japan running news

Athletics at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games wrapped yesterday with China leading its medal standings at 17 gold medals, 14 silver and 8 bronze. Hosts Japan  were next with 10 gold, 12 silver, 10 bronze, and the mostly African-born Bahrain team 3rd with 9 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze. Thailand's Puripol Boonson was the unofficial MVP of the Games, winning the men's 100 m on Sept. 25 in a MR and NR 9.90 (+0.1), tying the 200m AR on Sept. 27 with a 19.88 (-0.3) MR for his 2nd gold, running a monster men's 4x100 m anchor leg on Sept. 28 to put Thailand into 4th just 0.06 out of the medals, and then powering the Thai team to silver in the mixed 4x100 m relay on Sept. 29. U.A.E.'s Mariam Kareem was another highlight in the women's 400 mH, running 54.31 to set a new U20 AR, NR and MR. Japan's Taiju Goto delivered the Asian Games's other U20 AR, running 47.93 for silver behind Qatari Bassem Hemeida 's 47.82. Not counting the race walks, 13 other meet records wer...

Back in Japan for the first time in 32 years and representing 60% of the world's population, with more athletes competing across all sports than at the Olympics, the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games are already underway. Athletics competition starts tomorrow and runs through Tuesday the 29th. Some of the biggest names on the entry list include: Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage (SRI) - men's javelin throw - 2026 World Ultimate Championships gold and 2026 Diamond League champion Haruka Kitaguchi (JPN) - women's javelin throw - 2026 World Ultimate Championships and 2024 Paris Olympics gold Birhanu Balew (BRN) - men's 5000 m/10000 m - 2026 Diamond League 5000 m champion Sanghyeok Woo (KOR) - men's high jump - 2025 Tokyo World Championships silver Hayato Katsuki (JPN) - men's marathon race walk - 2025 Tokyo World Championships bronze Abderrahman Samba (QAT) - men's 400 mH - 2025 Tokyo World Championships bronze Jiale Zhang (CHN) - women's hammer throw - 2025 Tokyo W...

This week the JAAF announced changes to the lineup for its home team at next week's Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games . The main change announced was the withdrawal of Ririka Hironaka from the women's 10000 m, leaving only Nozomi Tanaka to do it as part of a 1500-5000-10000 triple. In theory it seems like it would be pretty easy and swap in an alternate, but apparently not. No announcement of withdrawals for Tomonori Yamaguchi , who missed June's National Championships 5000 m with injury, or high jumper Ryoichi Akamatsu , who hasn't competed since early last October and made the Asian Games team based his 8th-place finish over a year ago at the Tokyo World Championships. Complete entry lists, schedule and results are available here . The latest Japanese team lineup, with current Asian ranking limited to 2 athletes per country, and best performance in 2025-26: Men 100 m 6 - Shuhei Tada (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.10 (+1.4) 9 - Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.06 (+1.4) 200 m 1 - Tow...

Four Japanese national record holders were at the Silesia Kamila Skolimowska Memorial Diamond League meet in Poland Sunday. Men's 110 mH NR holder Rachid Muratake was far off his 12.92 best, running his slowest time of the year in a final, 13.41 (-0.7) for 7th. Yet to get under 8:10 this year, NR holder Ryuji Miura was 9th of 17 finishers in the men's 3000 m SC in 8:11.84. Women's 5000 m NR holder Nozomi Tanaka went sub-15 for the first time this year, running 14:58.35 for 14th in a 14:54.09 race won by Italy's Nadia Battocletti . A late add after back-to-back women's 100 mH NR of 12.62 and 12.60 on Aug. 9 and 15, Hitomi Nakajima made her Diamond League debut with a 12.91 (+0.2) for 7th, her slowest time in a final since March's Maurie Plant Meet in Australia. © 2026 Brett Larner , all rights reserved

The JOC announced the full lineups for the men's and women's teams for September's Nagoya Asian Games . Being hosted in Japan the Asian Games are a pretty big deal, and it's pretty close to the maximum of 2 athletes per event. The men's and women's triple jump, the women's 400 m and the women's discus throw only have 1 athlete on the Japanese team, and it's a big FU to the shot putters apparently as nobody was named to either the men's or women's teams even though people ranked lower in the World Athletics Asian rankings than top JPN shot putters Daichi Morishita and Chiharu Saka did make the team in other events. But, let's focus on what it is, not what it isn't. Going off this week's Asian rankings 8 men and 5 women are ranked #1 in their event, with a total of 19 men and 14 women ranked in the top 3. Factor in a limit of 2 per nationality and the relays and Japan's chances of scoring a great medal haul are looking good. M...

Domestically the main event on the track this weekend was the 3rd stop on the 2026 Hokuren Distance Challenge tour in Kitami . The race of the day there was the women's 3000 m, where Janet Jepkoech ran a PB 8:38.44 to lead the top 6 under 9 minutes, 5 of them in PBs including Mizuki Michishita in 8:56.75 and Jepkoech's Nitori teammate Rion Furukawa in 8:56.80. The men's 3000 m had similar results, Juda Hyodo running a PB 7:52.61 to lead the top 4 under 8 minutes, with 6 of the top 7 running PBs. Caroline Kariba was the only woman to break 15 minutes in the 5000 m with a 14:52.84 for the win, with Shunya Kikuchi the only man under 13:30 at 13:29.53. Things were busy overseas: The Asian U23 Athletics Championships happened in Ordos, China. Daily highlights here: Day 1 ・ Day 2 ・ Day 3 ・ Day 4 Men's 800 m NR holder Ko Ochiai ran 2:15.24 for 7th in the 1000 m at the Monaco Diamond League meet, 2 seconds better than Allon Clay 's national best from earlier this ...

Japan's outdoor Grand Prix season kicks off Saturday in Kumamoto at the Kanakuri Memorial Meet . Streaming will be at the link above starting at 9:30 a.m. local time. Complete timetable and start lists . Main events and some noteworthy entries: GP Women's 800 m Heat 2  - 12:10 p.m. All-time JPN #4 Ayano Shiomi , 2:01.01 GP Men's 800 m Heat 2  - 12:30 p.m. GP Women's 3000 mSC  - 2:45 p.m. All-time JPN #4 Yuzu Nishide , 9:38.95 All-time JPN #5 Manami Nishiyama , 9:39.28 South Korean NR holder Ha-Rim Cho , 9:53.09 GP Men's 3000 mSC  - 3:05 p.m. All-time JPN #2 Ryoma Aoki , 8:18.75 All-time JPN #5 Yutaro Niinae , 8:19.54 All-time JPN #7 Hibiki Obara , 8:22.64 All-time U20 JPN #2 Tetsu Sasaki , 8:29.05 All-time U20 JPN #3 Soma Nagahara , 8:30.37 GP Women's 1500 m Heat 2  - 3:35 p.m. Teresiah Muthoni , 4:02.54 Margaret Ekalale , 4:09.64 all-time JPN #3 Ran Urabe , 4:07.90 All-time JPN #6 Tomoka Kimura , 4:09.79 All-time U20 #5 Mei Sakiyama , 4:13.67 GP Men's 1500...

The last weekend of the academic and fiscal year saw at least 5 meets with good results domestically and abroad. Kicking things off Friday was the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne, where Tomohiro Shinno and Naoto Hasegawa took 1st and 3rd in the men's high jump, both of them only clearing 2.18 m along with 2nd-placer Roman Anastasios . 12 other Japanese athletes were in action on the second day of the meet on Saturday, where 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura ran 3:42.84 for 6th in the men's 1500 m. Nagiya Mori had a better one in the men's 3000 m with a 7:45.40 for 4th. Both Yota Mashiko and Rui Suzuki cleared 8:00 too, Mashiko's 7:53.84 the 2nd-fastest ever by a Japanese-born high schooler. Abigail Fuka Ido and Nagisa Takahashi both placed 3rd in their events, Ido going 23.85 (-0.9) in the women's 200 m and Takahashi clearing 1.82 m in the women's high jump. 8 Japanese men were at The TEN in California to run 10000 m. In the B-heat won by Edward Marks in ...

Hosts Japan swept the team titles and won 3 of the 4 individual titles at the 18th Asian Cross Country Championships Saturday in Fukuoka. With the Asian XC races integrated into the National Cross Country Championships the winners of 3 of the main races saw Japanese winners who weren't part of Asian XC scoring, starting off with the U20 Women's 6 km. China 's Jinhua Hu did a lot of the work up front to pull the lead quartet along and was rewarded with the only individual Asian XC title not won by Japan. But in the last km she fell victim to Nami Kawakami , winner of the 1st leg for 2025 National High School Ekiden champion Nagano Higashi H.S. , who outkicked Hu for the overall win and national title in 19:51. Nodoka Ashida was 3rd overall in 19:55, with Yui Onotora and Mona Utsunomiya taking 2nd and 3rd in the Asian XC placing. Japan took the team title over China, with India winning bronze. Yudai Fujii finished strong to win the U20 men's 8 km national title, ou...

The 2026 Asian Cross Country Championships happen Saturday in Fukuoka in conjunction with Japan's National Cross Country Championships. Complete entry lists are at the links below, with Japan's entries for the 4 teams as listed. The senior men's 10 km team is especially strong, with 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura (Subaru) leading 3 other men all in the 27:36-27:37 range for 10000 m, Yuma Nishizawa (Toyota Boshoku), Hiromichi Nonaka (Koku Gakuin Univ.) and Kaisei Okada (Chuo Univ.). As of right now there is no info on streaming available, but we'll update this with links if it surfaces. Senior Men's 10 km Yuma Nishizawa (Toyota Boshoku) - 27:36.61 (Hachioji 2025) Hiromichi Nonaka (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 27:36.64 (Hachioji 2025) Kaisei Okada (Chuo Univ.) - 27:37.06 (Hachioji 2025) Ryuji Miura (Subaru) - 28:32.28 (Inzai 2021) / 8:03.43 NR (Monaco 2025) Senior Women's 10 km Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 31:03.14 (Osaka 2025) Momoka Kawaguchi (Uniqlo)...