japan running news

Day 7 of the Tokyo World Athletics Championships was the lightest yet for the home team with only 4 athletes in competition, but it provided the biggest disappointment for Japanese fans. In the women's javelin throw, defending world and Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi , working her way back from an injury, was eliminated in the qualification round after throwing only 60.38 m on her 2nd attempt. That put her at 8th in group A behind even teammate Momone Ueda 's 60.49 m 2nd attempt, and with the top 6 in group B all clearing 61 m both Kitaguchi and Ueda were out. The third Japanese woman on the squad, Sae Takemoto threw 55.11 m for 15th in group B and likewise did not move on. It's notable that Kitaguchi's training partner Petra Sicakova was also way off her best form with a 51.90 m best throw for 18th in group B. The only other Japanese athlete competing was Nagiya Mori in the men's 5000 m Heat 1. Mori ran 13:29.44 for 15th, well off the top 8 placing he needed...

Another short day at the World Athletics Championships for the home team, with a total of 4 athletes competing in only 2 events on day 7. 19:30 / 21:00 - Women's Javelin Throw Qualification Haruka Kitaguchi (JAL) - 66.13 m -  1st, 2024 Nationals Momone Ueda (Zenrin) - 62.20 m -  1st, Nationals Sae Takemoto (Orico) - 60.51 m -  3rd, Nationals Prognosis :The defending Olympic and world champion, Kitaguchi is coming back from injury. Her last 2 Diamond League meets were disastrous, then only average, but at least she's trending in the right direction. The only question is whether she's had enough time to get to full operational status. Ueda and Takemoto will have a tough time making it through the qualification round, so if Kitaguchi is far from peak form there's the prospect of no Japanese women in the final. 20:05 - Men's 5000 m Heats Nagiya Mori (Honda) - 13:15.07 -  2nd, Nationals Prognosis : Mori has been running well, by Japanese standards, all season, the o...

A few updates as we get near the bottom of the barrel for qualifying for next month's Tokyo World Athletics Championships. The Asian Throwing Championships in Mokpo, South Korea brought some clarity down around the cusp for qualification in a few events. The biggest result from the Japanese point of view was in the men's javelin throw, where National Championships 3rd-placer Gen Naganuma , currently the 2nd Japanese man in line for a roll down spot behind Rin Suzuki , threw 78.60 m for 2nd. Based on the current Road to Tokyo rankings that was enough to move him up into 35th in the 36-deep javelin quota, bumping down Suzuki who has been in poor form the last two months and threw only 68.85 m for 11th in Mokpo. Sri Lankan Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage won at 82.05 m. The #2 woman on the Japanese women's javelin squad, Momone Ueda threw a PB and championships record 62.20 m for the win over Sri Lankan Dilhani Lekamge , 2nd at 57.53 m. #3 Japanese woman Sae Takemoto was 4th at ...

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...

We've been busy the last few days working with the Mongolian marathon team at the Paris Olympics. Catching up on the Japanese national team's performances over the last 3 days of athletics competition, the big news was of course world champion Haruka Kitaguchi scoring Japan's first and only medal in Paris, gold in the javelin on her first throw. In the final evening session on Saturday Kitaguchi came out swinging with a season best 65.80 m first throw that left the rest of the field fighting for silver. South African Jo-Ane Van Dyk came closest to Kitaguchi's mark at 63.93 m, just holding off Czech Nikola Ogrodnikova for silver by 25 cm. Japan's other javelin finalist Momone Ueda was 10th with a season best 61.64 m throw. Kitaguchi's gold was the first-ever for a female Japanese athlete in the javelin throw and the first by any Japanese athlete since Mizuki Noguchi in the Athens Olympics marathon. Kitaguchi was seriously burned by the JAAF's massive 90%...

Day 7 of athletics at the Paris Olympics kicked off with one of Japan's few chances at a medal, the marathon race walk mixed relay. Masatora Kawano took it out hard, leading early with honorary Japanese team member Evan Dunfee of Canada and staying with the pack once caught. 20 km NR holder Kumiko Okada took over for the 2nd half of the race but soon lost touch and drifted back to her final finishing position of 8th in 2:55:40, just over 4 minutes behind bronze medalists Australia . Spain took gold in 2:50:31, with Ecuador beating Australia by 16 seconds for silver in 2:51:22. Japan's B-team of Kazuki Takahashi and Ayane Yanai was 13th in 2:58:08. 8th place for the A-team was far off a medal, but as another top 8 finish to go with those in the men's 20 km race walk it clicks a box in the JAAF's metrics for success at this Olympics.  Japan's best chance at an individual medal, 2023 world champion Haruka Kitaguchi led off with a 62.58 m throw that put her ov...

Getting stuck in the shinkansen cancelation headaches yesterday means we're a day late getting to the weekend's track roundup, but better late than never. At the top of the list, women's 100 mH national record holder Mako Fukube (NKK) took 0.04 off her own record to win in 12.69 (+1.2) at the All-Star Night Games in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa in her last race before the Paris Olympics. Other Paris team members won their races too: 4x400 m squad member Takuho Yoshizu (GK Line) took the win in the men's 400 m in 45.89. Men's 400 m hurdler Daiki Ogawa (Toyo Univ.) set a meet record 49.09 for the win. Sumire Hata (Sumitomo Denko) set a women's long jump MR of 6.61 m (+0.8). Marina Saito (Suzuki) and Momone Ueda (Zenrin) both threw over the old MR held by world champion and Paris teammate Haruka Kitaguchi , Saito getting the win with a final attempt of 58.45 m, Ueda next at 57.93 m and 3rd-placer Yuki Yamamoto (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) also going over the old MR at 57...

An update on standings for Japan's potential team at this summer's Paris Olympic Games a week out from the National Track and Field Championships. Final team nomination in most cases depends on a top 3 finish there, but as of this writing events where Japan could or will field three athletes having cleared the Olympic standard are the men's 110 mH, men's 400 mH, men's 20 kmRW and women's marathon. Other events that will or are likely to have a complete squad of three athletes include the men's 100 m, men's 200 m, men's 400 m, men's high jump, men's marathon, women's 5000 m, women's 10000 m, women's javelin throw, and women's 20 kmRW. Main changes from last week: Women's pole vault NR holder Misaki Morota won at the Harry Jerome Track Classic at 4.28 m, improving her spot in the Paris quota from 32nd to 31st. Momone Ueda won the Asian Throwing Championships women's javelin throw at 61.32 m, moving up from 23rd to 22n...

Day 5 of the Oregon 22 World Championships saw only two Japanese athletes in action, with Koki Ueyama and Shota Iizuka running the men's 200 m semifinals. Ueyama took 6th in SF 3 in 20.48 +0.3, with Iizuka bowing out in Heat 1 at 20.77 -0.1 for 7th. Day 6 kicked off with the women's javelin throw qualification round. Haruka Kitaguchi only threw once, but that was all it took for her to put herself at the top of the field at 64.32 m. Sae Takemoto also made it to the final with a 59.15 m throw on her second attempt. Wearing a heavy brace on her left knee and in visible pain, Momone Ueda somehow managed three throws. The best of them was only 50.70 m, putting her ahead of only two athletes who didn't manage any marks, but given the condition she seemed to be in Ueda's performance was one of the grittiest we've seen in Eugene. In the women's 5000 m heats, NR holder Ririka Hironaka took the same approach as in the 10000 m, going out on PB pace in front and tr...