japan running news

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...

110 teams took part in the 72nd National Oga Ekiden in Akita Saturday, with 30 teams in the open division, 12 universities, 44 high school boys' teams and 24 high school girls' teams. The Shingenden Kogyo corporate team won the open division for the 2nd year in a row, with Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University winning the 7-stage, 64.8 km university division in 3:14:28. In the 5-stage, 21.0975 km high school girls' race, Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. took the win in 1:10:43. Right from the start it was a tough race against Sendai Ikuei H.S. , which fielded 3 teams. Ritsumeikan Uji's lead runner Yui Ueda and Sendai Ikuei A's Rikka Kuroda both clocked 14:09, and a great stage-winning run from 2nd runner Nodoka Ashida put Ritsumeikan Uji out front. But Sendai Ikuei B's Miriam Njeri closed down the lead from 1:14 to 24 seconds on the 3rd leg, and her teammate Non Tachibana rode that momentum to overtake Ritsumeikan Uji for the lead. It came down to the anchor...

The 2025 National Cross Country Championships happen Saturday in Fukuoka. Streaming starts at 11:20 a.m. local time, with the race schedule looking like this: 11:50  - H.S, girls' 4 km 12:10  - H.S. boys: 4 km 12:30  - Senior women's 2 km 12:40  - Senior men's 2 km 12:50  - U20 women's 6 km 13:15  - U20 men's 8 km 13:50  - Senior women's 8 km 14:25  - Senior men's 10 km 15:05  - J.H.S. girls' 2 km 15:20  - J.H.S. boys' 2 km Start lists are here . Based on those, the senior men's 10 km looks like it has the best matchup, with the field including 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura (Subaru), 10000 m NR holder Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu), 5000 m H.S. record holder Hiroto Yoshioka (Juntendo Univ.), Olympic triathlete Kenji Nener (Tochigi T&F Assoc.), Hakone downhill star  Aoi Ito (Komazawa Univ.), sub-28 10000 m runners Yusuke Tamura (Kurosaki Harima) and Ryuto Igawa (Asahi Kasei), and many more. There's not a lot of comparable dep...

  At this weekend's Summer Night Run Festival in CHUO track meet at Chuo University 's Tama campus, Chuo 1st-year Kaisei Okada ran 7:55.41 for 3000 m, the 4th-fastest Japanese U20 time ever. A rebranded version of the Chuo University Time Trials series, the Summer Night Run Festival featured top junior high school and high school athletes and members of Aoyama Gakuin University 's 2024 Hakone Ekiden champion team, with Chuo team members and alumni running as pacers. The third heat of 3000 m included AGU's Asahi Kuroda , Shota Shiode and Shunya Udagawa . Okada won, his 7:55.41 being his first time under 8 minutes, with 2nd-year teammate Hayate Honma also cracking 8 minutes in 7:58.65 for 2nd. Kuroda was 3rd in 8:02.83, with AGU 1st-year Hikaru Ogawara 5th in 8:05.81. Okada graduated from Kyoto's Rakunan H.S. , home of national record setters like Keita Sato , Ryuji Miura , Yoshihide Kiryu and Toshinari Takaoka . His 2nd year of high school he was 12th in the 50...

The second day of U20 Asian Championships took place June 5 in Yecheon, South Korea. In the men's triple jump, Minato Miyao (Toyo Univ.) set a new U20 NR of 16.38 m to win the gold medal. The previous U20 record of 16.35 m had stood for 20 years. Miyao began his first year at Toyo in April after graduating from Kyoto's Rakunan H.S. Last summer he took 2nd at the Tokushima National High School Championships, then followed up in November with a 16.13 m high school NR jump at the Kyoto Private Schools Championships. Despite the changes to his lifestyle that came with going to college, at April's Oda Memorial Meet Miyao placed 5th overall and 3rd among Japanese men with a jump of 15.76 m +0.7 m/s. At May's Kanto Regionals he won at 16.12 m +2.8 m/s. At the U20 Asian Championships, Miyao's first jump was 16.08 m into a 2.7 m/s headwind. He duplicated that distance on his fourth attempt and was in the top position at the end of the fifth round. A Chinese athlete moved ...

Corporate women and junior high school students have already had their nationally-televised national championship ekidens, but tomorrow's National High School Ekiden in Kyoto kicks off the busiest part of the year, with 5 days of championship ekiden racing in the span of 10 days. NHK broadcasts high school Nationals live and ad-free on Dec. 25, with the girls' race starting at 10:20 a.m. and the boys at 12:30 p.m. local time. There's not likely to be any internationally-available streaming, but get a VPN and you should be good. With JRN's holiday travel plans canceled because of the weather in the PNW, we'll probably be covering both races live on @JRNLive . Buy us a coffee to help us get through the day. The top high school teams in Japan would do pretty well in the NCAA on both the girls' and boys' sides, meaning two high-level races. In the girls' race, 21.0975 km in five legs, Sendai Ikuei H.S. won in 1:07:16 by over a minute last year but is d...

After cancelations in 2020 and 2021, the Ogi Ekiden in Akita returned Saturday for its 69th edition. A traditional race with a tough and hilly course, it is a standard midsummer event on the calendar for most of the country's top schools. Toyo University won the 7-stage, 64.7 km university division in 3:16:54. Toyo in 3rd was 14 seconds behind leader Chuo University 's A-team after the 13.4 km First Stage, dropping to 4th and 43 seconds down on new leader Aoyama Gakuin University by the end of the Fourth Stage. But on the 8.2 km Fifth Stage, Toyo's Hiroki Sugano ran the fastest time on his stage, 23:12, to put Toyo into 2nd. Sixth runner Naoya Kanehara moved up to within 5 seconds of AGU on his 9.9 km stage, leaving it to anchor Shu Yoshida to run them down and open a 31-second lead for the win. Yoshida was all smiles as he broke the tape at the end of his 10.1 km stage. AGU ended up 2nd in 3:17:25. Chuo's B-team took 3rd in 3:17:50, beating Juntendo University ...

Keita Sato , holder of the high school national records for 1500 m (3:37.18), 3000 m (7:50.81) and 5000 m (13:31.19), has moved into the team dorm at Komazawa University following his graduation from Kyoto's Rakunan H.S. Sato will start classes at Komazawa in April. Packing his hopes and dreams into a suitcase for the trip up to Tokyo, Sato was unfazed by the three-hour shinkansen trip. "I went on longer trips than this for training camps in high school," he said. "This isn't that long." Sato's roommate at Komazawa will be Ibuki Kaneko , who ran well on the uphill Fifth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden and is starting his third year in April. Assigned to mentor is Kotaro Shinohara , just finishing his own first year, who beat Sato by one place at February's National Cross Country Championships. Shinohara welcomed the team's new recruit. "Sato's really strong," he said. "I'll have to work hard to not get beaten." As the ol...

17 members of Kyoto's  Rakunan H.S.  boys' ekiden team are currently on a training camp at Kochi's Haruno Sports Park. At the Dec. 26 National High School Ekiden Rakunan became the first all-Japanese team to break 2:02 for the 42.195 km course, finishing 2nd overall. After training in Kochi last year, this camp is the team's second time there. "It's warmer here than in Kyoto so it seems easier to move, even when we're doing hard workouts," said 2nd-year Yuichiro Kojima .  In addition to their regular training workouts, on this camp the runners are also working with students from Kochi Professional University of Rehabilitation . The university students are providing medical science support across a range of areas such as measurements of lactic acid, an indication of physical fatigue levels. "In school we're learning a lot of highly specialized information," commented one of the students, Shogo Nakayama . "I expected it to be difficul...

At Sunday's Kyoto Time Trials meet, 1500 m and 5000 m high school record holder Keita Sato , a 17-year-old 3rd-year at Rakunan H.S. , added the 3000 m high school record to his resume with a mostly solo 7:50.81. In perfect fall conditions Sato frontran the entire way, tailed through a 2:34 first 1000 m by Kogakkan University 's Shoya Suzuki  but all on his own the rest of the way. From 1000 to 2000 m he split 2:38, more or less holding that pace the rest of the way with a 61-second final lap to split 2:38 again for the final 1000 m. In terms of World Athletics scoring tables, Sato's three records break down like this: 1500 m: 3:37.18 - 1145 points 3000 m: 7:50.81 - 1110 points 5000 m: 13:31.19 - 1098 points Sato's rankings on the all-time Japanese lists mirror this, his 1500 m putting him at all-time #3 along with #1 on the U20 and U18 lists, his new 3000 m time at #10 on the all-time list, #2 on the U20 and #1 on the U18 lists, and his 5000 m nowhere near the all-tim...

Sunday at the Nittai University Time Trials meet in Kanagawa, 17-year-old  Keita Sato  (Rakunan H.S.) ran a U18 world-leading 13:31.19 in the men's 5000 m Heat 20 to take 3.55 seconds off the high school 5000 m national record of 13:34.74 set in September last year by Kosuke Ishida  (Saitama Sakae H.S.). Sato's time also took 5.38 seconds off the U18 national record of 13:36.57 set last November by Taishi Ito  (Saku Chosei H.S.). In July at the Hokuren Distance Challenge Chitose Meet 1500 m Sato ran 3:37.18, breaking the high school national record of 3:38.49 set in 1999 by Kiyoharu Sato  (Saku Chosei H.S.) and setting a new U18 record. He followed up in January with an 8:00.09 for 3000 m, also a new U18 national record and less than a second off the high school NR.  Sunday was another historic day on his resume. At last December's National High School Ekiden Championships Sato was the top Japanese finisher at 5th on the Third Stage, helping Rakunan H.S. ...

  20-year-old Kaede Hagitani  (Edion) and the just-turned-19 Ryuji Miura (Juntendo Univ.) took the senior titles at the 2021 National Cross-Country Championships Saturday in Fukuoka. Hagitani ran away with it, outclassing a tight chase trio to win the Senior Women's 8 km by 26 seconds in 25:54. High schooler Miku Sakai  (Kitakyushu Municipal H.S.) was an impressive 2nd in 26:20.  Like Sakai opting for the senior race, Miura, the U20 national record holder for 3000 m steeplechase and half marathon, had a tougher race on his hands in the Senior Men's 10 km, just getting two-time 5000 m national champion Hiroki Matsueda  (Fujitsu) at the line for the win in 29:10 with the next four finishers, including past national champ Kazuki Tamura  (Sumitomo Denko), all within 10 seconds. 36-year-old Hakone Ekiden legend and 2:07:39 marathoner Masato Imai  (Toyota Kyushu) showed there's still life in his legs, a surprising 11th in 29:30. The junior races were...

Already Japan's third-fastest high schooler ever over 3000 m, 16-year-old Keita Sato  (Rakunan H.S.) took another 5 seconds off his best with a 8:00.09 win at Saturday's Kyoto Time Trials meet. A second-year at Rakunan and set to turn 17 later this week, Sato bettered the U18 national record held by Hyuga Endo by almost two seconds, moved up to #2 behind Endo on the all-time high school rankings, and to #3 on the U20 list behind Endo and Athens Olympian Ryuji Ono . Post-race he tweeted, "One step away from 7 minutes! So disappointing. I don't know when the next time I can race is but 7 minutes is definitely coming!" 3000m→8'00"09 7分台まであと一歩だったのでめちゃくちゃ悔しいです😭次はいつ走れるか分かりませんが絶対に7分台出します！ pic.twitter.com/d1y9ClJ5Mp — 佐藤圭汰 (@0rx2k) January 17, 2021 © 2021 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Two high school national record holders are set to join Toyo University  at the start of the new academic year in April, Koki Fujihara  (Rakunan H.S.), holder of the 8.12 m long jump record, and Kosuke Ishida  (Tokyo Nogyo Daini H.S.), holder of the 13:34.74 record for 5000 m. Fujihara was the first high school boy to go over 8 m in the long jump, setting his record of 8.12 m (+1.7 m/s) at the August, 2019 National High School Championships as a second-year. It was the first time the high school long jump record had been broken in 30 years and bettered the old mark by 16 cm, enough to rank him all-time #9 among all Japanese athletes. Fujihara is currently 190 cm tall and is still growing, both physically and as an athlete. He follows in the footsteps of prominent Toyo alumni outside the distance events, including Japan's first sub-10 man in the 100 m and fellow Rakunan H.S. grad Yoshihide Kiryu  and 8.23 m long jumper Hibiki Tsuha .  But with a 3rd-place finish...

With the National High School Ekiden Championships looking like a go for Dec. 20 at this point, the main action across Japan this weekend came in prefectural high school ekiden championships. In each of Japan's 47 prefectures boys typically raced 42.195 km in seven stages and girls 21.0975 km in five stages, with the top-placing boys' team and top girls' team in the prefectural race set to go on to represent their prefecture at Nationals. Not every prefecture held its qualifying race this weekend or just before, but among those that did here's a quick rundown on the winners. In Hiroshima , the video above, due to the coronavirus crisis the race was held on a 400 m track instead of its regular road course. The Sera H.S. boys and girls both won, the boys winning the prefectural title for the 17th year in a row and the girls for the 15th. Both teams last won the national title in 2015, when the boys set the still-standing Nationals course record of 2:01:18, but at last...

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 ...

At the weekend's Junior Olympics in Yokohama's Nissan Stadium, Asakawa Junior High School 9th-grader Kosuke Ishida won in 8:17.84 to take almost 1.5 seconds off the 3000 m junior high school boys national record. A totally solo run in heavy rain, Ishida won by a margin of almost 16 seconds over his closest competition. The record followed his 1500 m junior high school national record of 3:49.72 at the Sept. 23 Nittai University Time Trials meet in Yokohama, cementing his position at the top of next year's incoming high school class. Held together with the Junior Olympics, the JAAF Relay Championships saw another record fall in the men's 4x100 m. In the first qualifying heat Kyoto's Rakunan High School , alma mater of Japan's first sub-10 man Yoshihide Kiryu , set a new high school national record of 39.57, the team of Ryo Wada , Daisuke Miyamoto , Yoshinobu Imoto and Kentaro Hiraga shaving 0.07 seconds off the record it had previously set in 2012 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 The highlight of day three of the Japanese National High School Track and Field Championships came in an unexpectedly fast and furious boys' 5000 m race walk.  After a relatively benign first qualifying heat on day two won by Ryutaro Yamamoto (Toyama Shogyo H.S.) in 21:08.49, heat two exploded with action, Hiroto Jusho (Shikama Kogyo H.S.) led the top eight under the old National High School Championships record in 20:49.39.  The bar set high, qualifiers returned a day later for the final, and again the field delivered en masse.  Yamamoto fought off Taiki Naruoka (Iga Hakuho H.S.) and Masatora Kawano (Gotemba Minami H.S.) for the win in a close race, taking 35 seconds off Jusho's short-lived national record with a new mark of 20:14.63.  The top six all beat Jusho's record, with Jusho himself almost equalling it in 20:52.94 but com...