japan running news

The National Sports Festival was the main thing happening this weekend, but with ekiden season just kicking off there were track time trial meets everywhere as teams shift focus from summer mileage to sharpening speed. Haruki Niizuma (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) made news with a 13:35.33 win in the junior men's 5000 m Friday at the National Sports Festival, but at Sunday's Nittai University Time Trials meet, held at Keio University this time because of construction work at Nittai, Yota Mashiko (Gakuho Ishikawa H.S.) beat Niizuma's time with a 13:34.84 PB. Mashiko ran in an all-Kenyan lead group and was right there with Victor Kipkirui (Chudenko) and Stephen Muthini (Soka Univ.) til the end, Kipkirui kicking away in the last 100 m to win in 13:33.46 and Muthini next in 13:34.47. Mashiko's time was the best this year by a Japanese-born high schooler, and with Niizuma and Sei Yoshida (Tokai Sapporo H.S.), 13:35.14 in July, right there it looks like it's going to be a ...

Held in parallel with this weekend's senior National Championships, the U20 National Track and Field Championships happened Thursday through Sunday at Osaka's Yanmar Stadium Nagai. The timing meant most of the top U20 talent was in the senior championships, but even so there were three new meet records across disciplines. On Friday Raika Murakami (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) bettered the 9-year-old MR in the U20 women's hammer throw by almost a meter and a half, winning with a 59.43 m opening throw even though she fouled every attempt after that. In Sunday's U20 men's long jump Nozomi Watanabe (Tsukuba Univ.) set a new MR, jumping 7.85 m (+1.6) on his fourth attempt. 2nd-placer Kosuke Tsuneizumi (Chuo Univ.) closed with a 7.66 (+2.1) jump but came short of overtaking Watanabe. Also Sunday, the top 6 all broke the old U20 men's 3000 m MR of 8:16.20 despite running at the peak of mid-afternoon heat and sunlight. Shintaro Kudo (Ichinoseki Gakuin H.S.) took the nat...