japan running news

16-year-old Yuya Sawada continued her climb through the ranks of Japanese women's middle distance, building on her 4:15.29 PB in the 1500 m heats with a 4:12.87 PB for 6th in the final on the last day of the Cali 22 World U20 Championships . With Ethiopian Birke Haylom setting a championships record 4:04.27 and Kenyans Brenda Chebet and Purity Chepkirui both under 4:08 Sawada was still far off the medals, but having come to Cali with a best of 4:17.75 she bridged half the gap.  Her time was just 0.02 off the U18 NR held by Yuriko Kobayashi and moved her up behind Kobayashi to all-time #2 on the Japanese U20 and high school lists. And having done it with two big performances in high-pressure races Sawada is now one of the highest-potential young athletes Japan has. Strangely enough, though, none of the others were entered in the 5000 m, mirroring Japanese women's absence from the 3000 m. The two men in the 3000 m steeplechase final couldn't match Sawada's performanc...

No Japanese athlete made it to any of the five finals on day three of the Cali 22 World U20 Championships , but qualifying rounds did see most of the athletes in action advance to their next rounds on upcoming days. In the men's 3000 m, both H.S NR holder Keita Sato and #3 Hiroto Yoshioka placed 5th in their heats to take auto-qualifying spots, Sato in Heat 2 with an 8:00.17 SB and Yoshioka in Heat 1 in 8:15.95. Both men in the 3000 m steeplechase also qualified for the final, Ryotaro Onuma taking an auto-qualifying place at 3rd in Heat 2 in 9:00.02 and Asahi Kuroda getting through on time in the fastest Heat 3 with an 8:51.04 for 5th. Likewise in the men's 400 m hurdles heats, Sojiro Moritaka 2nd in Heat 3 in 51.04 for a semi-final auto-qualifying spot and Daiki Ogawa through on time in 51.52 for 4th in Heat 4. In the women's hammer throw, Raika Murakami was a surprise, throwing a 61.28 m SB for 10th of the twelve qualifiers. Moe Matsuoka narrowly missed the women...

The next big talent coming up through the ranks of Japanese sprinting, Toyo University 1st-year Hiroki Yanagita ran a PB 10.15 +0.7 for 2nd in his semi-final on Day 2 of the Cali 22 World U20 Championships . Building on that in the final would have put him in range of bronze, but in the final Yanagita couldn't quite replicate it, 6th overall in 10.24 +0.8 behind a 9.91 U20 WR from gold medalist Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, silver medalist Bouwahjgie Nkrumie of Jamaica's 10.02 U20 NR, and a 10.12 for bronze from South African Benjamin Richardson . The final featured 8 athletes from 8 countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas, the best kind of international field for a global championships final. Momoko Tsuji almost perfectly mirrored Yanagita's performances in the women's javelin throw. 2nd in the qualification round at 56.07 m, in the final she could only manage a 53.82 m for 6th. In the gold medal spot, Serbian Adriana Vilagos threw a championships record 63.52 m...