japan running news

Conditions weren't great for the last day of this year's National University Track and Field Championships either, with off-and-on heavy rain in Yokohama through most of the day. But the Chuo University men's 4x400 m relay team of Hiroto Shogomori , Kota Uematsu , Shiita Hamada and Sho Tanabe still came through with a 3:03.30 meet record for the win, 0.89 up on 2nd-placer Tsukuba University . That was under Toyo University 's 3:03.64 MR from last year, a mark that had also been the fastest-ever by a single university team. Only a mixed-school collegiate team has run faster than Chuo's winning time this year with a 3:03.20 back in 2005, but not by much. Ritsumeikan University took the women's 4x400 m in 3:36.78. Other highlights: #1-ranked Ami Takahashi (Tsukuba Univ.) took the women's 200 m in 23.79 (-0.5). Takahashi's teammate Kurumi Sugure , likewise ranked #1 in the women's 800 m, took it by over 2 seconds in 2:05.99, with Tsukuba's Hano...

The Lima World U20 Championships wrapped with 5th-place finishes by Japanese athletes in both finals that had them. In the men's 3000 mSC final, Soma Nagahara started conservatively, sitting 11th at 1000 m in 2:49.36 with leader Edmund Serem of Kenya almost 2 second ahead. Over the next 1000 m Nagahara moved up into 5th, and that's where he stayed. Serem took gold in an U20 world-leading 8:15.28, and with 8 of the next 9 finishers running PBs to get there Nagahara hung on for 5th in a PB 8:30.37 just over 6 seconds outside the medals. Nagahara's former Saku Chosei H.S. teammate Tetsu Sasaki , who had scratched from the 3000 m earlier in the championships, was in 15th at 1000 m but dropped to last, 16th of 16 in 9:16.20 and the only athlete not to break 9 minutes. The men's 4x400 m relay got off to a slow start, opening runner Ryota Oishi 7th of 9 in 47.66. Japan's next two runners Kentaro Shirahata and Kairi Gonda moved up to 6th and then 5th, and with a stro...

Only one Japanese athlete was in action in finals on the second day of the Lima World U20 Championships . After making it through the heats and semifinals in the men's 100 m, Naoki Nishioka turned in the highest placing by a Japanese athlete so far in Lima, taking 5th in the final in 10.43 (-0.9). South Africans Bayanda Walaza and Bradley Nkoana took gold and bronze in 10.19 and 10.26, with Thailand's Puripol Boonson splitting it down the middle with a 10.22 for silver. In qualifying rounds: Kentaro Shirahata and Ryota Oishi both moved on to the men's 400 m semifinals, Shirahata winning Heat 5 in a 46.45 PB and Oishi only 4th in Heat 3 but picking up a time qualifying spot in 47.46. Shirahata was back in the semifinals with another PB to win SF2 in 46.30, 2nd among the qualifiers for the final behind American Jayden Davis . Oishi was 5th in SF3 in 48.09 and will not join Shirahata in the final. Koki Terada failed to make it out of the men's 1500 m heats, finishin...

The new Japanese men's 800 m NR of 1:44.80 by Ko Ochiai (Shiga Gakuen H.S.) and winning solo 2:00.81 meet record by Rin Kubo (Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S.) were the big stories at this year's National High School Track and Field Championships in Fukuoka, but there were a lot of other good results across the meet's five days. Jeremy Koga (Tokyo H.S.) set a new high school NR and meet record in the 110 m hurdles, winning the final in 13.59 (-0.7) after breaking them in the semifinals in 13.67 (-0.9). 2nd-placer Koki Takajo (Miyazaki Nishi H.S.) was also under the old records in 13.68. Another high school NR and meet record went down in the boys' high jump, where Kaisei Nakatani (Fukuoka Daiichi H.S.) cleared 2.24 m on his 2nd attempt. That beat future NR holder Naoto Tobe 's previous H.S. NR of 2.23 set back in 2009. Kei Wakana (Sano H.S.) broke the boys' 200 m meet record, running 20.61 (+0.1) to win the final. Manaka Matsui (Otsuka H.S.) took the girls'...