japan running news

  Afternoon thunderstorms interrupted some of the later events on the second day of the National University Track and Field Championships in Kumagaya, Saitama, but Jason Atuobeng (Fukuoka Univ.) got in before that with a meet record 18.18 m to win the men's shot put title. Atuobeng's opening 17.67 m would have been enough for the win, but on his 2nd attempt he went 12 cm over the year-old meet record with the 18.18 m throw that proved to be his best of the day. His 3rd attempt was over the old record too at 18.17 m, but Atuobeng couldn't get any closer to his pre-meet goal of Japan's first-ever throw over 19 m. In other field event results: Koki Fujihara (Toyo Univ.) led the men's long jump with a 2nd attempt of 8.05 (+1.2), but on his final attempt Yuto Toriumi (Nihon Univ.) dropped a 8.07 m (+0.8) jump to steal the win. Megumi Dainobu (Nittai Univ.) and Akari Osakaya (Sonoda Gakuen Joshi Univ.) both cleared 4.00 m in the women's pole vault, but with Dain...

  Osaka Geijutsu University performing arts major Hikaru Kitagawa kicked off the final day of the Chengdu World University Games with the first Japanese women's gold medal of the games in athletics, winning the half marathon in 1:13:17 by 14 seconds over Turkey's Yayla Kilic Gonen . And winning it in style. 3 seconds behind Kilic Gonen at 20 km, Kitagawa closed from there to the finish in 3:08, or 2:51/km pace, the kind of split you'd more often see in a men's race. You have to wonder if the 20 km split was accurate, but anyway Kitagawa made up 17 seconds in 1.0975 km, which is pretty good. Fatma Karasu made it a Turkish 2-3 with a 1:14:28 for bronze. Rio Einaga of Osaka Gakuin University was 8th in 1:15:34 and national champion Meijo University's Saki Harada 14th in 1:16:36, enough to land Japan the team silver behind Turkey. China took the team bronze. Japanese men usually dominate the World University Games half marathon given their focus on that distance for...

  Waseda University's Yudai Nishi  gave Japan its first silver medal of the Chengdu World University Games on the fourth day of athletics competition, taking 2nd in the men's 200 m final. After winning SF1 in a PB of 20.43 +0.9 m/s, Nishi started conservatively in the final. In the middle of the field coming into the straight, Nishi closed the fastest in the field to move up into 2nd but came up short of catching gold medalist Isadore Matsoso of South Africa. Matsoso clocked 20.36 to Nishi's 20.46, with Amlan Borgohain of India taking bronze with a season best 20.55. Waseda's Aoi Inage was last in 21.10 after having run a PB 20.64 +1.1 m/s for 3rd in SF3. Both Japanese men in the 5000 m heats qualified easily for the final, Komazawa University's Taiyo Yasuhara jogging a 14:42.91 for 5th in Heat 1 and Tokai University's Shotaro Ishihara cruising to 2nd in Heat 2 in 14:31.91. Tsukuba University's Saki Katagihara made it through to the final in the women...

The 102nd Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships continue Friday at Kanagawa's Sagamihara Gion Stadium. Streaming starts at 9:00 a.m. local time on the main feed above, with different camera angles on the secondary feed below. The first middle and long distance event on the day's schedule is the D2 men's 1500 m final at 13:00. #2-ranked Nao Kurihara (3rd yr., Josai Univ.) made it through with a 3:52.14 for 2nd in Heat 1. In the final his main competition will be Heat 2 winner Shunya Udagawa (2nd yr., Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) with a 3:44.03 best, and Udagawa's 3rd-year YGU teammate Soya Katayama and 4th-year teammate Kento Yamauchi . Ranked #4 in the final, Haruto Matsuo (1st yr., Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) could make the podium in his debut. All five women with 1500 m bests under 4:20 made the final at 13:15. Saki Katagihara (4th yr., Tsukuba Univ.) won Heat 1 in 4:26.10, Haruko Hosaka (4th yr., Nittai Univ.) took Heat 2 in 4:26.28, Yuzuha Sawai (4th yr.,...

Japan's biggest and best college meet happens over the next four days at the 102nd Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships . After returning to its traditional home at Tokyo's Olympic Stadium last year, this year it's been banished back out to the woodlands of rural Kanagawa at Sagami Gion Stadium. All four days of the meet will be streamed live. Day one streaming is above and below, with the links to the rest on the KGRR channel on Youtube. Meet schedule and live results are here . From a long distance perspectives there's more racing then ever before, with the D2 men's 10000 m split into two heats and the D2 men's 5000 m having a qualification round. The D1/D2/D3 divisions work a bit differently, D1 being made up of the top-scoring schools overall each year, i.e. those with complete all-around track and field programs, with everyone else like Hakone Ekiden-focused programs Komazawa University and Aoyama Gakuin University in D2, and D3 being t...

The 101st Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships continued Friday at Tokyo's National Stadium. The biggest news of the day was in the women's 1500 m final , where Saki Katagihara (Tsukuba Univ.) broke the 4:16.64 meet record set way back in 1997 by another Tsukuba athlete, Kumiko Okamoto , to win in 4:16.41. Okamoto had pressure from Mao Kogure (Juntendo Univ.) over the last lap but held her off in the home straight, Kogure running a PB 4:16.87 for 2nd and just missing hitting the old MR too. 3rd-placer Risa Yamazaki (Nittai Univ.) was also under 4:20 at 4:18.51, with collegiate record holder Mizuki Michishita (Rikkyo Univ.) 4th in 4:20.65. Another ancient MR fell in the D1 men's shot put . On his final attempt, favorite Hitoshi Okumura (Kokushikan Univ.) threw a PB 18.26 m for the win, 0.11 m further than the 1998-era meet record of 18.15 m by Yasuo Noguchi (Nihon Univ.). The top 4 all threw PBs. With his senior year having just begun Okumura is now ...

Japan's best collegiate meet returns to Tokyo's National Stadium for the first time since 2013, with the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships happening there over the next four days. The KGRR will be streaming the whole thing live, with entry lists and live results here . Highlights on Day One include: Just a 2nd-year at Aoyama Gakuin University , Yu Ishikawa is already looking like she has potential to break the 13-year-old collegiate record of 11.32 in the women's 100 m. Her best of 11.48 leads the way in the heats. Toyo University 1st-year Hiroki Yanagita leads the entries in the men's 100 m with a best of 10.22. Toyo is the favorite in the men's 400 m too, with 3rd-year Joseph Nakajima leading the entries at 46.09. Chuo University 4th-year Airi Oshima is ranked #1 in the women's 400 m at 54.25. 4th-year Kazuto Iizawa of Tokai University is the only man entered in the 1500 m heats with a best under 3:40, coming in with a 3:38.55, bu...