japan running news

Day 3 of the 103rd Kanto Regionals meet at Tokyo's National Stadium was mostly one of qualifying rounds on the track, the only finals being the D1 and D2 men's 10000 m race walks. Usual race walking power Toyo University was absent from the D1 podium, 3rd yr., Misaki Kondo (Meiji Univ.) clocking a PB 40:32.85 for the win with 2nd and 3rd-placers Riku Oie (Juntendo Univ.) and Yushi Nakajima (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) within 12 seconds of him, both also PBing. 4th-yr Chisato Hasegawa took the D2 title in 41:34.39. Qualifying rounds in the men's 3000 mSC didn't see many surprises, with D1 favorites Boniface Mutech (Ryutsu Keizai Univ.) and So Yamasaki (Juntendo Univ.) both getting through to the final and D2 win contenders Oju Tsujimoto (Teikyo Univ.) and Kai Ogata (Kanto Gakuin Univ.) doing the same. Kanto Regionals wrap up Sunday with the men's half marathon in the morning and the 3000 m SC, 5000 m and other finals in the afternoon. 103rd Kanto Region Univers...

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...