japan running news

Fresh off the sting of world and Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi  not making the final in the women's javelin, national pride was salved a bit in the first event the next morning on day 8 of the Tokyo World Athletics Championships . In a tight 5-way race for the medals, women's 20 km national champion Nanako Fujii took 15 seconds off her own NR to take bronze in 1:26:18, 24 seconds behind Spain's Maria Perez , who added the 20 km gold to her 35 km victory last weekend with a 1:25:54, and 12 seconds behind Mexico's Alegna Gonzalez , who set an area record of 1:26:06. Fujii had to reach for bronze, beating Ecuador's Paula Milena Torres to the line by a step, with Peruvian Kimberly Garcia Leon 4 seconds back in 5th. All-time Japanese #2 Kumiko Okada was 18th in 1:30:12 and third teammate Ayane Yanai 37th in 1:35:44. That brought Japan's medal count for its home soil World Championships to 2, both bronze and both in race walks. With Kitaguchi out the home tea...

Day 7 of athletics at the Paris Olympics kicked off with one of Japan's few chances at a medal, the marathon race walk mixed relay. Masatora Kawano took it out hard, leading early with honorary Japanese team member Evan Dunfee of Canada and staying with the pack once caught. 20 km NR holder Kumiko Okada took over for the 2nd half of the race but soon lost touch and drifted back to her final finishing position of 8th in 2:55:40, just over 4 minutes behind bronze medalists Australia . Spain took gold in 2:50:31, with Ecuador beating Australia by 16 seconds for silver in 2:51:22. Japan's B-team of Kazuki Takahashi and Ayane Yanai was 13th in 2:58:08. 8th place for the A-team was far off a medal, but as another top 8 finish to go with those in the men's 20 km race walk it clicks a box in the JAAF's metrics for success at this Olympics.  Japan's best chance at an individual medal, 2023 world champion Haruka Kitaguchi led off with a 62.58 m throw that put her ov...

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...

  Day 6 of the Budapest World Championships started with Japan getting onto the medal board for the first time as one of its best individual chances came through. All three Japanese men in the 35 km race walk went out with the lead group and stayed there until just past 20 km, where 2021 50 km national champion Satoshi Maruo lost contact. 2023 35 km national champ Tomohiro Noda lasted another 8 km before dropping, leaving last year's Oregon silver medalist Masatora Kawano in contention for another medal as the pack dwindled. By 31 km it was down to just Kawano, last year's 4th-placer Brian Pintado of Ecuador, and 20 km gold medalist Alvaro Martin of Spain. Kawano dropped back with 2 km to go, Martin pulling away to take a second gold in a 2:24:30 national record and Pintado getting onto the medal stand with a 2:24:34 area record for silver. Kawano finished with a 2:25:12 SB for bronze, Japan's first medal of any kind in a World Championships that looks set to produce ...

There's still over a month to go until the qualifying deadline for August's Budapest World Championships . As it stands right now eight women and seventeen men have been named to the team based on the primary criteria of having the qualifying standard and having placed top three at this year's National Championships or the special criteria in events like relays and the marathon. But with a lot of Japanese athletes comfortably inside their event's quota for qualification based on world rankings those numbers will at least double by the July 30 deadline.  A quick guide to the most likely candidates for making the final team and those realistically in range of getting into the quota is below. Numbers after event headers are the current quota cutoff score for that event. Numbers after athletes' names are the current world ranking score for anyone who doesn't have the standard in their event. For athletes who do have the standard, their current rank out of the numbe...

Regional corporate track and field championships made up most of the weekend's major action, with Japan-based African athletes setting new meet records across the country. The Chugoku Region Corporate Meet in Miyoshi, Hiroshima was split between the last two weekends, with the 5000 m held last weekend and everything else this weekend. Teresiah Muthoni (Daiso) and teammate  Rebecca Mwangi crushed the 5000 m MR by over 20 seconds, Muthoni running 14:55.23 and Mwangi 14:57.79. A week later Muthoni was back in the 3000 m, where she took over 35 seconds off the MR with a solid 8:39.91 for the win, the 3rd-fastest time in the world this year. Mwangi opted to double in the 10000 m, taking over 35 seconds off that MR to win in 31:28.28. Following up on her comeback win at the Sendai International Half Marathon , Tokyo Olympics marathoner Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) had a good run for 2nd in 32:18.69. Hillary Mosop (Mazda) had a near miss on the men's 1500 m MR, winning 3:44.94 just ...

In what was considered Japan's best chance of medaling in Tokyo Olympics athletics, the Japanese men came up with a 6th-place finish by national record holder Masatora Kawano  in the final Olympic men's 50 km race walk. 2018 Asian champion Hayato Katsuki  had an early setback, losing a shoe in the first couple of km and never making his way back into contact. Kawano and national champion Satoshi Maruo  stayed near the front of the main pack until a move from Canadian Evan Dunfee  began to break it up.  Maruo soon fell off, but Kawano looked to be one of the medal contenders as the pack turned into five behind breakaway leader Dawid Tomala  of Poland. Without warning, around 42 km Kawano suddenly pulled off the course and went to his hands and knees to vomit. He could have been out of it at that point, but Kawano quickly bounced back up and set off to regain contact. He did, but the effort cost him in the final push. Tomala took gold in 3:50:08, with Germa...

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...

Another week, another national championships on the track. This weekend it's the 68th National Corporate Track and Field Championships Friday through Sunday in Kumagaya, Saitama, bringing together the corporate leagues across events on its usual date but just ahead of a series of meets relocated from the spring and early summer including the National Track and Field Championships. Given everything that's happened to the calendar the field is higher-level than usual with seven national record holders, none of them the defending champion in their event. Shotaro Shiroyama (Zenrin) leads the men's long jump with a 8.40 m NR, Haruka Kitaguchi (JAL) the women's javelin throw at 66.00 m, Kumiko Okada (Bic Camera) the women's 5000 m race walk in 20:42.24, Yusuke Suzuki (Fujitsu) the men's 5000 m race walk in 18:37.22, Asuka Terada (Pasona Group) the women's 100 m hurdles in 12.97, Shunya Takayama (Zenrin) the men's 100 m hurdles in 13.25, and Naoto T...

Following the announcement of the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to 2021, the athletes already named to the women's and men's marathon teams are expected to retain their positions as national representatives at the Olympics. A day after the Olympic announcement, JAAF marathon development project leader Toshihiko Seko confirmed that the project team is thinking in that direction. "I want to protect the rights of the six athletes already on the team," he said. "Their places on the team are something they earned themselves through a three-year process. We do not intend to take that away. This morning one of their coaches called me and asked, 'What's going to happen to my athlete?' All of them are worried that their places on the Olympic team will be annulled. I can tell them that thanks to the MGC process we have confidence in them as our national representatives. The final word, however, is that of the JAAF board of directors." Oth...

On one of the quietest days of the Doha World Championships Japan's Kumiko Okada and Nanako Fujii were unable to crack the Chinese domination of the women's 20 km race walk. China's Hong Liu , Shen Jie Qieyang and Liu Jing Yang swept the podium, with Okada and Fujii both just over a minute behind in 6th and 7th. With 100 m national record holder Abdul Hakim Sani Brown having opted out of the 200 m to focus on the 4x100 m relay Yuki Koike was Japan's best hope in the 200 m semi-finals. But it wasn't to be, as Koike finished 4th in his semi and 0.03 out of the time qualifiers in 20.46. Jun Yamashita and Kirara Shiraishi were well out of qualifying range, both clocking 20.62. Doha World Athletics Championships Day Three Japanese Results Doha, Qatar, 29 Sept. 2019 complete results Finals Women's 20 km Race Walk 1. Hong Liu (China) - 1:32:53 2. Shen Jie Qieyang (China) - 1:33:10 3. Liu Jing Yang (China) - 1:33:17 4. Erica Rocha de Sena (Braz...

Four hours after a collective sigh of relief 17,000-strong as Yuki Koike 's successful handoff to Yoshihide Kiryu brought the Golden Grand Prix Osaka meet to a close with a world-leading 38.00 win for the Japanese men's 4x100 m relay team, the acton continued at Osaka's Nagai Stadium with the women's and men's 10000 m National Championships . Held six weeks out from the rest of the National Championships this year to try to maximize performances and world rankings points in both the 5 and 10, the 10000 m Nationals started at 7:30 p.m. with the women's race. Championships record holder Hitomi Niiya (Nike Tokyo TC) started unusually slowly, sitting mid-to-rear pack as 2016 national champion Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post) and-two defending national champ Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) led the way, but after a 3:15 for the third 1000 m she lost patience and went to the front. From there it was a familiar race, Niiya holding the pace relentlessly as the competitio...