japan running news

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...

The last day of the 104th National Track and Field Championships saw a short stack of new records across disciplines, mostly on the women's side. The biggest news came in the women's discus throw, where Maki Saito (Tokyo Joshi Taiiku Univ.) threw a new national junior record of 55.41 m on her fourth attempt and putting defending champ Minori Tsujikaw a (Uchida Yoko AC) into 2nd before coming back on her last to almost equal it. In the women's 100 m hurdles, it took a PB from Masumi Aoki (77 Ginko) to hold off national record holder Asuka Terada (Pasona Group) for the win, tying the meet record in 13.02 (-0.1). Taio Kanai (Mizuno) likewise held off national record holder Shunya Takayama (Zenrin), tying the meet record in 13.36 (-0.1) to win. Kanai and Takayama have alternated national titles for the last four years, with 13.36 their winning time for the last three. The women's 200 m saw the top three all drop PBs, Remi Tsuruta (Minami Kyushu Family Mart) u...

With the New Zealand and Australian summer series rolling on, four Japanese athletes won events at Auckland's Sir Graeme Douglas International meet. Kosei Yamaguchi took the men's 3000 m steeplechase just a fraction of a second off his PB in 8:31.25, resisting the early fast pace set by Yasunari Kusu and then dispatching Australian James Nipperness over the last two laps to take the win. Japan's #3-ranked steepler, Yamaguchi's performance moves up to the cusp of top 45 in the world, limited to three athletes per country, putting this summer's Tokyo Olympics in range. Qualifying for Tokyo for sure in the women's 5000 m was half marathon national record holder Hitomi Niiya . Like Yamaguchi running with early pacing from other Japanese athletes, Niiya mostly soloed her way to a 15:07.02 PB, taking just over 3 seconds off her old best from the 2012 London Olympics and clearing the Tokyo Olympics qualifying standard by almost as much. Niiya said pre-race th...

After yesterday's solid haul of gold and silver medals, Shunsuke Izumiya added a bronze medal to the mix in the men's 110 m hurdles at the World U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland. Quick out of the blocks, Izumiya led the first few hurdles before being caught by Jamaican duo Damion Thomas and Orlando Bennett . But a PB run of 13.38 was enough to keep Izumiya in the medals, the only one of the day for Japan. In the two other finals with Japanese athletes, Ayaka Kawata took 6th in the women's 800 m in 2:03.57 well back from the championships record 1:59.74 by gold medalist Diribe Welteji of Ethiopia. Maki Saito took 8th in the women's discus throw with a mark of 50.10 m, both she and Kawata factoring into the JAAF's target number of top eight placers. No Japanese athletes made it through the day's semifinals, both Keigo Yasuda and Koji Ueyama stopped there in the men's 200 m and Moeka Sekimoto likewise not advancing out of the women's 400 ...

On the first day of competition at the World U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland, Japanese runners were the first non-East African runners across the line in both of the day's distance finals. In the boys' 10000 m Takuro Miura was 9th in 30:12.25 almost three laps behind championships record-setting Rhonex Kipruto (Kenya). In the women's 5000 m, Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu was 7th in 15:55.74, just over 21 seconds out of the medals. The talented Miku Moribayashi was last in 17:08.55. In qualifying rounds, nine of the eleven Japanese athletes in action advanced. Ayaka Kawata and Ayano Shiomi led the way in the women's 800 m, both winning their heats and clocking the two fastest times among all qualifiers. Yuki Hashioka also recorded the best mark in the men's long jump qualifying rounds, jumping 7.92 m (+1.1 m/s ) to head into the final ranked #1. Yugo Sakai jumped a PB of 7.69 m (+2.0 m/s) to join Hashioka in the final with the #3 ranking. World U20 ...

Day Three of the 18th Asian Junior Athletics Championships saw yet another pair of championships records, one by the home team and another by visitors. Yuiri Yoshida delivered the goods in the girls’ 100 m hurdles, tying the old record with a mark of 13.45 (+0.9 m/s) for gold. Ayaka Kawata and Ayano Shiomi took gold and silver in the girls’ 800 m, traditionally an area of weakness for Japan, with Ayaka Kora adding to Japan’s gold medal haul with a PB jump of 6.44 m (+0.8 m/s). Yuka Nosue was a distant bronze in the girls’ 3000 m steeplechase, 17 seconds behind gold medalist Maristela Parami Wasanthi of Sri Lanka who set a PB of 10:21.54 to win. Japan’s girls’ 4x100 m picked up silver well back from winner China’s 45.06 gold medal run. Jumps and throws are for the most part another area of Japanese weakness, especially on the girls’ side, and in both the pole vault and discus throw they came up empty-handed. China earned gold in both, Zuo Cheng Wu clearing 4.00 m and Hu...

click here for five-channel live streaming of the 69th Japanese National High School Track and Field Championships by Brett Larner videos by aoshin0507 and  Ekiden News Sunday's Japanese National High School Track and Field Championships girls' 1500 m saw a breakthrough with three women running all-time Japanese high school top ten marks.  Another middle distance breakthrough came on day four of the championships in the girls' 800 m.  2016 national champion  Shoko Fukuda (Matsue Kita H.S.) ran the second-fastest time ever by a Japanese high schooler, 2:04.29, to lead four girls into the all-time high school top ten .  Both Fukuda and Airi Ikezaki (Funairi H.S.), 2nd in 2:04.85, also made the all-time Japanese junior top ten, with 3rd placer Ayaka Kawata (Higashi Osaka Prep Keiai H.S.) clocking the fastest-ever time by a Japanese high school second-year, 2:05.03 and 4th placer Ayano Shiomi (Kyoto Bunkyo Gakuen H.S.) squeezing into the all-tiime top ...