japan running news

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 ...

The meet records kept coming on Day 3 of the 2025 National Sports Festival Sunday in Shiga. The biggest came in the junior women's javelin throw , where Ayaka Suzuki (Namisho H.S.) opened with a 57.11 m MR throw to win by almost 9 meters. That would have been good enough for 4th in the senior women's javelin throw , where Marina Saito (Suzuki) won over Momone Ueda (Zenrin) 59.39 m to 59.34 m, but more newsworthily put her at all-time #5 on the Japanese high school rankings, 1.79 m behind Paris Olympics champ Haruka Kitaguchi . Both the junior women's 5000 m race walk and junior men's 5000 m race walk took the event to new levels, with the top 4 in the women's race going under the MR and the top 2 in the men's race doing the same. Hikari Osaka (Nishinomiya H.S.) took the women's race by less than a second over Yuna Uchiyama (Honjo Higashi H.S.) 22:40.75 to 22:41.50, but the men's race was clearer-cut with Daichi Yamada (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) winn...

Like the Fuji Hokuroku World Trial meet 2 weeks ago, this weekend's Athlete Night Games in Fukui had a string of high-level performances that had a big impact on the lineup for Japan's home team at next month's Tokyo World Championships. Capping the meet was a stellar 12.92 (+0.6) NR in the men's 110 mH by Rachid Muratake (JAL), 2nd-fastest in the world this year, 11th-fastest in history, and the first sub-13 clocking by a Japanese man. Already on the Tokyo team thanks to a 5th-place finish in the Paris Olympics and a 13.08 (+1.4) best well under the 13.27 Tokyo standard, Muratake's performance here elevates him onto the short list of potential Japanese medal contenders. 3rd at Nationals, Muratake's former Juntendo University teammate Tatsuki Abe was 2nd in a PB of 13.12 that put him at all-time Japanese #4. Unfortunately for him, Nationals top 2 Shunsuke Izumiya (Sumitomo Denko) and Shusei Nomoto (Ehime T&F Assoc.) both have the standard too, so Abe...

The men's race walks were expected to be Japan's only real chance at medals at the Oregon 22 World Athletics Championships , but in the women's javelin throw Haruka Kitaguchi came through with the country's first-ever women's field event medal at the World Championships as she took bronze. Kitaguchi came to Eugene in good form with a first-ever Japanese win in a Diamond League event under her belt and got off strong when she led the qualifying round with a 64.32 m throw on her first attempt. Kitaguchi opened with a 62.07 m that put her in bronze medal position behind Australians Kelsey-Lee Barber and Mackenzie Little , where she stayed until the fourth round. There China's Shiying Liu threw 63.25 m to move into 2nd by 3 cm over Little, pushing Kitaguchi down to 4th. It took until the final round for Kitaguchi to respond. Summoning up a big throw, she bettered Liu by just 2 cm to overtake her at 63.27 cm. American Kara Winger also came up a big closer, throw...

Friday is Day 2 of Japan's National Track and Field Championships at Osaka's Yanmar Stadium Nagai. Streaming starts at 11:25 a.m. local time and run through 6:30 p.m. before switching over to broadcaster NHK. The daily schedule is here , with start lists here . On the track the main event is the men's 100 m final. Abdul Hakim Sani Brown  (Tumbleweed TC) is the only man in the race to have cleared the 10.05 Oregon World Championships standard with a 10.04 (+0.8) in the semifinals. Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko), Ryuichiro Sakai (Osaka Gas) and 18-year-old Hiroki Yanagita (Toyo Univ.) all ran 10.13~10.16 in the semis, and former NR holder Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei) made it through in 10.24. Sani Brown will need to make top 3 for the JAAF to pick him for sure, but with any luck we'll see a few others hit the standard in the final to fill up the slots. The women's 100 m final is close, Midori Mikase (Sumitomo Denko), Mei Kodama (Mizuno), Arisa Kimishima (DK Sh...

Tough conditions at the Oda Memorial Meet Friday, heavy rain in the first half of the meet and strong winds in the second, held back the times, but most of the favorites still rose to the top. 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura (Juntendo Univ.) ran as the top Japanese man throughout the 5000 m A-heat, shrugging off brief challenges from Tokyo Olympian Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu) and Takuma Sunaoka (Konica Minolta) in the last 1000 m to kick past Cosmas Mwangi (Chugoku Denryoku) for the win in 13:32.42. The other Tokyo Olympian in the race, Yuta Bando (Fujitsu) was a distant 10th in 13:47.35. Nganga Waweru (Chugoku Denryoku) won the B-heat in 13:57.60 over teammate Taira Omori , 2nd in 13:59.19. Agnes Mukari (Kyocera) took the win in the women's 5000 m A-heat, easily dropping Tabitha Njeri (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) and Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) over the last lap to win in 15:22.90 after being part of a Kenyan lead trio the entire way. Mukari, Njeri and eventual 4th-placer N...

Held in the stadium where Japan saw its first-ever sub-10 clocking for 100 m, Saturday's new Athlete Night Games in Fukui meet produced four national records highlighted by an incredible men's long jump competition. Yuki Hashioka (Nihon Univ.) opened with a jump of 8.32 m +1.6 m/s that shattered the national record dating way back in 1992 by 7 cm. Hibika Tsuha (Toyo Univ.) followed him with a jump of 8.21 m + 2.0 m/s that put him into the all-time Japanese top three, then bettered that with an 8.23 m +0.6 m/s. Out of nowhere, Shotaro Shiroyama (Zenrin) knocked them both back in the record books on his third jump with a new national record of 8.40 m +1.5 m/s, the #2 mark in the world so far this year and only his second time clearing 8 m with a legal wind. Japanese fans were quick to compare the trio's results to this season's Diamond League meets. DL Shanghai 🥇8m24🥈8m16🥉8m14 DL Lausanne 🥇8m32🥈8m19🥉8m13 DL London 🥇8m37🥈8m32🥉8m11 DL Fukui 🥇8...

Day two of the 2019 Japanese National Track and Field Championships saw heavy rain hit the roofless Hakatanomori Field midway through the desultory late afternoon schedule, impacting the men's javelin throw, women's pole vault and women's long jump and leaving the track slick for the evening's main events. Just before the first wave of rain struck, Haruka Kitaguchi (Nihon Univ.), the only woman in the javelin throw to have cleared the Doha World Championships standard, opened with a national championships record 62.68 m that pretty much wrapped up her win. On her fourth throw Kitaguchi extended the record to 63.68 m, her final winning mark and securing her a place in Doha. In the final round of throws Yuka Mori (Nikoniko Nori) unexpectedly bettered Kitaguchi's first-round record with a PB of 62.88 m as the first few drops began to fall. By the time the men's javelin got started it was a full on downpour, with race officials desperately trying to push a ...