japan running news

Kanto Regionals were the big domestic meet this weekend, but there were other important results here and overseas. At the Xiamen Diamond League meet: 110 mH NR holder Rachid Muratake (JAL) was 2nd in 13.13 (+0.5) behind winner Jamal Britt (U.S.A.) in 13.07. The only other Japanese athlete in Xiamen, women's javelin throw NR holder Haruka Kitaguchi (JAL) was 7th at 60.08, down from her performance last week at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix Meet in Tokyo and eclipsed by the brilliant all-time #2 71.74 m throw by China's Ziyi Yan . 4 Japanese athletes ran at the Sound Running L.A,.Track Fest meet, 3 of them graduates of Kyoto's Rakunan H.S. like Kanto Regionals D1 men's 5000 m winner Kaisei Okada (Chuo Univ.). The only non-Rakunan guy there, Hibiki Obara (GMO) ran only 8:33.21 for 9th in the men's 3000 mSC A-heat. Daichi Shibata (Chuo Univ.) was last in the same heat in 8:49.91. Itta Tameike (SG Holdings) had a great run in the men's 5000 m B-heat, breakin...

The Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon was a strictly amateur race on the women's side, Chika Yokota running a 2:43:45 PB for the win. But with 6 spots at the L.A. Olympics marathon trials on the line all the Japanese men were obsessed over getting their places reserved early. 2 first-half falls knocked Ethiopian Abe Gashahun and 2024 Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon winner Yota Ifuku out of the race, but the rest of the field rolled on steadily just under 3:00/km. The pace crew took them to 30 km in 1:29:45, 2:06:15 pace, and at that point there were still 20 in it including the home soil favorites Yuya Yoshida and Asahi Kuroda . Inside the last 10 km Ethiopian Getachew Masresha went to the front, followed initially by the debuting Takato Suzuki but let go by the rest of the pack. Once Masresha was about 10 seconds ahead Kuroda, the collegiate record holder and CR breaker on the Hakone Ekiden's legendary uphill Fifth Stage a month ago, picked it up in pursuit. After Kuroda ran ...

The Feb. 1 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon is coming in hot this year with what's got to be a shot at the 2:04:55 Japanese NR. Up front is the king of this year's Hakone Ekiden, collegiate marathon NR holder Asahi Kuroda of 2026 Hakone champ Aoyama Gakuin University . Last year at Beppu-Oita AGU's Hiroki Wakabayashi ran a 2:06:07 debut to break the collegiate marathon record. 3 weeks later Kuroda bettered that with a 2:06:05 in his debut in Osaka. He comes in fresh off the greatest run in Hakone history, taking 2 minutes off Wakabayashi's CR for the massive uphill Fifth Stage in a run that Letsrun.com estimated was worth a 57:30-58:00 half marathon. Make of that what you will, if you accept 58:00 that's worth sub-2:02 in the marathon. Call it 59:00 and you're still talking sub-2:04. Can he possibly live up to the hype? Beppu-Oita is basically not that kind of race, but looking at the rest of the front end of the field they've got to be thinking that way. 2:...

November's National University Ekiden is the second stop of the three-race university men's ekiden season. Even more than the season-opening Izumo Ekiden, it's pretty much a given that however many teams there are in the field from the Tokyo-area Kanto Region, where almost all the best high schoolers go for university in order to have the chance to run the Hakone Ekiden, the top team from outside Kanto will finish behind all of them. Not including two select teams that don't count in scoring, the 15 Kanto teams at last year's Nationals took the top 15 spots in the field of 25 schools. Koku Gakuin University , Komazawa University , Aoyama Gakuin University , Soka University , Waseda University , Josai University , Rikkyo University and Teikyo University filled the 8-podium to earn places at the 2025 National University Ekiden, with the other 7 having to run yesterday's Kanto Region Qualifier alongside 13 other Kanto-area teams to try to make the return trip. ...

Sunday at the Nittai University Time Trials meet in Kanagawa, 17-year-old  Keita Sato  (Rakunan H.S.) ran a U18 world-leading 13:31.19 in the men's 5000 m Heat 20 to take 3.55 seconds off the high school 5000 m national record of 13:34.74 set in September last year by Kosuke Ishida  (Saitama Sakae H.S.). Sato's time also took 5.38 seconds off the U18 national record of 13:36.57 set last November by Taishi Ito  (Saku Chosei H.S.). In July at the Hokuren Distance Challenge Chitose Meet 1500 m Sato ran 3:37.18, breaking the high school national record of 3:38.49 set in 1999 by Kiyoharu Sato  (Saku Chosei H.S.) and setting a new U18 record. He followed up in January with an 8:00.09 for 3000 m, also a new U18 national record and less than a second off the high school NR.  Sunday was another historic day on his resume. At last December's National High School Ekiden Championships Sato was the top Japanese finisher at 5th on the Third Stage, helping Rakunan H.S. ...