japan running news

Japan didn't quite pull off a sweep of the men's and women's half marathon at the 2025 FISU World University Games , but it was pretty close. In the men's race Waseda University 's Shinsaku Kudo , the fastest man in the race with a best of 1:00:06 from Marugame this past February, led start to finish, keeping it around 62-flat pace before finishing in a WUG record 1:02:29. Turkey's Ramazan Bastug spent most of the race in a small chase pack with Ryuto Uehara (Koku Gakuin Univ.) and Kento Baba (Rikkyo Univ.) before dropping them both for silver in 1:02:35. Uehara was just behind in 1:02:39 for bronze, with Baba missing out on the medals in 1:02:44 for 4th. In the women's race China's Xiuzhen Ma had to deal with the Japanese trio of Makoto Tsuchiya (Ritsumeikan Univ.), Mariya Noda (Daito Bunka Univ.) and Ayaka Maeda (Kansai Univ.). And she did, running a PB 1:12:48 for gold over Tsuchiya by 10 seconds. Noda scored the bronze medal in 1:13:16, with M...

One of Japan's best remaining gold medal contenders at the 2025 FISU World University Games after throwing a PB of 81.23 m in Australia in March, Rin Suzuki (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) struck out in the men's javelin throw final of the 5th day of competition, throwing 71.65 m on his first attempt and finishing 10th after being unable to better it. Mao Shimano (Nihon Joshi Taiiku Univ.) did better in the women's 100 mH final at 7th in 13.17 (+0.1), an improvement on her 8th-place standing after the semifinals, but was still 0.22 out of the medals. Gold went to Finland's Saara Keskitalo in 12.88, with Switzerland's Simon Wieland taking gold in the men's javelin with a season best 79.33 m on his first attempt. In qualifying rounds, Aoi Murakami (Nittai Univ.) had no problems qualifying for the women's javelin throw final, throwing 53.91 for 7th among the qualifiers. Atsushi Haraguchi (Higashi Osaka Univ.) was 11th of 12 qualifiers in the men's pole vault...

Saturday is the first big meet on Japan's outdoor middle and long distance circuit, the Kanakuri Memorial Meet in Kumamoto. This year it's also hosting the 10000 m National Championships , making for an extra-long and extra-quality field overall. Top finishers will pick up places on Japan's team for next month's Asian Championships in South Korea, a key step in earning world rankings points to get onto the home team for September's Tokyo World Championships that makes Kanakuri more valuable than ever. Streaming is scheduled to be here and will run through most of the day, with the meet-closing men's and women's 10000 m having a separate broadcast on NHK BS starting at 19:30 local time. Start lists for most events are here . 10000 m start lists are here . Live results are here . A-heat event previews: Women's 800 m  - 11:00 High schooler Rin Kubo  is the only Japanese woman to have broken 2 minutes, with a 1:59.93 last July. Is she going to get any fast...

The first big meet of Japan's outdoor season happens in Kumamoto Apr. 12 with the Kanakuri Memorial Meet , where the men's and women's 10000 m double as the National Championships and other events count as key selection races for May's Asian Championships in South Korea. Top entries per event below with best times within the qualifying window. Complete 10000 m entries here, other distances here . Men's 10000 m National Championships Emmanuel Maru (Kenya/Toyota Boshoku) - 27:09.96 Jun Kasai (Asahi Kasei) - 27:17.46 Charles Kamau (Kenya/SGH) - 27:18.89  Mebuki Suzuki (Toyota) - 27:20.33 Tomoki Ota (Toyota) - 27:20.94 Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) - 27:36.37 Tomoya Ogikubo (Hiramatsu Byoin) - 27:38.28 Yuto Imae (GMO) - 27:42.65 Yamato Yoshii (Toyota) - 27:42.88 Ryo Saito (Asahi Kasei) - 27:45.08 Shoya Saito (Josai Univ.) - 27:45.12 Yuya Yoshida (GMO) - 27:45.85 Hayate Honma (Chuo Univ.) - 27:46.60 Tsuyoshi Bando (Osaka Gas) - 27:48.53 Kazuki Tamura (Sumitomo Denko) - 27:...

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...