japan running news

Olympic and World champion Haruka Kitaguchi got the biggest headlines among Japanese athletes this weekend, overcoming a rough last year and a half that included injury and a coaching change to break her own javelin throw NR by over a meter and a half to win the inaugural WA Ultimate Championship in Budapest. U20 WR and Asian AR holder Ziyi Yan opened with a big 68.05, 0.67 m further than Kitaguchi's best-ever from back in 2023. That could have been the end, but Kitaguchi came back from a 61.15 m first attempt to throw a massive 68.92 m NR on her next one, ultimately enough for the win. She still has a long way to go to match the 18-year-old Yan's 71.74 m from May, but it was a clear statement that Kitaguchi is back. Back home at the National Corporate Track and Field Championships in Kyoto, women's pole vault NR holder Misaki Morota continued a solid comeback season of her own, bettering her NR from May by 1 cm with a 4.51 m on her first attempt. Morota took another 3...

The Osaka Marathon is Sunday, one of Japan's biggest mass-participation races and the next stop on the calendar for its elite marathoners hoping to qualify for the L.A. Olympics marathon trials in the fall of 2027. Last year it snowed mid-race, but this year is looking warmer than ideal given the season, with sunny skies, almost no wind, and temps forecast to be 11˚ at the start and rising to 19˚ by the time the winners are finishing. NHK is broadcasting Osaka with a heavy emphasis on the men's race, and if you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it from overseas. There's also official streaming on Youtube starting at 8:30 a.m. local time, although it doesn't look like it's the same as what NHK will be showing. Given Osaka's history at the elite level as the continuation of the men-only Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, the women's field is small relative to the men's, just enough to tick World Athletics' label requirements and with almost no do...

With 3 weeks to go the elite fields for the Feb. 22 Osaka Marathon are out. Given Osaka's history as the elite men-only Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon the women's field is small, with only one entrant, Sinhala Kureshi , having broken 2:21 with her 2:19:53 in Hamburg last spring. Afera Godfay , Mare Dibaba and Rose Chelimo have all run 2:21 to 2:22 in recent races, and Esther Chemtai is an interesting debut off a 1:08:09 at last fall's Cardiff Half. Kaede Kawamura is the highest-level Japanese woman in the field with a 2:25:44 in Osaka 2 years ago. Last year's men's champ and CR breaker Yihunilign Adane is back, his main competition being fellow Ethiopians Bute Gemechu , Mulugeta Asefa Uma and South Africa's Elroy Gelant . 4th last year in 2:05:58, Kyohei Hosoya leads the front of the super deep Japanese field along with Ichitaka Yamashita , Kenta Sonota , Kiyoto Hirabayashi , Yuhei Urano , Yusuke Nishiyama and Daisuke Doi . But where Osaka excels is in deb...

The Fukuoka International Marathon is back Dec. 7 with exactly the kind of boutique field it's had over the decades. Up front are two of the home soil stars from February's Osaka Marathon, Kyohei Hosoya , 2:05:58, and Shunya Kikuchi , 2:06:06. Their toughest competition comes from Djibouti NR holder and 2023 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon winner Ibrahim Hassan , 2:06:13, and Yusuke Nishiyama , who ran a 2:06:31 PB in Tokyo last year despite getting caught up in a fall in the early going. There's a layer of 5 2:07 men, 3 at 2:08 and a lone 2:09 runner below them, a total of 6 sub-2:10 Japanese men competing for 6 places at the L.A. Olympic marathon trials for anyone who goes under 2:09 here with support from 7 internationals from 5 countries. The Konica Minolta corporate team hasn't shown incredible aptitude for the marathon, but its 1:01:04 half marathoner Ren Yonemitsu is an interesting debut. Check back closer to race date for info on streaming and following from out...

photo © 2025 Victah Sailer/PhotoRun Even with a few withdrawals there was a massive group of Japanese athletes at the Berlin Marathon this year, most of the group that typically goes to the Chicago Marathon seeming to opt for Berlin instead. With men's winner Sebastian Sawe taking a shot at the world record, Akira Akasaki , Yuhei Urano and NR holder Kengo Suzuki sat back in a 3rd group targeting the JAAF's 2:06:30 standard for 2028 Olympic marathon trials qualification. The group held steady on that pace, quickly passing and leaving behind Hakone fan favorite Aoi Ota , who went out with a 14:26 opening 5 km only to finish in 2:14:02. Suzuki dropped off, but Akasaki and Urano were together through 30 km until Urano did the same. The top Japanese finisher in the Paris Olympics last year, from there Akasaki had what had to have been an incredibly fun last 12 km, picking faster people off one by one as he rolled on. Ultimately he made it all the way up to 2nd in a 2:06:15 PB. ...

  The JAAF held the award ceremony for its Japan Marathon Championship Series IV last night in Tokyo, the whole thing streamed live on Youtube. The two-year series, in this case running from April, 2023 to March, 2025, scores marathoners on time and place in domestic races and high-level international races, with athletes' two best performances combining to give them their series rankings. Series winners score guaranteed places on the 2025 Tokyo World Championships team , with the top 8 women and men earning prize money: 1st: ¥6,000,000 (~$40,000 USD) 2nd: ¥3,000,000 (~$20,000) 3rd: ¥1,000,000 (~$6,700) 4th: ¥800,000 (~$5,300) 5th: ¥700,000 (~$4,700) 6th: ¥500,000 (~$3,300) 7th: ¥300,000 (~$2,000) 8th: ¥200,000 (~$1,300) Points for time are scored according to World Athletics scoring tables, with placing points based on races' designated level. Given the JAAF's financial interests in the big domestic races and the income stream from their TV broadcasts, the scoring system ...

On Mar. 26 the JAAF named its women's and men's marathon teams for September's Tokyo World Championships. On the women's side the team has veterans Sayaka Sato and Yuka Ando off the strength of a runner-up finish for Sato in Nagoya this year and a win in Nagoya last year by Ando, and newcomer Kana Kobayashi , 23, who has risen quickly from being a fun runner at Waseda University last year to a 2nd-place finish in Osaka Women's this year. Paris Olympics 6th-placer Yuka Suzuki was named alternate after finishing 3rd behind Kobayashi in Osaka Women's. On the men's side the team is led by last year's Fukuoka International Marathon CR breaker Yuya Yoshida and this year's Osaka runner-up Ryota Kondo . The 3rd spot on the team is reserved for JMC Series winner Naoki Koyama , who hasn't cleared the 2:06:30 World Championships qualifying standard and has to wait for the May 4 qualifying deadline for confirmation that the 1184 points he has in the Roa...

It’s been a big month for Japanese men’s marathoning. Across four races in the 29 days from February 2nd to March 2nd, the Feb. 2 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon , Feb. 9 Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon , Feb. 24 Osaka Marathon and Mar. 2 Tokyo Marathon , from 2:05:39 to 2:09:55 a total of 47 Japanese men broke 2:10 in the marathon. Ethiopia has had 48 under 2:10 so far in 2025, a lot of them in January, and all other countries combined a total of 59, so it’s pretty safe to say Japan is the country that’s been having the biggest impact on World Athletics’ top lists over the last month. Osaka is the heavyweight of the four races, with 28 of the sub-2:10s and four of the five fastest times including both 2:05 performances, Ryota Kondo ’s 2:05:39 debut for 2nd and Kyohei Hosoya ’s 2:05:58 PB. Tokyo was next with eleven sub-2:10 performances led by Tsubasa Ichiyama in a 2:06:00 PB, Beppu-Oita next with seven topped by a 2:06:07 debut by Hiroki Wakabayashi , and Nobeoka producing a 2:09:43 wi...

photos © 2025 Victor Sailer/PhotoRun, all rights reserved It was a bit too cold and windy for really fast times and snow started falling over the last quarter of the race, but that didn't stop the top 4 men at the Osaka Marathon from going under the course record. A 1:02:29 first half kept at least 16 men together with the 2:04:56 Japanese national record in sight, among them NR holder Kengo Suzuki in what he hoped would be a comeback run. By 30 km in 1:28:56 the lead group was down to a dozen, still close to NR pace. At the turnaround point just past 30 km the motorcycle cops leading them too far past the turnaround cone, adding about 15 seconds that ended up burning 2 men worst. And just after that, the big uphill just after that really broke things up. Ethiopian trio Yihunilign Adane , Abdisa Tola and Getaneh Molla broke away after the hill, but with 2:05 in sight debuting sub-61 half marathoner Ryota Kondo and 2:06 man Kyohei Hosoya closed hard. 8 seconds back at 40 km, K...

Another week and another big Japanese road race announces its elite field. This year's Osaka Marathon looks set to be a 2:05 race for the men, with Ronald Korir , Bethwel Kibet , Boniface Kimutai , Abdisa Tola , Derseh Kindie and Yihunilign Adane set to pull NR holder Kengo Suzuki to a good comeback and a crew of 2:06 Japanese men led by Paris Olympian Naoki Koyama and Yusuke Nishiyama to faster PBs. Osaka factors into men's team selection for this year's Tokyo World Championships, so expect it to go big. There are 4 sub-61 half marathoners on the debut list too, led by Ryota Kondo with a 1:00:32 at the 2023 National Corporate Half and last year's Corporate Half winner Shunsuke Shikama , 1:00:41. And hot on the heels of Hiroki Wakabayashi 's 2:06:07 collegiate and debut marathon record in Beppu-Oita on Sunday, his Aoyama Gakuin University teammate Asahi Kuroda , the top Japanese man on the Hakone Ekiden's competitive Second Stage last year and even fast...

This year's Chicago Marathon will be remembered for one thing, cf. the photo above. No Japanese women were in the race to get thrashed by Ruth Chepngetich en route to her era-defining 2:09:56 world record, but five Japanese men were, and most of them did get thrashed. With a 2:06:35 PB Kyohei Hosoya (Kurosaki Harima) went out on low-2:04 NR pace, running comfortably through halfway before a surge from the pacers dropped him. Alone the rest of the way, Hosoya managed to run down some Ethiopian competition to take 6th overall in 2:07:20. Toshiki Sadakata (Mitsubishi Juko) spent most of the way working with American Zach Panning and then CJ Albertson to hit the 2:06:30 Tokyo World Championships standard, ultimately finishing 5 seconds behind Albertson in 8th in 2:08:22. After getting dropped by the JPN/USA men's group, Tomoki Yoshioka (Kyudenko) ended up running as an unofficial pacer for Chepngetich, but over the second half he couldn't match her strength and faded to ...