japan running news

The ACN Expo Ekiden was the biggest race of the weekend domestically, but there was so much else going on domestically and internationally that it was hard to keep track. We'll do our best. Saturday in Fukuoka the Fst in Fukuoka road mile and 5 km moved from its usual fall date to a spring date for the first time. Ireland's Sophie O'Sullivan outran high school sensation Sherry Drury by 1 second for the win in the women's mile, 4:53 to 4:54. Drury's mark was a new U20 NR. The men's mile also came down to a 1-second win for Irishman Brian Fay over Japan's Jo Aoki , 4:12 to 4:13. Margaret Akidor had an easy win in the women's 5 km in 15:34, with veteran Yuichiro Ueno outrunning a doubling Fay in the men's 5 km to win in 14:07. Complete results here . The Matsue Ladies Half Marathon hosted the National University Women's Half Marathon Sunday. National champion Ritsumeikan University 's Makoto Tsuchiya outran Daito Bunka University 's...

The National Sports Festival wrapped up Tuesday in Saga with one of the best races of the meet, the junior women's 3000 m. The top 5 all went under 9:00, with Daisy Jerop (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) dominating in 8:56.36. Sharon Mwanti (Yamanashi Gakuin H.S.) was 2nd in 9:01.65, with Mei Hokiyama (Yamada H.S.) close behind in 9:04.86 for 3rd, Rin Setoguchi (Kamikura Gakuen H.S.) 4th in 9:06.63 and Pauline Wanjuku (Teikyo Nagaoka H.S.) 5th in 9:09.36. All told the top 12 broke 9:30. The junior boys' 3000 m was almost as competitive. Sei Yoshida (Tokai Sapporo H.S.) and Kain Inagaki (KERT) raced right to the line, Yoshida getting the win in 8:07.12 but Inagaki scoring a junior high school record with an 8:07.29 for 2nd. 3rd and 4th-placers Yudai Fujii (Miyazaki Nichidai H.S.) and Taira Ichikawa (Sendai Ikuei) couldn't have been closer, Fujii taking 3rd in 8:17.06 and Ichikawa 4th in 8:17.07, with the rest of the top 10 all getting under 8:30. Monday's junior men's 50...

Only one Japanese athlete was in action in finals on the second day of the Lima World U20 Championships . After making it through the heats and semifinals in the men's 100 m, Naoki Nishioka turned in the highest placing by a Japanese athlete so far in Lima, taking 5th in the final in 10.43 (-0.9). South Africans Bayanda Walaza and Bradley Nkoana took gold and bronze in 10.19 and 10.26, with Thailand's Puripol Boonson splitting it down the middle with a 10.22 for silver. In qualifying rounds: Kentaro Shirahata and Ryota Oishi both moved on to the men's 400 m semifinals, Shirahata winning Heat 5 in a 46.45 PB and Oishi only 4th in Heat 3 but picking up a time qualifying spot in 47.46. Shirahata was back in the semifinals with another PB to win SF2 in 46.30, 2nd among the qualifiers for the final behind American Jayden Davis . Oishi was 5th in SF3 in 48.09 and will not join Shirahata in the final. Koki Terada failed to make it out of the men's 1500 m heats, finishin...

The  Lima World U20 Championships  start tomorrow. Despite having its best-ever overall medal haul across all sports the Paris Olympics were almost a complete bust for Japan in athletics, with Haruka Kitaguchi 's gold in the women's javelin throw its only gold medal. But there are a lot of medal prospects in Lima, and overall it's probably the best team Japan has ever sent to the U20 World Championships. World Athletics U20 Championships Japanese Team Lima, Peru, 27-31 Aug. 2024 complete team listing Women  (14) 800 m Rin Kubo (Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S.) - 1:59.93 1500 m Sherry Drury (Tsuyama H.S.) - 4:15.50 3000 m Miyu Yamada (Meijo Univ.) - 9:14.09 Miu Suzuki (Tsukuba Univ.) - 9:18.64 5000 m Kana Mizumoto (Edion) - 15:31.51 Yumi Yamamoto (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 15:37.38 100 m Hurdles Ami Takahashi (Tsukuba Univ.) - 13.28 Miki Hayashi (Waseda Univ.) - 13.40 400 m Hurdles Haru Hiraki (Osaka Seikei Univ.) - 58.02 Aki Yajima (Tokorozawa Nishi H.S.) - 58.58 10000 m Race Walk S...

800 m national champions Rin Kubo and Ko Ochiai lead Japan's team for next month's Lima World U20 Championships , Kubo having just broken the NR with a 1:59.93 and Ochiai just off the NR at Nationals last month with a 1:45.82 in the heats. Sherry Drury is another one of Japan's big U20 hopes and will run the 1500 m, and 2023 National High School Ekiden champion Saku Chosei H.S. dominates the men's long distance squad with 3rd-years Yamato Hamaguchi in the 3000 m and 5000 m, Tetsu Sasaki in the 3000 m and 3000 mSC, and 2024 graduate Soma Nagahara in the 3000 m SC. World Athletics U20 Championships Japanese Team Lima, Peru, 27-31 Aug. 2024 complete team listing Women  (14) 800 m Rin Kubo (Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S.) - 1:59.93 1500 m Sherry Drury (Tsuyama H.S.) - 4:16.69 3000 m Miyu Yamada (Meijo Univ.) - 9:16.12 Miu Suzuki (Tsukuba Univ.) - 9:19.53 5000 m Kana Mizumoto (Edion) - 15:31.51 Yumi Yamamoto (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 15:47.74 100 m Hurdles Ami Takahashi (Tsuku...

The closing day of the Dubai U20 Asian Athletics Championships saw Japan go out big, with four gold medals led by dominant runs by Sherry Drury (Tsuyama H.S.) and Yota Mashiko (Gakuho Ishikawa H.S.). Making her international debut, the 16-year-old Drury led start to finish in the women's 1500 m final, grinding down the rest of the field and putting over 4 seconds on runner-up Sandilea Vinod of India over the last 300 m to win in 4:21.41. Drury's splits: 1:11-2:24-(3:19)-3:35-4:21. There's still a long way for Drury to go, but in terms of form and confidence this was the best she has looked since her legendary breakthrough CR at last year's National Women's Ekiden, and you could see more than a glimmer of what everyone is hoping is really there. Mashiko was even more dominant in the men's 3000 m. Coming out on the front end of some pushing and shoving in the first 50 m, Mashiko led the entire way. By 300 m he had a measurable gap that never got smaller, and af...

Lots of big meets coming up, and entry lists are promising some top Japanese talent at three of the first major ones. On Mar. 7 the JAAF announced a team of 12 men and 12 women for the Mar. 30 Belgrade World Cross Country Championships , with senior men's 10 km 3rd-placer Yuta Bando (Fujitsu) the only one of the top-placing athletes at last month's National Cross Country Championships to pass on running Worlds. There hasn't been any announcement of withdrawals by the JAAF, but as of this writing the official entry lists on the Worlds site list only 5 men and 7 women. All four people on the mixed relay team are there including the Louisiana State University -bound Yuya Sawada (Hamamatsu Shiritsu H.S.) and 1500 m NR holder Nozomi Tanaka (New Balance), but senior men's national champ Tomonori Yamaguchi (Waseda Univ.), the entire U20 men's team, and all but U20 women's 4th-placer Chiseno Ikeda (Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.) are missing. It has to be wrong, right? The...

Fresh off a sub-31 PB at last month's 10000 m National Championships, Haruka Kokai ran down Kotona Ota of longtime leader Hyogo on the anchor stage to give the Miyagi prefecture team its first National Women's Ekiden title in 29 years. Women-only half marathon NR holder Rino Goshima went out hard to put earthquake and tsunami-hit Ishikawa in the lead by 35 seconds on the 6.0 km First Stage, but a Second Stage win by 1500 m and 5000 m NR holder Nozomi Tanaka put Hyogo into a lead it held until midway through the final stage. Shizuoka and Chiba both spent time in 2nd and at times closed on Hyogo only to get dropped again. The 4.1075 km Fifth Stage was especially good, with sub-32 collegian Risa Yamazaki of Chiba running down high school 1st-year Kairi Ikeno for the lead only to get retaken by Ikeno, with both breaking the 1995-era CR for the stage. Behind them, Miyagi was working its way up through the field, improving its position every stage except the Third until Y...

Komazawa University Takes Overall Hakone Win for First-Ever Triple Crown Ekiden Season Sweep - Jan. 2-3 After winning the first day of the 2023 Hakone Ekiden , Komazawa University joined the exclusive club of teams to pull off the triple crown of wins at the Izumo Ekiden, National University Ekiden and Hakone, dominating the second day to win by just under two minutes over Chuo University . Both teams and 3rd-place Aoyama Gakuin University made the all-time top 10 fastest times , and five men ran the equivalent of a sub-1:01 half marathon. TV viewership was high, with ratings of 35.0% . JRN's pre-race preview . Suzuki, Ichiyama, Koyama and Akasaki Paris-Bound - Japan's Olympic Marathon Trials - Oct. 15 At the Marathon Grand Championship race, Japan's trials for the Paris Olympics and the most difficult marathon ever to qualify for, Yuka Suzuki , Mao Ichiyama , Naoki Koyama and Akira Akasaki all scored places on the Olympic team by finishing in the top two. Ai Hosoda ...

In distance action on Day 3 of the Sapporo National High School Track and Field Championships , the 5000 m saw 3 boys go sub-14 in the qualifying heats. Duncan Maina (Senshudai Kumamoto H.S.) led the 5 qualifiers from the relatively low-key Heat 1 in 14:25.23. Things escalated in Heat 2, where Kaito Matsui (Saitama Sakae H.S.) led 6 of the 7 qualifiers under 14:08 in 14:02.90. Things went even further in Heat 3, with Samuel Kibathi (Kurashiki H.S.) running 13:56.21, Eliud Kabiga (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) 2nd in 13:56.79, and Sota Orita (Suma Gakuen H.S.) 3rd in 13:58.38. The other 3 qualifiers from Heat 3 were all under 14:08, setting up a deep and potentially fast final tomorrow. In the girls' 800 m, Daisy Jerop (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) led the first round in 2:08.47 to win Heat 2, with Heat 1 winner Rin Kubo (Higashi Osakadai Keiai H.S.) running 2:09.20, the top 4 in Heat 3 under 2:10, and the top 2 in Heat 6 both under 2:10. Fresh off running the fastest-ever 1500 m by a 10th grade...

After an easy win in her heat on the first day of the National High School Track and Field Championships in Sapporo, defending girls' 1500 m champ Caroline Kariba (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.) dominated the final Thursday with a new high school national record of 4:06.54. In the early going Kariba had company from Jecinta Nyokabi (Hakuho Joshi H.S.), Pauline Wanjiku (Teikyo Nagaoka H.S.) and Sherry Drury (Tsuyama H.S.), but by the end her final margin of victory over Nyokabi was over 7 seconds. With Nyakobi 2nd in 4:13.93 Drury was close behind in 3rd in a PB of 4:15.50, the fastest time ever by a Japanese-born 10th grader. Given that the old record was set by current NR holder Nozomi Tanaka , you can imagine the kind of media reaction. In the boys' 1500 m final, Koshiro Tanimoto (Omuta H.S.) took the final in a home straight sprint finish again Koki Terada (Koku Gakuin Kugayama H.S.), 3:48.72 to 3:49.06. This year's 800 m U20 Asian champion Hironori Tachizako (Kagoshima ...

Following up on her 1500 m region record two days earlier , Sherry Drury continued her solid debut high school season at Tsuyama H.S. with anther Chugoku Region High School Championships title. Running in the 800 m final, Drury ran a PB 2:08.72 for the win, 0.75 under her junior high-era best. The win opens the door for her to do the middle distance double at the National High School Championships in Sapporo later this summer.  © 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

  1st-year Sherry Drury (Tsuyama H.S.) broke the Chugoku Region high school girls' 1500 m record of 4:17.64, running a new record of 4:16.76 to win the Chugoku Region High School Championships 1500 m final on June 16. In winning she secured her place at next month's National High School Championships in Sapporo. On the morning of the 16th Drury took 4th in her 1500 m qualifying heat in 4:36.60. In the final she sat in 3rd through most of the race. With one lap to go she moved into 2nd, and with 200 m to go dropped a sudden kick that gave her a margin of victory of almost 4 seconds. Post-race she commented, "We went out on a good pace in the first 400 m and I got into a good rhythm for the rest of the race. My body felt light and I was feeling good. People cheering for me helped too." In January this year Drury ran the National Women's Ekiden as a 3rd-year in junior high school. Her 9:02 course record for her 3.0 km stage drew attention nationally and internatio...

On Mar. 3 Tsuyama 9th grader Sherry Drury withdrew from Sunday's Biwako Cross Country Meet. An attorney representing Ms. Drury made the announcement, saying that she is uncomfortable with the amount of media coverage of her recent races and doesn't know how to deal with all the people stopping her to take pictures and talk to her. In comments made public by her attorney Ms. Drury said, "Because of all the changes since the National Women's Ekiden I can't train in freedom like I did before, and all the media reporting on me is wearing me out. I don't like them reporting on things outside my running, things in my private life that I've never talked about publicly like my studies and hobbies. Some magazine reporters have interviewed our neighbors and other people who know me, and some have even gone to my classmates' homes to try to interview them. I don't want other people to have to go through that because of me. I'm going to keep running in h...

It was another busy weekend with marathons in Osaka, Ibaraki and Chiba, a half marathon in Osaka, and post-season ekidens across the country. The Osaka International Women's Marathon was the major one of the bunch, if not an especially memorable race. On a new course that saw the addition of at least two hills and the start and finish point downgraded from the spectacular Yanmar Stadium Nagai to its exterior warmup track, it was basically a race of attrition that saw people fall off the sub-2:20 pace set by the pacers until only three athletes, Ethiopians Haven Hailu Desse and Meseret Gola Sisay and top-ranked Japanese woman Yuka Ando (Wacoal) were left. Desse surged the hardest at 30 km, running on unchallenged from there to win in 2:21:13. Sisay was next in 2:22:12, with Ando 3rd in 2:22:59. More memorable were two mid-race incidents. Just past 5 km, Reia Iwade (Denso) clipped Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku) from behind and both went down. Sato got the worst of it, bloody in b...

The top Japanese woman in the marathon at last summer's Oregon World Championships, Mizuki Matsuda went from 3rd to 1st on the anchor stage to give the Osaka team its fourth national title Sunday at the National Women's Ekiden in Kyoto. Osaka was 4th after the 6.0 km 1st leg and was never worse that than. 2nd runner Saya Nakajima put them in the lead, where they stayed for the next five of the 42.195 km race's nine stages except for a brief drop back to 4th when its fourth runner Chihiro Sato struggled. Fifth runner Yua Tsukamoto turned it back around, but with only a 1-second lead at the start of her stage junior high schooler Rio Kawamura couldn't hold off Fukuoka 's Shiina Sugahara and Tokyo 's Yuna Oki and dropped to 3rd. Matsuda started only 5 seconds out of 1st and had no trouble overtaking Tokyo anchor Yuri Karasawa and Fukuoka's Wakana Itsuki to go back out front. Matsuda turned in the fastest run on the 10.0 km anchor stage, 31:22, to br...