japan running news

The third day of the 2019 Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships , Japan's most competitive collegiate meet, saw few finals, most of the day being dedicated to qualifying rounds for the last day's finals. One exception was the D1 men's pole vault final, where Kanto Region record holder Masaki Ejima (Nihon Univ.) cleared 5.61 m to break the meet record. Another meet record came in the D2 men's 10000 m racewalk, where Katsuya Ishii (Keio Univ.) set a D2 record of 41:21.44. His time was over two minutes slower than that of D1 winner Koki Ikeda (Toyo Univ.). Other winners of finals included Sayaka Nakamura (Kanagawa Univ.) with a jump of 12.96 m (+2.5 m/s) in the women's triple jump, Genku Hiratsuka (Nihon Univ.) clearing 2.11 m in the men's high jump, Masanari Ito (Juntendo Univ.) with a toss of 62.95 m in the D1 men's hammer throw, Yugo Sakai (Keio Univ.) with a 7.70 m (+4.6 m/s) in the D2 men's triple jump, Koichi Ishii (Ryutsu ...

Only two Japanese athletes were in action on the final day of the  World U20 Championships  in Tampere, Finland. In the men's 3000 m steeplechase, Waseda University's Takumi Yoshida ran a PB of 8:50.99 for 5th, well out of medals but outkicking Italy's Giovanni Gatto to finish as the first runner born outside east Africa. "This was a race that showed me where there are still problems, and I will work on improving them," he wrote on Twitter afterwards. "Thank you to everyone who has helped me come this far." In the women's 1500 m final, Asian Junior 1500 m gold medalist Ririka Hironaka , a senior at Nagasaki Shogyo H.S., finished 11th out of the twelve starters in 4:21.31. With two gold medals, two silvers and two bronzes and eleven top 8 placings at the end of the Championships Japan ranked 8th in the final medal count, its second-best showing ever and a mark of encouragement with just two years to go until the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. World U...

After yesterday's solid haul of gold and silver medals, Shunsuke Izumiya added a bronze medal to the mix in the men's 110 m hurdles at the World U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland. Quick out of the blocks, Izumiya led the first few hurdles before being caught by Jamaican duo Damion Thomas and Orlando Bennett . But a PB run of 13.38 was enough to keep Izumiya in the medals, the only one of the day for Japan. In the two other finals with Japanese athletes, Ayaka Kawata took 6th in the women's 800 m in 2:03.57 well back from the championships record 1:59.74 by gold medalist Diribe Welteji of Ethiopia. Maki Saito took 8th in the women's discus throw with a mark of 50.10 m, both she and Kawata factoring into the JAAF's target number of top eight placers. No Japanese athletes made it through the day's semifinals, both Keigo Yasuda and Koji Ueyama stopped there in the men's 200 m and Moeka Sekimoto likewise not advancing out of the women's 400 ...

Day Three of the 18th Asian Junior Athletics Championships saw yet another pair of championships records, one by the home team and another by visitors. Yuiri Yoshida delivered the goods in the girls’ 100 m hurdles, tying the old record with a mark of 13.45 (+0.9 m/s) for gold. Ayaka Kawata and Ayano Shiomi took gold and silver in the girls’ 800 m, traditionally an area of weakness for Japan, with Ayaka Kora adding to Japan’s gold medal haul with a PB jump of 6.44 m (+0.8 m/s). Yuka Nosue was a distant bronze in the girls’ 3000 m steeplechase, 17 seconds behind gold medalist Maristela Parami Wasanthi of Sri Lanka who set a PB of 10:21.54 to win. Japan’s girls’ 4x100 m picked up silver well back from winner China’s 45.06 gold medal run. Jumps and throws are for the most part another area of Japanese weakness, especially on the girls’ side, and in both the pole vault and discus throw they came up empty-handed. China earned gold in both, Zuo Cheng Wu clearing 4.00 m and Hu...