japan running news

Following Hiroto Inoue 's morning gold medal in the men's marathon, the first evening session of athletics at the Jakarta Asian Games was capped by a surprise bronze in the women's hammer throw by Hitomi Katsuyama . Katsuyama's throw of 62.95 m was 8 meters or more off the Chinese top two Na Luo and Zheng Wang and was nearly overtaken by teammate Akane Watanabe 's 62.45 m but was enough for her to go home with hardware in an an event that's usually something of a weakness. The day's only other final to feature a Japanese athlete, the women's 10000 m was out of the league of lone Japanese entrant Yuka Hori . After a series of delays involving missing numbers, an extra athlete and removal of a rear bib, Hori did much of the leading, dropped by surges twice and taking her time overtaking those ahead both times to end up 7th in  32:42.73. In an exciting race up front Darla Maslova of Kyrgyzstan outkicked Kenyan-born Bahraini Eunice Chumba and Desh...

Finishing 4th in her opening round heat, national champion Ayako Kimura became the first Japanese woman to make a World Championships 100 m hurdles semifinal, running 13.15 to auto-qualify. In Semifinal 2 she was unable to match that performance, finishing last in 13.29. National Championships runner-up Hitomi Shimura ran 13.29 in her heat and did not move on to the semifinals. In the men's 1500 m semifinals, Japan-based junior world record holder Ronald Kwemoi struggled with a recent injury and failed to advance to the final. Running in the same heat, American Johnny Gregorek , who ran last year's Izumo Ekiden as part of the Ivy League Select Team, moved up from last place over the last 300 m to snag the last spot in the final, the only U.S. man to make the 1500 m final. In the men's high jump, national champion Takashi Eto cleared 2.22 m for 9th in his qualification group and did not advance. In the decathlon, at the end of the first day of competition Japan...

After some last-minute qualifications and IAAF invitations, Japan will field a team of 50 including three alternates for next week's London World Championships . Javelin throw national record holder Yuki Ebihara (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) was named captain of the women's team of 14, with marathoner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) captaining the men's team of 36. The complete Japanese roster with best times within the London qualifying window: Men's Sprints Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) -  100 m / 200 m  10.05 / 20.32 Shuhei Tada (Kwansei Gakuin Univ.) -  100 m - 10.08 Aska Cambridge (Nike) -  100 m - 10.08 Shota Iizuka (Mizuno) -  200 m - 20.40 Takamasa Kitagawa (Juntendo Univ.) -  400 m - 45.48 Additional Relay Members Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.) -  4x100 m - 10.04 Kenji Fujimitsu (Zenrin) - 4x100 m - 20.47 Kazushi Kimura (Yondenko) -  4x400 m - 45.54 Kentaro Sato (Fujitsu) -  4x400 m - 45.67 Yuzo Kanemaru (...

by Brett Larner On the seventh day of competition at the 2013 Moscow World Championships, national champions Hitomi Shimura  (Saga T&F Assoc.) and Yuki Ebihara  (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) were both eliminated in the opening rounds of the women's 100 m hurdles and women's javelin.  200 m men Kei Takase  (Team Fujitsu) and Yuichi Kobayashi  (Team NTN) were likewise cut out in the heats, Kobayashi run down in the final meters of Heat Four after running virtually even with world record holder Usain Bolt  (Jamaica) coming off the curve.  2010 world junior champion Shota Iizuka  (Chuo Univ.) took 3rd in Heat Six to advance to the semi-finals, but with only a slight improvement there he was unable to advance to the final.  Iizuka remains the anchor of the Japanese men's 4x100 m relay team, but the team's hopes have been dimmed by the withdrawal of ace Ryota Yamagata (Keio Univ.) with a hamstring injury sustained in the 100 m heats. Moscow World ...

by Brett Larner Day Two of the 2013 Japanese National Track and Field Championships was packed with great one-on-one matchups as the country's best went after positions on the Moscow World Championships team. In the men's 10000 m, the pace faded after starting out on track for a national record thanks to eventual last-place finisher Naoki Okamoto  (Team Chugoku Denryoku).  #4-ranked Chihiro Miyawaki (Team Toyota) took over from Okamoto after falling at 3000 m, but the pace continued to slip.  The only two A-standard men, defending champion Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) and Suguru Osako  (Waseda Univ.) reeled it out to a sprint finish for the second year in a row, and once again Sato proved the stronger over the final 50 m as he secured his place with a slower-than-expected 28:24.94 win to Osako's 28:25.84 runner-up finish. 2011's fastest Japanese 10000 m runner, Tsuyoshi Ugachi  (Team Konica Minolta) took 3rd, but absent an A-standard mark he will...