japan running news

There are so many 10000 m time trial meets going on this month that you have to wonder if there's a limit. Two weeks ago the Nittai University Time Trials and Kyushu Corporate Time Trials had winning times of 27:40.58 and 28:12.70 in their fastest heats. Last weekend was the Autumn Distance Challenge meet at Tokyo's National Stadium, with Hiroki Nakayama (Teikyo Univ.) clocking the fastest men's time out of ten heats in 28:35.65 and 1st-year Haruka Ogawa (Rikkyo Univ.) leading the three women's heats in 32:29.14. Wednesday was the MARCH Taikosen meet, with Issei Sato (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) fastest out of the four heats in 28:11.00. There's another edition of Nittai on Saturday with eleven heats of 10000 m on the program and the 10000 m National Championships , Japan's selection event for the Paris Olympics, are coming right up on Dec. 10. But the big one is Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance meet. Happening in Minami Osawa in western Tokyo this year, H...

Even as several big races and meets canceled amid new states of emergency being declared across the country, two big two-day meets went off as planned this weekend. At Kobe's Hyogo Relay Carnival , Yuno Yamanaka  (Ehime Ginko) ran a world-leading 6:19.55 to win the women's 2000 m steeplechase. Both Yamanaka and runner-up Yui Yabuta  (Otsuka Seiyaku) bettered Yabuta's old national best in the little-raced distance, Yabuta more than 7 seconds under her old mark in 6:20.37. The national best mark also fell in the men's 2000 m steeplechase, with 2019's 3000 mSC national champion Ryohei Sakaguchi  (SGH Group) clipping almost 2 seconds off the old mark in 5:29.89. In the women's 5000 m, 2021 national university half marathon champion Narumi Kobayashi  (Meijo Univ.) the only woman to break 16 minutes at 15:57.87. Aoyama Gakuin University  runners took the top three spots in the men's 5000 m, new recruits Masaya Tsurekawa  and Aoi Ota  going 1-2 in 13:55.77 a...

It was a busy weekend on the track across Japan. At Saturday's Kanaguri Memorial Meet  in Kumamoto, the biggest news came in the men's 1500 m where 17-year-old Keita Sato (Rakunan H.S.) ran 3:40.36, a new U18 national record, the 2nd-fastest ever by a Japanese high schooler, and 3rd-fastest-ever U20 mark. Sato took 4th after leading the first three laps, with two of the three people who finished ahead of him going under 3:40. Winner Kazuki Kawamura (Toenec) broke into the all-time Japanese top ten at 3:38.83 and Keisuke Morita (Komori Corp.) was 2nd in 3:39.37. Steeplechase specialist Kazuya Shiojiri  (Fujitsu) followed up his 10000 m win last month in Nobeoka with a 5000 m PB at Kanaguri, dropping a Kenyan trio led by Justus Kevasa  (Honda) for the win in 13:22.80. A total of thirteen people broke 13:40 across heats. Joan Kipkemoi  (Kyudenko) led Japan-based Africans to sweep the top five spots in the women's 5000 m in 15:30.45, with Ethiopian Burka Desta  ...

photo by @tsutsugo55225 For the second time in the last three weeks, a Japan-based Kenyan ran the fastest time in the world this year for 10000 m at Yokohama's Nittai University Time Trials series. On October 20th it was 2015 World U18 Championships 3000 m gold medalist Richard Kimunyan (Hitachi Butsuryu), 20, with a 27:14.70  that surpassed Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei 's world-leading mark by almost five seconds. This time it was 2018 World U20 Championships 5000 m silver medalist Stanley Waithaka (Yakult), 18, taking almost two minutes off his PB to break Kimunyan's mark with a 27:13.01 win. Both winners received support from 2014 Commonwealth Games steeplechase gold medalist Jonathan Ndiku (Hitachi Butsuryu), who ran season bests for 2nd place each time, 27:50.38 three weeks ago and 27:28.27 on Saturday. 2013 World U18 Championships 3000 m bronze medalist Alexander Mutiso (ND Software) was also under 28 minutes, running just off his PB at 27:42.16 for 3rd. ...