japan running news

Aiming to make a return to the Hakone Ekiden after missing out on qualifying for this year's race, on May 20 Yamanashi Gakuin University resumed team track training for the first time in a month and a half. Team practice has been suspended since Apr. 6 due to the coronavirus crisis, and since then it has been up to members to run and do strength training on their own. Thirty athletes, about a third of the team roster, attended the May 20 session at Kawata Sports Park Field in Kofu. Another group trained separately at Midorigaoka Sports Park Field elsewhere in the city. To avoid too many people coming too close together, athletes started and ran at fixed time intervals between each other. Stretching was also done at staggered intervals, and strength training equipment was disinfected between each use. May's Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships have been canceled, but, said ekiden team head coach Masaaki Iijima , "I want us to prepare so that we'r...

Taku Fujimoto age: 30 sponsor: Toyota graduated from: Takamizu H.S., Kokushikan University best time inside MGC window: 2:07:57, 8th, 2018 Chicago Marathon PB: 2:07:57, 8th, 2018 Chicago Marathon other PBs: 5000 m: 13:38.68 (2010) 10000 m: 28:08.30 (2018) half marathon: 1:01:31 (2015) marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019) DNS 2019 Hamburg Marathon 8th, 2018 Chicago Marathon, 2:07:57 15th, 2018 Lake Biwa Marathon, 2:15:30 other major results: 6th, 2019 Gold Coast Half Marathon, 1:03:44 15th, 2019 New Year Ekiden Fourth Stage (22.4 km), 1:06:15 2nd, 2018 Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler, 45:57 1st, 2018 Chubu-Hokuriku Corporate Ekiden First Stage (12.0 km), 34:58 4th, 2017 National Corporate Half Marathon Championships, 1:01:53 8th, 2016 Marugame Half Marathon, 1:01:51 8th, 2015 National Corporate Half Marathon Championships, 1:01:31 – PB 3rd, 2012 Hakone Ekiden Third Stage (21.5 km), 1:03:08 1st, 2011 Kanto Region University T&F Championshi...

Japan's best collegiate meet wrapped up Sunday with day four of the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships at Kanagawa's Sagamihara Gion Stadium. The biggest result of the day came in the women's steeplechase, where first-year  Reimi Yoshimura (Daito Bunka Univ.) doubled from her 1500 m Kanto title on Friday to win by almost 35 seconds in a new meet record of 9:57.46. Her time also broke her own Kanto Region record, a pretty impressive wrap to just her second month of collegiate competition. A few hours later her senior teammate Natsuki Sekiya , last year's double 5000 m and 10000 m winner but skipping the 10 this year in favor of last weekend's 10000 m National Championships , took a close race against Rino Goshima (Chuo Univ.) to win the 5000 m title. Her victory meant that three different DBU women took the top spot in all four events from 1500 m to 10000 m, boding well for the team's chances in ekiden season this fall. In D1 men...

The third day of the 2019 Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships , Japan's most competitive collegiate meet, saw few finals, most of the day being dedicated to qualifying rounds for the last day's finals. One exception was the D1 men's pole vault final, where Kanto Region record holder Masaki Ejima (Nihon Univ.) cleared 5.61 m to break the meet record. Another meet record came in the D2 men's 10000 m racewalk, where Katsuya Ishii (Keio Univ.) set a D2 record of 41:21.44. His time was over two minutes slower than that of D1 winner Koki Ikeda (Toyo Univ.). Other winners of finals included Sayaka Nakamura (Kanagawa Univ.) with a jump of 12.96 m (+2.5 m/s) in the women's triple jump, Genku Hiratsuka (Nihon Univ.) clearing 2.11 m in the men's high jump, Masanari Ito (Juntendo Univ.) with a toss of 62.95 m in the D1 men's hammer throw, Yugo Sakai (Keio Univ.) with a 7.70 m (+4.6 m/s) in the D2 men's triple jump, Koichi Ishii (Ryutsu ...

Day Two of Kanto Regionals dawned windy, bringing loads of performances that exceeded the meet records but missed the books thanks to a tailwind over the limit. The D1 men's 1500 m wasn't one of them. A slow 72 second first lap led to a 2:22 split at 800 m, a full 5 seconds slower than what the women's final went through it in. Yudai Noguchi (Juntendo Univ.) made a break for it from around 700 m out, but it wasn't until just into the last lap that former indoor mile national record holder and captain of 2019 Hakone Ekiden champion Tokai University's Ryoji Tatezaw a went after him with rookie first-year teammate Kazuto Iizawa in tow. In the home straight Tatezawa reeled Noguchi in and looked to have a senior year title sealed up, but at the last second Iizawa pulled even with him. Both throwing their arms straight forward at the line and Tatezawa going into full dive mode, when the results came up on the screen Iizawa had taken his team captain down by the t...

Japan's best university meet got started Thursday at rural Kanagawa's Sagamihara Gion Stadium with Day One of the 98th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championship s. The main finals of the day were the 10000 m, where windy and hotter than usual conditions kept times on the slower side. In the women's 10000 m defending champ Natsuki Sekiya (Daito Bunka Univ.) gave it a miss after having run Sunday's 10000 m National Championships, leaving the door open for her 2nd-year teammate Yuka Suzuki (Daito Bunka Univ.) to take the win in 33:02.93 over last year's 2nd and 3rd-placers Rino Goshima (Chuo Univ.) and Yukina Ueda (Tsukuba Univ.). The graduation of Patrick Mathenge Wambui (Nihon Univ.), Dominic Nyairo (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) and Kazuya Shiojiri (Juntendo Univ.), top 3 in the D1 10000 m in that order for the last 3 years, gave others the chance to step up onto the podium this year. James Bunuka (Surugadai Univ.) took the opportunity to win his...

Entry lists for the 98th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships , Japan's most competitive collegiate meet, were released May 14. The meet begins May 23rd at Kanagawa's Sagamihara Gion Stadium. Celebrating its 25th anniversary as a D1 program, Yamanashi Gakuin University will field its new Kenyan first-year Boniface Murua in the 10000 m on the 23rd and in the final day's 5000 m on the 26th. At 181 cm Murua has a long and dynamic stride that was in full evidence when he ran 14:06.27 at the Setagaya Time Trials meet immediately after his arrival in Japan in April, and in his 28:17.36 follow-up at the Nittai University Time Trials later that month. Asked about his Kanto Regionals debut, the Japanese Murua has learned was just enough for him to answer, "I'll do my best!" 3rd in the 800 m last year, third-year Daichi Setoguchi is also entered for the third year in a row. "I've been 5th and 3rd, so this year I want to deliver the win...

The Inter-University Athletic Union of Kanto (KGRR), organizers of the Hakone Ekiden, announced on Apr. 1 that they will suspend the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships point scoring shortcut to Hakone qualification that was used for this year's 95th running. The point scoring scheme granted a place at Hakone to the university that earned the most points at the Kanto Regionals meet in the five years from 2014 to 2018. Nihon University was the beneficiary, making the 95th Hakone without having to run the qualifying race but finishing only 14th. From 2002 to 2012 an earlier version of the scheme gave schools running October's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifying race a time handicap based on their points at Kanto Regionals. A KGRR spokesperson commented, "The Kanto Regionals point qualification system was adopted to encourage schools to develop their overall track and field programs, not just their ekiden teams. In our view this goal has been sufficien...

The final day of the 97th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships kicked off as usual with the D1 and D1 men's half marathon. Logistics of the meet's new location this year at Sagamihara Gion Stadium in Kanagawa meant a complicated course, with the two divisions starting 9 minutes apart with four laps of the track, twelve laps of a 1.58 km road loop, and a track finish. In both divisions the runners-up from Thursday's 10000 m taking the top spot. In D2 Simon Kariuki (Nihon Yakka Univ.) ran the fastest time of the day, 1:03:09, for his second-straight win. In D1 it was Dominic Nyairo (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) in 1:03:49, his third-straight D1 Kanto Half title. The men's 5000 m went to both divisions' 10000 m winners, with D1 champ Patrick Mathenge Wambui (Nihon Univ.) taking the top spot in his race in 13:45.30 to score his third-straight Kanto double and D2 winner Josphat Ledama Kesaisa (Obirin) leading his in 13:49.86. 3rd in the D1 10000 m, K...

Takekawa Hosei univ. 5m60 7lefts #boutakachannel #polevault pic.twitter.com/WCuSQ6Qfmr — Boutaka Channel (@BoutakaChannel) May 26, 2018 A great D1 men's pole vault brought most of the entertainment value to the thid day of the 97th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships Saturday at Sagamihara Gion Stadium in the back corners of the Kanagawa badlands. Kosei Takekawa (Hosei Univ.) cleared 5.60 m to set a new Kanto Regionals meet record, beating Kanto Region record holder Masaki Ejima (Nihon Univ.) who could only clear 5.50 m this time out the gate. The D1 men's 3000 mSC final was also solid, with Takekawa's teammate Ryoma Aoki (Hosei Univ.) running a PB 8:42.11 for the win over Tsubasa Komuro (Toyo Univ.), whose 8:43.62 was a school record. For comparison, at almost the same time the U.S.-based Yusuke Uchikoshi (Boise State Univ.) and Takeshi Okada (UC Berkeley) ran only 8:48.03 and 9:10.41 at the NCAA West Preliminary Round meet in Sacram...

Despite windy conditions that put legal marks out of reach in most events, day 2 of the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships saw one notable new record. In the D1 women's 400 m Mae Hirosawa (Nittai Univ.) ran 53.45 to break the meet record by 0.30 and the Kanto Region record by 0.11. Both of the previous records were set by Kazue Kakinuma (Chuo Univ.) back in 1995 before Hirosawa was born. Hirosawa now stands at all-time #6 among Japanese collegiate women. In its first season without now-graduated national record holder Yoshihide Kiryu , Toyo University showed continued growth in its sprinting. First-year Daisuke Miyamoto (Toyo Univ.) won the D1 men's title in 10.11 (+3.2 m/s), then boosted the Toyo men's 4x100 m team to a 39.03 school record for the win. Toyo's investment in first-rate facilities for Kiryu looks like it will continue to pay dividends in the years to come. Times were slow across the 1500 m, with indoor mile national record...

Japan's biggest university meet kicked off Thursday at a new home in the wildlands of suburban Kanagawa. Day 1 of the 97th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships started off hot, humid and sunny, shifting toward cool and windy as the afternoon wore on. Not ideal for the day's main final, the women's and men's 10000 m. The women's 10000 m was probably the best race of the day. #1-ranked Natsuki Sekiya (Daito Bunka Univ.), the only woman in the race with a PB under 32:30, predictably took control early, challenged mid-race by the talented Rino Goshima (Chuo Univ.) but effortlessly dropping her after 7000 m. An unexpected challenge to Sekiya's second-straight Kanto 10000 m title came from unknown mid-33 runner Yukina Ueda (Tsukuba Univ.). As the other competition dropped away Ueda stayed locked to Sekiya looking fresh and ready to go. But in the back straight on the final lap Sekiya inched away, opening a 5-second lead to win in 33:29.53. Ue...

5/28 ハーフマラソン 2部 36着 親﨑達朗(駿河台大学) 1:08:37 #関東インカレ pic.twitter.com/oQiGYbmYnH — ミウツー (@miu2_tsc) May 29, 2017 Japan's best meet of the season wrapped up Sunday at Yokohama's Nissan Stadium. Day four of the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships with the men's half marathon, its two divisions running with a staggered start over a circuit course starting and ending inside the stadium. D1 runner-up in the 10000 m Dominic Nyairo (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) took a second-straight title in the D1 race, bettering his winning time from last year by almost two minutes to win in 1:03:22. Back from setting a D2 10000 m meet record of 28:00.66 on Thursday, Simon Kariuki (Nihon Yakka Univ.) set another D2 meet record as he outran Hakone Ekiden champion Aoyama Gakuin University's Yuta Shimoda to win in 1:02:38. #関東インカレ 男子5000m パトリック ワンブィ(日大)13:43.97 pic.twitter.com/xmJ0Y6xrIm — Tさんrunner (@Runner_2653) May 29, 2017 Like the 10000m and half marathon, in...

by Brett Larner #関東インカレ 1部200 予選5組(桐生君) pic.twitter.com/T4NQK1hC74 — たけはら (@imoo47910) May 27, 2017 Following up on his 100 m title and anchor run for Toyo University's 4x100 m team, Rio Olympics men's 4x100 m silver medalist Yoshihide Kiryu rolled on through day three of his final Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships , winning his 200 m heat in 20.79 +1.3 m/s. Where he easily dominated all three rounds of the 100 m, this time Kiryu had pressure. In Heat 3, second-year Jun Yamashita (Tsukuba Univ.) ran 20.71 -0.5 m/s to take the top spot heading into the semi-finals. 男子1部 棒高跳び 優勝🥇 来間弘樹(順大) 5m55 大会新記録🎉 おめでとう🎊 #関東インカレ pic.twitter.com/uUEpxeuuYf — はる (@haru__800) May 27, 2017 After a raft of meet records on the second day of Regionals, two more events saw new records on day three. In the D2 men's javelin throw, little-known Ryoma Nakaura (Ibaraki Univ.) threw a meet record 71.93 m to win by over six meters. The competition of the day c...