japan running news

Following an earlier announcement of the half marathon teams for September's Copenhagen World Road Running Championships , on June 26 the JAAF announced the mile and 5 km squads that will join them. No women were named to the mile. Women 5 km Kana Mizumoto (Edion) - 15:06.98 Rina Kusu (Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:10.91 Half Marathon Yumi Yoshikawa (Canon) - 1:09:14 Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 1:09:20 Rina Shimizu (Noritz) - 1:09:22 Yuna Takahashi (Shimamura) - 1:09:23 Men Mile Ojiro Honda (Waseda Univ.) - 3:37.53 (1500 m) Tomoki Nakano (Toenec) - 3:37.92 (1500 m) 5 km Yota Mashiko (Waseda Univ.) - 13:20.35 Rui Suzuki (Waseda Univ.) - 13:20.64 Half Marathon Tomoya Ogikubo (Hiramatsu Byoin) - 1:00:22 Yuma Nishizawa (Toyota Boshoku) - 1:00:26 Neo Namiki (Subaru) - 1:00:29 Daisuke Sato (Chuo Univ.) - 1:00:40 © 2026 Brett Larner , all rights reserved

The first big meet of Japan's outdoor season happens in Kumamoto Apr. 12 with the Kanakuri Memorial Meet , where the men's and women's 10000 m double as the National Championships and other events count as key selection races for May's Asian Championships in South Korea. Top entries per event below with best times within the qualifying window. Complete 10000 m entries here, other distances here . Men's 10000 m National Championships Emmanuel Maru (Kenya/Toyota Boshoku) - 27:09.96 Jun Kasai (Asahi Kasei) - 27:17.46 Charles Kamau (Kenya/SGH) - 27:18.89  Mebuki Suzuki (Toyota) - 27:20.33 Tomoki Ota (Toyota) - 27:20.94 Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) - 27:36.37 Tomoya Ogikubo (Hiramatsu Byoin) - 27:38.28 Yuto Imae (GMO) - 27:42.65 Yamato Yoshii (Toyota) - 27:42.88 Ryo Saito (Asahi Kasei) - 27:45.08 Shoya Saito (Josai Univ.) - 27:45.12 Yuya Yoshida (GMO) - 27:45.85 Hayate Honma (Chuo Univ.) - 27:46.60 Tsuyoshi Bando (Osaka Gas) - 27:48.53 Kazuki Tamura (Sumitomo Denko) - 27:...

Kumamoto's Kanakuri Memorial Meet kicked off Japan's outdoor track season Saturday. In cold and windy conditions Hakone Ekiden great Vincent Yegon made his debut for two-time New Year Ekiden champ Honda with a win in a four-way battle over the last lap, dropping Samson Ndirangu (Sunbelx) in the last 50 m for 1st 27:37.85 to 27:39.67. Tomoki Ota (Toyota) was 3rd in 27:42.49, with collegiate half marathon champ Kotaro Shinohara of Hakone Ekiden winner Komazawa University 4th in 27:43.13, the 4th-best ever by a Japanese-born collegiate man. The women's 10000 m had only five athletes on the starting line, and it was 2022 National Corporate Half Marathon champion Dolphine Omare (U.S.E.) all the way. Omare clocked 31:44.67, over 30 seconds up on top Japanese woman Misaki Hayashida (Kyudenko). Hayashida was 2nd in 32:15.97, with all four Japanese women clearing 32:45. The men's 5000 m was split into six heats, with Heat 6 winner Emmanuel Korir (Mitsubishi Juko) turni...

The 10000 m component of this year's National Track and Field Championships happens Monday night in Shizuoka, just 5 months after the rescheduled 2020 edition. One spot each on the men's and women's 10000 m squads for the Tokyo Olympics 10000 m are already occupied by the winners of those races, and to pick up one of the two remaining spots this time around people will need to have the Olympic standard and make top 3.  Tatsuhiko Ito  (Honda), runner-up in December in 27:25.73, is the only one of the 44 Japanese men entered to have already cleared the 27:28.00 standard, so all he needs to worry about is putting himself among the first three. His nearest competition, Daiji Kawai  (Toenec) and  Tetsuya Yoroizaka  (Asahi Kasei), will need to find another 7 or 8 seconds to have have a shot. None of the 23 Japanese women entered has cleared the 31:25.00 standard, but Ririka Hironaka  (Japan Post) came close in her debut last month in 31:30.03 and, along wi...

The JAAF has announced the entry lists for the long distance events for this year's rescheduled National Track and Field Championships , to be held Dec. 4 at Osaka's Yanmar Stadium Nagai. The program features men's and women's 5000 m, 10000 m and 3000 m steeplechase, with two heats of men's 10000 m due to the large number of entries. The defending national champs in five events, Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu, 5000 m), Kazuki Tamura (Sumitomo Denko, 10000 m), Ryohei Sakaguchi (SGH Group, 3000 mSC), Rina Nabeshima (Japan Post, 10000 m), and Reimi Yoshimura (Daito Bunka Univ., 3000mSC), are all entered. After initially announcing her entry, women's 5000 m national champion  Tomoka Kimura  (Shiseido) is an early scratch following disastrous runs at both major fall ekidens. Due to the one-day schedule doubling would be very unlikely, but that hasn't stopped men's 5000 m and marathon national record holder  Suguru Osako  (Nike) from entering both the 5000 m an...

The 2020 National Corporate Track and Field Championships kicked off Friday in Kumagaya, Saitama on what will probably end up being the last hot day of the year. Defending junior women's 3000 m champ Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) had the performance of the day, exactly tying Kayoko Fukushi 's U20 national record with a negative split 8:52.80 to pick up a second title and move up to all-time Japanese #5 for the distance. Because she turns 20 in November Hironaka's mark won't make her the co-record holder, but as an 8-second improvement over her winning time last year it puts her in position to follow Fukushi as just the second woman under 15 minutes for 5000 m if she gets into the right race. Her first chance comes Sunday where she faces most of the contenders for the Tokyo Olympic team. A few of them turned up in the 10000 m A-heat where women-only marathon NR holder Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) took the race out around 31:30 pace, dueling with 30 km NR holder Honami Mae...

Following the end of the qualification period for the 2019 Doha World Championships , the JAAF announced additions to the initial Japanese National Team roster released earlier in the summer. Along with the additions, the JAAF made public that Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Univ. of Florida) will not run the 200 m in order to focus on the 100 m and relay, and that Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu), the only Japanese man to have cleared the Doha standard, will not race due to an apparent injury following a fall last week in Zagreb . Final changes to the team roster, if any, are expected to be announced Sept. 17. Japanese National Team, Doha World Championships as of Sept. 11, 2019 times listed are best within qualifying window Women Hurdles 100 m Hurdles  - Asuka Terada (Pasona Group) - 12.97 100 m Hurdles - Ayako Kimura (Edion) - 13.11 Long Distance 5000 m  - Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki TC) - 15:15.80 5000 m - Tomoka Kimura (Shiseido) - 15:19.99 5000 m /  10000 ...

The 2019 Hokuren Distance Challenge series wrapped up Monday in Abashiri with two main races, the women's 5000 m and men's 10000 m A-heats. Conditions for most of the day were too windy to produce the kinds of times people had hoped for, but just as the women's 5000 m got underway after sunset the wind died down enough for the race to go out on track for the Doha World Championships standard of 15:22.00. Four of the top five women from last month's National Championships 5000 m were in the field, of whom only national champion Tomoka Kimura (Shiseido) had already cleared the Doha standard inside the window. 2nd and 3rd-placers Rina Nabeshima (Japan Post) and Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) both needed to clear it to join Kimura on the team, but while Hironaka faded off pace in the second half it took a long push from 1000 m for Nabeshima to get there. Which she did, just, winning in 15:21.40. Also the 10000 m national champion , Nabeshima was the fifth Japanese ...

Wednesday afternoon and evening saw the fourth meet in this year's five-part Hokuren Distance Challenge series, this time in the town of Kitami. The program included the little-raced 2000 m steeplechase as a tuneup for Monday's series-closing Abashiri meet, and in both the women's and men's races the national records went down. A top collegiate steepler while at Kyoto Sangyo University, Yui Yabuta (Otsuka Seiyaku) ran 6:27.74 to break the women's record. In the men's race 1500 m specialist Yasunari Kusu (Ami AC) surprised many by breaking the Japanese national record with a world-leading 5:31.82 despite little experience in the steeple. The women's 3000 m in Kitami was more explicitly set up as a national record attempt, with four of the ten fastest Japanese women ever over the distance lined up to gun for the great Kayoko Fukushi 's 8:44.40 record dating back to 2002. From the gun it was out at NR pace, with pacers Hellen Ekalale (Toyota Jidosho...

Following the weekend's National Championships, the JAAF announced the first round of athletes named to its national team for this fall's Doha World Championships. Any athlete who won their event at Nationals and had either won a gold medal at April's Doha Asian Championships or held the Doha qualifying standard was named to the team, with all other athletes, including Doha standard holders who finished 2nd or 3rd at Nationals, having to wait until the final team announcement in mid-September. Japanese National Team, Doha World Championships as of July 1, 2019 Women 100 m Hurdles - Ayako Kimura (Edion) - 13.11 5000 m - Tomoka Kimura (Shiseido) - 15:19.99 10000 m - Rina Nabeshima (Japan Post) - 31:28.81 Javelin Throw - Haruka Kitaguchi (Nihon Univ.) - 64.36 m 4x400 m Relay  - Seika Aoyama (Osaka Seikei AC) - 53.42 Nanako Matsumoto (Toho Ginko) - 53.52 Yuna Iwata (Chuo Univ.) - 53.97 Konomi Takeishi (Toho Ginko) -54.27 Men 100 m / 200 m  - Abdul Haki...

Four hours after a collective sigh of relief 17,000-strong as Yuki Koike 's successful handoff to Yoshihide Kiryu brought the Golden Grand Prix Osaka meet to a close with a world-leading 38.00 win for the Japanese men's 4x100 m relay team, the acton continued at Osaka's Nagai Stadium with the women's and men's 10000 m National Championships . Held six weeks out from the rest of the National Championships this year to try to maximize performances and world rankings points in both the 5 and 10, the 10000 m Nationals started at 7:30 p.m. with the women's race. Championships record holder Hitomi Niiya (Nike Tokyo TC) started unusually slowly, sitting mid-to-rear pack as 2016 national champion Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post) and-two defending national champ Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) led the way, but after a 3:15 for the third 1000 m she lost patience and went to the front. From there it was a familiar race, Niiya holding the pace relentlessly as the competitio...

Stanford University's Payton Jordan Invitational is usually a big draw for Japanese runners, the site of the current women's 10000 m and former men's 10000 m national records. But with the JAAF moving the National Championships 10000 m from June to mid-May and the Golden Games in Nobeoka meet coming next weekend only a handful made the trip to California this time around. On the women's side, Rina Nabeshima (Japan Post), the fastest Japanese woman over 5000 m last year, ran 15:26.30 for 8th in the 5000 to miss the 2019 Doha World Championships entry standard by just over 4 seconds. Returning from a stellar half marathon debut in February her teammate Ayuko Suzuki ran 31:33.62 for 4th in the 10000 m, with Mai Shoji (Denso) 16th in 32:29.63. Suzuki was well under the Doha standard but almost 9 seconds over the 2020 Tokyo Olympics standard. Having qualified for the Sept. 15 MGC Race Olympic marathon trials it's unlikely she would run the 10000 m in Doha, bu...

JRN's 2018 Japanese track and road distance running rankings. Overall rankings are calculated using runners' times and placings in races over 5000 m, 10000 m, half-marathon and marathon and the strength of these performances relative to others in the top ten in each category. Click any image to enlarge. Past years: 2017 　・　 2016 　・ 　 2015 　・　 2014 　・　 2013 　・　 2012 　・　 2011 © 2018 Brett Larner,  all rights reserved

With the men really getting up to speed this year nobody really noticed that it was one of the best in history for the women too. A first-ever world-level distance gold medal on the track, all-time top 10 marks over 5000 m, 10000 m and the marathon and a top 15 mark in the half marathon, and the fastest average of its 10 best marathon performances since back in the golden years of 2005. Rina Nabeshima (Japan Post) topped the 5000 m rankings with a 15:10.91 PB at the Prefontaine Classic in May. It's rare to see Japanese athletes in the Diamond League, but Nabeshima took multiple swings that delivered both her 5000 m time and an 8:48:21 in London , the second-fastest Japanese time ever and less than 4 seconds off the national record. Nozomi Tanaka (ND 28 AC), who won the gold medal over the summer in the World U20 Championships 3000 m, also made the all-time Japanese top 25 for 5000 m with a 15:15.80 in October , the only Japanese woman to date to have cleared the 2019 Do...

With the 31:50.00 standard for the 2019 Doha World Championships 10000 m announced earlier this week following the IAAF's about-face on its new world rankings system, Japan wasted no time in getting its people under the mark. In cold conditions for the mid-afternoon Corporate Women's Time Trials meet at Yamaguchi's Ishin Me-Life Stadium the women's 10000 m A-heat went out strong and steady, 15:45 through halfway before the lead group began to splinter. Just two weeks after a season-worst performance at the National Corporate Women's Ekiden  the Atsushi Sato -coached  Minami Yamanouchi (Kyocera) roared back into form with a 31:16.48 meet record for the win, outkicking Kenyan Grace Kimanzi (Starts) to land at #2 in the world so far this year and #8 on the all-time Japanese list. Yamanouchi and Kimanzi were the only two to clear 31:20, but all told six women made it under the 31:50 Doha standard, making the race the year's deepest worldwide. Having fully r...

Three main races make up this weekend's action, the Fukuoka International Marathon, Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler and Nittai University Time Trials. 2018 has been the best year in history for Japanese men's marathoning, and Fukuoka is sure to add to the numbers. There hasn't been a Japanese winner in Fukuoka since Tsuyoshi Ogata in 2004, and with ten recent sub-2:10 Japanese in the field including half marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara (Honda) and a few others with potential for high-level breakthroughs or longshot comebacks it wouldn't be surprising to see someone overcome the relatively weak international field. The loss of Callum Hawkins (Great Britain) to injury takes some of the spark out of the international contingent, leaving a group of East Africans at their peak a few seasons back and now in range of any Japanese man looking to run at the 2:07 to 2:08 level. 2011 World Championships silver medalist Vincent Kipruto (Kenya) is the only one to stand ...

Elevated to the winner's circle after last year's national champion Universal Entertainment was disqualified, Panasonic did it for real this year with a wire-to-wire lead for the 2018 National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships title. Last year's First Stage winner Kaori Morita did it again this year, putting Panasonic 5 seconds ahead at the first exchange. Second runner Sakiko Naito fought off multiple attacks from Nana Kuraoka of 2013-2015 national champion Denso to keep a 2-second lead at the next exchange, where 19-year-old Nanami Watanabe took the tasuki for the longest stage of the day, the 10.9 km Third Stage. The relatively unknown Watanabe was a revelation, obliterating 2:21~2:23 marathon trio Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal), Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) and Honami Maeda (Tenmaya), track star Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post), stage record holder Yuka Takashima (Shiseido) and more top-level talent to open Panasonic's lead to 57 seconds with a 34:31 stage...