japan running news

After leading the first day of competition, Yuto Yamamoto took Japan's only gold medal on Day 2 of the Asian U23 Athletics Championships in Ordos, China with a 7395 win in the decathlon. Yamamoto started the second day with a 71-point lead over China's Chenghao Zhu , and with 1st-place finishes in the pole vault and 1500 m built that to a final margin of victory of 109 points. Zhu dropped to bronze in 7071, overtaken by teammate Jiawei Wang who took silver with 7286. Silver medals came in the men's 200 m, where Kota Uematsu ran a wind-aided 20.58, the women's 800 m with Kurumi Sugure 2nd in 2:09.42 and Yuri Nishida 7th in 2:12.08, the women's 5000 m thanks to a 16:50.52 by Koharu Chugo , and the men's 3000 mSC where Tetsu Sasaki came up less than 3 seconds short of another Waseda University gold in 8:56.99 behind Qatari Zakaria Elahlaami . Bronze medals went to Ami Takahashi with a 23.66 (+1.5) in the women's 200 m and Aoi Murakami in the women...

There were 2 decently competitive meets in the Tokyo area this weekend. Saturday saw the new year's first edition of the Setagaya Time Trials meet. Takuma Akiyoshi took the men's 3000 m A-heat over his MABP Maverick teammate Festus Kiprono Cheruiyot with a 7:58.32 PB. Cheruiyot just held off 3rd-placer Nao Kurihara 7:59.92 to 8:00.02, with MABP runners taking the top 5 spots. The top 7 in the men's 5000 m A-heat all cleared 14 minutes. Still a 6-way race with 400 m to go, Tatsuya Maruyama of Komori Corp. came out on top in 13:48.49, with 5th-placer Kazuki Ishii of Yakult just over a second behind in 13:49.63. Lacking the gear to stay with them, new American marathon sensation Ethan Shuley fell back to 6th in 13:57.12 in his first-ever track 5000 m, holding off 7th-placer Daiki Nomimura of NTT Nishi Nihon who came up from behind to finish in 13:58.30. Sunday was the 59th edition of the Tokyo Big 6 meet between Waseda University , Meiji University , Hosei Univers...

Usually held in September right before ekiden season, this year's National University Track and Field Championships moved to early June to avoid conflicts with the Tokyo World Championships. Doubling up on her solo 10000 m win a month ago at Kanto Regionals , Sarah Wanjiru lapped the entire field to win the women's 10000 m in 31:48.44. That was 16 seconds under the old meet record set by fellow Daito Bunka University runner and future Olympic 6th-placer Yuka Suzuki , and missed Wanjiru's PB by just over a second. Less than a second separated the next 3 finishers, with newcomer Mei Hosomi from Meijo University getting 2nd in 33:23.46, Wanjiru's DBU teammate Mariya Noda 3rd in 33:23.77, and Asahi Shirakawa from Tsukuba University off the podium in 33:24.17. Less than 2 weeks after rocking a 27:29.15 for 2nd in the National University Ekiden Kanto Region Qualifier 10000 m , Nihon University 's Shadrack Kipkemei found himself in another close race, this one aga...