japan running news

Alongside the National High School Girls Ekiden , the Nittai University Women's Long Distance Time Trials meet and Sanyo Ladies Road Race 10 km and half marathon made it a busy weekend for women's running in Japan. At Nittai, Momoka Kawaguchi (Uniqlo) was just off her PB in the 5000 m, winning the A-heat in 15:26.59 by almost 20 seconds over teammate Yume Goto . Nokoka Hosaka (SID Group) took the 3000 m A-heat in 9:25.42, leading the top 5 under 9:30. At Sanyo, a lead group of 4 went through 5 km in 16:09 in the 10 km before Lucy Nduta (Ehime Ginko) threw in a massive surge to win in a negative split 31:49. Janet Nyiva (Panasonic) held steady for 2nd in 32:17, with Mao Uesugi (Tokyo Metro) fading slightly but holding off the fast-closing Hikaru Kitagawa (Universal Entertainment) for 3rd 32:38 to 32:41. Part of the original lead quartet, Daisy Jerop (Josai Kokusai Univ.) blew up big time in the 2nd half, finishing 16th in 33:34. Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) just misse...

Margaret Akidor made it three in a row at the Sanyo Ladies Road Race half marathon, breaking the course record with a PB 1:07:45 for the win. Akidor was part of a lead quartet with Shiori Yoshizono , Nanaka Izawa and the debuting Tabitha Njeri Kamau that went through 5 km together in 15:55. Yoshizono and Izawa dropped back over the next 5 km, falling 12 seconds behind as Akidor and Kamau hit 10 km in 31:55. From there Akidor started to inch away from Kamau, rolling on alone the rest of the way to the win. Yoshizono and Izawa caught the fading Kamau just before 20 km and went right by, Yoshizono taking 2nd in 1:08:21 and Izawa 3rd in 1:08:25. Kamau was another 10 seconds back in 4th, almost 2 minutes up on 5th-placer Yuri Mitsune . Yoshizono and Izawa both broke into the Japanese all-time lists, Yoshizono coming in a 9th and Izawa at 10th. 3rd in the 10 km race last year, Kaede Kawamura got the win this time in 32:16, holding off Deborah Chemutai by 2 seconds in Chemutai's deb...

Last year Margaret Akidor ran a 2-minute PB of 1:09:29 to win the Sanyo Ladies Road Race half marathon. She's back Sunday to try to make it 3 in a row, but she's got serious competition from Pauline Kamulu , 1:07:22 in Marugame last year, and last year's 10 km CR breaker Agnes Mwikali , making her debut here. 31:17.40 runner Tabitha Njeri is also debuting. The domestic field is relatively weak, with no current sub-1:10 Japanese women and Rinka Hida topping the list at 1:10:10. 2nd and 3rd in the 10 km last year, Janet Nyiva and Kaede Kawamura are sticking to the shorter race again this year, and in place of Mwikali they've got Naomi Muthoni , 31:15 in Sanyo 3 years ago, to deal with. Sub-15 runner Susan Kamotho is also debuting. Sanyo Ladies Road Race Okayama, 15 Dec. 2024 complete entry list times listed are athletes' best in last 3 years except where noted Half Marathon Pauline Kamulu (Route Inn Hotels) - 1:07:22 (Marugame Half 2023) Margaret Akidor (Comodi...

Nittai University still has the special annual women-only edition of its time trial series coming up Dec. 21, but Saturday's Edion Distance Challenge in Osaka is the last full-on long distance track time trial meet of the year. Streaming starts at 11:50 a.m. local time and will show all 13 races, mostly heats of women's 3000 m, 3000 mSC, 5000 m and 10000 m with four heats of men's 5000 m near the beginning. The meet schedule and live results can be had her e, with entry lists here . The first race of the day, the women's 3000 mSC at 12:00, only has 3 entrants, but all-time Japanese #9 Miu Saito from Nittai is among them. The men's 5000 m fast heat at 15:35 is led by Toyota 's 13:07.99 man Felix Korir , with recent sub-13:30 men Cosmas Mwangi , Ryuto Igawa and Nganga Waweru at the top of the list. The women's 5000 m fast heat at 16:00 has a lot of good names, including sub-15 Kenyans Margaret Akidor and Tabitha Njeri Kamau , Kae Gyu from the national c...

Start lists are up for this weekend's Yogibo Athletics Challenge Cup Continental Tour Bronze meet in Niigata with scratches and a few additions since the initial entry list announcement two weeks ago. Prominent withdrawals include women's long jump NR holder Sumire Hata , former men's 100 m NR holder Yoshihide Kiryu , men's indoor 5000 m NR holder Keita Sato , and Paris Olympians Ryuichiro Sakai , Tomoki Ota , Ryoichi Akamatsu , and Wakana Kabasawa . Indian men's 5000 m NR holder Gulveer Singh has joined the 5000 m field in pursuit of a new NR. Times listed below are athletes' 2023-2024 best in each event. Streaming of day one of the meet starts at 14:30 Saturday, with day two starting at 10:00 a.m. Sunday. Live results are here . Men's 100 m Shuhei Tada (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.10 Naoki Nishioka (Tokai Gyosei H.S.) - 10.11 Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.11 Ryo Wada (Miki House) - 10.13 Shoto Uno (Orico) - 10.16 Kuk Young Kim (South Korea) - 10.25 Kenji Ma...

The Sept. 28-29 Yogibo Athletics Challenge Cup Continental Tour Bronze meet in Niigata announced its preliminary field on Wednesday. A lot of the international field has yet to be added, but what's been announced includes Paris Olympians Yoshihide Kiryu , Ryuichiro Sakai , Kentaro Sato , Fuga Sato , Joseph Nakajima , Abraham Guem , Tomoki Ota , Rachid Muratake , Daiki Ogawa , Ryoichi Akamatsu , Tomohiro Shinno , Yume Goto , Wakana Kabasawa , Haruki Kokai , Sumire Hata , Marina Saito and Momone Ueda , NR holders Shuhei Tada , Ko Ochiai , Sho Kawamoto , Keita Sato , Naoto Tobe , Yuji Tsutumi , Ryoji Tatezawa , Kanta Shimizu , Kotaro Shinohara , Rin Kubo , Tomoka Kimura and Nanaka Kori , Monaco Diamond League winner Margaret Akidor , and more. Current list top entries by 2023-2024 best in each event: Men's 100 m Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei) - 10.03 Ryuichiro Sakai (Osaka Gas) - 10.08 Shuhei Tada (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.10 Naoki Nishioka (Tokai Gyosei H.S.) - 10.11 Yuki Koike (...

Two big meets happened Saturday, one in Kumamoto and the other in Yokohama. At Kumamoto's Kanaguri Memorial Meet , Benard Koech (Kyudenko) turned in the performance of the day with a 13:13.52 meet record to win the men's 5000 m A-heat by just 0.11 seconds over Emmanuel Kipchirchir (SGH). The top four were all under 13:20, with 10000 m national record holder Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) bouncing back from a DNF at last month's The TEN to take the top Japanese spot at 7th overall in 13:24.57. The B-heat was also decently quick, Shadrack Rono (Subaru) winning in 13:21.55 and Shoya Yonei (JR Higashi Nihon) running a 10-second PB to get under 13:30 for the first time in 13:29.29 for 6th. Paris Olympics marathoner Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) was 9th in 13:30.62. South Sudan's Abraham Guem (Ami AC) also set a meet record in the men's 1500 m A-heat in 3:38.94. 3000 mSC national record holder Ryuji Miura made his debut with the Subaru corporate team, running 3:39.78 for 2n...

Japan's last big non-ekiden road race of the year happened Sunday in Okayama at the Sanyo Ladies Road Race 10 km and half marathon. In the 10 km, CR holder Agnes Mwikali (Kyocera) soloed a 31:09 CR for the win. 2 seconds up on rival Janet Nyiva (Panasonic) at 5 km in 15:34, Mwikali held steady over the second half to cut 2 seconds off her old CR of 31:11 from 2021. Nyiva faded to 31:57 but held on to 2nd, with Kaede Kawamura (Iwatani Sangyo) passing Eva Cherono (Toto) for 3rd in 32:22. In the half marathon, a lead group of four stayed together through 15 km before 2022 winner  Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) surged over the last 5 km. Taking almost 2 minutes off her PB, Akidor took the top spot in 1:09:29, beating #1-ranked Dolphine Nyaboke Omare (U.S.E.) by 18 seconds. Joanne Kipkemoi (Kyudenko) was 3rd in 1:10:01, with Yuri Karasawa (Kyudenko) scoring the top Japanese spot at 5th in 1:10:48. Also Sunday in Chiba was the 137th running of the Kanto 10-Miler. After a DNF at...

Along with Saturday's The Fst in Fukuoka there was a lot going on on the roads this weekend across the country, but the biggest results were on the track. Saturday at the Nittai University Time Trials , Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) soloed a 14:47.71 Olympic standard 5000 m, over a minute faster than runner-up Kana Mizumoto (Edion) who ran 15:49.25. Akidor's coach reported her splits as 2:53.7 - 3:00.3 - 2:59.9 - 3:00.8 - 2:52.2. Charles Wanjiku Kamau (Musashino Gakuin Univ.) ran 27:40.58 to lead 10 men sub-28 in the fastest 10000 m heat, 5 of them Kenyan and 5 Japanese. Most notably, just 6 days after winning back-to-back stages at the National University Ekiden Josai University 2nd-year duo Victor Kimutai and Shoya Saito joined the sub-28 club, Kimutai 2nd in 27:41.04 and Saito 9th in 27:59.68. 3 other Josai runners were sub-29 in the B and C heats. Something has finally clicked at the Josai program this season, and together with great runs at Izumo and Nationals the r...

It’s another busy weekend on the roads across Japan. Saturday is the 2nd edition of the Fst in Fukuoka road mile and 5 km, mostly unexplored distances in Japanese running. The road miles aren’t strong, with Australian Sarah Billings the only woman under 4:25 for 1500 m at 4:06.77 and Stewart McSweyn the only man under 3:35 for 1500 m at 3:29.51. McSweyn does have a little competition at least from Yusuke Takahashi , 3:38.69, and Masato Saiki , 3:39.58. The women’s 5 km is probably the race of the day, with six Kenyan women who would probably beat the top Japanese woman by 1 to 2 minutes in an all-out race. Eva Cherono , 14:30.77, Teresiah Muthoni , 14:44.89, and Rebecca Mwangi , 14:55.32, lead the way. 10-mile world best holder Benard Koech is the fastest man in the 5 km at 13:00.38, with the next tier including former Japanese half marathon and marathon NR holder Yuta Shitara at the 13:20-30 level. Sunday is a big ekiden day, with New Year Ekiden corporate men’s national champion...

  No surprises on the first day of the 2023 National Corporate Track and Field Championships at Gifu's Nagaragawa Stadium as Japan-based Kenyan women swept all three track finals. Janet Nyiva (Panasonic) won the expected one-on-one against Esther Wangui (Starts) in the junior women's 3000 m, coming up short of Rosemary Wanjiru 's meet record but still dipping under 9 minutes with an 8:58.03 for the win versus Wangui's 9:01.91. Kadogo Chebotibin (SID Group) was 3rd in 9:11.03 with Mitsu Ozaki (Sysmex) the top Japanese at 4th in 9:19.59. In the women's 1500 m, Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) and Esther Muthoni (Nitori) both went way under the meet record, Akidor scoring the win in 4:05.29 over 5 seconds under the old record and Muthoni 2nd in 4:06.42, 4 seconds under the record. Two athletes who left the 2022 National Corporate Women's Ekiden champion Shiseido team finished 3rd and 4th just off the record, Tomoka Kimura (Sekisui Kagaku) 3rd in 4:11.51 and W...

Returning to the track where she set the 3000 m Japanese all-comers' record of 8:32.53 and her 5000 m best of 14:44.83 last November, Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) led the results at the 306th Nittai University Time Trials with the 2nd-fastest 5000 m of her career. For whatever reason the meet's format was reversed from its usual setup, with men's 5000 m heats happening Saturday and everything else Sunday. In the women's 5000 m A-heat Akidor ran 14:48.91 for the win, almost 9 seconds up on Teresiah Muthoni (Daiso) who ran 14:57.56 for 2nd. Eva Cherono (Toto) just missed going sub-15 too, 3rd in 15:00.03. Hikaru Kitagawa (Osaka Geijutsu Univ.) was the fastest Japanese woman in the race, 5th in 15:55.79. The women's 3000 m saw a Japanese woman take the top spot, with Asuka Ishimatsu (Meijo Univ.) 1st in 9:14.07. Ayu Henmi (Toyota Jidoshokki) won the women's 1500 m A-heat in 4:22.52 and Nanako Izumi (Chiba Univ.) the 800 m A-heat in 2:15.83. The top six...

This weekend's main event on the Japanese calendar is Saturday's Oda Memorial Meet in Hiroshima , a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meet. Streaming starts at 10:30 a.m. local time, with the first main field final happening at 11:45 and the first one on the track at 14:15. Check the full meet schedule here . Entry lists are here . Track event previews: Women's 1500 m Final - 14:15 No Japanese women have cleared the Budapest World Championships standard of 4:03.50, but four are currently in the quota of 56. Three of them, Yume Goto (Uniqlo), Mizuki Michishita (Wacoal) and Saki Katagihara (Tsukuba Univ.) are entered, along with Tokyo Olympian Ran Urabe (Sekisui Kagaku) who's looking for enough points to break into the top 56. Goto is closest to the standard at 4:09.41, but realistically this race will be mostly about points. Men's 1500 m Final - 14:25 The four fastest men in the 1500 m, NR holder Kazuki Kawamura (Toenec), Nanami Arai (Honda), Keisuke Mor...

Strong winds prevented the kind of times usually seen at the Sanyo Ladies Road Race , the last major non-ekiden race on the Japanese calendar every year. Running as a tuneup for pacing January's Osaka International Women's Marathon, 3000 m JPN all-comers record holder Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) won a four-way sprint finish to take 1st in the half marathon in 1:11:19. 3rd last year, Joan Kipkemoi (Kyudenko) was 2nd in 1:11:20, reversing places with Desta Burka (Denso) who dropped from 2nd last year to 3rd in 1:11:21. Unable to keep up in the last kick, 2-time champ Zeyituna Husan (Denso) was 4th in 1:11:25. Yuri Karasawa (Kyudenko) was the top Japanese woman at 5th in 1:12:01. In the 10 km division, Agnes Mwikali (Kyocera) won a slightly less close sprint finish over Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) and Janet Nyiva (Kurashiki H.S.) in 31:56 to Njeri' 31:59 and Nyiva's 32:00. Top Japanese woman Misaki Hayashida (Kyudenko) was 4th in 33:14. The 136t...

Two weeks after running 14:44.83 at Kanagawa's Nittai University Time Trials , 22-year-old Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) continued her rise up the ranks to global relevance with another stellar run at Nittai on Sunday. Running in the fastest 3000 m heat with support from 19-year-old Agnes Mwikali (Kyocera), Akidor took nearly 20 seconds off her best with an 8:32.53 for the win. That was the fastest ever run in Japan by 3 seconds and enough to put her #8 in the world this year. Mwikali was solid too at 8:37.17, almost 10 seconds under her previous best and the next-best ever run in Japan apart from two dodgy early '90s marks by Soviet athletes. 3rd-placer Mizuki Michishita (Rikkyo Univ.) was in another league at 9:13.68. Kazuna Kanetomo (Kyocera) won the women's 5000 m A-heat in 15:56.42, the only woman under 15 minutes. In the men's 5000 m Kenyan Richard Etir won the A-heat in 13:16.20, a time beaten this weekend only by Benard Koech (Kyudenko) at Fukuoka's ...

This weekend's main event is Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance meet at western Tokyo's Gion Stadium. The main program features seven heats of men's 10000 m, finely graded as top corporate and collegiate runners tune up for January's New Year Ekiden and Hakone Ekiden. The whole meet will be streamed live above starting at 14:00 local time, with the fastest heat kicking off at 18:20. 29 top Japan-based Kenyans are on the list including Gideon Rono (GMO) and Jonathan Ndiku (Hitachi Butsuryu), both sub-27:15 this season. 10 Japanese men are also in the fast heat in hopes of getting as close to the 27:10.00 World Championships qualifying standard as they can, notably featuring national champion Komazawa University power duo Ren Tazawa and Mebuki Suzuki and Hakone Ekiden First Stage CR holder Yamato Yoshii (Chuo Univ.) Tazawa's all-time JPN #2 27:23.44 is still a long way from the standard, but with #4 Kazuki Tamura (Sumitomo Denko), 27:28.92, and #8 Tomoki Ot...

This weekend's 300th edition of the Nittai University Time Trials series in Yokohama turned out some of the fastest times in its history as athletes across the country build toward peaking for championship ekiden season. On Saturday Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) and Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) ran two of the fastest women's 5000 m marks ever on Japanese soil, Akidor taking 11 seconds off her PB to win in 14:44.83 and Kamau 6 seconds off hers for 2nd in 14:48.26. 3rd-place Yui Komatsu (Matsuyama Univ.) was almost lapped, running 15:47.79. Steeplechase champ Reimi Yoshimura (Daito Bunka Univ.) dropped out mid-race. The men's 10000 m was fast too. Richard Etir (CJAC) outkicked Obirin University 1st-year Nelson Mandela Mbithi and Josphat Ledama Kisaisa (Kao) for the win in 27:27.51, Mbithi 2nd in 27:29.92, one of the fastest-ever Japanese collegiate times, and Kisaisa 3rd in 27:30.45. 4th-placer Boniface Murua (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) got under 28 min...

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 ...

Saturday's Spring Nobeoka Time Trials meet was a tuneup for Kyushu-area men's teams for next month's Golden Games in Nobeoka, notable mostly for 2:06~2:08 marathoners Toshiki Sadakata (Mitsubishi Juko), Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei), Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) and Ichitaka Yamashita (Mitsubishi Juko) returning to action after marathons in February and March. Emmanuel Kiplagat (Mitsubishi Juko) took the top spot in the men's 5000 m in 13:30.54, with Daiki Ando (Asahi Kasei) the fastest Japanese man at 6th in 13:41.76. At the Nittai University Time Trials meet, Saturday's main action was the women's 3000 m, where Esther Muthoni (Nitori) beat Cynthia Mbaire (Hitachi) 8:59.74 to 9:01.66. Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita) ran a PB 9:14.99 for 3rd, heading straight from there to Gifu for a sub-70 half marathon PB the next morning. 24 men ran sub-29 for 10000 m, led by Ayumu Kobayashi in 28:18.87. On Sunday, 22 heats of men's 5000 m, a total of 44 men wen...