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 ...

Qualifiers for Japan's team for the Tokyo Olympic Games came on strong today on the third day of the 105th National Track and Field Championships and National U20 Track and Field Championships. The men's 3000 mSC final was expected to be one of the best events of the meet, and it more than lived up to it. 19-year-old NR holder Ryuji Miura  of Juntendo University  was the only Japanese man with the Olympic standard and only needed to make top 3 to guarantee his spot at the Olympics. He led most of the way, splitting 2:49 for the first 1000 m and 2:46 for the next, burning off all the competition except Japan's #2-ranked man Kosei Yamaguchi  and #5-ranked Ryoma Aoki  as the pace got hotter. Miura was leading on the second to last water jump when he slipped and fell. As Aoki and Yamaguchi went by Miura bounced back up, passing Yamaguchi and in sync with Aoki on the next jump. From there it was all his, tearing through a 66-second last lap to finish in 8:15.99 almost 2...

Friday was day two of Japan's 104th National Track and Field Championships , and whatever else might have been happening in other parts of the world it was a good day at least for defending women's champions. Three scored repeat wins, Seika Aoyama (Osaka Seikei AC) winning the 400 m final in 53.55, Mariko Morimoto (Uchida Kensetsu AC) taking the triple jump in 13.14 m (-0.2) and Akane Watanabe (Maruwa) the hammer throw at 64.84 m. As with day one a lot of the 2019 men's champs were missing, leaving Takatoshi Abe (Yamada) the only one to put a back-to-back title next to his name with a 49.73 win in the 400 m hurdles that saw him almost run down by Tatsuhiro Yamamoto (Nihon Univ.) after starting hard. 2017 and 2018 men's 1500 m national champ Ryoji Tatezawa (DeNA) made it back to the top after a bad year last year, winning in 3:41.32 with the top four all under 3:42. Times in the men's 100 m final were nothing special, but in maybe the most emotional perfor...

A teammate of last week's Japanese Olympic marathon trials 1st and 3rd placers Honami Maeda and Rei Ohara , Mizuki Tanimoto kicked off the Doha World Championships with a 7th-place finish in the women's marathon. Starting off overly conservatively with Worlds teammates Madoka Nakano and Ayano Ikemitsu , Tanimoto was far behind the lead pack that included all three eventual medalists after just one time around the six-lap course. Hitting halfway in 1:20:11 and 33rd place, Tanimoto was one of the few people in the race to negative split, making a huge jump in position from 25 to 30 km and working her way up to land 7th in 2:39:09, just over six minutes behind winner Ruth Chepngetich (Kenya). Nakano finished 11th in 2:42:39 seconds behind 10th-placer Un Ok Jo (North Korea). In a field of just 68 starters, 28 women dropped out partway, including all five Ethiopian-born athletes. Struggling early, Ikemitsu hung on through 30 km before stepping off the course. In qualif...

Following the weekend's National Championships, the JAAF announced the first round of athletes named to its national team for this fall's Doha World Championships. Any athlete who won their event at Nationals and had either won a gold medal at April's Doha Asian Championships or held the Doha qualifying standard was named to the team, with all other athletes, including Doha standard holders who finished 2nd or 3rd at Nationals, having to wait until the final team announcement in mid-September. Japanese National Team, Doha World Championships as of July 1, 2019 Women 100 m Hurdles - Ayako Kimura (Edion) - 13.11 5000 m - Tomoka Kimura (Shiseido) - 15:19.99 10000 m - Rina Nabeshima (Japan Post) - 31:28.81 Javelin Throw - Haruka Kitaguchi (Nihon Univ.) - 64.36 m 4x400 m Relay  - Seika Aoyama (Osaka Seikei AC) - 53.42 Nanako Matsumoto (Toho Ginko) - 53.52 Yuna Iwata (Chuo Univ.) - 53.97 Konomi Takeishi (Toho Ginko) -54.27 Men 100 m / 200 m  - Abdul Haki...

Day three of the National Track and Field Championships saw a few of the expected favorites prevail and a few unexpectedly fall short. In the women's 100 m hurdles 2019 Asian champion Ayako Kimura (Edion) won a very close race over Masumi Aoki (Nanajunana Ginko) and Asuka Terada (Pasona Group) in 13.14 (+0.6 m/s) to secure her spot back in Doha this fall. In the men's 400 m hurdles Takatoshi Abe (Yamada Denki) came back from a weak semi-final to win in 48.80, likewise guaranteeing himself a place on Japan's World Championships team. 2nd-place Masaki Toyoda (Hosei Univ.) was also under the Doha standard in 49.05, making himself a likely addition to the final team roster to be announced in September. The women's 3000 m steeplechase saw an under-20 national record as Reimi Yoshimura (Daito Bunka Univ.) broke away from defending champion Yukari Ishizawa (Edion) and the rest of the lead pack after 2000 m to win in 9:50.44. In the race of the day, Ryohei Sakagu...

The sprints and hurdles are where Japan is at its strongest outside the marathon. With everything pointing toward next year's Tokyo Olympics it's an interesting repetition of history that the two most exciting events right now are the same ones that saw Japan's first-ever Olympians back in 1912, the men's marathon and the men's 100 m. And all hail the new king in the 100 m. Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Univ. of Florida) is the national record holder and heavy-duty favorite to take the win at this weekend's National Track and Field Championships . If he wins he's guaranteed a spot at the Doha World Championships. Likewise for his predecessor as NR holder, Yoshihide Kiryu (Nissay) and the newest addition to the top level of Japanese sprinting, Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko). The currently #2-ranked Ryota Yamagata (Seiko) is sadly a DNS, leaving it pretty much up to these three guys. But there's so much depth these days that even if one of them craps out Ja...

Despite sparse attendance, day two of the Doha Asian Athletics Championships saw three world-leading performances, five championships records, eight national records and Japan get onto the medal tally board in a real way after a relatively slow first day . Qatari Abderrahman Samba turned in the performance of the day with a world-leading 47.51 championships record in the men's 400 m hurdles that left Japan's Takatoshi Abe tumbling in the turbulence. World-leaders also came in the men's 800 m via Qatari's Abubaker Haydar Abdalla with a 1:44.33 and the men's javelin with a throw of 86.72 m by Chao-Tsun Cheng of Taiwan. After only winning a single bronze medal on the first day of the championships Japan got rolling with one gold, one silver and two bronze medals. National record holder Yoshihide Kiryu took the gold in the men's 100 m, running 10.10 +1.5. Teammate Ryota Yamagata was a DNS after winning his semifinal in a season best 10.18. Ayaka K...

Japan has named a team featuring ten individual medalists from the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games to get an early taste of this year's World Championships  at April's Doha Asian Athletics Championships . Along with its gold medal-winning men's 4x100 m team, standouts include Jakarta gold medalists Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) in the men's 200 m, Seito Yamamoto (Toyota) in the men's pole vault and Keisuke Ushiro (Kokushin Univ. AC) in the decathlon. The women's long distance roster is strong, led by 2018 World U20 Championships 3000 m gold medalist Nozomi Tanaka (ND28 AC) in the 5000 m and the resurgent Hitomi Niiya (Nike Tokyo TC) in the 10000 m, while the most interesting name among the men is Jakarta 3000 m steeplechase bronze medalist Kazuya Shiojiri (Juntendo Univ.). 23rd Asian Athletics Championships Japanese National Team Doha, Qatar, Apr. 21-24, 2019 complete team listing underlined athletes are 2018 Asian Games medalists Women Sprints Chisat...

Following the Japanese success early Saturday at the IAU 100 km World Championships , Japanese athletes lined up in races across Europe over the weekend. At Saturday's Prague Grand Prix 10 km , Yuka Takashima (Shiseido) followed up her 2:26:13 marathon debut in Paris with a 9th-place finish in 32:26. 2:08:48 at February's Tokyo Marathon, Kenji Yamamoto (Mazda) was ineffectual in the men's race, nearly a kilometer behind winner Rhonex Kipruto at 17th in 29:21. Keita Shitara (Hitachi Butsuryu), twin brother of half marathon and marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara , was 23rd in 30:17 with Yuta's teammate Masaya Taguchi (Honda) overtaken by the top three women to finish 24th in 30:25. On the track, Jakarta Asian Games men's 200 m gold medalist Yuki Koike had the best Japanese placing on the first day of the Continental Cup in the Czech Republic, finishing 4th in the 200 m in 20.57 (-1.6 m/s). Kosei Yamaguchi was next-best in the men's 3000 m...

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...

Japan tripled its medal count on the second day of athletics competition at the Jakarta Asian Games , adding another gold, its first silver and two more bronze medals to its tally. The silver came in the morning session with Keiko Nogami 's 2nd place finish in the women's marathon, previously covered here . The gold and one bronze came in an exciting decathlon that saw defending champ  Keisuke Ushiro  and teammate Akihiko Nakamura in 2nd and tied for 3rd going into the 1500 m. Ushiro needed a 2-second margin over leader Suttisak Singkhon of Thailand to move into the gold medal position, which he did with ease. Tied with China's Kewei Gong , Nakamura needed as much of a margin as he could get over Gong to finish in the medals and 42 seconds over Singkhon to take silver. Nakamura went out hard, but although he had no trouble putting Gong away the margin he needed to make up to Singkhon was just too big. The other bronze came via one of Japan's biggest hopes. With...

Rio Olympics 4x100 m silver medalist Shota Iizuka made his first appearance at the 2017 London World Championships on its fourth day of competition, getting through to the 200 m semifinals after two other athletes in his heat were disqualified for lane violations. 18-year-old national champion Abdul Hakim Sani Brown bounced back from a disappointing 100 m semifinal to join Iizuka in the 200 m semis, finishing 2nd in his heat behind Jamaica's Yohan Blake . In the men's 400 m hurdles, national champion Takatoshi Abe missed the final after having run well in the opening round heats, finishing only 5th in his semifinal in 49.93 when he hit a hurdle at the end end of the final curve. In the men's triple jump, national champion Ryoma Yamamoto finished last in his qualifying group and failed to move on to the final. London World Championships Day Four Japanese Results London, England, 8/7/17 click here for complete results Men's 200 m Heat 1 (-0.5 m/s) 1. Yohan...

The men's marathon aside, the third day of competition at the London World Championships was largely a bust for the Japanese team. Out of thirteen athletes in five disciplines only two advanced out of the opening rounds. In the men's 110 m hurdles National Championships 3rd-placer Genta Masuno advanced to the semifinals with a time of 13.58 (+1.3 m/s) for 4th in his heat, but unable to better that performance in his semi he failed to make the final. 400 m hurdles national champion Takatoshi Abe did better, taking 2nd in his heat in 49.65 to move on to Monday's semifinals. London World Championships Day Three Japanese Results London, England, 8/6/17 click here for complete results Men's 110 m Hurdles Heat 1   (-1.2 m/s) 1. Omar McLeod (Jamaica) - 13.23 - Q 2. Balazs Baji (Hungary) - 13.35 - Q 3. Eddie Lovett (Virgin Islands) - 13.41 - Q ----- 7. Shunya Takayama (Japan) - 13.65 Men's 110 m Hurdles Heat 2   (+1.3 m/s) 1. Devon Allen (U.S.A.) - 13.26 ...