japan running news

The 2025 Asian Athletics Championships take place May 27-31 in Gumi, South Korea, a key chance for Japanese athletes to score points to help get them to September's Tokyo World Championships. Japan's team of 35 women and 36 men for the Asian Championships as of April 25 : Women 100 m Midori Mikase (Sumitomo Denko) - 11.37 Aiha Yamagata (Fukuoka Univ.) - 11.41 200 m Arisa Kimishima (DKS) - 23.16 Remi Tsuruta (Minami Kyushu Family Mart) - 23.17 400 m Nanako Matsumoto (Toho Ginko) - 52.29 800 m Rin Kubo (Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S.) - 1.59.93 Ayano Shiomi (Iwatani Sangyo) - 2:01.93 1500 m Yume Goto (Uniqlo) - 4:09.41 Tomoka Kimura (Sekisui Kagaku) - 4:09.79 5000 m Yuma Yamamoto (Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:12.97 Sora Shinozakura (Yokoyama T&F Assoc.) - 15:23.82 10000 m Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) - 30:39.71 Mikuni Yada (Edion) - 31:20.09 100 mH Mako Fukube (NKK) - 12.69 Yumi Tanaka (Fujitsu) - 12.83 400 mH Ami Yamamoto (Fujitsu) - 56.06 Miku Takino (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 56.81 3000 mSC...

Former Komazawa University captain Mebuki Suzuki (Toyota) and 3-time 10000 m national champion Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) ran through rain that started just before the day's last two events to win the 10000 m national titles Saturday in Kumamoto at the Kanakuri Memorial meet. With Kenyan pacers and Wavelight in action both races were steady time trials that ground the fields down to a few legit contenders. In the men's race that was Suzuki, 2024 national champ Jun Kasai (Asahi Kasei) and Suzuki's teammate Yamato Yoshii . Yoshii made an early move to break away, but Suzuki and Kasai reeled him back in by 7200. At 9000 m the pace had slowed to 24:56, on track for 27:42, but Suzuki attacked with a 61-second lap from 9000 to 9400, a pace he held to drop a 2:32 last 1000 m for the win in 27:28.82. Kasai was next in 27:33.52 and Yoshii 3rd in a 27:36.33 PB with the top 8 all breaking 28 minutes. The women's race was down to just 2021, 2022 and 2023 national champion Hir...

Four big races happen Sunday, and it's looking like only one of them might escape the cold rain that's forecast to hit most of the country that morning. That would be Kyoto's Biwako Cross Country meet, the lesser cousin of Fukuoka's National Cross Country Championships three weeks later but still filling an important hole in the calendar left by the demise of the Chiba Cross Country meet. Biwako attracts a few corporate teams and top high schools like Wacoal and Toyokawa H.S. , but its main claim to fame is as the National Junior High School Cross Country Championships. Complete entry lists here . In the heart of Yokohama's industrial zone Sunday is one of two big half marathons, the Kanagawa Half Marathon and 10 km . Top-tier collegiate runners will be headed for Marugame, on which more later, but a lot of the schools that ran last month's Hakone Ekiden will send big contingents from their rosters of alternates and B-tier runners, and that always makes it one...

This National Championship was the biggest day in Japanese 10000 m history, four women going under 31 minutes and three men breaking the national record thanks to a combination of the fast track at Tokyo's National Stadium, the Wavelight pacing system, superb pacing work from Kenyans, perfect weather, the continuing evolution in shoe tech, fans allowed onto the track at the Olympic stadium to roar their support, and the carrot of the Paris Olympics hanging just out of reach. In a lot of ways it was the same race twice, with both the women's and men's races seeing packs of four Japanese athletes, including two teammates, led by a Japan-resident Kenyan pacer locked onto the Wavelight, steady splits just off a historic mark, and a fast last 200 m by the winner to clear the mark. In the women's case it was Judy Jepngetich (Shiseido) leading teammates Rino Goshima and Yuka Takashima , former 5000 m NR holder Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) and underdog Haruka Kokai (Daiich...

  Athletics started Friday at the Hangzhou Asian Games , with Japanese athletes scoring medals in 3 of the day's 5 finals. Yutaro Murayama and Nanako Fujii kicked it off at 7:00 a.m. in the 20 km race walk. Murayama was the only man able to go with Chinese duo Jun Zhang and Zhaozhao Wang , but both pulled away to make it a 1-2 for the Games hosts in the opening event. Zhang took gold in 1:23:00, Wang silver in 1:24:08 with Murayama 33 seconds back in 1:24:41 for bronze. Tomohiro Noda was well back in 4th in 1:27:08, having served a 21-second penalty mid-race. Starting 10 minutes later, the women's race podium ended up looking exactly the same but with very different race development. China's Jiauyu Yang and Zhenxia Ma were way out front most of the way and couldn't have been closer at the end, Yang taking gold in 1:30:03 and Ma silver in 1:30:04. Fujii was almost a kilometer behind in 1:33:49 for silver, with teammate Yukiko Umeno 4th in 1:39:44. In the evening s...

The third meet in this year's Hokuren Distance Challenge series happened Saturday in Abashiri, Hokkaido. 5000 m NR holder Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) had her best run of the year with a 15:29.12 to win the 5000 m A-heat, a step back in the right direction after a series of flat performances since last ekiden season. And it couldn't have come at a better time, with Hironaka being the only Japanese woman qualified for the 10000 m at next month's Budapest World Championships. The rest of the field was over 20 seconds back, led by Yuna Wada (Japan Post) in 15:52.33. Eva Cherono (Toto) took the women's 10000 m in a season best 31:25.57. Sarah Wanjiru (Daito Bunka Univ.) continued to grow through her first collegiate season was a 30 sec+ PB of 31:46.17, just beating marathoner Yuka Ando (Wacoal) who clocked 31:46.85 for 3rd. Janet Nyiva (Panasonic) led the women's 3000 m in 8:49.32, Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) 2nd in 8:55.52 and Esther Wangui (Starts...

The JAAF has announced a team of 58 for September's rescheduled  Hangzhou Asian Games , something on a par with the Commonwealth Games but with a bigger share of the world's population. 22 women and 36 men will stretch out a long season spanning over two months from the Bangkok Asian Championships to the Budapest World Championships to Hangzhou in quest of points for next year's Paris Olympics. Women 100 m Arisa Kimishima - 11.36 200 m Arisa Kimishima - 23.17 800 m Ayano Shiomi - 2:02.57 1500 m Yume Goto - 4:09.41 5000 m Ririka Hironaka - 14:52.84 Yuma Yamamoto - 15:16.71 10000 m   Ririka Hironaka - 30:39.71 Haruka Kokai - 32:01.83 100 mH   Masumi Aoki  - 12.86 Yumi Tanaka - 12.89 400 mH   Ami Yamamoto - 56.06 Pole Vault Misaki Morota - 4.41 m Long Jump   Sumire Hata - 6.75 m Triple Jump   Mariko Morimoto - 14.16 m Javelin Throw Sae Takemoto - 62.39 m Marina Saito - 62.37 m 20 kmRW Nanako Fujii - 1:28:58 Yukiko Umeno - 1:33:38 35 kmRW Maika Yag...

Eugene, Oregon is the United States' Nobeoka, a small, isolated city with a local powerhouse of running, but in the case of Athlete Town Nobeoka it's not a university but old school corporate team Asahi Kasei that makes the town's name. Thursday's Golden Games in Nobeoka is its big home meet, and it always produces some of the fastest domestic times of the year. The atmosphere at the GGN is like nothing else, with local fans lining the track pounding on metal sponsor boards with batons and local marathon legend Shigeru Soh on the infield calling out support to each athlete by name over a mic like an MC. Streaming starts at 14:15 local time Thursday, with the main event races starting at 19:05. Meet schedule, start lists and live results are here . JRN will be on-site in Nobeoka. The program is pretty simple: kids' 800 m, 1000 m and 3000 m races in the afternoon, then 10 heats of men's 5000 m, 3 heats of women's 5000 m, and one heat each of 10000 m for w...

The track at Yokohama's Nittai University is on fire right now, with big results coming almost every week in the Nittai University Time Trials series. Saturday's 302nd edition was a special one-day version with only a few men's 5000 m heats. 16-year-old Lucy Nduta (Aomori Yamada H.S.) kicked it off with a 8:59.03 win in the fast heat of the women's 3000 m, beating national champion Meijo University 's Yuma Yamamoto , 9:01.18, and 5000 m NR holder Ririka Hironaka , 9:05.15. Sub-9 at 16, and that wasn't even a PB for Nduta. Corporate leaguer Hellen Ekarare (Toyota Jidoshokki) took the 5000 m A-heat in 15:16.80, the most notable results there being a 15:36.02 PB from national champ Shiseido 's Wakana Kabasawa for 2nd and a very decent 15:48.35 by Aoi Yamaguchi of Fukui's Sabae H.S. The biggest results were in the men's 10000 m, again. Between the four heats a total of 42 men were sub-29, that on top of the 199 who did it at Nittai and elsewhere la...

2nd last year, the Shiseido team won today's Queens Ekiden , its first victory at the National Corporate Women's Ekiden  since 2006. First the entire way except for a brief drop to 3rd after a mediocre run from new recruit and women-only marathon NR holder Mao Ichiyama on the race's longest stage, Shiseido was more than 2 minutes ahead of last year's winner Sekisui Kagaku in a course record 2:12:28 for the complete 6-stage, 42.195 km course. Sekisui Kagaku was never better than 2nd, where it finished in 2:14:29. 2021 champ Japan Post was the only team to get into the lead ahead of Shiseido thanks to a brilliant run from Olympian Ririka Hironaka on the 10.9 km Third Stage, ultimately finishing 3rd in 2:15:15. 5th last year, Daihatsu was the only other team from last year's 8-deep podium to make it there again, 5th once more in 2:15:49. Edion , Toyota Jidoshokki , and Daiichi Seimei all moved up from double-digit placings last year onto the podium, with Panaso...

The 40th National Women's Ekiden took place Jan. 16, starting and finishing at Kyoto's Takebishi Stadium and covering 42.195 km in 9 stages. The race having been canceled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 winner Kyoto took the top spot again in 2:15:05 to strengthen its position as the winningest team in event history with 18 national titles. Fukuoka scored 2nd, with Miyagi taking 3rd. Following up on her superb 31:28 CR on the National Corporate Women's Ekiden 's 10.0 km Fifth Stage in November, Shiseido corporate runner Rino Goshima put the Ishikawa prefecture team out front on the 6.0 km opening leg, beating members of the Tokyo Olympic team and finishing in 18:41, just 2 seconds behind the CR held by 5000 m NR holder Ririka Hironaka . Kyoto's Sakiho Tsutsui was only 9th, but over the next three stages the team worked its way toward the front of the field along with Fukuoka and Miyagi. On the race's Eighth Stage, 3.0 km reserved for juni...

With the first two days of the 2020 National Corporate Track and Field Championships bringing national records, world-leading marks and meet records, the last day saw one of the best races of the weekend. Fresh off her meet record win in the junior women's 3000 m, 19-year-old Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) took the women's 5000 m A-heat out hard in search of Japan's second sub-15 clocking ever. Right with her were Kenyans Rebecca Njeri (Daiso) and Joanne Kipkemoi (Kyudenko), and half marathon national record holder Hitomi Niiya (Sekisui Kagaku). Together they went through splits of 3:02, 2:58, 3:01 and 2:59 to hit 4000 m in exactly 12:00, Niiya and Njeri taking their turns up front and Kipkemoi sliding off the back. Njeri pushed hard over the last 1000 m to open a gap, but while Hironaka couldn't stay with her Niiya kicked over the last 200 m to almost close it up, just about a first in her career and showing the effects of the work she put into the 1500 m over t...

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...

Another week, another national championships on the track. This weekend it's the 68th National Corporate Track and Field Championships Friday through Sunday in Kumagaya, Saitama, bringing together the corporate leagues across events on its usual date but just ahead of a series of meets relocated from the spring and early summer including the National Track and Field Championships. Given everything that's happened to the calendar the field is higher-level than usual with seven national record holders, none of them the defending champion in their event. Shotaro Shiroyama (Zenrin) leads the men's long jump with a 8.40 m NR, Haruka Kitaguchi (JAL) the women's javelin throw at 66.00 m, Kumiko Okada (Bic Camera) the women's 5000 m race walk in 20:42.24, Yusuke Suzuki (Fujitsu) the men's 5000 m race walk in 18:37.22, Asuka Terada (Pasona Group) the women's 100 m hurdles in 12.97, Shunya Takayama (Zenrin) the men's 100 m hurdles in 13.25, and Naoto T...