japan running news

Thanks to a last-minute rush Japan walked away from the London World Championships with a passable haul. The JAAF judges performance in terms of medals and top 8 finishes. Up to Saturday, only one Japanese athlete had met either, 18-year-old sprinter Abdul Hakim Sani Brown finishing 7th in the men's 200 m final as the first Japanese man to make a 200 m final at Worlds since 2003. Three other Japanese athletes had scored top 10 placings, Yuki Kawauchi and Kentaro Nakamoto in the men's marathon and Ayuko Suzuki in the women's 10000 m, but under the JAAF's criteria these were not viewed as success.


Saturday's men's 4x100 m final brought the first Japanese medal of the Championships, with Japan following up on its Rio Olympics silver with a bronze, its first-ever Worlds medal in the discipline. Sunday morning brought Japan's best-ever showing in the men's 50 km race walk, Rio bronze medalist Hirooki Arai moving up to silver, Kai Kobayashi taking bronze wit…

Rio Olympics men's 50 km Race Walk bronze medalist Hirooki Arai followed up with Japan's first silver medal of the London World Championships, leading teammate Kai Kobayashi to a Japanese double medal haul. Far behind the championships record pace set by eventual gold medalist Yohann Diniz of France, Arai, Kobayashi and teammate Satoshi Maruo all sat together in the chase pack through 15 km. Maruo began to drop back approaching 20 km, but Arai and Kobayashi stayed up front through 35 km before making a break that took them all the way to silver and bronze medal finishes 2 seconds apart just over 8 minutes behind Diniz. Maruo fought his way back through the pack, ultimately finishing 5th just over a minute and a half behind his medalist teammates.

On paper the men's 20 km crew had the potential to repeat the 50 km results, but it wasn't to be. One by one Rio Olympics 7th placer Daisuke Matsunaga and world #2 and #3-ranked Eiki Takahashi and Isamu Fujisawa slipped off t…

The Japanese team at the London World Championships has few real medal prospects. Its best chances come in the men’s 4x100 m, where the roster includes ever newer and faster blood than last year’s Olympic silver medal-winning team in 18-year-old Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) and 21-year-old Shuhei Tada (Kwansei Gakuin Univ.), and the men’s race walks, where the 20 km features Eiki Takahashi (Fujitsu), #2 in the world this season, and Hirooki Arai (SDF Academy), the 50 km Rio bronze medalist.

If there is another solid medal prospect it comes in the women’s marathon, where Japanese athletes have won eleven medals in fifteen World Championships to date. Yuka Ando (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) ran the fastest-ever debut by a Japanese woman with a 2:21:36 at March’s Nagoya Women’s Marathon, putting her at 5th on the London entry list. There have been calls for her to be cautious in coming back with another hard marathon so soon after her first, but a run anything like what she did …

by Brett Larner

Empty-handed so far despite strong showings by the rest of the Japanese Olympic team, the eighth day of athletics at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics finally brought Japan two medals, one controversial, one beautiful.

In the men's 50 km race walk, Koichiro Morioka was out of the front-end action early, while Takayuki Tanii and Hirooki Arai were part of a nine-man chase group behind breakaway leader Yohann Diniz of France.  Tanii fell off the pace, but Arai stayed up front as the pack dwindled, then overtook Diniz.  In 3rd behind Beijing World Championships gold medalist Matej Toth (Slovakia) and London Olympics gold medalist Jared Tallent (Australia) in the final stages of the race, Arai was caught by Canada's Evan Dunfee.  With 1 km to go, Arai made a move to retake Dunfee.  As he passed he bumped Dunfee hard; Dunfee seemed to lose his balance, then a few seconds later appeared to cramp up.  Arai pulled away for bronze by 14 seconds, Dunfree coming through in a na…

Beijing, China, 8/29/15
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Men's 50 km Race Walk
1. Matej Toth (Slovakia) - 3:40:32
2. Jared Tallent (Australia) - 3:42.17
3. Takayuki Tanii (Japan) - 3:42:55
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4. Hirooki Arai (Japan) - 3:43:44
34. Yuki Yamazaki (Japan) - 4:03:54

Masters Women 400 m
1. Sarah Louise Read Cayton (Great Britain) - 1:00.05
2. Virginia Corinne Mitchell (Great Britain) - 1:00.81
3. Elizabeth Gail Wilson (New Zealand) - 1:02.54
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7. Yukiko Usui (Japan) - 1:05.34

Men's 4x100 m Relay Heat 1
1. U.S.A. - 37.91 - Q
2. Great Britain - 38.20 - Q
3. Germany - 38.57 - Q
4. Japan - 38.60

Women's 4x400 m Relay Heat 2
1. U.S.A. - 3:23.05 - Q
2. Great Britain - 3:23.90 - Q
3. France - 3:24.86 - Q
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7. Japan - 3:28.91 - NR

Men's 4x400 m Relay Heat 1
1. Great Britain - 2:59.05 - Q
2. Belgium - 2:59.28 - Q
3. France - 2:59.42 - Q
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7. Japan - 3:02.97

Men's Decathlon
1. Ashton Eaton (U.S.A.) - 9045 - WR
2. Damian Warner (Canada) - 8695 - NR
3. Rico Freimuth (Germany…

by Brett Larner

Only two events saw Japanese competitors on the fifth day of the Moscow World Championships.  National champion Misaki Onishi (Team Sekisui Kagaku) made zero impact in the women's 5000 m, finishing second from last in her heat nearly a minute slower than her winning time from Nationals in June.  The men's 50 km racewalk squad accorded itself better, with Takayuki Tanii (Team Sagawa Express) taking 9th for the second Championships in a row, and Hirooki Arai (SDF Academy) clocking a PB 3:45:56 for 11th.  10000 m racewalk national record holder Koichiro Morioka (Team Fujitsu) struggled at the longer distance, finishing only 23rd in 3:53:54.

Moscow World Championships Day Five
Moscow, 8/14/13
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Women's 5000 m Heat One
1. Mercy Cherono (Kenya) - 15:34.70 - Q
2. Almaz Ayana (Ethiopia) - 15:34.93 - Q
3. Molly Huddle (U.S.A.) - 15:40.91 - Q
4. Shannon Rowbury (U.S.A.) - 15:50.41 - Q
5. Tejitu Daba (Bahrain) - 15:56.74 - Q
6. Almensh Belete…