japan running news

Japan's 110th National Track and Field Championships kicked off Friday at the same stadium that will host September's Asian Games. From an international point of view the biggest result was the return of Paris Olympics women's javelin throw gold medalist Haruka Kitaguchi . After a rough year Kitaguchi threw 62.86 m on her fifth attempt, her best throw since last June's Ostrava Golden Spike meet and enough to give her the win by over a meter. It was still almost 4.5 m short of Kitaguchi's NR, but it was a big step back in the right direction. On the track there were a lot of surprising results on the first day, with multiple meet records, near-misses on MR, and fastest-ever qualifying rounds. The race of the day was the women's 5000 m final, where 4-time national champ and NR holder Nozomi Tanaka tried to make it 5 in a row. With the race going at 15:15-20 pace Tanaka broke away with 4 laps to go, opening a substantial lead over Aichi local Yuma Yamamoto and t...

It was a pale shadow of the results at the Keqiao Diamond League meet a day earlier, where Rachid Muratake was the only Japanese athlete in action at 3rd in 13.18 (+0.1) in the men's 110 mH, but the men's 3000 m at Sunday's Seiko Golden Grand Prix in Tokyo turned out to be the race of the meet. Collegiate 5000 m, 10000 m and half marathon record holder Richard Etir (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) did pacing duty through 2000 m in 2:33 and 5:07, almost dead-even with Suguru Osako 's 2014-era NR of 7:40.09. When Etir stepped off Yu Shibata (Josai Univ.) stepped up as the surprise leader, pushing hard to keep the NR in range and dropping everyone except corporate leaguers Ryuto Igawa (Asahi Kasei) and Nagiya Mori (Honda). Both had the wheels to run Shibata down over the last 200 m, and Mori had the honor of becoming the first Japanese man under 7:40, winning in a new NR of 7:38.98. Igawa and Shibata both got there too, Igawa 2nd in 7:39.36 and Shibata 3rd in 7:39.51, the fast...

There was a lot of action on the track over Japan's Golden Week holidays. Highlights: Shizuoka International Meet - Fukuroi, 3 May Men's 800 m NR holder Ko Ochiai (Komazawa Univ.) broke his own record with a 1:43.90 win. Daigo Usuki (18 Ginko) and Gakuto Mishima (Nippatsu) both broke the NR in the T20 men's 400 m, Usuki getting the win in 49.08 and Mishima 2nd in 49.15. Lauren Bruce (New Zealand) threw a meet record 67.44 m on her final attempt in the women's hammer throw, but even her shortest throw of 64.31 m was over 3 m better than the rest of the field. Kazuki Kurokawa (Sumitomo Denko) got the men's 400 mH meet record with a 48.50 for the win. Women's 3000 mSC NR holder Miu Saito (Panasonic) won the steeple in 9:31.83, the 2nd-best time in her career so far, despite falling. 2nd through 4th all broke 10 minutes. National University Men's Ekiden Kanto Region Qualifier - Hiratsuka, 4 May The top 8 teams at November's National University Men...

Waseda University 1st-year Shota Fuchigami and Toyo University 1st-year Hayato Shimoda were the stars of this year's National University Track and Field Championships this weekend at Kanagawa's Todoroki Stadium. Squeezing through the men's 400 mH first round in 3rd in his heat with a time of 50.72, Shimoda watched as Fuchigami won semifinal 2 in 48.78, 0.31 under the U20 national record set way back in 1996 by two-time World Championships bronze medalist Dai Tamesue . Lining up next in SF3, Shimoda bettered Fuchigami with a 48.59 U20 NR. That was only good enough for 3rd in his semi behind Shunta Inoue (Hosei Univ.), whose 48.46 missed the 2005-era meet record by 0.11, and 2nd-placer Shu Watanabe (Nittai Univ.) who ran 48.51 but it got him to the final. There Fuchigami delivered again, going under Tamesue's old record for the second time and beating Inoue by 0.12 to win in 48.96. Shimoda couldn't deliver the same kind of performance, finishing 7th in 50.08, but...

At the high school, university and corporate league levels, national championships on the track are at an odd time in the Japanese calendar. After regional championships in May, college students and corporate leaguers don't have their national championship meets until September right after summer mileage base building for ekiden season. High schoolers have their regional meets in June, then their Nationals in August. The National University Track and Field Individual Championships , aka the All Japan University Track & Field Challenge Meeting, happens more when you'd expect, ever mid-June in Kanagawa, but without a team component, no relays, no team scoring, and missing a few events, it's not a major event and doesn't usually bring in much of the main collegiate talent. Two weeks out from the outright National Championships, this year was an exception at the Individual Championships with seven new meet records. The biggest out of them was in Saturday's women...

Like next weekend's National Corporate Track and Field Championships, this weekend's National University Track and Field Championships in Kumagaya, Saitama, always come at an odd time on the calendar, especially for distance runners who've spent most of the summer doing ekiden season base mileage in Hokkaido. Some schools, like 2023 Hakone Ekiden champ Komazawa University , give it a miss entirely in favor of focusing on ekiden season. Streaming is on the Athlete Channel on Youtube from Thursday through Sunday Japan time. Live results will be here . Budapest World Championships national team members Ami Yamamoto (Ritsumeikan Univ.), Maki Saito (Tokai Univ.), Ayane Yanai (Ritsumeikan Univ.), Hiroki Yanagita (Toyo Univ.), Joseph Nakajima (Toyo Univ.), Kenki Imaizumi (Tsukuba Univ.), Kazuki Kurokawa (Hosei Univ.), Ryuji Miura (Juntendo Univ.) and Tomoya Karasawa (Nittai Univ.) all feature on the entry list, with Yamamoto and Kurokawa set to take one more for the tea...

The 91st National University Track and Field Championships wrapped up Sunday in Kyoto. Along with the pair of meet records set on the opening day on Friday, three more records fell over the remaining two days. Shuri Aono (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) was the biggest news, breaking the 2010-era meet record in the women's 200 m in 23.44 -0.2 after winning the 100 m in 11.64 +0.4 the previous day. Maki Saito (Tokyo Joshi Taiiku Univ.) broke the women's discus throw MR with a 54.72 on her fifth attempt, 0.50 m better than the old record from 2012. Hitoshi Okumura (Kokushikan Univ.) was the only man to set a new MR this year, throwing 18.06 m in the men's shot put to better the 2004-era record by 3 cm. In distance action, collegiate record holder Reimi Yoshimura (Daito Bunka Univ.) was a DNS in the women's 3000 mSC, leaving the field wide open. Miu Saito (Nittai Univ.) took the chance to pick up the national title, winning in 10:14.26 by 6 seconds. Yuma Yamamoto (Meijo U...

The 101st Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships continued Friday at Tokyo's National Stadium. The biggest news of the day was in the women's 1500 m final , where Saki Katagihara (Tsukuba Univ.) broke the 4:16.64 meet record set way back in 1997 by another Tsukuba athlete, Kumiko Okamoto , to win in 4:16.41. Okamoto had pressure from Mao Kogure (Juntendo Univ.) over the last lap but held her off in the home straight, Kogure running a PB 4:16.87 for 2nd and just missing hitting the old MR too. 3rd-placer Risa Yamazaki (Nittai Univ.) was also under 4:20 at 4:18.51, with collegiate record holder Mizuki Michishita (Rikkyo Univ.) 4th in 4:20.65. Another ancient MR fell in the D1 men's shot put . On his final attempt, favorite Hitoshi Okumura (Kokushikan Univ.) threw a PB 18.26 m for the win, 0.11 m further than the 1998-era meet record of 18.15 m by Yasuo Noguchi (Nihon Univ.). The top 4 all threw PBs. With his senior year having just begun Okumura is now ...

The National University Individual Track and Field Championships wrapped its third day with three new meet records. First up, Atsushi Shobu (Waseda Univ.) led the top 5 under the old record in the men's 3000 m steeplechase , winning in 8:40.57. The next 4, Soma Hattori (Juntendo Univ.), Shohei Yamaguchi (Teikyo Univ.), Ryotaro Onuma (Josai Univ.) and Kento Uchida (Rikkyo Univ.) were all under 8:50, and with all 5 coming from different universities it showed the impact Olympian collegian Ryuji Miura of Juntendo University is having on making the steeple a focus event in Japan. Women's steeple collegiate record holder Reimi Yoshimura (Daito Bunka University), now a 4th-year, also broke the meet record, taking over 4 seconds off 2016 Olympian Anju Takamizawa 's old record to win in 9:53.64. Manami Nishiyama was next across the line in 10:01.67 but didn't count in standings due to being a corporate leaguer, leaving official 2nd-placer Nanase Tanimoto (Meijo Univ...

The last day of the 104th National Track and Field Championships saw a short stack of new records across disciplines, mostly on the women's side. The biggest news came in the women's discus throw, where Maki Saito (Tokyo Joshi Taiiku Univ.) threw a new national junior record of 55.41 m on her fourth attempt and putting defending champ Minori Tsujikaw a (Uchida Yoko AC) into 2nd before coming back on her last to almost equal it. In the women's 100 m hurdles, it took a PB from Masumi Aoki (77 Ginko) to hold off national record holder Asuka Terada (Pasona Group) for the win, tying the meet record in 13.02 (-0.1). Taio Kanai (Mizuno) likewise held off national record holder Shunya Takayama (Zenrin), tying the meet record in 13.36 (-0.1) to win. Kanai and Takayama have alternated national titles for the last four years, with 13.36 their winning time for the last three. The women's 200 m saw the top three all drop PBs, Remi Tsuruta (Minami Kyushu Family Mart) u...

For the second year in a row Japan-based Kenyan Jeremiah Thuku Karemi (Toyota Kyushu) broke the course record at Kumamoto's Okukuma Half Marathon . Coached by 1992 Barcelona Olympics marathon silver medalist Koichi Morishita , Karemi took 27 seconds off his winning time last year to win by over a minute in 1:01:21. Joel Mwaura (Kurosaki Harima) was a distant 2nd in 1:02:40, with Karemi's teammate Yuki Oshikawa (Toyota Kyushu) taking the top Japanese spot at 3rd in 1:03:13. Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref. Gov't) was 9th in 1:04:04 a week after running the Ibusuki Nanohana Marathon. In the women's race, Anna Matsuda (Kyocera), coached by former men's half  marathon national record holder Atsushi Sato , took 26 seconds off the course record to win in 1:13:10. Not far off, Kotomi Tsubokura (Wacoal) was a clear 2nd in 1:03:27 with Maki Saito (Higo Ginko) improving on her 10th-place finish last year to take 3rd in 1:14:46. Also Sunday, up in Tokyo the Akabane Ha...

The 2018 National High School Track and Field Championships  took place in the midst of a heatwave that saw temperatures in nearby Nagoya go over 40˚C on a nearly daily basis. Track events mostly suffered, but all the same there were two new high school national records and five other meet records, all but one on the field. The only record on the track came in the girls' 100 m hurdles, where Ayumi Kobayashi (Funabashi H.S.) broke the high school national record with a mark of 13.34 (-0.3 m/s), bettering the 2007-era record by 0.05 seconds. The other new national record was in the boys' discus throw, where Kosei Yamashita (Gifu Shogyo H.S.)  threw 58.02 m  to surpass the previous record by almost a meter and a half. The only record on the boys' side was a meet record 65.98 m Yuki Taneichi (Hirosaki Jitsugyo H.S.) in the hammer throw, less than a meter and a half off the high school national record. 2nd-placer Daisuke Kumon (Imabari Meitoku) was also under the old...

After yesterday's solid haul of gold and silver medals, Shunsuke Izumiya added a bronze medal to the mix in the men's 110 m hurdles at the World U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland. Quick out of the blocks, Izumiya led the first few hurdles before being caught by Jamaican duo Damion Thomas and Orlando Bennett . But a PB run of 13.38 was enough to keep Izumiya in the medals, the only one of the day for Japan. In the two other finals with Japanese athletes, Ayaka Kawata took 6th in the women's 800 m in 2:03.57 well back from the championships record 1:59.74 by gold medalist Diribe Welteji of Ethiopia. Maki Saito took 8th in the women's discus throw with a mark of 50.10 m, both she and Kawata factoring into the JAAF's target number of top eight placers. No Japanese athletes made it through the day's semifinals, both Keigo Yasuda and Koji Ueyama stopped there in the men's 200 m and Moeka Sekimoto likewise not advancing out of the women's 400 ...

On the first day of competition at the World U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland, Japanese runners were the first non-East African runners across the line in both of the day's distance finals. In the boys' 10000 m Takuro Miura was 9th in 30:12.25 almost three laps behind championships record-setting Rhonex Kipruto (Kenya). In the women's 5000 m, Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu was 7th in 15:55.74, just over 21 seconds out of the medals. The talented Miku Moribayashi was last in 17:08.55. In qualifying rounds, nine of the eleven Japanese athletes in action advanced. Ayaka Kawata and Ayano Shiomi led the way in the women's 800 m, both winning their heats and clocking the two fastest times among all qualifiers. Yuki Hashioka also recorded the best mark in the men's long jump qualifying rounds, jumping 7.92 m (+1.1 m/s ) to head into the final ranked #1. Yugo Sakai jumped a PB of 7.69 m (+2.0 m/s) to join Hashioka in the final with the #3 ranking. World U20 ...