japan running news

And now back to our regular schedule. Two of Japan's best current marathoners, Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko), 6th in the Paris Olympics and 2nd in Berlin last fall in a 2:06:15 PB, and Shunya Kikuchi (Chugoku Denryoku), 7th in Osaka last year in a PB of 2:06:06, were supposed to be in on the wild action at the Boston Marathon and London Marathon , but both ended up scratching with injury. It's hard not to wonder what kind of dent they might have made, especially Akasaki. In Kikuchi's absence London didn't have any elite-level Japanese athletes, and the only one in Boston was Mao Uesugi (Tokyo Metro), 2:22:11 in Nagoya last year. Uesugi went out relatively strongly but faded hard in the hills to finish only 26th in 2:34:38. One other Japanese woman, Sherry Drury , ran the BAA Mile held the Saturday before the marathon, finishing 6th in 4:43.26. Bigger news the same day as the BAA Mile came in Spain, where Tomoya Ogikubo (Hiramatsu Byoin) followed up his 1:00:22 half ma...

Sarah Wanjiru of Daito Bunka University  opened the first day of the 2025 National University Track and Field Championships by lapping the field to break the women's 10000 m MR , and day 2 of the meet saw that repeated in the women's 10000 m race walk. Collegiate record holder and Ritsumeikan University 4th-year Ayane Yanai lapped the entire field to win the 10000 mRW by almost 2 minutes, chopping almost 35 seconds off the 2007-era meet record with a 44:18.02 for the win. 2nd-placer Satsuki Ishida of Mukogawa Joshi University had a close one over 3rd-placer Toko Nakajima of Waseda University , finishing just 5 seconds up in 46:14.57 to 46:19.75. The most unexpected result came in the men's 1500 m. Better known as a half marathoner and long distance track runner, Waseda's Tomonori Yamaguchi won his 1500 m heat in 3:44.21 on Thursday to make Friday's final. There he took over after a slow 61-second first lap, cruising the next 2 laps in 57 each before kicking...

Two weeks after running 14:44.83 at Kanagawa's Nittai University Time Trials , 22-year-old Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) continued her rise up the ranks to global relevance with another stellar run at Nittai on Sunday. Running in the fastest 3000 m heat with support from 19-year-old Agnes Mwikali (Kyocera), Akidor took nearly 20 seconds off her best with an 8:32.53 for the win. That was the fastest ever run in Japan by 3 seconds and enough to put her #8 in the world this year. Mwikali was solid too at 8:37.17, almost 10 seconds under her previous best and the next-best ever run in Japan apart from two dodgy early '90s marks by Soviet athletes. 3rd-placer Mizuki Michishita (Rikkyo Univ.) was in another league at 9:13.68. Kazuna Kanetomo (Kyocera) won the women's 5000 m A-heat in 15:56.42, the only woman under 15 minutes. In the men's 5000 m Kenyan Richard Etir won the A-heat in 13:16.20, a time beaten this weekend only by Benard Koech (Kyudenko) at Fukuoka's ...

The 75th edition of Japan's National High School Track and Field Championships took place last Wednesday through Sunday at Pocari Sweat Field in Naruto, Tokushima. Kenyan Caroline Kariba (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.) was the star of the meet on the girls' side, winning all four races she started over the course of the week. On the first day of the meet Kariba ran the fastest time in the four 1500 m qualifying heats, 4:20.08. The next day she was back to win the final in a PB 4:08.72, almost 3 seconds head of runner-up Janet Nyiva  (Kurashiki H.S.) and nearly 9 seconds ahead of 3rd-placer Kana Mizumoto (Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S.). After a day off racing on Friday, Kariba was back Saturday to lead 3000 m qualification in 9:12.17, the fastest time in the 3 heats. Sunday she took the final, just missing the meet record in 8:52.04. Nyiva was 2nd again in 8:56.20, just holding off Lucy Nduda (Aomori Yamada H.S.) who took 3rd in 8:56.91. Mizumoto was the top Japanese woman again at 4...

Both the Sendai Ikuei H.S.  girls and the defending champ  Sera H.S.  boys led start-to-finish to win today's National High School Ekiden , Sendai Ikuei becoming the first team in the 33-year history of the girls' event to win the national title five times, and Sera extending its record as the only team in the boys' race's 72 years with double-digit wins to eleven. Cold and windy conditions with off and on snow meant no new stage records, but in both races there were  still fast times. 3rd last year, Sendai Ikuei put its three strongest runners first, leaving the last two stages to debuting first-years. Opening runner Nanaka Yonezawa  ran 19:15 for her 6.0 km stage to put Sendai Ikuei 30 seconds out front. Second runner Kokone Sugimori added 26 seconds to that, running 12:41 for 4.0975 km, with third runner Natsumi Yamanaka  putting in another 19 seconds with a 9:53 stage best on her 3.0 km leg. First-year Kurea Watanabe  added 1 last second on the 3....