japan running news

  The Japanese men's 110 mH national record holder at 13.04 and a semifinalist in the Paris Olympics 110 mH, Shunsuke Izumiya (Sumitomo Denko) turned in the biggest performance at this year's National Corporate Track and Field Championships. Doing his annual shot at the long jump at Corporate Nationals, Izumiya beat his 2022 best of 8.00 m and last year's winning mark of 8.10 m with a new PB of 8.14 m (+0.7) on his first and only successful attempt. That was good enough to take the win over Hibiki Tsuha by 11 cm and moved Izumiya up to all-time Japanese #10 in the long jump. NR holder Shotaro Shiroyama (Zenrin) was 3rd with a first attempt jump of 7.81 m (+0.5). Other standout performances: Shoto Uno (Orico) got into the sub-10.1 club with a 10.09 (+1.4) win in the men's 100 m final. 400 m specialists Fuga Sato (Mizuno) and Kentaro Sato (Fujitsu) stepped down to the 200 m, beating Uno to go 1-2 in 20.67 (+0.4) and 20.79 with Uno 3rd in 20.90. Nanako Matsumoto (T...

Regarding the suspension of a former corporate league athlete for doping violations The action against former Aisan Kogyo corporate team athlete Rodgers Kwemoi of Kenya for violation of rules against anti-doping was recently finalized. The penalties imposed against Kwemoi that were announced on May 17 by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), an independent unit of World Athletics (WA), were as follows: Suspension from competition for a six-year period beginning 8 August, 2023 annulment of all competition results from 18 July, 2016 to 8 August, 2023 Details on the decision can be found at this link . In compliance with this ruling, all of Kwemoi's results in National Corporate Federation competitions during the specified period will be annulled. In addition, the Aisan Kogyo team results from ekidens in which Kwemoi competed for them will also be annulled. All official results will be updated to move individuals and teams that finished behind Kwemoi and Aisan Kogyo in these competit...

  The 2023 National Corporate Track and Field Championships wrapped up Sunday at Gifu's Nagaragawa Stadium. Two of the three recent sub-13:10 men in the 5000 m took the top positions, Joseph Karanja (Aichi Seiko) getting the win in 13:27.31 and Cosmas Mwangi (Chugoku Denryoku) 2nd in 13:27.94. Emmanuel Maru (Toyota Boshoku) was a close 3rd in 13:28.54, with Yuto Imae (GMO) the fastest Japanese placer in 13:39.47 for 9th. Favorite Judy Jepngetich (Shiseido) dropped another sub-15 to win the women's 5000 m in 14:57.63, with Esther Muthoni (Nitori) right behind her in 14:58.03. Susan Kamotho (Yamada Holdings) was 3rd in 15:04.73, with Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) the top Japanese finisher at 7th in 15:33.69. In other track results: In the men's 800 m, Daichi Setoguchi (Team SSP) won the national title in 1:48.81, Nozomi Tanaka (Team NB) taking the women's race in 2:03.98. 400 m national record holder Kentaro Sato (Fujitsu) won the men's 200 m fin...

  Summer seemed to finally break right on the autumnal equinox, just in time for the second day of the 2023 National Corporate Track and Field Championships in Gifu. Things kicked off with the women's 10000 m race walk, where Kaori Kawazoe (SDF Academy) took the national title in a leisurely 48:26.31 by 8 seconds over Nami Kumagai (Sekisho). The men's 10000 mRW didn't happen for another 7 hours, but it saw MR holder Koki Ikeda (Asahi Kasei) take the win in 38:46.81 with Ryo Hamanishi (Sunbelx) 8 seconds behind. WR holder Eiki Takahashi (Fujitsu) was 6th in 41:56.86, with Daisuke Matsunaga (Fujitsu) 8th in 42:50.60 in his final race before retiring and becoming an assistant coach at Toyo University . The men's 100 m heats saw some of the aging greats of Japanese men's sprinting back in action after sitting on the bench while younger talent represented in Budapest last month. NR holder Ryota Yamagata (Seiko) won H1 in 10.26 (+2.4), 2010 World U20 Championships...

  No surprises on the first day of the 2023 National Corporate Track and Field Championships at Gifu's Nagaragawa Stadium as Japan-based Kenyan women swept all three track finals. Janet Nyiva (Panasonic) won the expected one-on-one against Esther Wangui (Starts) in the junior women's 3000 m, coming up short of Rosemary Wanjiru 's meet record but still dipping under 9 minutes with an 8:58.03 for the win versus Wangui's 9:01.91. Kadogo Chebotibin (SID Group) was 3rd in 9:11.03 with Mitsu Ozaki (Sysmex) the top Japanese at 4th in 9:19.59. In the women's 1500 m, Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) and Esther Muthoni (Nitori) both went way under the meet record, Akidor scoring the win in 4:05.29 over 5 seconds under the old record and Muthoni 2nd in 4:06.42, 4 seconds under the record. Two athletes who left the 2022 National Corporate Women's Ekiden champion Shiseido team finished 3rd and 4th just off the record, Tomoka Kimura (Sekisui Kagaku) 3rd in 4:11.51 and W...

The National Corporate Track and Field Championships happen in Gifu over the next three days, a late-season meetup for non-distance runners in Japan’s corporate leagues and a chance for distance runners to see where they’re at after summer base training just before ekiden season kicks off. The entry lists always promise a lot that the start lists can’t deliver, and especially with the Asian Games starting next week it’s inevitable that a lot of the big names won’t really be there.  Complete meet schedule here . As of this writing only the distance event start lists have been released. The junior women’s 3000 m at 17:00 Friday is pretty much a head-to-head between Janet Nyiva (Panasonic), 8:49.32, and Esther Wangui (Starts), 8:53.21, the main question being whether they can hit Tokyo Marathon winner Rosemary Wanjiru ’s 8:48.44 meet record from 2014. The women’s 10000 m starts at 18:45 Friday and features Pauline Kamulu (Route Inn Hotels) as its top seed at 30:20.97. All sub-31...

The 70th National Corporate Track and Field Championships took place Friday through Sunday at Gifu Memorial Center Nagaragawa Field in Gifu. The performance of the meet happened Sunday, when Mako Fukube (NKK) broke her own women's 100 mH NR. Opening with a 13.00 (-1.5) meet record to win her qualifying heat, Fukube was back 3 hours later to run 12.73 (+1.1) in the final. That took 0.09 off the NR she set in the semifinals at July's Oregon World Championships, and put her under the qualifying standard for next summer's Budapest World Championships. Runner-up Masumi Aoki (77 Ginko) ran 13.03 in the final, 0.07 under the old MR, with Chisato Kiyoyama (Ichigo) just off the old MR at 13.12. A near-miss on another NR came in the women's 100 m. Mei Kodama (Mizuno) won her qualifying heat in 11.24 (+1.3), 0.18 under the 2001-era MR and just 0.03 from Chisato Fukushima 's 2010 NR of 11.21. Hopes were high that Kodama would get the NR in the final, but while her 11.39 (...

Streaming of day 3 of the National Corporate Track and Field Championships in Gifu starts with the women's 400 m hurdles at 10:00 a.m. Sunday local time and runs through the men's 5000 m fast heat at 17:40. Meet schedule and live results here . © 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Streaming of day 2 of the National Corporate Track and Field Championships in Gifu starts with the women's 10000 m race walk at 9:30 a.m. Saturday local time and runs through the men's 10000 m fast heat at 19:20. Meet schedule and live results here . © 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Like the National University Track and Field Championships two weeks ago, this long weekend's National Corporate Track and Field Championships come at a funny point in the season, after two months of road season base training in Hokkaido and right at the start of ekiden and overseas marathon season. Half the country is in Berlin this weekend and another chunk is at the new Okukuma Ekiden , a raced backed by Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University head coach Susumu Hara that brings together top high school, university and corporate league men's teams. But a lot of corporate leaguers will be lining up in Gifu for Corporate Nationals. Day 1 is being streamed live above starting at 15:25 Friday local time. The main events start at 15:30 with the first-round heats of the men's 100 m, featuring past 4x100 m national relay team members Shuhei Tada (Sumitomo Denko), Ryuichiro Sakai (Osaka Gas) and Shota Iizuka (Mizuno). The junior women's 3000 m at 16:30 has a pret...

Japan's never-ending outdoor track season rolls on this weekend with its last major meet, the 69th edition of the National Corporate Track and Field Championships at Osaka's Nagai Stadium. Running Friday through Sunday, the entry lists are heavy on members of the Tokyo Olympic team including men's 20 km race walk silver medalist Koki Ikeda  and bronze medalist Toshikazu Yamanishi , and three of the four members of Japan's 4x100 m relay team, national record holder Ryota Yamagata , Shuhei Tada , and Yuki Koike . The meet will be streamed live on the organizers' Youtube channel , with streaming scheduled for 17:00~19:00 local time Friday, 13:20~19:00 Saturday, and 13:10~18:00 Sunday. © 2021 Brett Larner, all rights reserved