japan running news

This year's Hokuren Distance Challenge series wrapped up Saturday in Shibetsu with a pair of new national records from international competitors. South Korea's Na Yeon Park took the win in the women's 1500 m with a new NR of 4:13.87, only a 0.38 PB but enough to get her under the old record she'd previously just missed. In the men's 5000 m A-heat, Chuo University 1st-year Chien Tzu Chieh went under 13:40 for the first time, running a new Taiwanese NR of 13:39.61 for 8th in a race won by Reitaku University 's Brian Kiputwu in 13:28.09. Other good performances in Shibetsu included a 2:01.80 win by Ayano Shiomi in the women's 800 m, the 3rd-best time of her career, 3 more men joining the sub-3:40 club in the 1500 m led by Juntendo University 's Shuntaro Kawaguchi in 3:38.46, and Dolphine Omare and Lucy Nduta going sub-15 in the women's 5000 m A-heat in 14:56.70 and 14:57.25. Overseas Japanese results from the weekend: At the London Diamond Lea...

Domestically the main event on the track this weekend was the 3rd stop on the 2026 Hokuren Distance Challenge tour in Kitami . The race of the day there was the women's 3000 m, where Janet Jepkoech ran a PB 8:38.44 to lead the top 6 under 9 minutes, 5 of them in PBs including Mizuki Michishita in 8:56.75 and Jepkoech's Nitori teammate Rion Furukawa in 8:56.80. The men's 3000 m had similar results, Juda Hyodo running a PB 7:52.61 to lead the top 4 under 8 minutes, with 6 of the top 7 running PBs. Caroline Kariba was the only woman to break 15 minutes in the 5000 m with a 14:52.84 for the win, with Shunya Kikuchi the only man under 13:30 at 13:29.53. Things were busy overseas: The Asian U23 Athletics Championships happened in Ordos, China. Daily highlights here: Day 1 ・ Day 2 ・ Day 3 ・ Day 4 Men's 800 m NR holder Ko Ochiai ran 2:15.24 for 7th in the 1000 m at the Monaco Diamond League meet, 2 seconds better than Allon Clay 's national best from earlier this ...

There's already been a lot going on on the track since the start of July, so let's get to it. The women's 100 mH was the main event at the July 5 Fuse Sprint meet in Tottori, with Hitomi Nakajima turning in the 3rd-fastest time of her career, 12.75 (-0.4), for the win, a time only one other Japanese woman has ever beaten. Yumi Tanaka and Masumi Aoki both turned in quality performances too at 12.89 and 12.97 for 2nd and 3rd. All-time Japanese #4 Midori Mikase had a good one in the women's 100 m too, winning in 11.36 (+0.7). The Hokuren Distance Challenge series kicked off July 4 in Chitose . Tuning up for her 1500-5000-10000 triple at September's Nagoya Asian Games, Nozomi Tanaka won the 1500 m in 4:08.53, then came back to win the 5000 m in a 15:00.61 season best. Bigger news was 3000 mSC NR holder Miu Saito in 2nd, running a PB 15:02.68 to come in at all-time Japanese #8. Collegiate record holder Richard Etir led the men's 5000 m in a 13:08.44 SB, with ...

Japan scored its first gold medal in athletics at the 2025 FISU World University Games on the fourth day of competition. Strong in the qualifying rounds, Tatsuki Abe (Juntendo Univ.) ran away from the men's 110 mH field with a 13.47 (-0.3) for the win over silver and bronze medalists Angel Diaz Rodriguez of Spain and Mondray Barnard of South Africa, both timed at 13.59. Hayato Higuchi (Hosei Univ.) was off his best at 13.90 for 7th. Koki Fujihara (Toyo Univ.) brought home another medal in the men's long jump. Opening with a solid 8.00 (-0.8) jump, Fujihara sat in 1st through the first 3 rounds until China's Heng Shu dropped a 8.07 m (-0.6) jump in the 4th round. Fujihara couldn't match that, and when Shu ended with a 8.09 m (+0.9) jump on his final attempt Fujihara was left with silver. German Luka Herden took bronze with a 7.96 m (-0.1) on his 2nd attempt. No medals came in the men's high jump, where gold medal contender Sota Haraguchi (Juntendo Univ.) str...

With Japanese men oddly absent from the 10000 m, the only Japanese athletes in action in finals on the third day of the 2025 FISU World University Games were in the men's 400 m and 400 mH. The chances for a medal looked good in the 400 mH, but Ryosuke Takahashi (Hosei Univ.) came up 0.15 short of bronze with a 49.60 for 4th after coming into the home straight in the lead. Teammate Shota Fuchigami (Waseda Univ.) was 6th in 50.45, with Turkey's Berke Akcam winning gold in 49.29. Kira Hirakawa (Toyo Univ.) had a rough one in the 400 m, finishing last in 46.68 over a second out of the medals after fading in the home straight. South African Lythe Tyresse Pillay turned in a season best 44.84 for gold. In qualifying rounds, Miku Takino (Ritsumeikan Univ.) missed a spot in the women's 400 mH final, running 57.58 for 5th in SF1. Tatsuki Abe (Juntendo Univ.) led the men's 110 mH with a 13.61 (+0.2) to win Heat 1. Hayato Higuchi (Hosei Univ.) made it through on time in 13...

Two high school national record holders are set to join Toyo University  at the start of the new academic year in April, Koki Fujihara  (Rakunan H.S.), holder of the 8.12 m long jump record, and Kosuke Ishida  (Tokyo Nogyo Daini H.S.), holder of the 13:34.74 record for 5000 m. Fujihara was the first high school boy to go over 8 m in the long jump, setting his record of 8.12 m (+1.7 m/s) at the August, 2019 National High School Championships as a second-year. It was the first time the high school long jump record had been broken in 30 years and bettered the old mark by 16 cm, enough to rank him all-time #9 among all Japanese athletes. Fujihara is currently 190 cm tall and is still growing, both physically and as an athlete. He follows in the footsteps of prominent Toyo alumni outside the distance events, including Japan's first sub-10 man in the 100 m and fellow Rakunan H.S. grad Yoshihide Kiryu  and 8.23 m long jumper Hibiki Tsuha .  But with a 3rd-place finish...