japan running news

The 2026 National High School Championships wrapped Wednesday. It's been a big season for the high school girls' 100 m hurdles, with 6 of the 10 fastest-ever times by Japanese high school girls having been run across 5 different races since May 29. A bit surprisingly, only one of those 6 made the final at high school Nationals, but Yui Yoshinaga (Nagasaki Nichidai H.S.) showed her quality with a 13.44 win by 0.31, 0.11 off her all-time #7 mark of 13.33 from June despite a -2.1 m/s headwind. Koki Takajo (Miyazaki Nishi H.S.) took the boys' 110 mH in 13.90 (-1.2) and Yutaro Takenobu (Fukodai Joto H.S.) the boys' 3000 mSC in 8:48.64. The boys' shot put saw the biggest performance of the day, as Takara Ogaki (Atsuma H.S.) threw a 18.62 m PB on his 4th attempt, enough for the win by 90 cm and landing him at all-time Japanese #3 on the high school lists. The day's other field event titles went to Yukiya Izutani (Oji Kogyo H.S.), 5.10 m in the boys' pole vaul...

The star of the 2nd-to-last day of the 2026 National High School Championships was Niko Nozawa (Kofu Minami H.S.). Already all-time #7 on the Japanese high school girls' triple jump lists, on her 5th attempt Nozawa equalled her PB with a 12.88 m (+1.2) jump. That was enough to get both the win and a new meet record, the third event so far to see a new MR at this year's championships. Takara Ogaki (Atsuma H.S.) took the boys' discus throw at 52.24 m, with the 800 m titles going to Hitomi Imaeda (Chukyodai Chukyo H.S.) in the girls' race in 2:06.74 and Reki Soda (Sapporo Nichidai H.S.) in 1:50.20 in the boys' race. In relays, Chiba teams dominated the 4x100 m. Shiritsu Kashiwa H.S. edged Shiritsu Funabashi H.S. 45.41 to 45.64 to win the girls' race, but the Shiritsu Funabashi boys went one better with a win over Kyoto powerhouse Rakunan H.S. 39.60 to 39.72. The National High School Championships wrap up Wednesday. National High School Championships Day 6 H...

Only 5 finals happened on the fifth day of the 2026 National High School Championships , but in the girls' pole vault Kiyora Matsuura (Kumiyama H.S.) turned in the second meet record of the championships so far. Having already cleared 4.10 m to move up to all-time high school #4 in May, Matsuura had her sights on the 4.16 m high school record. With nobody else going higher than 3.90 m Matsuura cleared 4.00 m and 4.05 m on her first attempts, then passed on 4.10 m to go straight to 4.17 m. But it wasn't to be, and her 4.05 m stood as the new MR, at least until her senior year next year. Toma Tabushi (Shiritsu Funabashi H.S.) jumped 15.64 m (+0.2) to win the boys' triple jump, Hikaru Mizuno (Yashiro H.S.) taking the boys' hammer throw with a 64.63 m on his final attempt. On the track, the 200 m titles went to Nao Yamada (Shiritsu Kashiwa H.S.) in the girls' race in 23.91 (-0.8) and Randi Tsukamoto (Hoshigaya H.S.) in 20.95 (-1.2) in the boys' race. National Hi...

Day 4 of the 2026 National High School Championships saw this year's first meet record. In a breakaway race Bilith Boi (Sapporo Yamanote H.S.) dropped the rest of the lead quartet to take the boys' 5000 m in a 13:34.53 MR, outrunning crosstown rival Sei Yoshida (Tokaidai Sapporo H.S.) whose 13:36.34 was the fastest-ever by a Japanese-born runner at Nationals. 3rd-placer Kogo Yonenaga (Kagoshima Kogyo H.S.) just made it under 13:40 too in 13:39.86, with Kemboi Kiprop (Kurashiki H.S.) dropping off for 4th in 13:42.76. In a season that's already seen a girls' heptathlon high school NR from Sawa Okada , Mirei Eguchi (Tokaidai Sagami H.S.) stayed solid throughout the second day of the heptathlon to win in a 5447 PB. That was enough to move her up to all-time #3 on the Japanese high school lists behind Okada's 5559 from May and previous record holder Meg Hemphill 's 5519. The girls' 400 mH final had great times up front too. Yuna Kusuda (Kagoshima Joshi H.S...

In maybe the most competitive event so far at the 2026 National High School Championships , Chihiro Obata (Iida H.S.) took the win in the boys' 5000 m race walk in 20:07.28 by 3 seconds over Yuki Kaida (Chuodai Yokohama H.S.) and other 3 seconds over Koya Hayashi (Tosu Kogyo H.S.) - 20:13.12. Right behind Hayashi, the next 3 were all under 20:17 and 2 more under 20:28, with almost everyone in the top 15 clocking a new PB. Impressive given the hot and humid summer conditions. Girls' 3000 m winner Mirriam Njeri (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) also impressed, putting 7 seconds on Nami Kawakami (Nagano Higashi H.S.) to win in 9:02.42. Other winners included Yui Yoshinaga (Nagasaki Nichidai H.S.), 11.57 (+0.7) in the girls' 100 m, Sekito Matsushita (Shizuoka H.S.), 10.27 (+0.7) in the boys' 100 m, Nana Ishihara (Hakuodai Ashikaga H.S.), 6.31 m (+1.1) in the girls' long jump, and Rinoa Akagi (Shigakudai Kagawa Nishi H.S.), 50.35 m for the win in the girls' javelin throw. ...

Day 2 of the 2026 National High School Championships saw dominant wins in both the girls' and boys' 400 m finals, with heavy favorite Haru Balogun (Ichikawa H.S.) winning the girls' race by over a second in 53.74 and Kodai Okumura (Saikyo H.S.) taking the boys' race by almost as much in 46.82. 4th-fastest in the qualifying rounds, Aika Murai (Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S.) outran Rikka Kuroda (Sendai Ikuei H.S.), the younger sister of collegiate marathon record holder Asahi Kuroda for the win 4:23.62 to 4:24.10, Haru Azuma (Suma Gakuen H.S.) holding off Moe Imon (St. Catalina Gakuen H.S.) for 3rd in 4:24.21. Also 4th-fastest in qualifying, Sei Yoshida (Tokaidai Sapporo H.S.) took the boys' title in 3:44.31 over top-ranked Sota Iihoshi (Chiben College H.S.) and Kain Inagaki (Rakunan H.S.). Mio Toshida (Kasukabe Joshi H.S.) held off Hikari Osaka (Shiritsu Nishinomiya H.S.) by 2 seconds to win a close girls' 5000 m race walk in 22:33.27. Reon Kitamura (Raku...

The 2026 National High School Championships started Thursday in Otsu, Shiga. Finals on the opening day were limited to boys' events, with Rintaro Sasho (Bunan H.S.) taking the high jump with a 2.07 m clearance and Issa Matsumoto (Morimura Gakuen H.S.) the javelin throw at 64.77 m. Reon Kitamura got Kyoto's Rakunan H.S. off to a good start, leading Day 1 of the boys' octathlon by 21 points with a score of 3157. Rakunan also did well in the boys' 1500 m heats, with 3 runners, Koki Ishihara , Kain Inagaki and Yuma Tanaka , making the final. Sota Iihoshi (Chinen Gakuen H.S.) was the fastest qualifier with a 3:48.23 to lead Heat 2, while Taro Yoshida (Tottori Johoku H.S.) and Yuki Kita (Tokushima Kagaku Gijitsu H.S.) advanced on protest after a collision in Heat 1. Kana Inoue (Yamagata Johoku H.S.) led the girls' 1500 m final qualifiers in 4:23.01 in Heat 3. Joto H.S. was the only school to advance more than one runner, with Riona Tateishi and Sarina Tateishi ...

photo © 2025 Victah Sailer/PhotoRun, all rights reserved Last weekend's Sydney Marathon featured one breakthrough performance that was kind of low in the mix. Running his first marathon outside Japan, 25-year-old Masato Arao negative split a 2:07:42 PB, moving up fast over the last 10 km to pass Eliud Kipchoge and finish 6th. With the Sydney course estimated to be about 2 minutes slow with tough hills in the early going, that meant Arao's run was about equal in quality to all-time Japanese #5, the only better marathon by a Japanese man outside Japan being Yohei Ikeda 's 2:05:12 for 6th in Berlin last fall. It was a pretty amazing breakthrough for someone who never made his college team's starting varsity lineup and a year ago was working full-time in his hometown and running for fun. Born and raised way up north in Yamagata, Arao showed a bit of promise at Sakata Minami H.S. , running the First Stage at the National High School Ekiden his first year in 2016 and maki...

Having set an U18 world record of 10.00 in July's National High School Championships men's 100 m, 16-year-old Sorato Shimizu (Seiryo H.S.) held a public practice session in Kanazawa, Ishikawa. "I'm going for sub-10 while I'm still in high school," he said, indicating that he is aiming even higher. "I'm doing what I can to get there." The 2-hour public practice session focused on elements of motion. Although Shimizu is only 164 cm, he stands out for having proportionately long limbs and a dynamic running form. The up-and-coming new star of Japanese men's sprinting commented, "I want to work on movement focused on my hips. I think I can still improve my stride." Shimizu's performance at the National High School Championships got noticed not only in Japan but all around the world. German media even attended the session to interview him. "I want to become internationally competitive, so I hope a lot of people will get to find...

Japan's National High School Championships took place this weekend in Hiroshima and produced record-breaking performances across events despite hot conditions. Across the first two days of the Championships Kiichi Miyashita (3rd yr., Shiritsu Funabashi H.S.) set new high school and meet records in the boys' heptathlon with a final score of 6325 that far surpassed the old record of 6264. Miyashita's strongest events were the sprints, where he ran 10.79 (+1.2) in the 100 m and 48.08 in the 400 m, with his weakest events being the shot put, 12.91 m, and high jump, 1.86 m. Felix Muthiani (3rd yr., Yamanashi Gakuin H.S.) set a meet record 3:39.20 to win the boys' 1500 m , holding off Haruki Niizuma (3rd yr., Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) to 2nd in 3:40.83. Muthiani's record was a data point in favor of speculation by Saku Chosei H.S. head coach Masaru Takamizawa last summer that the new restriction of non-Japanese athletes to the shortest stage at the National High School...

A set of identical triplets made the final in the Niigata Prefecture High School Championships 5000 m, their last big showdown with each other. All three talked about the way they were looking at the big race at Niigata's Denka Big Swan Stadium. The Sato triplets all ran track and field in elementary school in Nagaoka, but when they went to junior high school they all opted to play basketball instead. Their sister, also a twin, was the manager of the track and field team at Chuetsu H.S. and gave them tips on training like hill repeats and running on undulating roads in their neighborhood, and while focusing on basketball they coached themselves to become better runners. Five years later they are now in their final year of high school. Yuto Sato runs for Chuetsu H.S., while Hiroto Sato and Oto Sato opted for Nippon Bunri H.S. . It was the first, and last, time for them to all face each other in the same race at the prefectural level. All three live in school dorms, their family...

The 38th Suffolkland Shibetsu Half Marathon took place July 13. Surugadai University 's Kio Furuhashi took the men's race in 1:02:36. His time was a new PB by 32 seconds. A graduate of Iga Hakuho H.S. in Mie, Furuhashi made the National High School Championships in the 1500 m and 5000 m his 2nd year, and ran in the National High School Ekiden two years in a row. At Surugadai he has run at Kanto Regionals and the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai since his first season, making his debut at the Hakone Ekiden itself this past January with an 18th-place finish on the Third Stage. Takuya Hanyu (Toyota Boshoku) was 2nd in 1:02:45, with Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:02:50. Miku Fukuda (Ehime Ginko) won the women's race in 1:14:37. Complete results available here . source article: https://www.rikujyokyogi.co.jp/archives/176217 translated by Brett Larner

An Olympian in the marathon at the Tokyo Olympics, Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) announced on his social media that he has entered Waseda University 's Graduate School of Sport Science with the start of the new academic year this week. A graduate of Mie's Ueno Kogyo H.S. , Nakamura went to Komazawa University before joining Fujitsu in 2015. His senior year of high school he was 3rd overall and 2nd Japanese in the 5000 m at the National High School Track and Field Championships, and in the fall the same year he ran what was at the time the 7th-fastest high school mark ever, 13:50.38. At Komazawa he scored four individual stage wins across the three big university ekidens. In 2019 he won the MGC Race, Japan's marathon trials for the Tokyo Olympics, where he was 62nd in 2:22:23. Nakamura indicated that he would be studying "top sports management" under professor Takeo Hirata . "I'll be balancing competition and academics," Nakamura wrote. "I'm r...

Men's 800 m national record holder Ko Ochiai , 18, a 3rd-year at Shiga Gakuen H.S. , will go to ekiden powerhouse Komazawa University after his graduation in March. Ochiai won this year's National Championships 800 m in June, and at July's National High School Championships he ran a 1:44.80 NR to win for the second year in a row. His time there was almost 1 second under the old record of 1:45.75 set by Sho Kawamoto in 2014 and equalled by Hiroki Minamoto in 2021. In August he became the first Japanese athlete to make a World U20 Championships 800 m final, winning bronze. Hope are high that he will continue to lead Japanese middle distance into new territory. Ochiai's immediate goal is to make the Tokyo World Championships next year. After coming back from the World U20 Championships he told reporters, "I want to become someone who can make the final and go for a medal, not someone who is just targeting making the team." Regarding the 1:44.50 qualifying stan...

After missing the men's 800 m national record by 0.07 at last month's National Championships, 17-year-old Ko Ochiai of Shiga Gakuen H.S. made history as the first Japanese man to break 1:45 with a 1:44.80 NR to win today's National High School Championships 800 m. Ochiai got lucky when Seita Kikuchi (Morioka Daiyon H.S.) took it out fast, going through 200 m just under 25 seconds and hitting 400 m in 52. Ochiai went to the front a step past 400 m, but he got another big break when Felix Muthiani (Yamanashi Gakuin H.S.) surged past him just before 600 m. That forced him to keep working, and Ochiai pulled even again with 50 m to go. Both went way under Ochiai's 1:45.82 high school record from Nationals last month , Ochiai cutting 0.95 off the senior national record in 1:44.80 and Muthiani, 19, next in an almost 4-second PB of 1:45.10. In an interesting article in mid-June , national champion Saku Chosei H.S. head coach Masaru Takamizawa speculated that the controve...

On the final day of the Hokushinetsu Region National High School Championships qualifier Sunday at Niigata's Denka Big Swan Stadium, Saku Chosei H.S. 3rd-year Tetsu Sasaki won the boys' 3000 m steeplechase in 8:39.15, the 2nd-fastest time ever by a Japanese-born high schooler. A day earlier Sasaki had run 9:06.93 in his qualifying heat. In the final he was out fast from the gun, but although he missed both the high school record of 8:32.12 set by Saku Chosei teammate Soma Nagahara and Nagahara's 8:36.06 meet record at last year's Hokushinetsu Regionals, Sasaki's time took over 10 seconds off the 8:50.04 PB he set at May's Nagano Prefecture High School Championships, the race in the video above. It also made him the fourth Japanese-born high schooler to break 8:40 in the 3000 mSC, just bettering the former high school record of 8:39.37 set by Tokyo Olympics 7th-placer and future national record holder Ryuji Miura . Born in Aichi, Sasaki joined the TSM club t...

6th in the 1500 m at the last World U20 Championships, Yuya Sawada of Hamamatsu Shiritsu H.S. has achieved the required score on the English test needed for her to enter Louisiana State University . Sawada was 5th in the 1500 m at the National Junior High School Championships her 3rd year at Hosoe J.H.S. while still a member of the school's basketball team. She started running seriously in 2021 during her first year of high school and made it to the National High School Championships in the 3000 m that year. Her second year she made the 1500 m final at the National Track and Field Championships, placing 10th, then went on to take 6th at the Cali World U20 Championships in Colombia in 4:12.87, the 2nd-fastest time ever by a high schooler. Selected as an athlete with international potential, Sawada was later named to the JAAF's Diamond Athlete support program, receiving education in areas like leadership and English. Her performance at the World U20 Championships attracted the...

On Sept. 1 the Asahi Kasei  men's corporate team announced on its social media that Yuki Iwai , 40, has been named assistant coach. A native of Chiba, Iwai was the top Japanese finisher and 2nd overall in the 2000 National High School Championships 5000 m while at Narita H.S.  The same year he also took 2nd in the Junior 5000 m at the National Sports Festival. At Nihon University  Iwai became a regular on its starting ekiden team right from the season-opening Izumo Ekiden his first year, helping lead Nihon to win Izumo a year later. His fourth year he ran the Hakone Ekiden's highly competitive Second Stage, placing a strong 6th. At Asahi Kasei Iwai won the 10000 m at the 2009 National Championships. His time of 28:19.25 cleared the qualifying standard for that summer's Berlin World Championships, where he represented Japan. After that he suffered a series of injuries that led to his retirement after the 2014 National Corporate Half Marathon. He became a regular office wor...

Following yesterday's mishap in the opening heats , Soma Nagahara (Saku Chosei H.S.) delivered the performance of this year's National High School Track and Field Championships. Straight to the front form the guy, Nagahara broke 3000 mSC national record holder Ryuji Miura 's high school NR by over 7 seconds to win the national title in 8:32.12. Still a senior in high school, that time was also good enough to rank him at all-time #3 on the Japanese U20 lists and #3 in the world this year among U20 athletes. And it wasn't just him. The race as a whole was the best high school steeple ever, with 2nd-placer Zen Kuroda (Tamano Konan H.S.) running 8:40.71 for #4 on the high school all-time lists, 3rd-placer Taisei Endo (Saku Chosei H.S.) 8:45.47 for #6, and 4th-placer Oju Tsujimoto (Hamamatsu Kaiseizan H.S.) 8:46.85 for #8. By comparison, the American H.S. NR for the 3000 mSC is 8:47.04. Still in college, Miura really looks to have opened the door for other Japanese athl...