japan running news

The mile isn't really a thing in Japan, especially on the roads, but it's starting to change a little bit. At Nike's new Ginza Mile road race, even in the middle of heavy rain the top 7 in the men's race all broke the national record of 4:00.02 set in March by Ojiro Honda (Waseda Univ.). Soma Nagahara (Juntendo Univ.) was first across the line to become the official new NR holder in 3:57.0, just beating Shunsuke Kuwata (Komazawa Univ.) by 0.3 in Kuwata's best race since the NYC Half in March. Kaisei Okada (Chuo Univ.) and Yuto Miyake (Chuo Univ.) were right behind in 3:57.9 and 3:58.1, and while there doesn't seem to be an official Taiwanese road mile NR it's pretty much a given that the 3:58.9 by Chien Tzu-Chieh (Chuo Univ.) for 5th was Taiwan's best-ever. Women's NR holder Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) easily won in 4:33.8, almost 2 seconds off her NR from 2023, with Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) 2nd in 4:36.87 and Ran Urabe ...

The National University Track and Field Championships wrapped up Sunday with another collegiate record. Following Mao Shimano 's 100 mH hurdle record Saturday , the Toyo University men dominated in the 4x400 m relay final. Running with a completely different lineup from when it set the 3:04.08 meet record 2 years ago, the Toyo team of Rui Yamasaki , Kira Hirakawa , Kentaro Shirahata and Katsuo Tsujiura ran 3:03.64 for the win, 0.07 under the old collegiate record set by Nihon University in 2000 before any of them had been born. The women's 4x400 m final wasn't quite up to collegiate record level, but the top 2 teams still both broke the meet record. Sonoda Gakuen University scored the win in 3:35.41 with a lineup that included Hinata Tochio and Yuzuki Nakao from its 2023 MR-setting lineup with the addition of 2nd-year twins Ayu Yoshii and Mayu Yoshii . Ritsumeikan University was 2nd in 3:36.28, but that was good enough to break SGU's old record of 3:36.71. Af...

The Tachikawa City Half Marathon took place Sunday, Mar. 9 in Showa Kinen Park, Tokyo. Chuo Gakuin University 's new 2025-26 season captain Hiro Konda ran 1:02:11 to take the overall win. 2nd last year, Kondo showed the growth of his strength. "We all ran with the image of the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai* in our minds," he said. "Every second, every meter mattered, so I was totally focused on winning." Yuta Asakawa of Teikyo University was 2nd in 1:02:29, with Yusei Tomita of Nihon University 3rd in 1:02:47. With the win the priority over time, Konda's plan was to take the lead in middle of the race once they hit the hillier part of the course. But feeling that the pace was too slow while he looked for a place to make a move, Konda picked it up on a downhill with about 3 km to go. "Just like I expected, I started to pull away, so I pushed it from there," he said. The Tachikawa City Half had hosted the National University Men's Half Marathon Ch...

The Lima World U20 Championships wrapped with 5th-place finishes by Japanese athletes in both finals that had them. In the men's 3000 mSC final, Soma Nagahara started conservatively, sitting 11th at 1000 m in 2:49.36 with leader Edmund Serem of Kenya almost 2 second ahead. Over the next 1000 m Nagahara moved up into 5th, and that's where he stayed. Serem took gold in an U20 world-leading 8:15.28, and with 8 of the next 9 finishers running PBs to get there Nagahara hung on for 5th in a PB 8:30.37 just over 6 seconds outside the medals. Nagahara's former Saku Chosei H.S. teammate Tetsu Sasaki , who had scratched from the 3000 m earlier in the championships, was in 15th at 1000 m but dropped to last, 16th of 16 in 9:16.20 and the only athlete not to break 9 minutes. The men's 4x400 m relay got off to a slow start, opening runner Ryota Oishi 7th of 9 in 47.66. Japan's next two runners Kentaro Shirahata and Kairi Gonda moved up to 6th and then 5th, and with a stro...

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...

by Dai Yamazaki The "foreign student problem" is always a hot topic in the ekiden world, and this season will see big changes to the rules in high school ekidens. There has always been a lot of trial and error when it comes to international students in the ekidens, but what do the coaches on the front lines of competition think about these changes? We talked to Masaru Takamizawa , head coach of last year's National High School Boys Ekiden champion Saku Chosei H.S. which ran the fastest time in the race's 74-year history while using an all-Japanese lineup. The major rule changes regarding the use of non-Japanese athletes in high school ekidens were announced at the end of last year. Non-Japanese runners first appeared on the scene in high school running in the early 1990s and have been the source of constant debate since then. Restrictions have gradually tightened. In 1995 a rule limiting teams to one non-citizen in their starting lineup was announced. In 2008 non-Ja...

On the final day of the Hokushinetsu Region National High School Championships qualifier Sunday at Niigata's Denka Big Swan Stadium, Saku Chosei H.S. 3rd-year Tetsu Sasaki won the boys' 3000 m steeplechase in 8:39.15, the 2nd-fastest time ever by a Japanese-born high schooler. A day earlier Sasaki had run 9:06.93 in his qualifying heat. In the final he was out fast from the gun, but although he missed both the high school record of 8:32.12 set by Saku Chosei teammate Soma Nagahara and Nagahara's 8:36.06 meet record at last year's Hokushinetsu Regionals, Sasaki's time took over 10 seconds off the 8:50.04 PB he set at May's Nagano Prefecture High School Championships, the race in the video above. It also made him the fourth Japanese-born high schooler to break 8:40 in the 3000 mSC, just bettering the former high school record of 8:39.37 set by Tokyo Olympics 7th-placer and future national record holder Ryuji Miura . Born in Aichi, Sasaki joined the TSM club t...

Running with three returning members of last year's course record-breaking team, Nagano pulled off another CR to win its 3rd-straight National Men's Ekiden title Sunday in Hiroshima thanks in large part to a stellar run from anchor Mebuki Suzuki from Komazawa University . Last year's opening leg 3rd-placer Ryuto Kawahara of Nagasaki got things started with a 2:44 opening km on the 7.0 km First Stage, then let 2023 National High School Ekiden First Stage winner Sota Orita of Hyogo take over. Orita did most of the work through the middle part of the stage, then with 1.5 km to go Kawahara attacked and pulled away to break the 19:39 CR set by Sonata Nagashima last year by 8 seconds. It was one of those runs that makes the National Men's Ekiden great, with someone from a high school that isn't good enough to make Nationals taking down one of the big stars whose team did. In a four-way sprint for 2nd Nagano's Yamato Hamaguchi was 4th and Orita 5th, both one s...

Following yesterday's mishap in the opening heats , Soma Nagahara (Saku Chosei H.S.) delivered the performance of this year's National High School Track and Field Championships. Straight to the front form the guy, Nagahara broke 3000 mSC national record holder Ryuji Miura 's high school NR by over 7 seconds to win the national title in 8:32.12. Still a senior in high school, that time was also good enough to rank him at all-time #3 on the Japanese U20 lists and #3 in the world this year among U20 athletes. And it wasn't just him. The race as a whole was the best high school steeple ever, with 2nd-placer Zen Kuroda (Tamano Konan H.S.) running 8:40.71 for #4 on the high school all-time lists, 3rd-placer Taisei Endo (Saku Chosei H.S.) 8:45.47 for #6, and 4th-placer Oju Tsujimoto (Hamamatsu Kaiseizan H.S.) 8:46.85 for #8. By comparison, the American H.S. NR for the 3000 mSC is 8:47.04. Still in college, Miura really looks to have opened the door for other Japanese athl...

The favorites took the top spots in most of the races at Sunday's National Cross Country Championships in Fukuoka. The front end of the U20 women's 6 km was like a replay of the 6.0 km First Stage at December's National High School Ekiden, and it couldn't have been closer. Both Kanoko Nawa , leadoff runner for ekiden winner Nagano Higashi H.S. , and Akari Matsumoto , the first runner from 7th-place Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S. , clocked 20:20 with Nawa getting the win in the photo finish. Narumi Okumoto , first runner from ekiden 8th-placer Kojokan H.S. , was 3rd in 20:23, and Aya Kotajima , first runner from 5th-place Hakuho Joshi H.S. , was 4th in 20:28. Soma Nagahara , the first runner from Saku Chosei H.S. ' runner-up team at the National High School Ekiden, won the U20 men's 8 km in another photo finish, both he and Sota Yamasaki , first runner from 12th-place Yamaguchi Kenritsu Saikyo H.S. , clocking 24:01. Sota Orita (Suma Gakuen H.S.) was a close 3rd ...

There's a first time for everything. In the last major ekiden of the season, 37-year-old Yuichiro Ueno , head coach of the Rikkyo University team that ran the Hakone Ekiden three weeks ago, anchored the Nagano prefecture team to a second-straight course record win at the 28th National Men's Ekiden in Hiroshima. Nagano's Soma Nagahara got things off to a solid start, going one-on-one with favorite Sonata Nagashima of Hyogo on the 7.0 km 1st leg, both going under the old stage CR with Nagashima 1st in 19:39 and Nagahara only 2 seconds back. Over the next two stages Nagano dropped to 4th 20 seconds off the lead, but a pair of new CR from 4th and 5th runners and Saku Chosei H.S. teammates Shunpei Yamaguchi and Hiroto Yoshioka put the team 37 seconds ahead. 6th runner Riku Kobayashi extended that to 49 seconds, giving Ueno a margin of error of just over 3 sec/km on the 13.0 km anchor stage. Ueno first ran the National Men's Ekiden 20 years ago, passing 17 people on...

This weekend's 300th edition of the Nittai University Time Trials series in Yokohama turned out some of the fastest times in its history as athletes across the country build toward peaking for championship ekiden season. On Saturday Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) and Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) ran two of the fastest women's 5000 m marks ever on Japanese soil, Akidor taking 11 seconds off her PB to win in 14:44.83 and Kamau 6 seconds off hers for 2nd in 14:48.26. 3rd-place Yui Komatsu (Matsuyama Univ.) was almost lapped, running 15:47.79. Steeplechase champ Reimi Yoshimura (Daito Bunka Univ.) dropped out mid-race. The men's 10000 m was fast too. Richard Etir (CJAC) outkicked Obirin University 1st-year Nelson Mandela Mbithi and Josphat Ledama Kisaisa (Kao) for the win in 27:27.51, Mbithi 2nd in 27:29.92, one of the fastest-ever Japanese collegiate times, and Kisaisa 3rd in 27:30.45. 4th-placer Boniface Murua (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) got under 28 min...

The 75th edition of Japan's National High School Track and Field Championships took place last Wednesday through Sunday at Pocari Sweat Field in Naruto, Tokushima. Kenyan Caroline Kariba (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.) was the star of the meet on the girls' side, winning all four races she started over the course of the week. On the first day of the meet Kariba ran the fastest time in the four 1500 m qualifying heats, 4:20.08. The next day she was back to win the final in a PB 4:08.72, almost 3 seconds head of runner-up Janet Nyiva  (Kurashiki H.S.) and nearly 9 seconds ahead of 3rd-placer Kana Mizumoto (Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S.). After a day off racing on Friday, Kariba was back Saturday to lead 3000 m qualification in 9:12.17, the fastest time in the 3 heats. Sunday she took the final, just missing the meet record in 8:52.04. Nyiva was 2nd again in 8:56.20, just holding off Lucy Nduda (Aomori Yamada H.S.) who took 3rd in 8:56.91. Mizumoto was the top Japanese woman again at 4...