japan running news

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...

At the Mar. 19 Melbourne Track Classic in Australia, Tokyo Olympics Japanese national team member Kosei Yamaguchi (Aisan Kogyo) ran 8:27.74 to win the men's 3000 m steeplechase. His first steeple race since the Olympics, Yamaguchi was just over 5 seconds off the 8:22.00 qualifying standard for July's Oregon World Championships despite 34˚C temperatures and windy conditions. Yamaguchi was 2nd in last year's National Championships steeplechase in 8:19.96, the 3rd-fastest ever by a Japanese man and enough to qualify him for the Olympic team. At last week's Sydney Track Classic he ran a 3000 m PB of 7:56.16 for 10th. Also in Melbourne, sprinter Jun Yamashita (ANA) was 5th in the men's 200 m in 21.18 +2.2 m/s. Akiko Ito (Cerespo) was also 5th in the women's 400 m hurdles in 59.18, improving on her time in Sydney. Mikuto Kaneko (Chuo Univ.) ran 1:49.33 for 7th in the men's 800 m, almost 4 seconds off his all-time JPN #3 best of 1:45.85. Ryoji Tatezawa (DeN...

The Sydney Track Classic , a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze Label meet, took place Mar. 12 in Sydney, Australia. In the men's 3000 m, Tokyo Olympics 3000 m steeplechase national team member Kosei Yamaguchi (Aisan Kogyo) ran a PB of 7:56.19. Yamaguchi split roughly 2:40 and 5:20 en route before picking up the pace over the last 1000 m to go under 8 minutes for the first time. Yamaguchi ran as a tune-up for the steeple at next weekend's Melbourne Track Classic. Among other Japanese athletes, in the men's 800 m, Mikuto Kaneko (Chuo Univ.) ran 1:47.29 for 3rd in the A-heat, the third-best time of his career. Former national champion Ryoji Tatezawa (DeNA) was last in the B-heat in 1:52.49. Akiko Ito (Cerespo) was 3rd in the women's 400 m hurdles in 59.36, and Ryo Sato (Takatomi Club) took 4th in the men's high jump, clearing 2.11 m. source article: https://www.rikujyokyogi.co.jp/archives/67784 translated and edited by Brett Larner

Thank you for your support of the Yokohama DeNA Running Club . Founded in 2013, the DeNA corporate team will be disbanded at the end of 2020. Beginning in 2021, DeNA will take a new approach toward supporting the activities of individual athletes who aim to compete at the international level. Despite the impact of the coronavirus crisis upon all our sports business, with its new approach DeNA hopes to continue to support competitive running in the medium to long-term future. Right now we are in the midst of making new contract offers to our existing athletes under the new model. We will continue to keep you informed about each athlete's plans for the next fiscal year and in every case will respect the athlete's wishes, whatever they may be. Head coach Tomoaki Kunichika and other members of the current team's staff will be retiring. We thank them for their contributions to the team's development. We hope to have your continued support in the future. Translator...

Friday was day two of Japan's 104th National Track and Field Championships , and whatever else might have been happening in other parts of the world it was a good day at least for defending women's champions. Three scored repeat wins, Seika Aoyama (Osaka Seikei AC) winning the 400 m final in 53.55, Mariko Morimoto (Uchida Kensetsu AC) taking the triple jump in 13.14 m (-0.2) and Akane Watanabe (Maruwa) the hammer throw at 64.84 m. As with day one a lot of the 2019 men's champs were missing, leaving Takatoshi Abe (Yamada) the only one to put a back-to-back title next to his name with a 49.73 win in the 400 m hurdles that saw him almost run down by Tatsuhiro Yamamoto (Nihon Univ.) after starting hard. 2017 and 2018 men's 1500 m national champ Ryoji Tatezawa (DeNA) made it back to the top after a bad year last year, winning in 3:41.32 with the top four all under 3:42. Times in the men's 100 m final were nothing special, but in maybe the most emotional perfor...

The National Corporate Championships men's 10000 m A-heat lived up to expectations as one of the best races of the year, the kind of race that shows how good a track 10000 m can be, tense and full of turnover between world top two Benard Kibet (Kyudenko) and Bedan Karoki (Toyota), and Richard Kimunyan (Hitachi Butsuryu). The trio wore down the rest of the competition, Koech and Karoki doing most of the hammering and Kimunyan only going to the front twice. On the last curve he made his final move, pulling away from Koech for the win in 27:01.42, Koech next in 27:02.39 and Karoki 3rd in 27:02.80. Kimunyan's time was briefly the world-leading mark before being overtaken at a race in Europe just hours later. Further back, the top two Japanese men over 10,000 m this year, Yuma Hattori (Toyota) and Kengo Suzuki (Fujitsu), worked together to move up through the field to take 7th and 8th in new PBs of 27:47.55 and 27:49.16. Both had broken 28 minutes for the first time in Jul...

Even more than in Osaka , top-level Japanese athletes turned out in big numbers for the 83rd Tokyo Track and Field Championships , stretched out over a leisurely four-day schedule this weekend at Komazawa Stadium. Despite terrible weather conditions throughout the long weekend they brought new meet records in eighteen events, breaking some records that had stood for over 50 years. All three men's sprints saw new meet records. 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics men's 4x100 m relay silver medalist Aska Cambridge (Nike) ran a meet record 10.29 (+0.3) to win his 100 m opening heat, improved that to 10.26 (-0.3) to take his semifinal, then took the record further again with a 10.22 (-0.8) win in the final. Keigo Yasuda (Daito Bunka Univ.) tied the men's 200 m meet record at 20.97 (-1.0) to win the final. Daichi Inoue (Nihon Univ.) ran 46.81 to break the previous men's 400 m meet record of 47.05, set in 1996 before he was born. Men's middle distance also had new meet r...

Over 50 Japanese and Japan-based athletes competed with support from JRN in this weekend's Brooklyn Mile Virtual Race , the first virtual race to offer prize money to top elite-level finishers. Athletes submitted GPS data for a one-mile run done anywhere in the world within the race's three-day window, with anyone who cleared times corresponding to specific VDOT levels for their age earning a share of prize money pooled from a percentage of entry fees. The remainder of the entry fees went toward COVID-19 relief in New York. Running in a four-man race in Setagaya, Tokyo, 2017 and 2018's 1500 m national champion and former indoor mile national record holder Ryoji Tatezawa (Yokohama DeNA RC) turned in the fastest time in the event, negative splitting a 4:01 in heavy rain. After missing most of 2019 with injury and somehow pulling it together for a course record win on the Hakone Ekiden's brutal downhill Sixth Stage in January, Tatezawa's run was a successful retur...

This weekend's Brooklyn Mile is being held as a virtual race from Friday through Sunday instead of its usual road mile format. There's no shortage of other races doing the same right now, but Brooklyn has done something unique by setting itself up with a prize money pool pulled from entry fees , with the remaining 80% going to COVID-19 relief charities. It's an innovative idea in which anyone can take part and that gives the faster end of each age group something to shoot for with funding from the mass participants. The current instability in the area leaves a question mark as to how many of those there will be. But on paper at least the potential is there for a very competitive three days, and with everyone around the world looking for ways to adapt racing to the current situation this looks like an approach worth supporting. Over forty elite-level Japanese middle and long-distance athletes, university, corporate league and pro, female and male, will be taking part wi...

Day One results and report After a record-breaking first day , 2015-2018 Hakone Ekiden champion Aoyama Gakuin University held off last year's winner Tokai University to take the overall title in course record time. AGU started the return trip to Tokyo with a 3:22 lead over Tokai, enough for Tokai head coach Hayashi Morozumi to express pessimism about his team's chances of making up such a big deficit over Day Two's five stages totaling 109.6 km. Not that they didn't try. On the day's first stage, the brutal 20.8 km Sixth Stage featuring a steep climb early on and then over 800 m of descent, mostly in the middle 10 km, two-time 1500 m national champion Ryoji Tatezawa broke the course record by 40 seconds to cut over a minute off AGU's lead. Tokai's next two runners Sakito Matsuzaki and Yohei Komatsu cut further into AGU's margin of error, but at the start of the day's longest stage, the 23.1 km Ninth Stage, Tokai was still exactly 2 minu...

University men's ekiden season kicks off Monday with the Izumo Ekiden , the first race in the three-month buildup to January's Hakone Ekiden main event. Last year four-time Hakone champ Aoyama Gakuin University outran up-and-coming Tokai University at both Izumo and November's National University Ekiden but fell short of stopping Tokai at Hakone. This year AGU is significantly down on strength, while Tokai is stronger than ever. But while Tokai is the clear favorite, it's got a serious challenge coming from at least one, maybe two familiar faces. The average stage length for Izumo's six stages is about 7.5 km, requiring a balance between 5000 m and 10000 m skills. Despite missing captain Ryoji Tatezawa Tokai leads the way in both departments, its top six 5000 m average of 13:47.22 the fastest among the seven schools with sub-14 minute averages and its 10000 m average of 28:39.35 likewise leading the way among the six sub-29 programs. Half marathon credentia...

Japan pulled off three medal sweeps in the last two days of track and field competition at the 2019 Napoli Universiade , taking all three individual medals and the team gold medals in the men's 20 km race walk and both the women's and men's half marathons. Koki Ikeda kicked off the medal rush Friday with a 1:22:49 win in the men's 20 km race walk, opening more than 30 seconds on teammates Masatora Kawano and Yuta Koga . The next morning the Japanese women followed the walkers' lead, waiting until the third time around the three-lap course to drop the competition. Just 19, 2019 National University Half Marathon champion Yuka Suzuki  (Daito Bunka Univ.) was really impressive over the last two kilometers, seeming to be going at an all-out sprint and opening more than 20 seconds on Rika Kaseda (Meijo Univ.) and Yuki Tagawa  (Matsuyama Univ.) for the win in 1:14:10. #ユニバーシアード2019 男子ハーフマラソン スタジアムで表彰待ちをしていたら伊藤くんが繰り上げで3位になった情報が入ってビックリ😳 中国人選手が指定の場所以外で給水を取ったので失格にな...

Day Two of Kanto Regionals dawned windy, bringing loads of performances that exceeded the meet records but missed the books thanks to a tailwind over the limit. The D1 men's 1500 m wasn't one of them. A slow 72 second first lap led to a 2:22 split at 800 m, a full 5 seconds slower than what the women's final went through it in. Yudai Noguchi (Juntendo Univ.) made a break for it from around 700 m out, but it wasn't until just into the last lap that former indoor mile national record holder and captain of 2019 Hakone Ekiden champion Tokai University's Ryoji Tatezaw a went after him with rookie first-year teammate Kazuto Iizawa in tow. In the home straight Tatezawa reeled Noguchi in and looked to have a senior year title sealed up, but at the last second Iizawa pulled even with him. Both throwing their arms straight forward at the line and Tatezawa going into full dive mode, when the results came up on the screen Iizawa had taken his team captain down by the t...

On a day that saw three more world-leading marks, three more championships records and nine more national records, Japan saved its best for the last day of the Doha Asian Athletics Championships , bringing home three gold medals, two silvers and four bronze. Yuki Hashioka brought the Japanese performance of the day, winning gold in the men's long jump with a world lead-tying PB jump of 8.22 m +0.6. Gold also came in the women's 100 m hurdles along with one of the bronzes, with Ayako Kimura and Masumi Aoki going 1 and 3. The other gold came in the show-stopping men's 4x400 m relay, where Japan led start-to-finish to win  by 0.34 over India. India was later disqualified, elevating China to silver and hosts Qatar to bronze. The Japanese women's 4x400 m team led their race for almost 3/4 of the way, overtaken by India just before the last exchange and caught by Bahrain on the back corner but holding on for a surprise bronze. Takashi Eto and favorite Naoto Tobe...