japan running news

Tweaking its lineup to replace the ailing Yuki Koike with fast starter Shuhei Tada , the Japanese men's 4x100 m relay team pulled off a bronze medal on the second-to-last day of the Doha World Championships. In a fast race that saw the top four teams set national and area records, Japan ran an Asian record 37.43 for 3rd behind winner U.S.A. in 37.10 and 2nd-place Great Britain in 37.36, a shot of confidence ahead of next summer's Tokyo Olympics where the 4x100 will be one of the country's best chances of medaling. Along with its pair of men's race walk gold medals the team's bronze brought Japan's medal count to three for the Championships. After running an 11-second PB to move up to all-time Japanese #3 in the women's 5000 m heats, Nozomi Tanaka improved again with a 15:00.01 in the final to advance to all-time #2. With the race going out well below Japanese national record pace Tanaka was just hanging on the entire time, part of the first group to ...

Following up on Yusuke Suzuki 's win in the 50 km, Japan scored its second race walk gold with another win in the 20 km by Toshikazu Yamanishi . Where Suzuki led start-to-finish, Yamanishi waited 5 km before making a bold move to open a 17-second lead over Sweden's Perseus Karlstrom . From there he was never really under threat, Karlstrom and others shaving a few seconds off his lead but dropping back again over the final lap. In the end Yamanishi won by 15 seconds in 1:26:34, with Russian Vasiliy Mizinov overtaking Karlstrom for silver. Koki Ikeda made the top 8 with a 6th-place finish in 1:29:02, with Eiki Takahashi 10th in 1:30:04. The race walks may well end up being Japan's best shot at a medal next year in Tokyo, but there's no question that along with the men's marathon the event the home crowd will be cheering for the hardest is the men's 4x100 m relay. Running a new lineup of Yuki Koike , Kirara Shiraishi , Yoshihide Kiryu and Abdul Hakim Sani B...

A last-minute addition to the Japanese national team after days of confusion surrounding his qualification for the Doha World Championships, Asian decathlon champion Keisuke Ushiro was the only Japanese athlete in action on the seventh day of Championships competition. Leading the day off with his best two events, the 110 m hurdles and discus throw, the bottom-ranked Ushiro turned in a credible 16th-place overall placing that justified his presence in Doha. Doha World Athletics Championships Day Seven Japanese Results Doha, Qatar, 3 Oct. 2019 complete results Finals Men's Decathlon 1. Niklas Kaul (Germany) - 8691 2. Maicel Uibo (Estonia) - 8604 - PB 3. Damian Warner (Canada) - 8529 ----- 16. Keisuke Ushiro (Japan) - 7565 © 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

2018 World U20 Championships 3000 m gold medalist Nozomi Tanaka delivered the top Japanese performance on the sixth day of the Doha World Championships. Running the first of two heats in the women's 5000 m, Tanaka started close to PB pace and hung as the pack got faster and faster. Only faltering in the last two laps when the top four women took off, Tanaka held off Canada's Andrea Seccafien and South Africa's Dominique Scott to take 6th, qualifying for the final on time with an 11-second PB and all-time Japanese #3 time of 15:04.66. Post-race she told Japanese media, "I was just hanging on to the back of the pack. In the final I want to run a race I can enjoy." In the second heat, national champion Tomoka Kimura hung with the early slow pace but soon dropped back to finish last in 15:53.08. Her Shiseido teammate Melissa Duncan of Australia took 9th in 15:37.37 but fell short of qualifying for the final. After running a PB of 45.14 in the first round of...

All three of Japan's men in the Doha World Championships high jump washed out in the qualification round on Day Five. Domestic hopes were high for world ranked #1 Naoto Tobe , but clearing only 2.26 m he took 7th in his group to miss the cut. Teammates Ryo Sato and Takashi Eto were farther off their best, clearing only 2.22 m and 2.17 m respectively. At the other end of the spectrum, Julian Walsh ran a PB 45.14 to make the semi-finals in the men's 400 m, 2nd in his heat behind the great Kirani James . His time put him at all-time Japanese #4, but Walsh will need to improve on it further to have a shot at making the final tomorrow. Doha World Athletics Championships Day Five Japanese Results Doha, Qatar, 1 Oct. 2019 complete results Qualifying Rounds Men's 400 m Heat 2 1. Kirani James (Grenada) - 44.94 - Q 2. Julian Walsh (Japan) - 45.14 - Q, PB 3. Vernon Norwood (U.S.A.) - 45.59 - Q 4. Steven Solomon (Australia) - 45.82 - q 5. Derrick Mokaleng (South Af...

On the most exciting night yet at the Doha World Championships Japanese athletes only featured in the qualifying rounds of two events. Of them, 110 m hurdles national record holder Shunya Takayama was the only one to make it on to the next round, taking 2nd in his heat in 13.32. Taio Kanai was only 7th in his heat in 13.74, with third man Shunsuke Izumiya a DNS. In the women's javelin throw, top hope Haruka Kitaguchi was an unlucky 13th in the qualifying rounds, 6 cm out of making the final with a best throw of 60.84 m. Last-minute team addition Yuka Sato was 29th of the 31 women in the qualifying rounds with a throw of 55.03 m. Doha World Athletics Championships Day Four Japanese Results Doha, Qatar, 30 Sept. 2019 complete results Qualifying Rounds Men's 110 m Hurdles Heat 2 +0.5 m/s 1. Sergey Shubenkov (ANA) - 13.27 - Q 2. Wenjun Xie (China) - 13.38 - Q 3. Jason Joseph (Switzerland) - 13.39 - Q,  NR 4. Shane Bathwaite (Barbados) - 13.51 - Q 5. Veldo Sz...

On one of the quietest days of the Doha World Championships Japan's Kumiko Okada and Nanako Fujii were unable to crack the Chinese domination of the women's 20 km race walk. China's Hong Liu , Shen Jie Qieyang and Liu Jing Yang swept the podium, with Okada and Fujii both just over a minute behind in 6th and 7th. With 100 m national record holder Abdul Hakim Sani Brown having opted out of the 200 m to focus on the 4x100 m relay Yuki Koike was Japan's best hope in the 200 m semi-finals. But it wasn't to be, as Koike finished 4th in his semi and 0.03 out of the time qualifiers in 20.46. Jun Yamashita and Kirara Shiraishi were well out of qualifying range, both clocking 20.62. Doha World Athletics Championships Day Three Japanese Results Doha, Qatar, 29 Sept. 2019 complete results Finals Women's 20 km Race Walk 1. Hong Liu (China) - 1:32:53 2. Shen Jie Qieyang (China) - 1:33:10 3. Liu Jing Yang (China) - 1:33:17 4. Erica Rocha de Sena (Braz...

20 km race walk world record holder Yusuke Suzuki delivered Japan's first medal of the Doha World Championships, defying the heat and humid to lead to men's 50 km race walk start to finish for gold in 4:04:20. His teammates Hayato Katsuki and Tomohiro Noda didn't fare as well, Katsuki 27th of 28 finishers and Noda among the many casualties, but Suzuki's bold and brash performance in similar conditions to what the field will face in Tokyo next year, if darker, gives Japan hope that it's got at least one solid gold contender for the home game. More history made at @IAAFDoha2019 as Yusuke Suzuki wins Japan's first ever race walking #WorldAthleticsChamps title 🇯🇵🥇 Fantastic victory for the @jaaf_official athlete one year before @Tokyo2020 . 📰: https://t.co/gghIeeRTPa pic.twitter.com/bZ0UYTgVWs — IAAF (@iaaforg) September 29, 2019 The lone Japanese woman in the 50 km, Masumi Fuchise just missed a top 10 finish in 4:41:02. One of Japan's ...

Following the end of the qualification period for the 2019 Doha World Championships , the JAAF announced additions to the initial Japanese National Team roster released earlier in the summer. Along with the additions, the JAAF made public that Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Univ. of Florida) will not run the 200 m in order to focus on the 100 m and relay, and that Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu), the only Japanese man to have cleared the Doha standard, will not race due to an apparent injury following a fall last week in Zagreb . Final changes to the team roster, if any, are expected to be announced Sept. 17. Japanese National Team, Doha World Championships as of Sept. 11, 2019 times listed are best within qualifying window Women Hurdles 100 m Hurdles  - Asuka Terada (Pasona Group) - 12.97 100 m Hurdles - Ayako Kimura (Edion) - 13.11 Long Distance 5000 m  - Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki TC) - 15:15.80 5000 m - Tomoka Kimura (Shiseido) - 15:19.99 5000 m /  10000 ...

Last week's Asian Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar were held at Khalifa International Stadium , the same place where this fall's World Championships will be held. These days I'm working with three members of the Japanese team at the Asian Championships and went along to help them out and to check out the stadium and surrounding area. The below was my personal experience throughout the four days of the AAC. Day One One of the athletes' dad / coach was there to watch her run, so I spent the first day with him. He'd bought a ticket online, near the 250 m point on the back corner, Row 2, Seat 35. I couldn't get the online ticket site to work, so I went to the ticket office at the stadium to buy Seat 36. The two friendly young women working at the ticket window seemed pleasantly surprised that someone had come to buy a ticket, although when I asked they said I wasn't the first one. Our tickets said Gate 20, but when we went there we found that al...

Japan has named a team featuring ten individual medalists from the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games to get an early taste of this year's World Championships  at April's Doha Asian Athletics Championships . Along with its gold medal-winning men's 4x100 m team, standouts include Jakarta gold medalists Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) in the men's 200 m, Seito Yamamoto (Toyota) in the men's pole vault and Keisuke Ushiro (Kokushin Univ. AC) in the decathlon. The women's long distance roster is strong, led by 2018 World U20 Championships 3000 m gold medalist Nozomi Tanaka (ND28 AC) in the 5000 m and the resurgent Hitomi Niiya (Nike Tokyo TC) in the 10000 m, while the most interesting name among the men is Jakarta 3000 m steeplechase bronze medalist Kazuya Shiojiri (Juntendo Univ.). 23rd Asian Athletics Championships Japanese National Team Doha, Qatar, Apr. 21-24, 2019 complete team listing underlined athletes are 2018 Asian Games medalists Women Sprints Chisat...