japan running news

The powers that be may have decided that there isn't going to be a road season, but September's going to be a busy month on the track in Japan. Just getting in Saturday night ahead of the leading edge of Typhoon #10, the Yamaguchi Nighter Time Trials meet saw Joel Mwaura (Kurosaki Harima) take the  men's 3000 m  in 8:01.87 almost six seconds ahead of teammate Yusuke Tamura . Tosu Kogyo H.S. teammates Sei Sonoda and Junpei Maseda went 3-4 in 8:07.38 and 8:08.21, Sonoda taking the all-time #8 Japanese U20 and #7 Japanese high school marks and Maseda #8 on the high school list. The 50th Hokuriku Corporate Championships took place Saturday and Sunday in Toyama, rescheduled to this weekend from their original date in the spring. Still going strong all these years later, 2009 World University Games 10000 m gold medalist and 5000 m silver medalist Kasumi Nishihara (Yamada Denki) won the women's 5000 m in a meet record 15:44.55 over teammates Maho Shimizu and Yuri T...

As the numbers in Tokyo's second wave go up and up the likelihood that we're going to get many more weekends like this one goes down, but for this little window of opportunity, at least, there was action on the track at at least five elite-level meets across the country. At the 75th Kagoshima Prefecture Championships , 17-year-old Cynthia Mbaire (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.) ran U20 world-leading times in both the women's 1500 m and 5000 m, running 4:10.67 to win the 1500 m Saturday and then 15:14.30 Sunday to win the 5000 m. Both times were also meet records. On Friday 36-year-old amateur Takahiro Nakamura , who ran a 1:00:57 half marathon in February, won the men's 10000 m for the fifth year in a row, running a meet record 29:23.09. Sunday he was back to try to score the 5000 m title too but was outrun by Kanta Tokumaru (Kagoshima Jitsugyo H.S.) 14:18.21 to 14:28.36. Tokumaru was doubling off a win in the 1500 m Saturday in 3:57.17. Across Kyushu at the Saga Pref...