japan running news

Between international travel and illness we've been AWOL for a while, but it's time to catch up on what's been going on. The Hokuren Distance Challenge series rolled on with two more meets in Kitami on the 16th and Chitose on the 12th . After shaving 0.05 off the South Korean men's 1500 m NR last month at the HDC Shibetsu meet , Jae Ung Lee took the NR into new territory with a 3:36.01 win in Kitami. He was pushed all the way by Nanami Arai (Honda), who moved up to all-time Japanese #3 with a 3:36.58 for 2nd. The women's 3000 m in Kitami was fast too, with an 8:41.62 win from Caroline Kariba (Japan Post) and an all-time Japanese #5 8:48.90 PB from her injury-prone teammate Ririka Hironaka for 2nd. Margaret Ekalale (Toyota Jidoshokki) led the women's 1500 m in 4:09.64, with Na Yeon Park just missing the South Korean NR by 0.07 in 4:14.25 for 2nd. Ayano Shiomi (Iwatani Sangyo) inched back toward 2-flat to win the women's 800 m in 2:02.60, one of the f...

Day two of the Gumi Asian Athletics Championships got started with a pair of Japanese medals in the men's hammer throw . China's Wang Qi built up from an opening throw of 69.80 m, throwing further every attempt until his winning 74.50 m in the last round. Shota Fukuda sat in 2nd at 71.89 m after his second attempt, but teammate Tatsuto Nakagawa overtook him with a final throw of 71.97 m for silver, knocking Fukuda back to bronze. NR holder Misaki Morota took bronze in the women's pole vault , clearing 4.13 m. China's Niu Chunge dominated, tying Morota's NR of 4.48 m for gold, with Xu Huiqin taking silver at 4.23 m. Japan's Akari Osakaya was 6th at 3.98 m. One of Japan's anticipated golds didn't materialize in the men's 400 m , where Qatari Ammar Ismail Y Ibrahim outran NR holder Kentaro Sato for the win in 45.33. Sato held off Sri Lanka's Kalinda Kumarage for silver 45.50 to 45.55, with Fuga Sato 5th in 45.59. But the first Japanese gol...

The 2025 Asian Athletics Championships kick off today in Gumi, South Korea and run through Saturday. Meet schedule, entry lists and results will be on the meet site. Day One streaming is above, with other days here . The top tier of Japanese athletes like Ryuji Miura and Nozomi Tanaka who've already hit their qualifying marks for the Tokyo World Championships are mostly skipping the Asian Championships, giving the next tier of people a chance to get into Tokyo via an area title or score enough world rankings points to have a shot at making the Tokyo quota. From that point of view the race of the day is the men's 10000 m. Between people who've hit the standard, qualifiers via cross country, and area champions, the only person in the quota of 27 on points is 2024 Japanese national champ Jun Kasai . He was scheduled to run but is out with injury. Next in line is India's Gulveer Singh , who missed the standard by just 0.22 with a 27:00.22 at The Ten earlier this season. ...

The 2025 Asian Athletics Championships take place May 27-31 in Gumi, South Korea, a key chance for Japanese athletes to score points to help get them to September's Tokyo World Championships. Japan's team of 35 women and 36 men for the Asian Championships as of April 25 : Women 100 m Midori Mikase (Sumitomo Denko) - 11.37 Aiha Yamagata (Fukuoka Univ.) - 11.41 200 m Arisa Kimishima (DKS) - 23.16 Remi Tsuruta (Minami Kyushu Family Mart) - 23.17 400 m Nanako Matsumoto (Toho Ginko) - 52.29 800 m Rin Kubo (Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S.) - 1.59.93 Ayano Shiomi (Iwatani Sangyo) - 2:01.93 1500 m Yume Goto (Uniqlo) - 4:09.41 Tomoka Kimura (Sekisui Kagaku) - 4:09.79 5000 m Yuma Yamamoto (Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:12.97 Sora Shinozakura (Yokoyama T&F Assoc.) - 15:23.82 10000 m Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) - 30:39.71 Mikuni Yada (Edion) - 31:20.09 100 mH Mako Fukube (NKK) - 12.69 Yumi Tanaka (Fujitsu) - 12.83 400 mH Ami Yamamoto (Fujitsu) - 56.06 Miku Takino (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 56.81 3000 mSC...

Indoor track isn't really part of the vocabulary for Japanese middle and long distance athletes, but three turned in a string of new national records in the U.S. this weekend. At the BU David Hemery Valentine Invitational on Saturday in Boston, Olympic steepler Ryoma Aoki (Honda) ran a new mile national record of 3:54.84 to finish 4th in Heat 2, taking 1.17 off the previous 3:56.01 NR set in Boston last year by Kazuto Iizawa (Tokai Univ.). Like Iizawa's old mark, as the fastest mile time ever by a Japanese man Aoki's new record will count as both the indoor NR and outright NR. 6th in Heat 4, Keisuke Morita (Subaru) also got under 4 minutes with a 3:59.03, with Nanami Arai (Honda) 9th behind Morita in 4:00.45. Hibiki Obara (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) took the top spot in Heat 12 in 4:01.34. Sunday at the Millrose Games in New York, Nozomi Tanaka (New Balance) beat both her indoor 3000 m NR of 8:45.64 and outdoor NR of 8:40.84, splitting 8:40.05 en route in the women's ...

https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-indoor-tour/news/lyles-breaks-60m-new-balance-indoor-grand-prix-meeting-record-boston Japanese athletes competing in Boston this weekend included Abdul Hakim Sani Brown , 6.60 for 6th in the men's 60 m and  Nozomi Tanaka , 4:08.46 for 9th with an indoor NR in the 1500 m at New Balance , and four men led by Nanami Arai , 3:58.85, in the mile at the Bruce Lehane Scarlet and White Invitational .

Increasingly heavy rain throughout the day couldn't hold back four meet records at the 57th Mikio Oda Memorial Meet Saturday in Hiroshima, a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze label meet. On the field, NR holder Haruka Kitaguchi (JAL) set a new MR of 63.45 m on her 3rd attempt, then took that up to a winning 64.50 m on her 5th attempt. On the track, Rose Wangui of Sera H.S. won the U20 women's 3000 m by over 23 seconds in a MR 9:03.03, over 10 seconds under the old MR. Australian Georgia Winkcup took 5 seconds off the women's 3000 mSC MR, winning in 9:46.27 by almost 10 seconds over Manami Nishiyama (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo). The top 7 in the men's 1500 m all broke the old MR, with Nanami Arai (Honda) getting the win in 3:40.24 with the top 5 all under 3:41. In other races, quadruple U20 NR holder Keita Sato of 2023 Hakone Ekiden champ Komazawa University scored the first major win of his career on the track, holding back in the 1st half of the men's 500...

The Hokuren Distance Challenge series continued Saturday in Kitami , where the biggest news came in the women's 3000 m. National ekiden champion Meijo University 's Yuma Yamamoto took over 6 seconds off Masako Saito 's collegiate record dating back to 1994, running 8:52.19 for 6th. 19-year-old Agnes Mwikali (Kyocera) took the top spot in a PB 8:45.86, with high schoolers Janet Nyiva (Kurashiki H.S.) and Susan Kamotho (Oita Tomei H.S.) running impressive U20 times of 8:47.89 and 8:50.24. The top 9 were all under 9 minutes, very deep for a domestic Japanese race. 2019 World University Games half marathon gold medalist Yuka Suzuki (Daito Bunka Univ.) ran her 2nd PB for 5000 m this week, taking the top spot in the A-heat in 15:30.14 with a 2:59 final 1000 m. The men's 3000 m saw former 1500 m NR holder Nanami Arai (Honda) run a PB 7:48.50 for the win, moving him up to all-time Japanese #5. Hazuma Hattori (Toenec), younger brother of marathoner Yuma Hattori , was 2n...

The Hokuren Distance Challenge 20th Anniversary Meet , a last chance set up by the JAAF for Japanese athletes to hit 2022 World Championships standards ahead of Sunday's deadline, produced two new qualifier. Pacing the men's 5000 m, Justus Soget (Honda) kept going when the rest of the field dropped off and crossed the line in a new PB of 13:12.90, the 18th Kenyan to qualify for Worlds in the 5000 m. Men's 10000 m pacer Benard Koech (Kyudenko) did the same, getting under the standard in 27:20.66 and also becoming the 18th Kenyan to qualify. Half marathon great Alexander Mutiso (ND Software) almost joined Koech but came up just short in 27:29.85 for 2nd. Among Japanese men the performance of the day was former 1500 m NR holder Nanami Arai (Honda), who ran an all-time JPN #3 PB of 3:36.63 for the win, short of the Worlds standard but adding further to the incremental step up this season for Japanese middle distance as a whole. Hironori Tsuetaki (Fujitsu) gave the 8:22.00...

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...

Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko) opened the first day of the 2022 National Track and Field Championships in Osaka by becoming the first athlete at Nationals to score a place on the team for next month's World Championships. Saying post-race that he'd run the 5000 m envisioning the semis at Worlds, Endo hung back in the early stages, moved up to cover a mid-race move by Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu), then kicked away with ease in the last 1000 m to take the win in 13:22.15. Combined with his 13:10.69 in April it was enough to land him on the team. Olympian Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu) was 2nd in 13:30.15, enough to move up the world rankings but still short of what he'd need to break into what's left of the quota places. Kanta Shimizu (Subaru) came up from the chase pack for 3rd in 13:31.51, with the next 7 all under 13:40. Shiojiri ended up 9th in 13:40.99, with Takuma Sunaoka (Konica Minolta), sub-13:20 this season, last in 14:53.51. NR holder Naoto Tobe (JAL) was a DNS in...

The weekend's main action took place overseas, most of it at the Portland Track Festival . Men's indoor 1500 m national record holder  Nanami Arai  (Honda) made the biggest news, breaking the 2004-era outdoor 1500 m national record by 0.37 with a 3:37.05 for 12th. Arai is still over two seconds off the Olympic qualifying standard, but progress is progress and a national record in one of Japanese athletics' weak spots was a welcome development. 5000 m national record holder Suguru Osako  (Nike), scheduled to run the marathon at the Olympics, turned some heads by doubling in two heats of 10,000 m, winning the first heat in 27:56.44 and taking 2nd in the second heat in 29:04.28. 2020 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Yuya Yoshida  (GMO) went under 28 minutes for the first time, taking 3rd in the first heat in 27:58.68, His teammate Yuki Kawasaki  was a DNF. Indoor 5000 m national record holder Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko) had a decent comeback from his most re...

Japanese athletes were busy on the track overseas this weekend. At Friday's Stumptown Twilight meet in Portland, indoor mile Asian record holder  Nanami Arai (Honda) took 2nd in the men's 1500 m in 3:39.58, his second time this season breaking 3:40. It used to be a rarity to see a Japanese man clear 3:40, something that happened once every couple of years, but so far this season four Japanese men have done it a total of six times. If the distance had even a fraction of the prestige of the Hakone Ekiden, or of that it has in the U.S., there's no doubt there'd be more. Speaking of distances with prestige, on the first day of London's Muller Anniversary Games Diamond League spectacular Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) became the third Japanese man to join the sub-10 club, running 9.98 (+0.5 m/s) for 4th in the men's 100 m final. Koike also ran 2nd on the Japanese men's 4x100 m relay team, which clocked a season best 37.78 for 2nd despite featuring only two r...

The second meet in the 2019 Hokuren Distance Challenge series took place July 9 in Fukagawa, Hokkaido. Masaki Toda (Sunbelx) ran an all-time Japanese #2 mark of 3:37.90 to win the men's 1500 m A-heat , a solid performance to follow up his 1500 m national title at last month's National Championships. But, missing the Japanese national record for 1500 m by just 0.48 seconds he couldn't help being disappointed, saying, "I was optimistic about how close I could get. I guess this is just the limit of my ability right now." After former New Year Ekiden national champion Nissin Shokuhin scaled back its team this season Toda moved to the up-and-coming Sunbelx corporate team. In the middle of this twist of fate Toda has found his way. "I've been thinking a lot about how to change myself," he said. "It looks like I'm finally on the right path." Translator's note: A few hours after Toda's run, National Championships 3rd-placer Nan...

Running at the same meet where 2019 Hakone Ekiden champion Tokai University 's  Ryoji Tatezawa  broke the indoor mile national record last year, Tokai graduate  Nanami Arai (Honda) ran an Asian area record 3:56.60 for the win at Sunday's Boston University Last Chance Invitational. A teammate of half marathon national record holder Yuta Shtiara , Arai outkicked Olympic medalist Nick Willis  to record the fastest-ever mile indoor or outdoor by a Japanese athlete and take 0.45 off the Asian indoor record set way back in 1993 by Qatar's Mohamed Suleiman . Yasunari Kusu (Ami AC) was 11th in 4:07.21. Returning to the B.U. track two weeks after breaking the 5000 m indoor national record at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational , Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko) came up well short of Suguru Osako 's 3000 m indoor NR of 7:45.62, running 8:02.43 for 3rd. Boston University Last Chance Invitational Boston, U.S.A., 2/24/19 complete results Men's Mile 1. Nanami Arai (H...

http://sports.yahoo.co.jp/sports/athletic/all/2015/columndtl/201507270006-spnavi?page=1 translated and edited by Brett Larner videos by toyosina2008 and botwinner When Kota Murayama (Team Asahi Kasei), who won the men's 5000 m at June's National Championships , graduated from Josai University this spring, he left with these words: "Looking back on my four years of university, the thing I'm most proud of is running 3:39.56 my senior year.  When I entered university my goal was to run 3:45, so I never imagined I'd run in the 3:30s.  It makes me really happy to have gotten faster than I expected of myself."  Murayama's 3:39.56 was the fastest Japanese men's time last year and the first time in three years that a Japanese runner had broken 3:40. With the 5000 m as his main focus, Murayama's view that the 1500 m was just something to help him get stronger never faltered, but given that he calls his 1500 m result "the thing I'm most p...

by Brett Larner click here for Day One and Day Three results videos by 陸上競技動画集 and naoki620 Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Team Asahi Kasei) joined the list of athletes scoring guaranteed places on the Beijing World Championships with a solo 28:18.53 win in the men's 10000 m on Day Two of the Japanese National Track and Field Championships June 27 at Niigata's Big Swan Stadium.  Past 1500 m and 5000 m national champion Yuichiro Ueno (DeNA) and Kenyan pacer William Malel (Team Honda) took it out fast with a 2:41 opening 1000 m, 26:50 pace, before settling down, with Yuta Shitara (Team Honda), 27:42.71 last month in Nobeoka, leading the main pack several seconds back.  Shitara did much of the work once the pack regained contact, but in the second half Yoroizaka abruptly surged and pulled away to run alone all the way to the finish. Shitara and Malel likewise pulled away from the pack, Shitara finishing alone in 28:31.32.  Former Hakone Ekiden fan favorite Akinobu Muras...