japan running news

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 ...

Following this past weekend's National Championships, the JAAF has announced the complete lineup of 41 women and 45 men for September's Nagoya Asian Games national team. Times listed are athletes' 2025-26 best. Women 100 m Midori Mikase (Sumitomo Denko) - 11.33 Abigail Fuka Ido (Toho Ginko) - 11.35 200 m Abigail Fuka Ido (Toho Ginko) - 22.79 Aiko Iki (Osaka Gas) - 23.41 400 m Nanako Matsumoto (Toho Ginko) - 52.14 800 m Rin Kubo (Sekisui Kagaku) - 1:59.52 Ayano Shiomi (Iwatani Sangyo) - 2:01.01 1500 m Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 4:04.16 Mizuki Michishita (Sekisui Kagaku) - 4:10.48 5000 m Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 14:34.10 Yuma Yamamoto (Sekisui Kagaku) - 14;59.89 10000 m Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 30:54.40 Ririka Hironaka (Uniqlo) - 30:56.32 100 mH Hitomi Nakajima (Hasegawa) - 12.71 Mako Fukube (NKK) - 12.72 400 mH Honoka Aoki (Zenrin) - 55.92 Satsuki Umehara (Sumitomo Denko) - 56.22 3000 mSC Miu Saito (Panasonic) - 9:24.72 Manami Nishiyama (Mitsui...

The 102nd Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships continue Friday at Kanagawa's Sagamihara Gion Stadium. Streaming starts at 9:00 a.m. local time on the main feed above, with different camera angles on the secondary feed below. The first middle and long distance event on the day's schedule is the D2 men's 1500 m final at 13:00. #2-ranked Nao Kurihara (3rd yr., Josai Univ.) made it through with a 3:52.14 for 2nd in Heat 1. In the final his main competition will be Heat 2 winner Shunya Udagawa (2nd yr., Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) with a 3:44.03 best, and Udagawa's 3rd-year YGU teammate Soya Katayama and 4th-year teammate Kento Yamauchi . Ranked #4 in the final, Haruto Matsuo (1st yr., Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) could make the podium in his debut. All five women with 1500 m bests under 4:20 made the final at 13:15. Saki Katagihara (4th yr., Tsukuba Univ.) won Heat 1 in 4:26.10, Haruko Hosaka (4th yr., Nittai Univ.) took Heat 2 in 4:26.28, Yuzuha Sawai (4th yr.,...

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 ...

The 101st Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships continued Friday at Tokyo's National Stadium. The biggest news of the day was in the women's 1500 m final , where Saki Katagihara (Tsukuba Univ.) broke the 4:16.64 meet record set way back in 1997 by another Tsukuba athlete, Kumiko Okamoto , to win in 4:16.41. Okamoto had pressure from Mao Kogure (Juntendo Univ.) over the last lap but held her off in the home straight, Kogure running a PB 4:16.87 for 2nd and just missing hitting the old MR too. 3rd-placer Risa Yamazaki (Nittai Univ.) was also under 4:20 at 4:18.51, with collegiate record holder Mizuki Michishita (Rikkyo Univ.) 4th in 4:20.65. Another ancient MR fell in the D1 men's shot put . On his final attempt, favorite Hitoshi Okumura (Kokushikan Univ.) threw a PB 18.26 m for the win, 0.11 m further than the 1998-era meet record of 18.15 m by Yasuo Noguchi (Nihon Univ.). The top 4 all threw PBs. With his senior year having just begun Okumura is now ...

Japan's best collegiate meet returns to Tokyo's National Stadium for the first time since 2013, with the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships happening there over the next four days. The KGRR will be streaming the whole thing live, with entry lists and live results here . Highlights on Day One include: Just a 2nd-year at Aoyama Gakuin University , Yu Ishikawa is already looking like she has potential to break the 13-year-old collegiate record of 11.32 in the women's 100 m. Her best of 11.48 leads the way in the heats. Toyo University 1st-year Hiroki Yanagita leads the entries in the men's 100 m with a best of 10.22. Toyo is the favorite in the men's 400 m too, with 3rd-year Joseph Nakajima leading the entries at 46.09. Chuo University 4th-year Airi Oshima is ranked #1 in the women's 400 m at 54.25. 4th-year Kazuto Iizawa of Tokai University is the only man entered in the 1500 m heats with a best under 3:40, coming in with a 3:38.55, bu...