japan running news

The Asian Athletics Championships wrapped up Saturday in Gumi, South Korea with a string of record-setting performances. At the top of the list was the men's 200 m final , where Towa Uzawa ran a championships record and PB 20.21 (+0.8) to win gold, putting him at all-time Japanese #4 and all-time Asian #6. Saudi Abdul Abdu I Atafi and India's Animesh Kujur took silver and bronze in 20.31 and 20.32, with veteran Shota Iizuka 4th in a season best 20.66 that put him one step closer to a 14-straight year under 20.50. NR holder Rin Kubo turned in one of the fastest performances of her career so far in the women's 800 m final , just losing out to China's Wu Hongjiao . Wu delivered a meet record 2:00.08 for gold, Kubo just behind her in 2:00.42 for silver and India's Pooja Pooja a few strides back in 2:01.89 for bronze. Ayano Shiomi was 5th in 2:03.59. Yuta Sakiyama came up with a PB 83.75 m throw on his final attempt in the men's javelin , good enough for all-...

Japan's Olympic trials, National Track and Field Championships and National U20 Championships , wrap up Sunday in Niigata at Denka Big Swan Stadium. Light rain is forecast in the afternoon and evening, ut with 7 new National Championships meet records and an U20 national record so far, there's a good chance of one outright national record, maybe two, on the last day of the meet.  Live results will be here . The final schedule: Women's Shot Put Final  14:45 Already having made a comeback in her main event with a win in the women's discus throw, local  Nanaka Kori  will be going for a repeat on her 2023 national title in the shot put. She's the only woman over 16 m this season, and one of only two in the field to have ever done it, along with #3-ranked Fumiko Ono . Nanaka Kori (Niigata Albirex RC) - 16.19 m SB / 16.57 m PB Honoka Oyama (Imamura Byoin) - 15.75 m SB / 15.78 m PB Fumika Ono (Tsukuba Univ.) - 15.74 m SB / 16.37 m PB Haruka Osako (Somay-Q) - 15.28 m SB / P...

Japan's Olympic trials, National Championships and National U20 Championships , continue Saturday in Niigata at Denka Big Swan Stadium. Live results will be here . The schedule: Finals Men's Discus Throw Final 12:15 No Japanese men are in range of making the Olympic team, so this is strictly a national-level competition with last year's winner Yuji Tsutsumi looking to hold off Shinichi Yukinaga and Masateru Yugami to repeat. Only Yukinaga has thrown over 60 m this season, and his 62.52 puts him only 7 cm behind Tsutsumi's career best. Shinichi Yukinaga (Shikoku Univ. AC) - 62.52 m SB / PB Masateru Yugami (Toyota) - 59.31 m SB / 62.16 m PB Yuji Tsutsumi (Alsok) - 59.07 m SB / 62.59 m PB Hiroki Kitahara (Niigata Iryo Fukushi Univ.) - 57.24 m SB / PB Kosei Yamashita (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) - 55.68 m SB / PB Koshiro Fujiwara (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) - 55.32 SB / PB Men's Pole Vault Final  14:50 Likewise in the men's pole vault, Paris is out of range. It's a p...

An update on standings for Japan's potential team at this summer's Paris Olympic Games. Final team nomination in most cases depends on a top 3 finish at the National Track and Field Championships, but as of this writing events where Japan could or will field three athletes having cleared the Olympic standard are the men's 110 mH, men's 400 mH, men's 20 kmRW and women's marathon. Other events that will or are likely to have a complete squad of three athletes include the men's 100 m, men's 200 m, men's 400 m, men's high jump, men's marathon, women's 5000 m, women's 10000 m, women's javelin throw, and women's 20 kmRW. Main changes from last week: Koki Ueyama moved up to 36th of 48 in the men's 200 m quota, passing Shota Iizuka for #2 Japanese man. Yuta Sakiyama was 2nd in the men's javelin throw at the Josef Odlozil Memorial in Prague and broke into the Paris quota at 32nd of 32. Misaki Morota was 2nd in the women...

  None of the finals on Day 5 of the Budapest World Championships featured any Japanese athletes, but there were good performances in qualifying rounds in both the morning and evening sessions. First up for the day, Tomoya Karasawa didn't turn in one of the good ones, failing to clear the opening height in the men's pole vault qualifying round. Japan's best prospect for an individual medal outside of race walking, Haruka Kitaguchi was the first woman in the javelin throw and one of only seven to clear the auto-qualifying mark of 61.50 m, throwing 63.27 m. Marina Saito managed only 58.95 m for 15th in the first round, just 71 cm short of making the qualifying bracket of twelve. Men's long jumpers Yuki Hashioka , Hiromichi Yoshida and Shotaro Shiroyama were all off their game in the opening round, Hashioka jumping best with a credible 7.94 m -0.2 m/s but short of the 8.00 m that proved necessary for qualification. Yoshida jumped 7.60 m +1.2 m/s and Shiroyama only 7....

The final day of the Bangkok Asian Athletics Championships kicked off with a gold medal in the men's 20 km race walk from Yutaro Murayama in a close race with China's Kaihua Wang that saw Murayama win by 49 seconds. Bronze medalist Vikash Singh was over 4 minutes behind Wang, while Murayama's teammate Hiroto Jusho dropped out mid-race. Yukiko Umeno took bronze in the women's race in 1:36:18, almost 4 minutes behind winner Liujing Yang . Miyu Naito finished just out of the medals in 4th in 1:37:35. In the evening session, Yuma Yamamoto and Hyuga Endo made it a Japanese women's and men's double in the 5000 m. In the women's race, Yamamoto stayed behind Mongolia's Munkhzaya Bayartsogt and Kazakhstan's Caroline Chepkoech Kipkirui through the early phases, then India's Parul Chaudhary before going to the front. After hitting 4000 m in 12:57.19 Yamamoto went faster and faster to burn Chaudhary off, officially clocking a 2:53.97 last 1000 m t...

The last day of the 104th National Track and Field Championships saw a short stack of new records across disciplines, mostly on the women's side. The biggest news came in the women's discus throw, where Maki Saito (Tokyo Joshi Taiiku Univ.) threw a new national junior record of 55.41 m on her fourth attempt and putting defending champ Minori Tsujikaw a (Uchida Yoko AC) into 2nd before coming back on her last to almost equal it. In the women's 100 m hurdles, it took a PB from Masumi Aoki (77 Ginko) to hold off national record holder Asuka Terada (Pasona Group) for the win, tying the meet record in 13.02 (-0.1). Taio Kanai (Mizuno) likewise held off national record holder Shunya Takayama (Zenrin), tying the meet record in 13.36 (-0.1) to win. Kanai and Takayama have alternated national titles for the last four years, with 13.36 their winning time for the last three. The women's 200 m saw the top three all drop PBs, Remi Tsuruta (Minami Kyushu Family Mart) u...