japan running news

No new medals for the host country on the 2nd day of the Tokyo World Athletics Championships , but there still some good performances across the day including a massive NR in the men's 400 m. The least experienced member of the women's marathon squad, Kana Kobayashi took the early lead in the women's marathon, dropping as far back as 12th mid-race but clawing her way back into the top 8 on the hills at the end with a 2:28:50 for 7th. Sayaka Sato was off the back from the start but eventually ran down Yuka Ando for 2nd Japanese in 2:31:15 for 13th. Ando was 28th in 2:35:37. Peres Jepchirhir took gold in a track sprint against Tigist Assefa , 2:24:43 to 2:24:45, with Uruguay's Julia Paternain a distant 3rd in 2:27:23. Next up, Asian champion Kazuto Iizawa didn't make it out of the first round heats in the men's 1500 m, taking 13th in Heat 1 in 3:41.76. In the women's 100 m hurdles heats 2 of the 3 Japanese woman advanced to the semifinals on time, Mako F...

Sunday marks day 2 of the Tokyo World Athletics Championships . Japanese athletes in action: 7:30 - Women's Marathon Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku) - 2:20:59 -  2nd, Nagoya 2025 Yuka Ando (Shimamura) - 2:21:18 -  1st, Nagoya 2024 Kana Kobayashi (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 2:21:19 -  2nd, Osaka Women's 2025 Prognosis : Not much chance of getting close to the medals, but any of the Japanese women here could get into the top 8. The 24-year-old Kobayashi has the most headroom, still on an improvement curve in only her 3rd year running marathons. 9:35 - Men's 1500 m Heats Kazuto Iizawa (Sumitomo Denko) - 3:36.81 -  1st, Nationals Prognosis : Iizawa made Worlds by winning the Asian title, and with a season best that ranks him 8th from the bottom of the field it's pretty unlikely he'll advance past the heats. 11:05 - Women's 100 m Hurdles Heats Hitomi Nakajima (Hasegawa) - 12.71 (+0.7) -  2nd, Nationals Mako Fukube (NKK) - 12.73 (+1.4) -  3rd, Nationals Yumi Tanaka (Fujitsu)...

The 2025 Asian Athletics Championships take place May 27-31 in Gumi, South Korea, a key chance for Japanese athletes to score points to help get them to September's Tokyo World Championships. Japan's team of 35 women and 36 men for the Asian Championships as of April 25 : Women 100 m Midori Mikase (Sumitomo Denko) - 11.37 Aiha Yamagata (Fukuoka Univ.) - 11.41 200 m Arisa Kimishima (DKS) - 23.16 Remi Tsuruta (Minami Kyushu Family Mart) - 23.17 400 m Nanako Matsumoto (Toho Ginko) - 52.29 800 m Rin Kubo (Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S.) - 1.59.93 Ayano Shiomi (Iwatani Sangyo) - 2:01.93 1500 m Yume Goto (Uniqlo) - 4:09.41 Tomoka Kimura (Sekisui Kagaku) - 4:09.79 5000 m Yuma Yamamoto (Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:12.97 Sora Shinozakura (Yokoyama T&F Assoc.) - 15:23.82 10000 m Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) - 30:39.71 Mikuni Yada (Edion) - 31:20.09 100 mH Mako Fukube (NKK) - 12.69 Yumi Tanaka (Fujitsu) - 12.83 400 mH Ami Yamamoto (Fujitsu) - 56.06 Miku Takino (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 56.81 3000 mSC...

The first big meet of Japan's outdoor season happens in Kumamoto Apr. 12 with the Kanakuri Memorial Meet , where the men's and women's 10000 m double as the National Championships and other events count as key selection races for May's Asian Championships in South Korea. Top entries per event below with best times within the qualifying window. Complete 10000 m entries here, other distances here . Men's 10000 m National Championships Emmanuel Maru (Kenya/Toyota Boshoku) - 27:09.96 Jun Kasai (Asahi Kasei) - 27:17.46 Charles Kamau (Kenya/SGH) - 27:18.89  Mebuki Suzuki (Toyota) - 27:20.33 Tomoki Ota (Toyota) - 27:20.94 Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) - 27:36.37 Tomoya Ogikubo (Hiramatsu Byoin) - 27:38.28 Yuto Imae (GMO) - 27:42.65 Yamato Yoshii (Toyota) - 27:42.88 Ryo Saito (Asahi Kasei) - 27:45.08 Shoya Saito (Josai Univ.) - 27:45.12 Yuya Yoshida (GMO) - 27:45.85 Hayate Honma (Chuo Univ.) - 27:46.60 Tsuyoshi Bando (Osaka Gas) - 27:48.53 Kazuki Tamura (Sumitomo Denko) - 27:...

  On Nov. 15 the East Japan Corporate Federation announced that 10000 m national champion and Paris Olympian  Jun Kasai  (Asahi Kasei) and Budapest World Championships team member  Ren Tazawa  (Toyota) have both withdrawn from the 10000 m at the Nov. 23 Hachioji Long Distance meet. This year's Hachioji Long Distance features a special heat set up to target the 27:00.00 qualifying standard for next year's Tokyo World Championships. Along with Kasai and Tazawa, national record holder Kazuya Shiojiri  (Fujitsu) and other top-level Japanese talent are scheduled to compete. After last January's New Year Ekiden , Tazawa sustained an injury that forced him to miss May's National Championships 10000 m and other races including the Paris Olympics. At the end of September he ran 13:36.99 for 5th at the Yogibo Athletics Challenge Cup meet, but, he said, "My balance felt off and the back of my left knee hurt." In Kasai's case, after winning the national title in M...

The East Japan Corporate Federation published featured athlete entry lists for next month's Hachioji Long Distance meet on its website on Oct. 10. The meet takes place Nov. 23 at Hachioji's Kamiyugi Field and will include 5000 m races this year along with its usual program of 10000 m races. In addition, a special heat of 10000 m is being set up to target the Japanese national record of 27:09.80 and the Tokyo World Championships qualifying standard, 27:00.00. Announced for that heat are NR holder Kazuya Shiojiri (27:09.80, Fujitsu), 2024 national champion and Paris Olympian Jun Kasai (27:17.46, Asahi Kasei), and 2022 and 2023 World Championships team member Ren Tazawa (27:22.31, Toyota). Tazawa commented, "There aren't that many races either in Japan or overseas that are set up for 26 minutes, so this is a really important chance to become the first Japanese athlete to run under 27 minutes." Others on featured athlete list include Mebuki Suzuki (27:26.67, Toyo...

Athletics competition kicked off at the Paris Olympics with the men's and women's 20 km race walks. One of Japan's best medal chances, the men's race saw Koki Ikeda and Yuta Koga sit in the second pack through the second half of the race, ultimately finishing 7th and 8th in 1:19:41 and 1:19:50. Ikeda was only 30 seconds back from bronze medalist Alvaro Martin of Spain and another 16 seconds from gold medalist Brian Pintado of Ecuador. Third Japanese man Ryo Hamanishi was 18th in 1:20:33. Overall it was an improvement on the team's performance in the Budapest World Championships last summer, where Koga was 12th and Ikeda 15th. With Kumiko Okada and Ayane Yanai withdrawing to focus on the mixed relay, the women's 20 km race walk had only one Japanese athlete, Nanako Fujii . With China's Jiayu Yang leading all three medalists under 1:26:00 in 1:25:54, Fujii was a distant 32nd in 1:34:26. No Japanese athletes were in action in the morning session at the...

With World Athletics' update of its Road to Paris rankings , one male and three female athletes have been added to Japan's team for the Paris Olympics, all in mid/long distance events. Left out are the vertical jumps, with women's pole vault NR holder Misaki Morota and high jumpers Nagisa Takahashi and Naoto Hasegawa missing by one or two places each. Men 100 m Abdul Hakim Sani Brown - 9.97 PB / 9.99 SB Ryuichiro Sakai - 10.02 PB / 10.10 SB Akihiro Higashida - 10.10 PB / 10.14 SB (4x100 m) - Hiroki Yanagita - 10.02 PB / SB (4x100 m) - Yoshihide Kiryu - 9.98 PB / 10.20 SB (4x100 m) - Shota Yamamoto - 10.16 PB / SB -  alternate 200 m Towa Uzawa - 20.23 PB / 20.26 SB Shota Iizuka - 20.11 PB / 20.46 SB Koki Ueyama - 20.26 PB / 20.47 SB 400 m Yuki Joseph Nakajima - 45.04 PB / 45.16 SB Kentaro Sato - 44.77 PB / 45.21 SB Fuga Sato - 44.88 PB / 45.61 PB (4x400 m) - Takuho Yoshizu - 45.57 PB / SB (4x400 m) - Kaito Kawabata - 45.73 PB / 45.77 SB (4x400 m) - Yudai Nishi - 20.43 PB...

An update on standings for Japan's potential team at this summer's Paris Olympic Games a week out from the National Track and Field Championships. Final team nomination in most cases depends on a top 3 finish there, but as of this writing events where Japan could or will field three athletes having cleared the Olympic standard are the men's 110 mH, men's 400 mH, men's 20 kmRW and women's marathon. Other events that will or are likely to have a complete squad of three athletes include the men's 100 m, men's 200 m, men's 400 m, men's high jump, men's marathon, women's 5000 m, women's 10000 m, women's javelin throw, and women's 20 kmRW. Main changes from last week: Women's pole vault NR holder Misaki Morota won at the Harry Jerome Track Classic at 4.28 m, improving her spot in the Paris quota from 32nd to 31st. Momone Ueda won the Asian Throwing Championships women's javelin throw at 61.32 m, moving up from 23rd to 22n...

The Kobe World Para Athletics Championships kicked off Friday, with Japan taking two bronze medals in the first three days of competition. Kenya Karasawa got things started with a bronze medal in the men's T11 5000 m on the opening day, and Uran Sawada followed that up with a T12 women's long jump bronze Sunday. Six days remain, with the results in Kobe weighing heavily in athletes' chances of being at the Paris Paralympics later this year. Two weeks after winning the 10000 m National Championships in a PB 27:17.46, Jun Kasai 's chances of making the Paris Olympics got a boost when he ran 27:34.14 for 5th at the Night of the 10,000 m PBs in the U.K. Saturday. Japanese men currently occupy 25th and 27th in the 27-deep Paris 10000 m quota, 2023 and 2024 Nationals runner-up Tomoki Ota in 25th with 1249 points and former NR holder Akira Aizawa in 27th with 1228. With this run Kasai's score comes in at 1232, enough to bump Aizawa down to 28th and out of the quota b...

Rino Goshima and Jun Kasai stepped up with PBs to win the 2024 National Championships 10000 m titles Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium. In the women's race, Goshima, 4th in last December's 2023 National Championships 10000 m, went out front from the start with Kenyan teammate Judy Jepngetich pacing and 2023 3rd-placer Haruka Kokai in tow. Things were never on track to hit the 30:40.00 Paris Olympics standard, but except for a brief dip to 3:08 at 7000 m Goshima held steady at 3:05 to 3:06/km even as Kokai and Jepngetich fell off. With blood dripping from her left knee after getting spiked by Jepngetich, Goshima closed in 3:03 to take 5 seconds off her best from December's Nationals and win in 30:53.31, moving up to all-time Japanese #6. Jepngetich also PBd at 31:09.42 without counting in the standings, with Kokai 2nd in 31:10.53 and Kazuna Kanetomo 3rd in a PB 31:59.29. The runner-up last time, Yuka Takashima was last in 33:33.27. The men's race went out in a...

Running with three returning members of last year's course record-breaking team, Nagano pulled off another CR to win its 3rd-straight National Men's Ekiden title Sunday in Hiroshima thanks in large part to a stellar run from anchor Mebuki Suzuki from Komazawa University . Last year's opening leg 3rd-placer Ryuto Kawahara of Nagasaki got things started with a 2:44 opening km on the 7.0 km First Stage, then let 2023 National High School Ekiden First Stage winner Sota Orita of Hyogo take over. Orita did most of the work through the middle part of the stage, then with 1.5 km to go Kawahara attacked and pulled away to break the 19:39 CR set by Sonata Nagashima last year by 8 seconds. It was one of those runs that makes the National Men's Ekiden great, with someone from a high school that isn't good enough to make Nationals taking down one of the big stars whose team did. In a four-way sprint for 2nd Nagano's Yamato Hamaguchi was 4th and Orita 5th, both one s...

Riding the momentum of its Day One win yesterday, Komazawa University dominated Day Two of the 99th Hakone Ekiden for the overall win. Combined with its CR wins at the Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden, the Hakone victory made Komazawa only the 5th school to score the triple crown of major ekiden wins in a single season. It was the first triple crown of head coach Hiroaki Oyagi 's career, his biggest achievement at the biggest road race in the world, the one that has eluded him for decades. And, with his post-race announcement that he will step back from his role as head coach, it was his last. Komazawa started Day Two with a 30-second lead over last year's 6th-placer Chuo University and 2:03 over 2022 Hakone champ Aoyama Gakuin University . Following the success of 1st-year Takuma Yamakawa on the uphill 5th leg yesterday, Oyagi opted to put 1st-year Aoi Ito on the steep downhill 6th leg. Ito excelled, outrunning Chuo's Haruto Wakabayashi by 17 seconds to ...

Two-time national champion Komazawa University rode the momentum of its course record win at last month's Izumo Ekiden to score a third-straight National University Men's Ekiden win Sunday in Nagoya and Mie, its 15th national title in 29 starts under head coach Hiroaki Oyagi . Komazawa's leading runner Kensuke Tsubura was 4th on the opening leg, star 1st-year Keita Sato broke the 2nd leg course record to move into 2nd, 60:40 half marathoner Chikara Yamano took the lead on the 3rd leg, and from there it was only a question of whether Komazawa could keep it together and how much they would win by. Komazawa runners won three of the remaining five stages after Yamano and took top 2 on another, with 4th-year Ren Tazawa running an incredible 49:38 course record on the 17.6 km 7th leg, 43 seconds under the old record. Anchor Kyosuke Hanao had a lead of over a kilometer for the 19.7 km 8th leg and could have jogged it in, but he soloed a 57:30 stage win to bring Komazawa h...