japan running news

  On Nov. 15 the East Japan Corporate Federation announced that 10000 m national champion and Paris Olympian  Jun Kasai  (Asahi Kasei) and Budapest World Championships team member  Ren Tazawa  (Toyota) have both withdrawn from the 10000 m at the Nov. 23 Hachioji Long Distance meet. This year's Hachioji Long Distance features a special heat set up to target the 27:00.00 qualifying standard for next year's Tokyo World Championships. Along with Kasai and Tazawa, national record holder Kazuya Shiojiri  (Fujitsu) and other top-level Japanese talent are scheduled to compete. After last January's New Year Ekiden , Tazawa sustained an injury that forced him to miss May's National Championships 10000 m and other races including the Paris Olympics. At the end of September he ran 13:36.99 for 5th at the Yogibo Athletics Challenge Cup meet, but, he said, "My balance felt off and the back of my left knee hurt." In Kasai's case, after winning the national title in M...

Coming up through the ranks as Japan's next top-level steeper, Yutaro Niinae broke through with a 5-second PB of 8:20.36 to win at the Yogibo Athletics Challenge Cup Sunday in Niigata and bump himself up to all-time Japanese #6. With pacing early on from Aisan Kogyo teammate Philemon Kiplagat , Niinae had the confidence to break away from the field of 6 just after halfway, opening over 10 seconds on Kiplagat by the end of the race. Hibiki Obara was 3rd in 8:36.68. Teenaged national record holders Ko Ochiai , 17, and Rin Kubo , 16, went for aggressive times in the 800 m finals, Ochiai going through 400 m in 51 but fading to 1:46.88. "I wanted to go for the Tokyo World Championships qualifying standard," he said, "but that first lap felt really fast. I learned a lot at the World U20 Championships and that even though I'm at the top Japan I still have a long way to go internationally." Kubo almost perfectly matched the 200 m splits from her sub-2 NR this sum...

After two days of flight cancelations and delays that ended up with him arriving in Niigata 4.5 hours before the race, Indian men's 5000 m NR holder Gulveer Singh came through with a record-breaking run to win the 5000 m on the first day of the Yogibo Athletics Challenge Cup Continental Tour Bronze meet. Set up as a shot at the 13:08.40 Japanese NR, the race went out with steady 63-second laps with pacing from 10-mile world best holder Benard Koech . After the pack settled out 2024 Komazawa University grad Mebuki Suzuki was at the front behind Koech with this year's Komazawa captain Kotaro Shinohara right with him. When a gap opened Singh moved up from 5th or 6th to go with them. Koech stepped off at 4000 m leaving Suzuki to lead, Shinohara struggling to hang on and coming back twice after falling off. At the bell Singh went to the front, and with a 55-second last lap he held off Suzuki in the last 100 m to win in 13:11.82, 7 seconds under his old NR. Suzuki ran a PB 13:18....

Start lists are up for this weekend's Yogibo Athletics Challenge Cup Continental Tour Bronze meet in Niigata with scratches and a few additions since the initial entry list announcement two weeks ago. Prominent withdrawals include women's long jump NR holder Sumire Hata , former men's 100 m NR holder Yoshihide Kiryu , men's indoor 5000 m NR holder Keita Sato , and Paris Olympians Ryuichiro Sakai , Tomoki Ota , Ryoichi Akamatsu , and Wakana Kabasawa . Indian men's 5000 m NR holder Gulveer Singh has joined the 5000 m field in pursuit of a new NR. Times listed below are athletes' 2023-2024 best in each event. Streaming of day one of the meet starts at 14:30 Saturday, with day two starting at 10:00 a.m. Sunday. Live results are here . Men's 100 m Shuhei Tada (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.10 Naoki Nishioka (Tokai Gyosei H.S.) - 10.11 Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.11 Ryo Wada (Miki House) - 10.13 Shoto Uno (Orico) - 10.16 Kuk Young Kim (South Korea) - 10.25 Kenji Ma...

The Sept. 28-29 Yogibo Athletics Challenge Cup Continental Tour Bronze meet in Niigata announced its preliminary field on Wednesday. A lot of the international field has yet to be added, but what's been announced includes Paris Olympians Yoshihide Kiryu , Ryuichiro Sakai , Kentaro Sato , Fuga Sato , Joseph Nakajima , Abraham Guem , Tomoki Ota , Rachid Muratake , Daiki Ogawa , Ryoichi Akamatsu , Tomohiro Shinno , Yume Goto , Wakana Kabasawa , Haruki Kokai , Sumire Hata , Marina Saito and Momone Ueda , NR holders Shuhei Tada , Ko Ochiai , Sho Kawamoto , Keita Sato , Naoto Tobe , Yuji Tsutumi , Ryoji Tatezawa , Kanta Shimizu , Kotaro Shinohara , Rin Kubo , Tomoka Kimura and Nanaka Kori , Monaco Diamond League winner Margaret Akidor , and more. Current list top entries by 2023-2024 best in each event: Men's 100 m Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei) - 10.03 Ryuichiro Sakai (Osaka Gas) - 10.08 Shuhei Tada (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.10 Naoki Nishioka (Tokai Gyosei H.S.) - 10.11 Yuki Koike (...

Newly-crowned 800 m world champion Halimah Nakaayi of Uganda closes out her 2019 season at the first edition of the Denka Athletics Challenge Cup in Niigata last October. The second edition of the Denka Challenge, originally scheduled for the first weekend in June, has been rescheduled to mid-September.

On Apr. 21 the organizers of the 2nd Denka Athletics Challenge Cup meet donated 10,000 surgical masks to Niigata Prefecture. The masks were part of the supply organizers had put together for use at their meet to help combat the spread of the novel coronavirus. The meet, a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze label event and part of the Japan Grand Prix series, was originally scheduled for June 5th and 6th at Niigata's Big Swan Stadium but was postponed to the fall and winter season. Organizers had already donated another 5,000 masks to the Niigata city government on Apr. 17. Kimihiko Ono , head coach of meet organizers Niigata Albirex Running Club, and Albirex race walker Kai Kobayashi presented the masks to Niigata mayor Yaichi Nakahara . source articles: https://www.jiji.com/jc/article?k=2020042101099&g=spo https://www.asahi.com/and_M/pressrelease/pre_11592323/ translated and edited by Brett Larner

As part of an effort to halt the effort of the novel coronavirus, the JAAF has announced that it will postpone the 104th National Championships Combined Events, scheduled for June 13~14 in Nagano, and the 104th National Track and Field Championships, scheduled for June 25~28 in Osaka. Potential dates and venues are being explored for these events to be rescheduled in late September or early July. This will include the previously postponed 10000 m National Championships originally scheduled for May 9. Further details will be announced as soon as they have determined. In addition to the National Championships, all meets organized by the JAAF from April through June have been canceled or postponed. The JAAF has also requested that the organizers of other meets it supports during this time period likewise cancel or postpone their events. Further details will be announced by the JAAF and by individual meet organizers as the situation evolves. A list of JAAF-organized and supported meet...

Saturday saw the newest addition to Japan's top-level track circuit with the first edition of the Denka Athletics Challenge Cup in Niigata. Held in one of Japan's biggest stadiums, the 50,000-capacity Denka Big Swan Stadium, the meet was organized by the local Niigata Albirex RC corporate team and conceived of as a chance for people to get in early marks ahead of next year's pre-Tokyo Olympics buildup and for those who might have missed the Doha World Championships earlier this month to get in season-peak performances to do the same. Despite good weather in days before and after the meet, unlucky rain on the day of the meet meant performances mostly fell short of the hoped-for levels. That didn't stop some quality names domestic and international from taking part. The biggest name among them was Doha women's 800 m gold medalist Halimah Nakaayi (Uganda), who easily held off top Japanese collegian Ayano Shiomi (Ritsumeikan Univ.) for the win in 2:04.73 at th...