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A close 2nd at December's National High School Ekiden , 90% of the members of the five-time national champion Omuta H.S. team in Fukuoka will transfer to Tottori Johoku H.S. in Tottori at the start of the new school year next month. The mass transfer comes as a backlash against Omuta's treatment of head coach Ken Akaike , 52, with most team members and parents choosing to continue running under Akaike following his move to Johoku. Akaike had resigned as head coach at Omuta in March, 2023 after it came out that he had used corporal punishment on team members. But many team members at the time and their parents asked him to continue, and he returned to a coaching position at the school after undergoing training. Effectively serving as head coach, he led the team at last December's National High School Ekiden where they finished 2nd in a close-fought battle that went all the way to the end. According to multiple sources, in November the month before the National High School ...

Last year Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S. won the National High School Ekiden boys' race for the first time in 6 years, its third time winning the national title. Ahead of its attempt to take its first-ever repeat win at this year's race in Kyoto on Dec. 22, on the day the school held an open practice session for the media it was sunny but windy at times, an unusually warm 17˚. Last year Saku Chosei won in 2:01:00 for the 7-stage, 42.195 km course with a team that included 6 runners with 5000 m bests under 14 minutes, a top-class time for high school runners. All the team members demonstrated their strength, each helping the team achieve the win. Out of the 10 runners on Saku Chosei's entry roster at this year's Nationals 5 have 5000 m bests in the 13-minute range, but even though that is slightly less than last year there is no doubt about the team's talent level. Its goal is to be the strongest, not just the fastest. 3 members of last year's winning team are b...

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...

The new Japanese men's 800 m NR of 1:44.80 by Ko Ochiai (Shiga Gakuen H.S.) and winning solo 2:00.81 meet record by Rin Kubo (Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S.) were the big stories at this year's National High School Track and Field Championships in Fukuoka, but there were a lot of other good results across the meet's five days. Jeremy Koga (Tokyo H.S.) set a new high school NR and meet record in the 110 m hurdles, winning the final in 13.59 (-0.7) after breaking them in the semifinals in 13.67 (-0.9). 2nd-placer Koki Takajo (Miyazaki Nishi H.S.) was also under the old records in 13.68. Another high school NR and meet record went down in the boys' high jump, where Kaisei Nakatani (Fukuoka Daiichi H.S.) cleared 2.24 m on his 2nd attempt. That beat future NR holder Naoto Tobe 's previous H.S. NR of 2.23 set back in 2009. Kei Wakana (Sano H.S.) broke the boys' 200 m meet record, running 20.61 (+0.1) to win the final. Manaka Matsui (Otsuka H.S.) took the girls'...

The Chuo Hatsujo corporate team has announced on its social media that Kengo Yajima is leaving its team. Born in 1996, Yajima is 27 years old. At Chiba's Shiritsu Funabashi H.S. he made the National High School Championships 5000 m and ran the Third Stage at the National High School Ekiden, contributing to Funabashi's 6th place finish. At Hosei University he ran both the Izumo Ekiden and Hakone Ekiden, anchoring Hosei at Hakone his 3rd year to bring them in for 6th overall. Joining Chuo Hatsujo in 2019, he ran 5000 m and 10000 m PBs of 14:15.09 and 29:12.15. He ran the New Year Ekiden national championships twice, placing 29th on the Fifth Stage in 2020 and 27th on the Seventh Stage in 2021. Most notably, he ran as a guide runner for blind corporate league athlete Shinya Wada , helping Wada break the marathon national record and medal on the track in the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics. "The last four years on the team have been a great and valuable experience," Yajima sa...

After an easy win in her heat on the first day of the National High School Track and Field Championships in Sapporo, defending girls' 1500 m champ Caroline Kariba (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.) dominated the final Thursday with a new high school national record of 4:06.54. In the early going Kariba had company from Jecinta Nyokabi (Hakuho Joshi H.S.), Pauline Wanjiku (Teikyo Nagaoka H.S.) and Sherry Drury (Tsuyama H.S.), but by the end her final margin of victory over Nyokabi was over 7 seconds. With Nyakobi 2nd in 4:13.93 Drury was close behind in 3rd in a PB of 4:15.50, the fastest time ever by a Japanese-born 10th grader. Given that the old record was set by current NR holder Nozomi Tanaka , you can imagine the kind of media reaction. In the boys' 1500 m final, Koshiro Tanimoto (Omuta H.S.) took the final in a home straight sprint finish again Koki Terada (Koku Gakuin Kugayama H.S.), 3:48.72 to 3:49.06. This year's 800 m U20 Asian champion Hironori Tachizako (Kagoshima ...

Since July 23 official track time trials have returned to Miyagi prefecture. Despite this summer's National High School Championships having been canceled local high school athletes have been training hard, and the work they put in has paid off with good results. On July 25 the 41st Sendai Long Distance Time Trials meet took place at Athlete Park Sendai Field in Sendai's Miyagino Ward. Sendai Ikuei H.S. 2nd-year Nanako Yonezawa 16, produced the biggest result of the day in the women's 1500 m. Last season as a first-year she won the Second Stage at the National High School Ekiden Championships, contributing to Sendai Ikuei's team victory. In the 1500 m she led from the early stages of the race, kicking off the last corner to take the win. Her time of 4:18.52 was a PB that broke the 25-year-old Miyagi prefecture high school record. It was also the fastest U18 time in the world this year and second-fastest U20 time by just 0.22. "My goal was to hit the Nationa...

On July 13 the JAAF officially confirmed earlier reports that the Seiko Golden Grand Prix meet originally scheduled to have been held in May will take place Aug. 23 at Tokyo's new Olympic Stadium. It will be the first track and field events staged at the rebuilt Olympic Stadium. As part of the World Athletics Continental Tour the Golden Grand Prix hosts some of the world's top international athletes every year, but amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis that is not possible this year and participants will be limited to athletes within Japan. Instead, the JAAF will offer some of the country's highest-potential high school talent the chance to compete in the meet against some of the biggest domestic names in hopes of making up for the cancelation of this year's National High School Championships. The meet program is still be finalized and will be announced when ready. The Golden Grand Prix will be held without spectators, but it will be broadcast by TBS and a livestr...

Two-time National High School Girls Ekiden champion Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. , alma mater of Tokyo Olympics marathon trials winner Honami Maeda , trained as a team June 16 at their home base in Osaka. Team members said, "We want to run Nationals again." This summer's National High School Track and Field Championships have already been canceled due to the effects of the coronavirus crisis. The National High School Ekiden takes place in Kyoto every December. Team captain Mahiru Kobayashi was nervous about the chances of it happening. "If things keep going like this I don't know what I'll do if the ekiden is canceled," she said. "I've put the last three years into my last Nationals. I really hope it's held." The Osaka Kunei girls resumed training as a team on June 15. "We can't take it to the next level alone," said Kobayashi. "But we can get there if we all work together." source article: https://ww...

On Apr. 26 it was announced that this year's National High School Championships have been canceled. Isao Yasuda , head coach of two-time National High School Ekiden champion Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S., can't how hard the situation has thrown him for a loop. "I've never experienced something like this before," he said. "As a coach, what is the right advice to give my students?" Yasuda said that while the team hasn't been able to do anything together while schools have been shut down for the last few weeks, its athletes have each been training on their own. "The National High School Ekiden is in December and that's one of our biggest goals, especially for our third-years," he said. "All we can do is believe that the race is going to be held." The city of Osaka has announced that it will extend its closure of all public schools until May 10. source articles: https://www.mbs.jp/news/sp/kansainews/20200427/GE00032765.s...

On Apr. 26 the All-Japan High School Athletic Federation held a special online meeting of its executive board. In view of the continued spread of the novel coronavirus, the board decided to cancel this summer's National High School Sports Championships . A source involved in the situation confirmed the decision. Founded in 1963, Interhigh, as it is known to participants and fans, is the national championships event for 30 different high school sports including track and field. The cancelation is the first in Interhigh history. Usually held in a single location, this summer's Interhigh was scheduled to be spread out across 21 prefectures from the northeast to Kyushu due to the difficulty of securing venues and accommodations as a result of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Federation will hold an online press conference later to discuss the reasoning behind the cancelation. source articles: https://news.line.me/articles/oa-mainichi/fede7173eadc translated by B...

2019 men's 800 m national champion and Soyo H.S. 3rd-year Aaron Tatsunami Clay will enroll in America's Texas A&M University next September, it was learned on Nov. 14. Until then he plans to remain based at Soyo in preparation to go for the win at next year's National Championships and to clear the 2020 Tokyo Olympics qualifying standard. The prestigious Texas A&M is where Donovan Brazier (U.S.A.), winner of the gold medal in the men's 800 m at this fall's Doha World Championships, is enrolled. Soyo H.S. head coach Mitsuru Zeniya , 53, who accompanied Clay on a visit to see the university, was supportive of Clay's decision and goals, saying, "He just barely missed the World Championships qualifying standard. If he trains with athletes who are stronger than him he'll grow more." Last year at the October Niigata Autumn Time Trials meet Clay set a national high school record of 1:47.51 for 800 m. At the National Championships in June...

At the Kinki Region High School Track and Field Championships Saturday in Osaka’s Nagai Stadium, 17-year-old Ryuji Miura of Rakunan H.S. took down one of the oldest records in Japanese athletics, breaking the 30-year-old 3000 m steeplechase high school record by 5 seconds to win in 8:39.49. Running in heavy rain after clocking the fastest time in the qualifying rounds , Miura went straight to the front in the final and was on his own within 200 m. From the start the record was in reach as he went through 1000 m in 2:49 and 2000 m in 5:43, building up a lead of about 200 m over the rest of the field. Miura’s final time of 8:39.49 was the fastest in the world this year by an U18 athlete and 6th-best among U20 men, a new Japanese U18 record and all-time #2 for the U20 category. He came short of the outright Japanese high school record of 8:19.21 held by future marathon great Daniel Njenga , but took 5 seconds off the Japanese citizen high school record of 8:44.77 set back in 1989 ...

The 2018 National High School Track and Field Championships  took place in the midst of a heatwave that saw temperatures in nearby Nagoya go over 40˚C on a nearly daily basis. Track events mostly suffered, but all the same there were two new high school national records and five other meet records, all but one on the field. The only record on the track came in the girls' 100 m hurdles, where Ayumi Kobayashi (Funabashi H.S.) broke the high school national record with a mark of 13.34 (-0.3 m/s), bettering the 2007-era record by 0.05 seconds. The other new national record was in the boys' discus throw, where Kosei Yamashita (Gifu Shogyo H.S.)  threw 58.02 m  to surpass the previous record by almost a meter and a half. The only record on the boys' side was a meet record 65.98 m Yuki Taneichi (Hirosaki Jitsugyo H.S.) in the hammer throw, less than a meter and a half off the high school national record. 2nd-placer Daisuke Kumon (Imabari Meitoku) was also under the old...

The 70th edition of the Japanese National High School Track and Field Championships took place July 29 to Aug. 2 at Yamagata's ND Software Stadium. Consistently strong headwinds throughout the five days meant a shortage of quality times in the sprints, but in the middle and long distances the relatively cool temperatures meant a string of national and meet records. The highlight of the championships was a pair of duels over 1500 m and 3000 m between Japan-based Kenyan Helen Ekarare (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) and #1-ranked Japanese-born high schooler Nozomi Tanaka (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.), daughter of sub-2:30 amateur marathoner Chihiro Tanaka . In the 1500 m Tanaka was the only Japanese girl to go with the Kenyan trio of Ekarare, Marta Mokaya (Oita Tomei H.S.) and Tabitha Kamau (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.) in the early going. Ekarare pulled away after 1000 m to win in a high school national record and meet record 4:07.06, ranking her 4th in the world among juniors this year. Tanaka couldn...

The New Balance Nationals Outdoor  was the weekend's big high school meet in the U.S.A., but from Thursday through Monday regions across Japan also held their qualifying meets for the July 29 - Aug. 2 National High School Track and Field Championships in Yamagata. Performances were at a high level across the board, with at least eight meet records nationwide in distance events. Five girls broke 4:20 in the 1500 m, with Helen Ekarare (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) leading the way with a 4:09.67 meet record to win the Tohoku Region. Nozomi Tanaka (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) was the fastest Japanese girl, winning the Kinki Region title in 4:18.32. On the boys' side, four broke 3:50 in the 1500 m, three of them in the Kinki Region meet. Yusuke Takahashi (Hyogo H.S.) took the Kinki title in 3:46.86. In the girls' 3000 m, five girls including both Ekarare and Tanaka were under 9:05 nationwide. Ekarare and Tanaka both doubled with 3000 m wins, but the fastest time came from Tabitha Kam...

On June 3 the Kyoto Athletics Association held a ceremony at Kyoto's Nishi Kyogoku Field to unveil a new stone monument commemorating the 100th anniversary of the ekiden. Led by Association chair Setsuko Tanaka , roughly 30 dignitaries took part. In April this year another monument was erected at Shinjo Ohashi, the starting point of Japan's first-ever ekiden in 1917. To help "spread the good word about the first century of the ekiden to as many people as possible," the Association chose to place a second monument at Nishi Kyogoku Field, the start and finish points for the National High School Ekiden Championships. The new monument is of the same design, material and size as the one at Sanjo Ohashi, made of granite and measuring 1.8 m tall by 1.2 m wide. While the Sanjo Ohashi monument is engraved with "starting point," the new monument reads "Nishi Kyogoku Field, Kyoto," letting fans get different selfies at each. Tanaka commented "We wi...

by Brett Larner video by Ekiden News The 2016 Japanese National High School Track and Field Championships wrapped up yesterday, highlighted by new high school national records in the girls' 4x400 m relay and boys' pole vault and meet records in those events and the boys' 5000 m race walk, boys' 4x400 m relay and boys' octathlon.  18 events saw athletes break into the all-time Japanese junior and high school top ten lists, a sign of the all-around high level of competition this year. The boys' 5000 mRW was unusually action-packed, with 12 boys breaking the meet record.  Girls' middle and long distance were also strong, with 7 girls under 2:08 in the 800 m, 9 under 4:20 in the 1500 m and 9 under 9:10 in the 3000 m.  In these and other events the top times were even good enough to get into and in some cases top  the U.S.A. high school top ten lists for the year . Below is a list of records and all-time top ten Japanese junior and high school marks set a...

by Brett Larner videos by aoshin0507 and  Ekiden News The 2016 Japanese National High School Track and Field Championships wrapped up with a bang, the last three races delivering some of the best action seen in the meet's five days.  The girls' 3000 m final was out fast from the gun, a 68 second first lap immediately separating most of the field from a six-strong front pack that included Kenyans Helen Ekarare (Sendai Ikuei H.S.), Tabita Njeri Kamau (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.), Monica Margaret (Aomori Yamada H.S.) and Marta Mokaya (Oita Tomei H.S.) and Japanese runners Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu (Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S.) and Nozomi Tanaka (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.).  The front group stayed together through 2000 m, splitting 2:56 and 5:59 before Takamatsu, Tanaka and Mokaya slipped off the back. Ekarare, just 12th in the final last year, drove on to drop Kamau and Margaret for the win in 8:55.06, the 4th-fastest time ever by a foreign runner at a Japanese high school. ...

click here for five-channel live streaming of the 69th Japanese National High School Track and Field Championships by Brett Larner videos by aoshin0507 and  Ekiden News Sunday's Japanese National High School Track and Field Championships girls' 1500 m saw a breakthrough with three women running all-time Japanese high school top ten marks.  Another middle distance breakthrough came on day four of the championships in the girls' 800 m.  2016 national champion  Shoko Fukuda (Matsue Kita H.S.) ran the second-fastest time ever by a Japanese high schooler, 2:04.29, to lead four girls into the all-time high school top ten .  Both Fukuda and Airi Ikezaki (Funairi H.S.), 2nd in 2:04.85, also made the all-time Japanese junior top ten, with 3rd placer Ayaka Kawata (Higashi Osaka Prep Keiai H.S.) clocking the fastest-ever time by a Japanese high school second-year, 2:05.03 and 4th placer Ayano Shiomi (Kyoto Bunkyo Gakuen H.S.) squeezing into the all-tiime top ...