setting a WUG record 1:28:18 for the win and silver and bronze medalists Jinlin Ning and Haiying Ji of China both under 1:30 Ayane Yanai (Ritsumeikan Univ.) was 14th in 1:35:04 and Sumika Tani (Kanazawa Gakuin Univ.) 19th of 25 finishers in 1:40:37. In the women's 3000 mSC final Ayana Yamashita (Osaka Gakuin Uni...

One of Japan's best remaining gold medal contenders at the 2025 FISU World University Games after throwing a PB of 81.23 m in Australia in March, Rin Suzuki (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) struck out in the men's javelin throw final of the 5th day of competition, throwing 71.65 m on his first attempt and finishing 10th after being unable to better it. Mao Shimano (Nihon Joshi Taiiku Univ.) did better in the women's 100 mH final at 7th in 13.17 (+0.1), an improvement on her 8th-place standing after the semifinals, but was still 0.22 out of the medals. Gold went to Finland's Saara Keskitalo in 12.88, with Switzerland's Simon Wieland taking gold in the men's javelin with a season best 79.33 m on his first attempt. In qualifying rounds, Aoi Murakami (Nittai Univ.) had no problems qualifying for the women's javelin throw final, throwing 53.91 for 7th among the qualifiers. Atsushi Haraguchi (Higashi Osaka Univ.) was 11th of 12 qualifiers in the men's pole vault...

Atsushi Haraguchi was the only Japanese athlete in action in a final on day four of the Cali 2022 World U20 Championships , taking 7th in the men's pole vault final. Haraguchi only made one successful clearance, passing on 4.90 m and 5.05 m before making 5.15 m on his second attempt. Passing again on 5.25 m, he took three shots at 5.35 m. Success there would have tied his PB, but Haraguchi missed all three to end up 7th. Anthony Ammirati of France took gold with a 5.75 m clearance, Finland's Juho Alasaari in silver with a 5.60 m U20 NR and Poland's Michal Gawenda bronze at 5.45 m. In qualifying rounds, the men's 4x100 m team of Koki Ikeshita , Hiroto Fujiwara , Shunki Tateno and Hiroki Yanagita led the qualifiers with a season best 39.12, the only team to score an auto-qualifying time. Jamaica was next at 39.24 and Nigeria 3rd at 39.41. Tateno seemed to be in good shape after a DNS in yesterday's 200 m heats, with Yanagita turning in a solid anchor leg run. Ho...

The next big talent coming up through the ranks of Japanese sprinting, Toyo University 1st-year Hiroki Yanagita ran a PB 10.15 +0.7 for 2nd in his semi-final on Day 2 of the Cali 22 World U20 Championships . Building on that in the final would have put him in range of bronze, but in the final Yanagita couldn't quite replicate it, 6th overall in 10.24 +0.8 behind a 9.91 U20 WR from gold medalist Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, silver medalist Bouwahjgie Nkrumie of Jamaica's 10.02 U20 NR, and a 10.12 for bronze from South African Benjamin Richardson . The final featured 8 athletes from 8 countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas, the best kind of international field for a global championships final. Momoko Tsuji almost perfectly mirrored Yanagita's performances in the women's javelin throw. 2nd in the qualification round at 56.07 m, in the final she could only manage a 53.82 m for 6th. In the gold medal spot, Serbian Adriana Vilagos threw a championships record 63.52 m...