japan running news

by Brett Larner

The fourth day of competition at the 2014 World Junior Championships brought Japan its first gold medal of the week as Daisuke Matsunaga set a championships record 39.27.19 in the men's 10000 m race walk.  Silver and bronze medalists Diego Garcia (Spain) and Paulo Yurivilca (Peru) both set new national junior records to get on the podium, but Matsunaga was in another class as he beat Garcia by almost 30 seconds.  Yuga Yamashita (Japan) came up just short of the medals at 4th in 40:15.27.

Likewise just out of the medals, sprinter Yuki Koike ran 20.34 (+2.3) for 4th in the men's 200 m final, just 0.4 s from claiming bronze.  Teammate Masaharu Mori took 6th in 20.84, the first time a world-level championships has seen two Japanese athletes make a 200 m final.  Both ran the final less than 90 minutes after helping the Japanese men's 4x100 m team make the final by winning Heat 2 in a junior world-leading time of 39.23 just ahead of hosts U.S.A.  The women's …

by Brett Larner

Day three of competition at the IAAF World Junior Championships was a big one for Japan, with two individual medals and a near miss on a third.  In the men's 400 m Nobuya Kato and Kaisei Yui made history with their runs, the first time two Japanese athletes had qualified for a world-level final, and Kato took it one step further when he ran 46.17 for silver behind winner Machel Cedenio (Trinidad and Tobago).  Yui, who ran a PB 46.68 to make the final, was 7th in 47.08 between two American athletes. 

In the men's long jump, Shotaro Shiroyama (Japan) jumped 7.83 m to unexpectedly win bronze, with teammate Kodai Sakuma 5th in 7.71 m.  Chinese athletes Jianan Wang and Qing Lin went 1-2, Wang winning with a jump of 8.08 m.  In the women's 3000 m Nozomi Musembi Takamatsu, the daughter of Japanese and Kenyan parents, ran a 6-second PB of 9:02.85 but came up just over 2 more seconds short of the podium as she was beaten by American Mary Cain in 8:58.48 and Kenyans …