japan running news

Four big meets with distance action happened across Japan over the 2nd half of April. Highlights from each of them: Hyogo Relay Carnival - Kobe, 18-19 April Hirokazu Sakai (Senko) set a 2.25 m MR in the men's high jump. Sae Takemoto (Orico) threw 59.68 m to set a new MR in the women's javelin throw. Distance events were pretty low-key, with Ryota Natori (Konica Minolta) winning the men's 10000 m in 28:49.74 and Yuzu Nishide (Daihatsu) the women's 5000 m in 15:44.03. National University Individual Championships - Hiratsuka, 24-26 April Miori Kida  (1st yr., Juntendo Univ.) debuted with 4:19.14 MR in the women's 1500 m, going 0.12 under the previous record set last year. Sarah Wanjiru (4th yr., Daito Bunka Univ.) kicked off her senior year by chopping 25 seconds off her own 10000 m MR to by over a minute in 31:23.69. Mao Kimura (1st yr., Meijo Univ.) had a great debut in 32:31.56 for 2nd, more than 70 sec up on 3rd place. Shunpei Yamaguchi (3rd yr., Waseda ...

Saturday's Kanakuri Memorial Meet in Kumamoto was the weekend's main event in Japanese track, but there were good results at the Nittai University Time Trials meet in Yokohama too. Emmanuel Maru (Toyota Boshoku) led the men's 5000 m A-heat at Kanakuri in 13:14.06, with Tomonori Yamaguchi (SGH) clocking the fastest Japanese time in 13:16.38 in his first race as a corporate leaguer. Waseda University duo Rui Suzuki and Yota Mashiko went 6-7 in 13:20.64 and 13:22.87, the 18-year-old Mashiko shaving 0.04 off the U20 NR. In 8th, Yamato Yoshii (Toyota) ran a PB of 13:23.92. 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura (Subaru) continued to struggle after a weak indoor season, finishing 18th of 20 finishers in 13:45.10. 19-year-old Festus Kimorwo (Kurosaki Harima) was under 13:20 in the B-heat too, winning in a 13:19.59 PB. 2 more collegiate men broke 13:30, Daichi Fujita (Chuo Univ.) 8th in 13:28.93 and Riki Koike (Soka Univ.) 9th in 13:29.09. The top 6 in the men's 800 m A-hea...

Former Komazawa University captain Mebuki Suzuki (Toyota) and 3-time 10000 m national champion Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) ran through rain that started just before the day's last two events to win the 10000 m national titles Saturday in Kumamoto at the Kanakuri Memorial meet. With Kenyan pacers and Wavelight in action both races were steady time trials that ground the fields down to a few legit contenders. In the men's race that was Suzuki, 2024 national champ Jun Kasai (Asahi Kasei) and Suzuki's teammate Yamato Yoshii . Yoshii made an early move to break away, but Suzuki and Kasai reeled him back in by 7200. At 9000 m the pace had slowed to 24:56, on track for 27:42, but Suzuki attacked with a 61-second lap from 9000 to 9400, a pace he held to drop a 2:32 last 1000 m for the win in 27:28.82. Kasai was next in 27:33.52 and Yoshii 3rd in a 27:36.33 PB with the top 8 all breaking 28 minutes. The women's race was down to just 2021, 2022 and 2023 national champion Hir...

Indoor track isn't really part of the vocabulary for Japanese middle and long distance athletes, but three turned in a string of new national records in the U.S. this weekend. At the BU David Hemery Valentine Invitational on Saturday in Boston, Olympic steepler Ryoma Aoki (Honda) ran a new mile national record of 3:54.84 to finish 4th in Heat 2, taking 1.17 off the previous 3:56.01 NR set in Boston last year by Kazuto Iizawa (Tokai Univ.). Like Iizawa's old mark, as the fastest mile time ever by a Japanese man Aoki's new record will count as both the indoor NR and outright NR. 6th in Heat 4, Keisuke Morita (Subaru) also got under 4 minutes with a 3:59.03, with Nanami Arai (Honda) 9th behind Morita in 4:00.45. Hibiki Obara (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) took the top spot in Heat 12 in 4:01.34. Sunday at the Millrose Games in New York, Nozomi Tanaka (New Balance) beat both her indoor 3000 m NR of 8:45.64 and outdoor NR of 8:40.84, splitting 8:40.05 en route in the women's ...

Heavy rain in Osaka on the leading edge of a passing typhoon meant most of the field events on the day 2 program at the 107th National Track and Field Championships and 39th U20 National Championships got bumped to the morning of day 3, but on the track men's 1500 m NR holder Kazuki Kawamura (Toenec) dropped a meet record to win the best race of the day. One of five men on the start list with bests under 3:40, Kawamura held off a surprise challenge from Yusuke Takahashi (Hokkaido Univ. Grad School) and #2-ranked Keisuke Morita (Subaru) to take the national title in 3:38.45, breaking the ancient 1991-era National Championships meet record by 0.39. It was a close enough finish that both Takahashi and Morita made it under the MR too, Takahashi in a PB 3:38.69 and Morita in 3:38.75. 4th-placer Masato Saiki (Fujisannomeisui) went under 3:40 for the first time in 3:39.58. Just about the only ones to underperform were the two World Championships quota-ranked athletes in the field, Ry...

The 55th Oda Memorial Meet went off as scheduled Thursday in Hiroshima with off and on rain leaving a wet track for most of the day.  In the women's 5000 m,  Teresia Muthoni  (Daiso) set a meet record 15:06.76 for the win, with runner-up Naomi Muthoni  (Univ. Ent.) the only other runner under the Olympic standard at 15:08.07. Japan-based Kenyans took five of the top six positions. Kazuna Kanetomo  (Kyocera) won the B-heat in 15:55.24. Kenyans swept the top three spots in the men's 5000 m A-heat, with local high schooler Cosmas Mwangi  (Sera H.S.) taking 1st in 13:22.80. Keita Sato (Rakunan H.S.), who turned 17 in January, was 4th in 13:42.50, the 4th-best time ever by a Japanese high schooler and over 3 seconds under the previous U18 national record. The men's 3000 m also turned out high-level results, with Keisuke Morita (Komori Corp.) leading the top six under 8:00 in a meet record 7:53.01. Another meet record came in the women's 3000 m steeplechase, w...

The fastest woman in the world over 10000 m this year with her 30:41.85 Japanese all-comers record at July's Hokuren Distance Challenge Fukagawa meet, Pauline Kamulu Kaveke (Route Inn Hotels) added another sub-31 clocking to her name with a 30:56.94 meet record win on the first day of the 8 6th National Corporate Track and Field Championships in Osaka's Nagai Stadium. Starting off with company from fellow Japan-based Kenyan Grace Kimanzi (Starts) and the Japanese duo of Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) and Minami Yamanouchi (Kyocera), Kamulu was alone by 2000 m dead on track to equal her July mark. Fading slightly over the second half of the race she still managed to shave nearly a second off Kayoko Fukushi 's 2006-era meet record, nearly lapping the entire field. Kimanzi held on to 2nd in 32:02.39, with first Yamanouchi and then Ichiyama dropping back through the field. Seemingly close to her A-game again after a long period off with injury and a change in corporate team and...