japan running news

2011 Asian Athletics Championships - Day Two Results
Kobe, Hyogo, July 8, 2011
click here for complete results

Men's 3000 mSC
1. Abubaker Ali Kamal (Qatar) - 8:30.23
2. Artem Kossinov (Kazakhstan) - 8:35.11
3. T.M.S. Taher (Bahrain) - 8:45.47

Men's 1500 m
1. Mohammed Alazemi (Kuwait) - 3:42.49
2. Sajad Moradi (Iran) - 3:43.30
3. C.I. Wijekoon (Sri Lanka) - 3:44.01

Women's 1500 m
1. Genzeb Shumi Regasa (Bahrain) - 4:15.91
2. Tranh Hang Truong (Vietnam) - 4:18.40
3. J. Orchatteri Puthiya (India) - 4:21.41

Men's 400 m
1. Yousef Ahmed Masrahi (Saudia Arabia) - 45.79
2. Hideyuki Hirose (Keio Univ.) - 46.03
3. Yuzo Kanemaru (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 46.38

Women's 400 m
1. Olga Tereshkova (Kazakhstan) - 52.37
2. Gulustan Ieso (Iraq) - 52.80
3. Jingwen Chen (China) - 52.89

Men's 100 m
1. Bingtian Su (China) - 10.21
2. Masashi Eriguchi (Team Osaka Gas) - 10.28
3. Sota Kawatsura (Chuo Univ.) - 10.30

Women's 100 m
1. Guzel Khubbieva (Uzbekistan) - 11.39
2. Yongli Wei (Chinda) - …

by Brett Larner

The Japanese National University Track and Field Championships are strangely timed, coming at the start of the fall semester after several months of intense mileage training separating the spring track and fall ekiden seasons. It's a time when many of the best university runners are not aiming to peak, focusing instead on the roads, and as a consequence upsets are common. Last year Kenyan Daniel Gitau (Nihon Univ.) staged a rare coup over the far superior Mekubo Mogusu (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) over both 5000 m and 10000 m, while unknown first-year Michi Numata (Ritsumeikan Univ.) stole the women's 10000 m.

This year's Nationals took place Sept. 4-6 at Tokyo's National Stadium. Among the meet's highlights:

Gitau, the undisputed top man in Japanese university distance running following Mogusu's graduation this year, easily retained his titles in the 5000 m and 10000 m, running 13:41.77 and 28:34.71. The bigger story in the 10000 m was perhaps Tokai U…

Click here to enter JRN's World Championships marathon prediction contest for a chance to win a 2009 Japanese national team singlet.

by Brett Larner

Barring a repeat of the Beijing Olympics marathons, 2009 national champion Yuzo Kanemaru's performance in the men's 400 m will be the biggest disappointment of this year's World Championships for Japanese fans. A legitimate contender for the final, despite setting a PB of 45.16 in May and being reliably under 46 seconds all season Kanemaru, who sustained a minor injury to his left thigh on the final day of training for Berlin, failed to make it out of the first round heats after delivering only a 46.83. Hideyuki Hirose actually ran faster in his heat, clocking 46.80, but likewise failed to advance.

The men's 200 m squad fared better, with Beijing Olympics 4x100 m relay bronze medalist Shinji Takahira and the young Kenji Fujimitsu leaving teammate Hitoshi Saito behind to advance to the quarterfinal. However, both Takahira …

by Brett Larner

2009 World University Games men's 400 m gold medalist Yuzo Kanemaru of Hosei University brought the Japanese men's 4x400 m relay time home to bronze on the final day of competition at this year's games. Five-time national champion Kanemaru came from behind on the anchor leg to hold off Belgium by 0.15 seconds to take the medal after passable runs from teammates Hideyuki Hirose, Yusuke Ishitsuka and Kazuaki Yoshida. Australia won with a commanding 3-second lead over silver medalist Poland.

Another national champion, 800 m specialist Masato Yokota, came up empty handed in a tight race. Winner Sajad Moradi of Iran clocked 1:48.02 with only 0.02 seconds separating the next three runners. Yokota was the unlucky fourth man. While Kanemaru will go on to run in August's World Championships, Yokota's season is now effectively over.

Komazawa University's Tsuyoshi Ugachi was likewise out of luck in the slow and tactical men's 5000 m. Ugachi led the field …

by Brett Larner

Newly-crowned 100 m national champions Momoko Takahashi (Heisei Kokusai Univ.) and Masashi Eriguchi (Waseda Univ.) missed out on gold but brought home medals on the second day of the 2009 World University Games. Both runners started the day with wins in their semifinals, Eriguchi's 10.28 standing as the fastest time run at this year's Games although well off his 10.07 PB at last month's National Championships. Eriguchi's teammate Shintaro Kimura, the Nationals runner-up, was eliminated in his semifinal. Takahashi ran 11.52 in the women's final to take silver behind Lithuanian Lina Grincikaite's 11.31 gold medal run. Eriguchi took bronze in the men's final in a near-photo finish with winner Rolando Palacios Cruz of Honduras and silver medalist Amr Ibrahim Seoud of Egypt. Takahashi, Eriguchi and Kimura will go on to next month's World Championships in Berlin.

In the day's other track final, the men's 10000 m, medal hopefuls Ryuji Kas…

by Brett Larner

Just over a week after making the top ten in the Japanese Nationals 10000 m, Bukkyo University ace Kasumi Nishihara brought the Japanese team its first gold medal of the 2009 World University Games, outclassing the field in the women's 10000 m on the first day of track and field competition. The youngest in the field, Nishihara held the best PB coming into the race and ran like it as she beat runner-up Tatiana Shutova of Russia by over 15 seconds to win in a relatively modest 33:14.62. In a post-race interview Nishihara commented, "It was an easy win, so I was pretty surprised. I didn't just want to run in an international meet but to go home with a medal."

Meijo University's Seika Nishikawa, the second-fastest woman in the field by PB, was less solid, finishing 4th in 33:56.62. Nishihara will double in the 5000 m, with Nishikawa scheduled to run in the half marathon.

Japan's sprinters dominated the first and second round of heats. Five-time nati…