japan running news

  On June 12 the Kyudenko corporate team announced that it is terminating its contract with longtime team member Benard Koech of Kenya as of June 30. On June 11 the Athletics Integrity Unit had issued a provisional suspension against Koech on charges of violation of doping regulations. The charges were based on abnormal values in his biological passport data, which suggested use of a banned substance or method rather than actual detection of one. After receiving notification from the AIU, Kyudenko questioned Koech, who responded that he had "not done anything that would break doping rules." Kyudenko said that while it believed Koech's statement, the provisional suspension would interfere with a period in which he was expected to compete, and as a result, "with deep regret we have decided to terminate his contract with us on June 30, 2025." Japanese Olympic silver race walker Koki Ikeda was in the same way provisionally suspended by the AIU last November due ...

On Nov. 2 the Asahi Kasei corporate team issued a statement denying the allegations of doping regulation violations issued a day earlier by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) in its announcement of the provisional suspension of team member Koki Ikeda , 26, the silver medalist in the men's 20 km race walk at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and 2022 Oregon World Championships. Team management filed a petition with the AIU asking for the provisional suspension to be reversed and stated that it would "assert and prove to the AIU that no rules whatsoever had been violated." The AIU claims that Ikeda's biological passport, which collects detailed blood data over time and allows for monitoring of changes, contained suspicious readings that suggested use of a prohibited method. Asahi Kasei management said that after holding a hearing with Ikeda and consulting with experts in the field, they "believe no rules have been violated" and said they would "work diligently to...

The first Japanese man to make an Olympic 110 m hurdles final, NR co-holder Rachid Muratake turned in the best performance by a Japanese athlete so far at the Paris Olympics when he took 5th in the final. Only 8th in the field on semifinal time, Muratake outran American Freddie Crittenden and Jamaicans Hansle Parchment and Orlando Bennett , crossing the line in a photo finish with Spain's Enrique Llopis . Llopis was 4th in 13.20 (-0.1) behind American medalists Grant Holloway and Daniel Roberts , 12.99 and 13.09, and Jamaica's Rasheed Broadbell , 13.09, with Muratake clocking 13.21 for 5th. That put him ahead of Koki Ikeda 's 7th-place finish in the men's 20 km race walk as the top Japanese placer at this Olympics, and with few people remaining who have a realistic chance of bettering that it's almost a given that Muratake will go home as one of Japan's top 3 this time around. One of the contenders to do better than 5th, the Japanese men's 4x100 m rel...

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...

Athletics is about to kick off at the 2024 Paris Olympics . Japan's medal chances are few, but there's a decent number of people with a realistic shot at top 8 or top 10, depending on what you care about. The ones most likely to hit one of those targets: Women's Javelin Throw - Haruka Kitaguchi Kitaguchi is the 2023 world champion and Diamond League final winner and the only woman in the field over 67 meters in the Paris qualifying window. She's been more consistent this season than in the lead-up to Budapest last year but also hasn't had a really big throw. Last year she went in to the World Championships with a 67.04 m in mid-July. This year she's only hit 65.21 m, also in mid-July, but both Colombia's Flor Denis Ruiz Hurtado and Austrian Victoria Hudson have thrown over 66 m this season. Kitaguchi's medal chances are good, but it'll take a peak performance for her to walk away with gold. Men's 20 km Race Walk - Koki Ikeda , Ryo Hamanishi a...

  Summer seemed to finally break right on the autumnal equinox, just in time for the second day of the 2023 National Corporate Track and Field Championships in Gifu. Things kicked off with the women's 10000 m race walk, where Kaori Kawazoe (SDF Academy) took the national title in a leisurely 48:26.31 by 8 seconds over Nami Kumagai (Sekisho). The men's 10000 mRW didn't happen for another 7 hours, but it saw MR holder Koki Ikeda (Asahi Kasei) take the win in 38:46.81 with Ryo Hamanishi (Sunbelx) 8 seconds behind. WR holder Eiki Takahashi (Fujitsu) was 6th in 41:56.86, with Daisuke Matsunaga (Fujitsu) 8th in 42:50.60 in his final race before retiring and becoming an assistant coach at Toyo University . The men's 100 m heats saw some of the aging greats of Japanese men's sprinting back in action after sitting on the bench while younger talent represented in Budapest last month. NR holder Ryota Yamagata (Seiko) won H1 in 10.26 (+2.4), 2010 World U20 Championships...

The Budapest World Championships got off to a rocky start for the Japanese team as it came up empty-handed in the opening event in one of its two best shots at a medal. Silver medalist in the last two global championships, Koki Ikeda took the men's 20 km race walk out hard only to fade abruptly at 15 km and finish 15th in 1:19:44. Two-time defending world champion Toshikazu Yamanishi faded even earlier, ultimately landing 24th overall and 4th out of the four Japanese men in the race in 1:21:39. 24-year-old Yuta Koga took the top Japanese spot at 12th in his World Championships debut with a 1:19:02 season best, 1:15 out of the medals in a race that saw gold medalist Alvaro Martin of Spain clock a world-leading 1:17:32 and 2nd through 6th set new national records. Eiki Takahashi was 21st in 1:20:25. Fresh from doing her final training in St. Moritz, women's 5000 m NR holder Ririka Hironaka bookended the day with a good comeback run in the 10000 m after a long season of rec...

The 70th National Corporate Track and Field Championships took place Friday through Sunday at Gifu Memorial Center Nagaragawa Field in Gifu. The performance of the meet happened Sunday, when Mako Fukube (NKK) broke her own women's 100 mH NR. Opening with a 13.00 (-1.5) meet record to win her qualifying heat, Fukube was back 3 hours later to run 12.73 (+1.1) in the final. That took 0.09 off the NR she set in the semifinals at July's Oregon World Championships, and put her under the qualifying standard for next summer's Budapest World Championships. Runner-up Masumi Aoki (77 Ginko) ran 13.03 in the final, 0.07 under the old MR, with Chisato Kiyoyama (Ichigo) just off the old MR at 13.12. A near-miss on another NR came in the women's 100 m. Mei Kodama (Mizuno) won her qualifying heat in 11.24 (+1.3), 0.18 under the 2001-era MR and just 0.03 from Chisato Fukushima 's 2010 NR of 11.21. Hopes were high that Kodama would get the NR in the final, but while her 11.39 (...

The Oregon 22 World Championships kicked off with Japan's two best medal chances coming through for gold and silver in the men's 20 km race walk, and most of its other top people performing up to potential. 2019 world champ and Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist Toshikazu Yamanishi set the tone with a fast start and threw in a series of surges whenever the pace slowed much beyond 4:00/km. In the late going he made a move for real, with only Tokyo silver medalist Koki Ikeda and Kenya's Samuel Gathimba able to stay with him. Ikeda took his turn with a surge of his own, and Gathimba dropped back to deal with 2019 bronze medalist Perseus Karlstrom of Sweden. But Yamanishi wasn't going to let Ikeda get away, and over the last 2 km he pulled away for a second-straight gold medal in a season-best 1:19:07. Ikeda scored silver in 1:19:14, with Karlstrom 4 seconds back for bronze again. Hiroto Jusho was 8th in 1:20:39, making for what will probably be the best Japanese team perf...

Update: Women's 10000 m member Narumi Kobayashi  was pulled from the team after testing positive in her pre-departure COVID test at Narita Airport. She is not reported to be experiencing any symptoms. No athlete will be added to the team in her place. Japan's final team for the Oregon 22 World Championships stands at 67 athletes, 41 men and 26 women. Its only real medal prospects are in the men's race walks, with top 8 prospects in a few of its other traditionally and recently strong events. Tokyo Olympics men's 20 kmRW silver medalist Koki Ikeda is the single best shot Japan has at an individual medal, among entrants the fastest in the world this year at 1:18:53 and #3 in the rankings. Defending world champ and Olympic bronze medalist Toshikazu Yamanishi is right there too off a win at March's WA Race Walking Team Championships. Eiki Takahashi is 3rd-fastest and Hiroto Jusho 11th in the field, so chances are very good of at least one other finish in the top ...

This week after the wrap of the 2022 National Track and Field Championships the JAAF had a press conference to announce additions to the already-announced road event members of its team for next month's Oregon World Championships team. 18 men and 9 women are on the team for sure with a combination of having the Worlds standard and meeting JAAF criteria for placing at the National Championships, and with just under two weeks until the deadline for qualifying those numbers could go as high as 36 men and 24 women based on where people sit right now in their event quotas. Below is a list of events with Japanese athletes either already qualified or within their event quota. Right now there's potential that Japan could send full squads in the men's 110 mH, men's 400 mH, men's 3000 mSC, men's high jump, men's marathon, both men's race walks and both men's relays, and in the women's 5000 m, women's 10000 m, women's 3000 mSC, women's javelin t...

Japan's never-ending outdoor track season rolls on this weekend with its last major meet, the 69th edition of the National Corporate Track and Field Championships at Osaka's Nagai Stadium. Running Friday through Sunday, the entry lists are heavy on members of the Tokyo Olympic team including men's 20 km race walk silver medalist Koki Ikeda  and bronze medalist Toshikazu Yamanishi , and three of the four members of Japan's 4x100 m relay team, national record holder Ryota Yamagata , Shuhei Tada , and Yuki Koike . The meet will be streamed live on the organizers' Youtube channel , with streaming scheduled for 17:00~19:00 local time Friday, 13:20~19:00 Saturday, and 13:10~18:00 Sunday. © 2021 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Japan's women's and men's 4x100 m relays were the only ones in action in the morning session on the seventh day of track and field competition at the Tokyo Olympics . The women's team performed up to ability, delivering a season best 43.44 to finish 7th in their heat and not advancing to the final. The men's 4x100 m team has faced more pressure in the lead-up to this Olympics than anybody except maybe Japan's marathoners, so much so that the official Japanese broadcaster has been airing ads for the men's 4x100 m final all throughout the last week and a half on the assumption that the Japanese men would be there.  They will be, but barely. Japan finished 3rd in the first heat in 38.16 to take an auto-qualifying spot by 0.02 over France. With the two time qualifying spots going to Germany and Ghana in the second heat in 36.06 and 36.08 it was closer than anyone would have liked to a major embarrassment, and with Japan the slowest of the eight qualifiers for t...

As of right now, five days into the Tokyo Olympic Games , Japan leads the medal standings with 13 gold, 4 silver and 5 bronze medals. Across sports Japanese athletes have been performing at the top level, showing both the benefits of increased investment in development over the last eight years since Japan won the 2020 Olympic bid and the home ground advantage. Track and field starts tomorrow, and while compared to some other sports it's one of Japan's weaker spots, it has a realistic shot at six medals with another eleven top 8 finishes in range. Your guide to who to watch for from the home team on the track, field and roads. Medal Chances Back when Japan first competed in the Olympics in Stockholm in 1912 it had exactly two athletes on its entire team, one marathoner and one sprinter. 109 years later not much has changed. Distance and sprints are still Japan's best chances of medaling, the race walks taking the place of the marathon, and the 4x100 m relay one of the most...

Following Yuki Hashioka 's world-leading men's long jump win on the first day of the National Track and Field Championships , Koki Ikeda (Toyo Univ.)  delivered the second world lead of the meet with a 38:41.45 win in the men's 10000 m race walk Saturday at Niigata's Denka Big Swan Stadium. Completely solo, Ikeda took over 8 seconds off the world-leading time and more than 36 seconds off the meet record, beating 2nd placer Yuta Koga (Meiji Univ.) by more than 1:38. Ikeda's teammate Masatora Kawano was 3rd in 40:35.20, cementing Toyo University's position as Japan's top producer of men's race walk talent alongside its success in sprints and long distance. The day's other meet record came in the women's 100 m final. Third-year  Mei Kodama (Fukuoka Univ.) won in 11.35 (-0.2), the third-fastest Japanese women's time ever, 0.03 off the collegiate national record and bringing her within 0.14 of the national record. Kodama's performance...