japan running news

Day 4 of the 2026 National High School Championships saw this year's first meet record. In a breakaway race Bilith Boi (Sapporo Yamanote H.S.) dropped the rest of the lead quartet to take the boys' 5000 m in a 13:34.53 MR, outrunning crosstown rival Sei Yoshida (Tokaidai Sapporo H.S.) whose 13:36.34 was the fastest-ever by a Japanese-born runner at Nationals. 3rd-placer Kogo Yonenaga (Kagoshima Kogyo H.S.) just made it under 13:40 too in 13:39.86, with Kemboi Kiprop (Kurashiki H.S.) dropping off for 4th in 13:42.76. In a season that's already seen a girls' heptathlon high school NR from Sawa Okada , Mirei Eguchi (Tokaidai Sagami H.S.) stayed solid throughout the second day of the heptathlon to win in a 5447 PB. That was enough to move her up to all-time #3 on the Japanese high school lists behind Okada's 5559 from May and previous record holder Meg Hemphill 's 5519. The girls' 400 mH final had great times up front too. Yuna Kusuda (Kagoshima Joshi H.S...

There was a lot of action on the track over Japan's Golden Week holidays. Highlights: Shizuoka International Meet - Fukuroi, 3 May Men's 800 m NR holder Ko Ochiai (Komazawa Univ.) broke his own record with a 1:43.90 win. Daigo Usuki (18 Ginko) and Gakuto Mishima (Nippatsu) both broke the NR in the T20 men's 400 m, Usuki getting the win in 49.08 and Mishima 2nd in 49.15. Lauren Bruce (New Zealand) threw a meet record 67.44 m on her final attempt in the women's hammer throw, but even her shortest throw of 64.31 m was over 3 m better than the rest of the field. Kazuki Kurokawa (Sumitomo Denko) got the men's 400 mH meet record with a 48.50 for the win. Women's 3000 mSC NR holder Miu Saito (Panasonic) won the steeple in 9:31.83, the 2nd-best time in her career so far, despite falling. 2nd through 4th all broke 10 minutes. National University Men's Ekiden Kanto Region Qualifier - Hiratsuka, 4 May The top 8 teams at November's National University Men...

Like girls' race winner Nagano Higashi H.S. , Fukushima's Gakuho Ishikawa H.S. boys took the lead on the first leg of the National High School Ekiden and held it the rest of the way, taking 24 seconds off the CR to win their first-ever national title in an incredible 2:00:36 for 42.195 km in 7 legs. Yota Mashiko led off by slicing 23 seconds off the fastest-ever time by a Japanese-born athlete on the 10.0 km opening stage, outrunning main rival Haruki Niizuma of Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. by 20 seconds to take the stage title in 28:20. Second runner Hirotaka Wakata lost 5 seconds, but a stage win on the Third Stage from Ryo Kurimura put Gakuho Ishikawa up to 54 seconds ahead of its toughest competition, Sendai Ikuei H.S. Its next two runners Shunto Sato and Ikumi Sueda took 3rd on their stages, losing some ground to Sendai Ikuei but raising the prospect of something that hadn't been seriously considered before. When Sueda handed off to 6th runner Mahiro Hoashi Gakuho I...

After the great men's 10000 m and women's 5000 m results on day 1 of the last full Nittai University Time Trials meet of 2025, day 2 brought a lot of great 5000 m times from high schoolers, both at Nittai and at another meet in Kyoto. At Nittai, Bilith Boi (Sapporo Yamanote H.S.) downed 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura (Subaru) in the last of the 35 heats of 5000 m, running 13:27.52 to Miura's 13:28.61. Ryo Goda (Yasukawa Denki) also got under 13:30, running 13:29.41 for 3rd, with 40-year-old Yuichiro Ueno (Hiramatsu Byoin) rocking on with a 13:32.12 for 4th. James Karuri (Aomori Yamada H.S.) was 8th in 13:35.46, with 17-year-old Naoya Doma (Sera H.S.) running an excellent 13:39.13 for 10th. Samuel Gayu and Yua Hayashi also got under 14 minutes in the same heat to make it 3 sub-14 for Sapporo Yamanote H.S. In Heat 34, Chien Tzu-Chieh (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) ran a Taiwanese NR 13:48.99 for 4th, with Yui Kudo and Yugo Yamamoto running sub-14 to bring the Aomori Yamada...