japan running news

On and off heavy rain held back the kind of world-leading performances seen on day one and day two of the 89th National Track and Field Championships , but there was no shortage of records and near-misses on the last day of the meet. Riku Ito (Kinki Univ.) had maybe the most surprising performance of the day, jumping 16.35 m (-0.1 m/s) for a new U20 national record, the second-best junior mark worldwide this year. Double meet records came in the men's 800 m and men's 4x400 m relay. In the 800 m, Junya Matsumoto (Hosei Univ.) held off Daichi Setoguchi (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) for the win in a meet record 1:47.02, Setoguchi also getting under the old record in 1:47.28. The men's 4x400 m was one of the best races of the day. In heavy rain Nihon University anchor Tatsuhiro Yamamoto started with a comfortable lead over Waseda University anchor Rikuya Ito , but Ito was all in over the first 150 m to take over the top spot. Yamamoto lost ground, but over the last 100 ...

Returning to the top for the first time since 1994 and 2008, the Sendai Ikuei H.S. girls and Saku Chosei H.S. boys pulled off comeback wins to take the national titles at the 2017 National High School Ekiden Championships . 14 seconds back from the lead after the opening leg of the five-stage, 21.0975 km girls' race, Sendai Ikuei's Helen Ekarare blasted a 12:25 course record for the 4.0975 km Second Stage to put her team 34 seconds ahead of early leader Nagano Higashi H.S.  Stuck in 3rd, 2016 national champion Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. Osaka Kunei's third and fourth runners Ayaka Murao and Saya Nakajima  tried to turn it around with back-to-back stage wins but could only come within 3 seconds of Nagano Higashi by the start of the anchor leg. There first-year Sendai Ikuei anchor Rina Kimura dropped the best performance of the after Ekarare's stage record, covering the 5.0 km anchor stage in 15:34. Bringing Sendai Ikuei home in 1st for the first time sin...

by Brett Larner highlights video courtesy of race broadcaster NHK click here for National High School Boys Ekiden results 2014 national champion Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. ran one of the fastest times in National High School Girls Ekiden history, breaking its school record to win its second national title in three years. Osaka Kunei got off to a relatively slow start, its leading runner Kanami Sagayama just 10th on the 6.0 km First Stage behind defending champ Sera H.S. , last-year's runner-up Tokiwa H.S. , powerhouse Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. and others.  Osaka Kunei's star runner Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu , with an 8:58.86 best for 3000 m while still just 16 years old, got the team back in the game, running the second-fastest time on the 4.0975 km Second Stage to put Osaka Kunei into 1st. Third and fourth runners Ayaka Murao and Saya Nakajima both won their stages, giving Osaka Kunei a 26-second lead over the relatively unheralded Nagano Higashi H.S. heading o...