japan running news

Day 3 of the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships was mostly filled by qualifying rounds, with the only track finals being the men's 10000 m race walks. Yushi Nakajima (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) had the fastest time of the day, winning a close D1 men's race in a 39:41.90 PB. Sota Arai (Heisei Kokusai Univ.) also PBd to win the D2 race in 42:39.62 by just 0.40 over Takuma Hachimura (Rikkyo Univ.), with Kotaro Wake (Kokushikan Univ.) taking the D3 title in 41:49.89. On the field the most interesting competition came in the D1 men's triple jump. Manato Miyao (Toyo Univ.) opened with a 15.66 m (0.0) jump that ended up being his best of the day. Koki Kanai (Juntendo Univ.) equalled that on his 4th attempt, with his 2nd-best jump of 15.54 m (-0.7) putting him ahead of Miyao's 15.53 m (-0.6). Enter Gai Kitagawa (Tokai Univ.), who equalled Kanai and Miyao at 15.66 m on his last jump. With a 5th attempt of 15.57 m (-0.2) that was enough for him to take the...

The Cali 22 World U20 Championships got underway Monday, with Japan fielding a team of 34. There are eight current U20 Japanese women under 9:10 for 3000 m, but even though that distance has been an area of strength in past World U20 Championships Japan was strangely absent from the first track final of the meet. Gold went to Kenyan Betty Chelangat in 9:01.03, Ethiopian Tsiyon Abebe taking silver in 9:03.85 and Kenyan Nancy Cherop bronze in 9:05.98. U20 and high school NR holder Keita Sato ran the day's other final, the men's 5000 m. Ranked 6th in the field on SB, Sato spent the first 2/3 of the race hovering around 8th to 10th before abruptly fading after 3600 m and finishing 11th in 14:26.19. High schooler Hiroto Yoshioka made a big play to get into contact with the lead group right before Sato dropped and held on for 7th in 14:10.68, the only athlete born outside Africa to make the top 10. Ethiopia took gold here with Addisu Yihune outkicking Eritreans Merhawi Mebrah...