japan running news

Heavy rain through a lot of the day made for tough conditions for the 2nd day of the 95th National University Track and Field Championships in Yokohama, with more forecast for the final day on Monday. In a lot of the sprint and field events that held back the quality of the performances, but even so in 2 events athletes turned in meet record-breaking runs. In the men's 400 m, #3-ranked Kira Hirakawa (Toyo Univ.) and collegiate record holder Shinya Hayashi (Tsukuba Univ.) pushed each other the entire way, Hirakawa dipping for the win in 45.37 and Hayashi 2nd in 45.41. Both were way under the meet record of 45.75 set by Yuki Yamaguchi back in 2004 and tied by Julian Walsh in 2018. The other meet record came in the women's 4x100 m relay final, where MR holders Fukuoka University ran an almost identical lineup to the one that set the collegiate record of 43.91 and the MR of 44.31 last year. Rin Shibato , Mayuko Maeda and Aiha Yamagata returned from that team on the first 2 ...

Domestically the main event on the track this weekend was the 3rd stop on the 2026 Hokuren Distance Challenge tour in Kitami . The race of the day there was the women's 3000 m, where Janet Jepkoech ran a PB 8:38.44 to lead the top 6 under 9 minutes, 5 of them in PBs including Mizuki Michishita in 8:56.75 and Jepkoech's Nitori teammate Rion Furukawa in 8:56.80. The men's 3000 m had similar results, Juda Hyodo running a PB 7:52.61 to lead the top 4 under 8 minutes, with 6 of the top 7 running PBs. Caroline Kariba was the only woman to break 15 minutes in the 5000 m with a 14:52.84 for the win, with Shunya Kikuchi the only man under 13:30 at 13:29.53. Things were busy overseas: The Asian U23 Athletics Championships happened in Ordos, China. Daily highlights here: Day 1 ・ Day 2 ・ Day 3 ・ Day 4 Men's 800 m NR holder Ko Ochiai ran 2:15.24 for 7th in the 1000 m at the Monaco Diamond League meet, 2 seconds better than Allon Clay 's national best from earlier this ...

There's already been a lot going on on the track since the start of July, so let's get to it. The women's 100 mH was the main event at the July 5 Fuse Sprint meet in Tottori, with Hitomi Nakajima turning in the 3rd-fastest time of her career, 12.75 (-0.4), for the win, a time only one other Japanese woman has ever beaten. Yumi Tanaka and Masumi Aoki both turned in quality performances too at 12.89 and 12.97 for 2nd and 3rd. All-time Japanese #4 Midori Mikase had a good one in the women's 100 m too, winning in 11.36 (+0.7). The Hokuren Distance Challenge series kicked off July 4 in Chitose . Tuning up for her 1500-5000-10000 triple at September's Nagoya Asian Games, Nozomi Tanaka won the 1500 m in 4:08.53, then came back to win the 5000 m in a 15:00.61 season best. Bigger news was 3000 mSC NR holder Miu Saito in 2nd, running a PB 15:02.68 to come in at all-time Japanese #8. Collegiate record holder Richard Etir led the men's 5000 m in a 13:08.44 SB, with ...

Early season injuries might have kept him home from Budapest, but Rachid Muratake (Juntendo University) showed he's more than just back with the performance of the meet on day 3 of the National University Track and Field Championships in Kumagaya, Saitama. After leading the men's 110 mH heats with a conservative 13.52 (+1.5) and the semifinals with an even more conservative 13.71 (-1.0), Muratake blazed a 13.04 (-0.9) to win the final. That took 0.25 off former Juntendo teammate Shunsuke Izumiya 's meet record, 0.02 off Izumiya's collegiate record, and tied the national record Izumiya set earlier this year as a pro. It also put Muratake alongside Izumiya in the top 10 worldwide this year, no small feat while still in college. 2nd-placer Ryota Machi (Kokusai Budo Univ.) was a distant afterthought at 13.72. In the men's hammer throw Shota Fukuda (Nihon Univ.) did the nearly impossible, breaking the great Koji Murofushi 's 1996 meet record 71.84 m with a 5th-ro...