japan running news

by Brett Larner Japan's final score at the Bydgoszcz World U20 Championships was relatively modest, one silver medal, one bronze and fourteen other top eight placings, down significantly from the 2014 Eugene World Junior Championships where Japanese athletes earned one gold, three silver and two bronze medals along with fifteen other top eight finishes.  Both medals this year came with new Asian Junior Records attached, Takumu Furuya running 13.31 for bronze in the men's 110 m hurdles and the men's 4x100 m relay coming just shy of the U.S.A. in 39.01 for silver.  Five of the other top eight placers set new PBs, but by and large they were at the bottom end of their finals; apart from the medalists only two of the fourteen top eight placers made the top five in their events, Tatsuhiro Yamamoto with a 5th place in the men's 400 m hurdles and a 4th-place finish by the men's 4x400 m relay. There were several close calls with a number of unlucky 9th-place finish...

by Brett Larner The third day of the World U20 Championships was a good one for the Japanese contingent. Just behind PB runs from Americans Marcus Krah and Amere Lattin , Takumu Furuya ran an Asian junior record of 13.31 for bronze in the men's 110 m hurdles, Japan's first medal of the Championships.  Of the ten other athletes in action today, eight advanced through their heats and semi-finals. Naoki Kitadani and Kazuki Matsukiyo lead the way in the men's 400 m semis, both running PBs to make the final.   Jun Yamashita also delivered a PB in the opening round heats of the men's 200 m, running 20.89 for 3rd in Heat 4 to advance along with Wataru Inuzuka , 4th in Heat 1.  Yamashita ran another PB of 20.67 in the semi-finals to make it to the final, but Inuzuka was cutoff after finishing only 6th in 21.40. Along with Furuya the other men's hurdlers were also strong, both Tatsuhiro Yamamoto and Yoshiro Watanabe advancing in the 400 m hurdles with Watan...

by Brett Larner In a super-fast women's 3000 m that saw winner Beyenu Degefa (Ethiopia) break the World U20 Championships record in 8:41.76 and silver and bronze medalists Dalila Abdulkadir Gosa (Bahrain) and Konstanza Klosterhalfen (Germany) run national junior records, Japan's Nozomi Tanaka ran a PB of 9:01.16 for 8th, well out of the medals but ticking another box on the JAAF's target number of top eight finishes.   Wakana Kabasawa was next, 9th in 9:10.20.  The daughter of sub-2:30 amateur marathoner Chihiro Tanaka , Tanaka came in at #7 on the all-time Japanese junior list, only the second runner after 1500 m national record holder Yuriko Kobayashi to make the all-time lists for both 1500 m and 3000 m.  In the men's long jump final Yuki Hashioka came up short of a top eight placing, jumping 7.31 m for 10th. The day's biggest success came from hurdler Takumu Furuya , who ran a PB 13.40 to win his 110 mH heat before returning to win again in the s...

by Brett Larner photo by Kazuyuki Sugimatsu After setting a girls' heptathlon junior national record over the last two days, Meg Hemphill (Kyoto Bunkyo H.S.) returned with another big day to wrap up the 2014 Japanese National High School Track and Field Championships.  Dominating the heats and semi-finals of the 100 m hurdles, Hemphill ran 13.72 (-0.9) to win the final by 0.11 over Sayaka Kobayashi (Anjo Gakuen H.S.).  Doubling in the 4x400 m relay, she anchored Kyoto Bunkyo 's team to a 3rd-place finish in 3:44.62, a long way behind winner Higashi Osaka Prep Keiai H.S. in 3:39.17 but just 0.03 out of 2nd behind Soyo H.S.   Taking all of her achievements at this year's Championships together Hemphill looks set to be one of Japan's big new names on the track. Boys' 400 m hurdles champion Takumu Furuya (Soyo H.S.) likewise showed good range.  After winning the 400 mH title on Friday, Furuya returned to take the 110 m hurdles title in 14.05 running into a -...

by Brett Larner Days after jumping a PB 7.71 m for 5th in the boys' long jump at Oregon's World Junior Championships, Kodai Sakuma (Hosei Prep Daini H.S.) was the star of day three of the 2014 National High School Track and Field Championships in Kofu, Yamanashi.  In the long jump, Sakuma jumped a meet record and new PB of 7.80 m for 1st.  Doubling back in the 4x100 m he helped Hosei Daini take the win there as well, and on the strength of these two wins the Hosei Daini boys advanced to first in the overall school standings.  Another meet record fell in the boys' shot put, where Ayumu Ishiyama (Hanazono H.S.) threw a record 17.40 m to win by almost 60 cm. Mai Shimizu (Shiga Gakuen H.S.) had a big throw of 46.36 m to win the girls' discus by nearly one meter, while Soyo H.S. turned heads in the girls' 4x100 m with a winning time of 45.88.  Other winners included Ryosuke Kashi (Shikama Kogyo H.S.), who took the boys' 5000 m race walk in 21:05.94, boys...

by Brett Larner After winning the 1500 m in 4:09.90 to find herself ranked 5th in the world among juniors over that distance, Aomori Yamada High School's Rosemary Wanjiru  was back in the 3000 m with the performance of the meet on the final day of the Japanese National High School Track and Field Championships in Oita, outclassing her competition by over fifteen seconds to win in a personal best, meet record and world junior-leading 8:49.32.  With her nearest competition, Sendai Ikuei High School ringer Mariam Waithira  just holding off top-ranked Japanese runner Miyuki Uehara  (Kagoshima Joshi H.S.) for 2nd in 9:04.68, Wanjiru continued a steady progression over the last years that suggests she is a prime candidate to follow in the footsteps of Aomori Yamada's most famous Kenyan graduate, two-time Olympian Lucy Wangui Kabuu . Plenty of other events over the second half of the championships likewise saw meet records, making this year one of the most competitive o...