japan running news

Day 4 of the Tokyo World Athletics Championships had a relatively small number of Japanese athletes in action, but it was highlighted by another great run in the men's 400 m from new NR holder Yuki Joseph Nakajima . 800 m NR holder Ko Ochiai , who made Worlds on a host country slot, bowed out in the first round with a 1:46.78 for 7th in Heat 5, putting him at 45th of 63 finishers overall. Neither member of the women's triple jump squad advanced either, Maoko Takashima 13th in qualification group A at 13.86 m (-0.3) and Mariko Morimoto 17th in group B and last overall at 13.10 m (+0.5). Ryoichi Akamatsu added to Japan's top 8 placing count, taking 8th in the men's high jump final at 2.24 m. Yuto Seko was 10th, clearing only 2.20 m after having hit the 2.33 m qualifying standard in late August. Olympic champ Hamish Kerr of New Zealand won a great duel against Korean Sanghyeok Woo , 2.36 m to 2.34 m. Czech Jan Stefela won bronze at 2.31 m. In the men's 110 m hur...

The Gumi Asian Athletics Championships got moving with a silver in the men's 20 km race walk from #2 ranked Kento Yoshikawa , part of a breakaway trio with China's Wang Zhaozhao and India's Servin Sebasthiyan . The #1-ranked Wang pulled away in the last km to win in 1:20:37, Yoshikawa close behind in 1:20:46 and Sebasthiyan taking bronze in 1:21:14. Ryo Hamanishi was just out of the medals in 4th in 1:21:58. China's Su Lingdan was untouchable in the women's javelin throw with a 63.29 m PB for gold, but Momone Ueda and Sae Takemoto took silver and bronze. Ueda threw a season best 59.39 m on her final attempt, overtaking Takemoto's 4th-round 58.94 m. Another bronze came in the women's triple jump . China's Li Yi beat Uzbekistan's Sharifa Davronova by 6 cm for gold 13.80 m to 13.74 m, with Mariko Morimoto beating Maoko Takashima by 1 cm for bronze. Morimoto was 13.65 m on her 5th jump, but although Takashima came back with a big final attempt...

Without an in-country Diamond League meet Sunday's Seiko Golden Grand Prix at the Tokyo Olympics stadium is the main event of the Japanese outdoor season. Along with the Asian Championships in South Korea in 2 weeks and July's National Championships, this is one of the best chances for Japanese athletes to score some serious world rankings points to boost their chances of making the home team for September's Tokyo World Championships. Set to be sunny in the morning, for most of the meet it looks like it'll be cloudy but hot and humid with temps peaking at 30˚ and high humidity after rain most of the day on Saturday. TVer is streaming the first part of the meet , the women's and men's javelin throw and 3000 m, men's 100 m, women's high jump and men's long jump, here starting at 10:46 a.m. Japan time, with the rest of the meet streaming here starting at 10:51 a.m. and broadcast on TBS starting at 1:00 p.m. If you've got a VPN you should be good ...

Athletics competition kicked off at the Paris Olympics with the men's and women's 20 km race walks. One of Japan's best medal chances, the men's race saw Koki Ikeda and Yuta Koga sit in the second pack through the second half of the race, ultimately finishing 7th and 8th in 1:19:41 and 1:19:50. Ikeda was only 30 seconds back from bronze medalist Alvaro Martin of Spain and another 16 seconds from gold medalist Brian Pintado of Ecuador. Third Japanese man Ryo Hamanishi was 18th in 1:20:33. Overall it was an improvement on the team's performance in the Budapest World Championships last summer, where Koga was 12th and Ikeda 15th. With Kumiko Okada and Ayane Yanai withdrawing to focus on the mixed relay, the women's 20 km race walk had only one Japanese athlete, Nanako Fujii . With China's Jiayu Yang leading all three medalists under 1:26:00 in 1:25:54, Fujii was a distant 32nd in 1:34:26. No Japanese athletes were in action in the morning session at the...

Great conditions on the second day of Japan's National Track and Field Championships , U20 National Championships and Paris Olympics trials helped athletes set new National Championship meet records in the women's pole vault, men's 400 mH, men's and women's 1500 m, and men's 5000 m, with three of the five record setters and guaranteeing themselves places on the Paris Olympics team. Complete results here . Women's Pole Vault Final National record holder Misaki Morota cleared her minimum goal, the win in 4.31 m to score enough points to move from 33rd to 32nd in the 32-deep Paris Olympic quota. Morota took two attempts to get over 4.30 m, but on her first try at a Japanese National Championships meet record 4.41 m she got it done. That gave her enough points to move to 30th, but it would take clearing 4.50, 2 cm higher than Morota's NR, to move to 29th. That proved to be out of range, leaving Morota in good position but still waiting to see the outcome of...

Japan's Olympic trials,  National Championships and National U20 Championships , continue Friday in Niigata at Denka Big Swan Stadium. Live results will be here . What's on the menu: Finals Women's Discus Throw Final - 14:00 2023 national champion Maki Saito is at 45th in the Paris rankings, and even a win around her 58.47 PB from March wouldn't crack the top 40. NR holder Nanaka Kori has been off more than on this season and has only thrown over 57 m three times. The win will pretty much come down to the two of them. Maki Saito (Tokai Univ.) - 58.47 m SB / PB Nanaka Kori (Niigata Albirex RC) - 57.85 m SB / 59.03 m PB Minori Tsujikawa (Uchida Yoko AC) - 53.84 m SB / 54.46 m PB Akane Kawaguchi (Wizas) - 52.03 m SB / 54.05 m PB Mika Yamamoto (Kondotech) - 50.06 m SB / 50.51 m PB Natsumi Fujimori (STAC) - 49.53 m SB / 52.97 m PB Women's Pole Vault Final - 17:00 Coming in off a trio of good performances in Canada, NR holder Misaki Morota currently sits at 33rd in t...

  The biggest international championships outside the Olympics are underway in Hangzhou, China, with 12,500 athletes from 45 countries representing 60% of the world’s population competing across 61 sports at the 19th Asian Games . Athletics runs Sept. 29 to Oct. 5, and while official event entry lists haven’t been released yet JRN has pieced them together from the national team entry lists in the events where Japanese athletes will be competing. Additions and corrections welcome, and we’ll update the lists below as official entry and start lists are released. Complete meet schedule and results here .  4 Japanese athletes and one relay team arrive in Hangzhou ranked #1 in their events. The gold medalist at July’s Asian Championships, NR holder Sumire Hata leads the women’s long jump field at 6.97 m, with a 21 cm margin over India’s Shaili Singh and another 11 cm over China’s Shiqi Xiong and Sri Lanka’s Lakshini Sandaradura . Kentaro Sato is the fastest in the men’s 400 m f...

  None of the finals on Day 5 of the Budapest World Championships featured any Japanese athletes, but there were good performances in qualifying rounds in both the morning and evening sessions. First up for the day, Tomoya Karasawa didn't turn in one of the good ones, failing to clear the opening height in the men's pole vault qualifying round. Japan's best prospect for an individual medal outside of race walking, Haruka Kitaguchi was the first woman in the javelin throw and one of only seven to clear the auto-qualifying mark of 61.50 m, throwing 63.27 m. Marina Saito managed only 58.95 m for 15th in the first round, just 71 cm short of making the qualifying bracket of twelve. Men's long jumpers Yuki Hashioka , Hiromichi Yoshida and Shotaro Shiroyama were all off their game in the opening round, Hashioka jumping best with a credible 7.94 m -0.2 m/s but short of the 8.00 m that proved necessary for qualification. Yoshida jumped 7.60 m +1.2 m/s and Shiroyama only 7....

The 2023 Asian Athletics Championships started Wednesday in Bangkok, Thailand. Japan's fastest-ever collegiate 10000 m runner Ren Tazawa said pre-race that he would go for a sub-28 win to have a shot at getting into the quota for next month's Budapest World Championships. But while he, teammate Yuto Imae , Kenya-born Kazakhstani Shamrock Kimutai and others gave it a go, it was just too hot and humid to sustain. Tazawa led the entire way except for some early assistance from Imae and a very brief mid-race attack from Kimutai, going through halfway in 14:17.99 and crossing the finish line in 29:18.44. Kimutai was 2nd in 29:31.63, with Imae getting caught by India's Abhiskhek Pal in the last 200 m and knocked out of the medals. Tazawa's gold was the first AAC 10000 m gold for Japan since 1981, which seems surprising, but while his time was over a minute short of what he needed for the Budapest quota there's still a chance he'll make it as area champion. That wo...

Mariko Morimoto (Uchida Kensetsu) brought the performance of the day in the women's triple jump on the third day of the 107th National Track and Field Championships and 39th U20 National Championships Saturday at Osaka's Yanmar Nagai Stadium. On her fifth attempt Morimoto jumped 14.16 m +0.7 m/s, a massive PB that broke the 1999-era national record by 12 cm. It was enough to move her up to 10th in the world this year, a welcome surprise to fans and federation officials in the lead-up to August's Budapest World Championships. The women's 100 mH final was the race of the day, a four-way photo finish between NR holder Mako Fukube (NKK), WC quota occupants Masumi Aoki (77 Ginko) and Yumi Tanaka (Fujitsu), and previous NR holder Asuka Terada (Japan Create Group), non-ranked as she makes another comeback this season. Terada and Aoki both clocked 12.95, Tanaka 12.96 and Fukube 12.99, and after a long review Terada was named the winner. In a way it was the most complicate...