japan running news

The university men's ekiden season is already well underway, but for women the first of the season's national-level university ekidens takes place this Sunday with Sendai's Morinomiyako Ekiden , the National University Women's Ekiden Championships . Starting in 2003 Kyoto's Ritsumeikan University became an almost unstoppable force, winning ten national titles and three 2nd-place finishes in thirteen years including five-straight from 2011 to 2015. Last year they were knocked back to 2nd by first-time national champion Matsuyama University but came back with a season-ending win over Matsuyama and 3rd-placer Meijo University at the Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden. All three schools are back and feature as the three favorites, Matsuyama led by fourth-year Anju Takamizawa , a 2016 Rio Olympian in the 3000 m steeplechase, and 2005 national champion Meijo led by first-year Rika Kaseda , runner-up in the 5000 m at September's National University Track and Field Ch...

Front-page news and the top story in just about every mainstream Japanese media outlet,  the 2017 National University Track and Field Championships in Fukui will always be remembered for the first-ever Japanese men's legal sub-10 clocking in the 100 m from Toyo University 4th-year  Yoshihide Kiryu . After his historic 9.98 (+1.8 m/s) national record, Kiryu wrapped his university career by anchoring Toyo's 4x100 m team to a 2nd-place finish and making a major contribution to Toyo's solid 3rd-place in final overall university scoring. His London World Championships 4x100 m teammate Shuhei Tada (Kwansei Gakuin University) was also in good form, breaking Kiryu's old meet record in the 100 m in 10.07 and anchoring Kwansei Gakuin to 3rd in the 4x100 m. But there was no shortage of other record-breaking performances at this year's Nationals. Biggest among those came in the women's 800 m where Nittai University 4th-year  Yume Kitamura set a meet and nationa...

by Brett Larner After a DNS in the final at last year's Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, 2014 D1 men's 100 m champ Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.) was back on top with another title to add to his frosh year success.  With a slow start and relaxed finish Kiryu led the semifinals in 10.27 into a -0.2 m/s headwind.  The wind built to -1.4 m/s for the final, slowing to Kiryu to 10.35, but he was still in another class from the rest of the field as he easily took the win.  His dream of Japan's first sub-10 remains ahead of him. The day's other big star was heptathlon national high school record holder Meg Hemphill (Chuo Univ.).  After competing in two events yesterday Hemphill won the women's 100 mH final in 13.53 with a -0.4 m/s headwind.  Hemphill gets into her main event on Saturday with the first half of the heptathlon. The lone distance running final, the women's 10000 m, saw the Kanto Region's #1-ranked woman so far this year, thi...

by Brett Larner Along with marathons and other road races, this busy weekend included two significant ekidens and three large track time trial meets. At the Nov. 19 Biwako University Ekiden, Western Japan's answer to January's Hakone Ekiden, defending champion Kyoto Sangyo University  braved heavy rain and wind to take its second-straight Biwako title.  After a slow 8th-place start Kyoto Sangyo worked its way up through the field and covered the eight-stage, 83.6 km course in 4:16:17.   Daiichi Kogyo University  was 2nd in 4:18:09 thanks in large part to an impressive 31:57 record for the 11.0 km Third Stage by its Kenyan ace  Kiragu Njuguna , a full 43 seconds under the old record.  Njuguna put Daiichi Kogyo in the lead by more than a minute over early leader  Ritsumeikan University , and the team maintained the lead all the way until the 7th stage when Daiichi Kogyo was overtaken by Kyoto Sangyo's stage-winning Kazuki Noda .  Ritsumeikan anc...