japan running news

Juntendo University 2nd-year Ryuji Miura  is the most exciting thing to have appeared on the Japanese scene in the last year, seeming to come from our of nowhere to just miss the 3000 m steeplechase NR last summer at age 18, breaking Suguru Osako 's U20 half marathon national record last fall, and then rewriting the 3000 m SC NR twice since turning 19 in February this year. In his first real race against international competition Miura kicked off track and field action at the Tokyo Olympics by taking 6 seconds off his own 3000 mSC NR to finish 2nd in the opening heat in 8:09.92. Miura's time was fast enough to have medaled at all but two past Olympics and auto-qualifying him for what looks to be a very fast final, making him the first Japanese man to make an Olympic steeple final since 1972 Miura was calm and relaxed throughout the race, staying in the top 5 the whole way and moving to the front when he needed to. Over the last lap he challenged 2019 Doha World Championships ...

All three of Japan's men in the Doha World Championships high jump washed out in the qualification round on Day Five. Domestic hopes were high for world ranked #1 Naoto Tobe , but clearing only 2.26 m he took 7th in his group to miss the cut. Teammates Ryo Sato and Takashi Eto were farther off their best, clearing only 2.22 m and 2.17 m respectively. At the other end of the spectrum, Julian Walsh ran a PB 45.14 to make the semi-finals in the men's 400 m, 2nd in his heat behind the great Kirani James . His time put him at all-time Japanese #4, but Walsh will need to improve on it further to have a shot at making the final tomorrow. Doha World Athletics Championships Day Five Japanese Results Doha, Qatar, 1 Oct. 2019 complete results Qualifying Rounds Men's 400 m Heat 2 1. Kirani James (Grenada) - 44.94 - Q 2. Julian Walsh (Japan) - 45.14 - Q, PB 3. Vernon Norwood (U.S.A.) - 45.59 - Q 4. Steven Solomon (Australia) - 45.82 - q 5. Derrick Mokaleng (South Af...

Japan's National Track and Field Championships kick off this Thursday in Fukuoka. It's the start of an important cycle for Japan, with national representation at this fall's Doha World Championships on the line in the lead-up to next year's Tokyo Olympics. Anyone who has cleared the Doha standard in their event will make the team if they win at Nationals, with other qualifiers and hgh-ranked athletes having to wait until mid-September to learn their fates. Over the next four days JRN will break down the favorites in each event. In the jumps, not a single athlete in any event on the women's side looks to have a realistic chance of making it to Doha without a big PB in the next couple of months. All four of last year's women's national champions, Haruka Nakano (Nippatsu) in the high jump, Juri Nanbu (Chukyo Univ.) in the pole vault, Ayaka Kora (Tsukuba Univ.) in the long jump and Eri Sakamoto (Nihon Shitsunai TC) in the triple jump, return. Of them on...

The JAAF has released the entry lists for the 2019 National Track and Field Championships to be held June 27-30 in Fukuoka. Anyone who has the standard for this fall's Doha World Championships and wins their event will be guaranteed a place on the Doha team, with most others having to wait until the IAAF's September deadline to find out if the JAAF will add them based on qualifying standard or world ranking. Fifteen athletes on the Nationals entry list across nine events currently have the standard and stand to firm up their fall schedules in Fukuoka, with another twenty in range of making the final cut based on current world rankings. Entry list highlights below. 103rd National Track and Field Championships Entry List Highlights Fukuoka, June 27-30, 2019 marks listed are best in last two years except where noted athletes in bold have cleared 2019 Doha World Championships standard athletes in italics are currently ranked inside Doha field size without standard comple...

On a day that saw three more world-leading marks, three more championships records and nine more national records, Japan saved its best for the last day of the Doha Asian Athletics Championships , bringing home three gold medals, two silvers and four bronze. Yuki Hashioka brought the Japanese performance of the day, winning gold in the men's long jump with a world lead-tying PB jump of 8.22 m +0.6. Gold also came in the women's 100 m hurdles along with one of the bronzes, with Ayako Kimura and Masumi Aoki going 1 and 3. The other gold came in the show-stopping men's 4x400 m relay, where Japan led start-to-finish to win  by 0.34 over India. India was later disqualified, elevating China to silver and hosts Qatar to bronze. The Japanese women's 4x400 m team led their race for almost 3/4 of the way, overtaken by India just before the last exchange and caught by Bahrain on the back corner but holding on for a surprise bronze. Takashi Eto and favorite Naoto Tobe...

Bronze was the color of Japan's luck on the third day of athletics competition at the Jakarta Asian Games , with three Japanese athletes medaling in jumps and hurdles. Takatoshi Abe was a favorite to medal in the men's 400 m hurdles, no match for championships record-breaking Qatari Abderrahman Samba but running a strong 2nd throughout the race. Coming into the home straight Abe had a sizable lead over Taiwan's Chen Chieh and Indian Dharun Ayyasamy , but as he came off the bend he began to tie up. Ayyasamy saw his chance and kicked hard, catching Abe just before the line to take silver and knock Abe back to bronze. One of Japan's strongest medal contenders, Naoto Tobe had something of an off day in the men's high jump, struggling to clear 2.24 m and tying for bronze with Syrian Majd Eddin Ghzal while winner Yu Wang of China went on to clear 2.30 m. Takashi Eto cleared 2.24 m on his final attempt to move into 6th but passed on the subsequent heights with a...

Following Hiroto Inoue 's morning gold medal in the men's marathon, the first evening session of athletics at the Jakarta Asian Games was capped by a surprise bronze in the women's hammer throw by Hitomi Katsuyama . Katsuyama's throw of 62.95 m was 8 meters or more off the Chinese top two Na Luo and Zheng Wang and was nearly overtaken by teammate Akane Watanabe 's 62.45 m but was enough for her to go home with hardware in an an event that's usually something of a weakness. The day's only other final to feature a Japanese athlete, the women's 10000 m was out of the league of lone Japanese entrant Yuka Hori . After a series of delays involving missing numbers, an extra athlete and removal of a rear bib, Hori did much of the leading, dropped by surges twice and taking her time overtaking those ahead both times to end up 7th in  32:42.73. In an exciting race up front Darla Maslova of Kyrgyzstan outkicked Kenyan-born Bahraini Eunice Chumba and Desh...

Finishing 4th in her opening round heat, national champion Ayako Kimura became the first Japanese woman to make a World Championships 100 m hurdles semifinal, running 13.15 to auto-qualify. In Semifinal 2 she was unable to match that performance, finishing last in 13.29. National Championships runner-up Hitomi Shimura ran 13.29 in her heat and did not move on to the semifinals. In the men's 1500 m semifinals, Japan-based junior world record holder Ronald Kwemoi struggled with a recent injury and failed to advance to the final. Running in the same heat, American Johnny Gregorek , who ran last year's Izumo Ekiden as part of the Ivy League Select Team, moved up from last place over the last 300 m to snag the last spot in the final, the only U.S. man to make the 1500 m final. In the men's high jump, national champion Takashi Eto cleared 2.22 m for 9th in his qualification group and did not advance. In the decathlon, at the end of the first day of competition Japan...

It's 50 days to go to the 2017 London World Championships and just over a week out from the 101st Japanese National Track and Field Championships in Osaka where the country's best will be trying to earn places on the London team. Athletes will have the chance to chase standards in the weeks after Nationals, but excluding the marathon, walks and combined events, all of which are held separately from the National Championships, the following is a list of Japanese athletes already holding valid qualifying marks for London. Things are looking very thin right now, with only the men's 100 m, women's 5000 m and women's 10000 m currently capable of fielding complete contingents, although at least the men's 200 m, men's pole vault and conceivably the men's 10000 m could join that short list. With sixteen women currently holding the London standard the women's 10000 m looks to be the toughest to make even if marathon squad members Yuka Ando (Suzuki Hama...

by Brett Larner After biding her time throughout the race, two-time Nagoya Women's Marathon winner Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain) made the move that decided the medal winners in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics women's marathon.  Having lost to Mare Dibaba (Ethiopia) in a sprint finish at last year's Beijing World Championships, Kirwa went for a long surge that shook it down to a race between her, Dibaba and London Marathon winner Jemima Sumgong (Kenya).  Kirwa read Dibaba right, getting away from her in the long straight to the finish, but Sumgong read them both better.  4th in Beijing, Sumgong made a last push to score Kenya's first-ever women's marathon gold.  The three medalists came through 26 seconds apart, Sumgong's 2:24:04 the third-fastest winning time in the Olympic women's marathon's nine-race history. Another 17 seconds back, Tirfi Tsegaye (Ethiopia) held off second-half agente provocatrice Volha Mazuronak (Belarus) by one second for 4th, Mazuronak...

Beijing, China, 8/28/15 click here for complete results Women's 20 km Race Walk 1. Hong Liu (China) - 1:27:45 2. Xiuzhi Lu (China) - 1:27:45 3. Lyudmyla Olyanovska (Ukraine) - 1:28:13 4. Ana Cabecinha (Portugal) - 1:29:29 5. Antonella Palmisano (Italy) - 1:29:34 ----- 25. Kumiko Okada (Japan) - 1:34:56 Men's High Jump Qualification Group A 1. Derek Drouin (Canada) - 2.31 m - Q 2. Mutaz Essa Barshim (Qatar) - 2.31 m - Q 3. Brandon Starc (Australia) - 2.13 m - PB - Q ----- 15. Naoto Tobe (Japan) - 2.26 m 16. Takashi Eto (Japan) - 2.22 m Men's High Jump Qualification Group B 1. Guowei Zhang (China) - 2.31 m - Q 2. Bohdan Bondarenko (Ukraine) - 2.31 m - Q 3. Dimitrios Chondrokoukis (Cyprus) - 2.31 m - Q ----- 16. Yuji Hiramatsu (Japan) - 2.17 m Women's Javelin Throw Qualification Group A 1. Britney Borman (U.S.A.) - 64.22 m - Q 2. Christina Obergfull (Germany) - 64.10 m - Q 3. Sunette Vilioen (South Africa) - 63.93 m - Q ----- 9. Yuki Ebihara...