japan running news

Waseda University's Atsushi Shobu added another medal to Japan's so far petite haul on day 3 of athletics competition at the Chengdu World University Games . Running the men's 3000 mSC, Shobu sat at the back of the lead pack throughout the race. In 5th at the bell, Shobu moved up into 3rd on the back straight, then was overtaken by Germany's Nick Jager heading into the curve. Both passed Czech Damian Vich and kept up their duel for 2nd until the final obstacle, where Shobu hesitated and lost ground. Jens Mergenthaler took gold in 8:38.42, Jager making it a German 1-2 with a silver in 8:40.53 to Shobu's 8:40.84 for bronze. The men's 400 m final was maybe the race of the day, with the top 6 all running new PBs and Portugal's Joao Coelho and Australian Reece Holder both going under the WUG record in a photo finish. Coelho was timed at 44.782 for gold, with Holder officially running 44.785 for silver. Romanian Mihai-Sorin Dringo took bronze in a PB of 45.2...

Josai University's Yuito Yamamoto brought Japan its first medal of the Chengdu World University Games , taking bronze in the only final with a Japanese athlete on the second day of athletics competition, the men's 10000 m. In a field of 17 starters Ugandan Dismas Yeko delivered the performance of the day, breaking 29 minutes to take gold in 28:59.25. Sezgin Atac of Turkey was relatively close behind in 29:06.62, leading Yeko and Ugandan Seth Akampa until Akampa was abruptly stopped by an official with 5 laps to go and disqualified, then losing touch over the final 1000 m. Yamamoto spent most of the race in 4th, then was suddenly bumped up to 3rd when Akampa was disqualified. He finished 16 seconds back from Atac in 29:22.95 for bronze over Kenyan Kelvin Kimtai Chepsigor . Yamamoto is scheduled to double in Sunday's half marathon. In semifinals, Hosei University's Naohiro Jinushi won the men's 400 m SF1 in 45.90, along with SF3 winner Reece Holder the only athl...

After years of pandemic-era delays, the Chengdu World University Games finally got underway July 27, with the first day of athletics competition happening Aug. 1. In the only one of the two finals featuring Japanese athletes on the 1st, athletes from China and Turkey swept the top four spots in the women's 10000 m. China's Yuyu Xia  closed with a 64-second last lap to take gold in 33:48.35, Turkey going 2-3 with Yayla Kilic Gonen scoring silver in 34:05.03 and Fatma Karasu bronze in 34:10.97. China's Xiuzhen Ma held off Risa Yamazaki of Nittai University for 4th 34:30.14 to 34:35.96, with Tomo Muramatsu of Ritsumeikan University 9th in 35:17.54. In women's qualifying rounds, Ritsumeikan's Ami Yamamoto took 3rd in Heat 2 of the 400 mH in 57.82 to advance. Aoyama Gakuin University's Yu Ishikawa was 3rd in Heat 3 of the 100 m in 12.02 -1.0 m/s and also advanced. Tsukuba University's Yuna Miura was 2nd in Heat 5 in 11.59 +0.4 m/s to join Ishikawa in the s...