japan running news

  Athletics started Friday at the Hangzhou Asian Games , with Japanese athletes scoring medals in 3 of the day's 5 finals. Yutaro Murayama and Nanako Fujii kicked it off at 7:00 a.m. in the 20 km race walk. Murayama was the only man able to go with Chinese duo Jun Zhang and Zhaozhao Wang , but both pulled away to make it a 1-2 for the Games hosts in the opening event. Zhang took gold in 1:23:00, Wang silver in 1:24:08 with Murayama 33 seconds back in 1:24:41 for bronze. Tomohiro Noda was well back in 4th in 1:27:08, having served a 21-second penalty mid-race. Starting 10 minutes later, the women's race podium ended up looking exactly the same but with very different race development. China's Jiauyu Yang and Zhenxia Ma were way out front most of the way and couldn't have been closer at the end, Yang taking gold in 1:30:03 and Ma silver in 1:30:04. Fujii was almost a kilometer behind in 1:33:49 for silver, with teammate Yukiko Umeno 4th in 1:39:44. In the evening s...

  Day 6 of the Budapest World Championships started with Japan getting onto the medal board for the first time as one of its best individual chances came through. All three Japanese men in the 35 km race walk went out with the lead group and stayed there until just past 20 km, where 2021 50 km national champion Satoshi Maruo lost contact. 2023 35 km national champ Tomohiro Noda lasted another 8 km before dropping, leaving last year's Oregon silver medalist Masatora Kawano in contention for another medal as the pack dwindled. By 31 km it was down to just Kawano, last year's 4th-placer Brian Pintado of Ecuador, and 20 km gold medalist Alvaro Martin of Spain. Kawano dropped back with 2 km to go, Martin pulling away to take a second gold in a 2:24:30 national record and Pintado getting onto the medal stand with a 2:24:34 area record for silver. Kawano finished with a 2:25:12 SB for bronze, Japan's first medal of any kind in a World Championships that looks set to produce ...

There's still over a month to go until the qualifying deadline for August's Budapest World Championships . As it stands right now eight women and seventeen men have been named to the team based on the primary criteria of having the qualifying standard and having placed top three at this year's National Championships or the special criteria in events like relays and the marathon. But with a lot of Japanese athletes comfortably inside their event's quota for qualification based on world rankings those numbers will at least double by the July 30 deadline.  A quick guide to the most likely candidates for making the final team and those realistically in range of getting into the quota is below. Numbers after event headers are the current quota cutoff score for that event. Numbers after athletes' names are the current world ranking score for anyone who doesn't have the standard in their event. For athletes who do have the standard, their current rank out of the numbe...

The final day of the Oregon 22 World Championships opened with a medal-winning walk from Masatora Kawano in the men's 35 km race walk. Teammate Daisuke Matsunaga went out hard, opening a lead of over a minute at one point before being reeled in early in the second half and fading to 26th. Kawano stayed in the lead group the entire way, the only person there never to take the lead at any point, covering any move without making any contribution to the race. When Italy's Massimo Stano made his final move for the win Kawano was right there, but he couldn't quite close it down and was consigned by the Italian to silver, 2:23:14 to 2:23:15. Sweden's Perseus Karlstrom took bronze in 2:23:44. Japan's Tomohiro Noda patiently worked his way up into the top 8 together with Canadian Evan Dunfee , but while Dunfee was able to carry his momentum all the way to final finishing position of 6th, Noda faded and was re-taken, ultimately just outside the top 8 at 9th in 2:25:29 ...

This week after the wrap of the 2022 National Track and Field Championships the JAAF had a press conference to announce additions to the already-announced road event members of its team for next month's Oregon World Championships team. 18 men and 9 women are on the team for sure with a combination of having the Worlds standard and meeting JAAF criteria for placing at the National Championships, and with just under two weeks until the deadline for qualifying those numbers could go as high as 36 men and 24 women based on where people sit right now in their event quotas. Below is a list of events with Japanese athletes either already qualified or within their event quota. Right now there's potential that Japan could send full squads in the men's 110 mH, men's 400 mH, men's 3000 mSC, men's high jump, men's marathon, both men's race walks and both men's relays, and in the women's 5000 m, women's 10000 m, women's 3000 mSC, women's javelin t...

20 km race walk world record holder Yusuke Suzuki delivered Japan's first medal of the Doha World Championships, defying the heat and humid to lead to men's 50 km race walk start to finish for gold in 4:04:20. His teammates Hayato Katsuki and Tomohiro Noda didn't fare as well, Katsuki 27th of 28 finishers and Noda among the many casualties, but Suzuki's bold and brash performance in similar conditions to what the field will face in Tokyo next year, if darker, gives Japan hope that it's got at least one solid gold contender for the home game. More history made at @IAAFDoha2019 as Yusuke Suzuki wins Japan's first ever race walking #WorldAthleticsChamps title 🇯🇵🥇 Fantastic victory for the @jaaf_official athlete one year before @Tokyo2020 . 📰: https://t.co/gghIeeRTPa pic.twitter.com/bZ0UYTgVWs — IAAF (@iaaforg) September 29, 2019 The lone Japanese woman in the 50 km, Masumi Fuchise just missed a top 10 finish in 4:41:02. One of Japan's ...

Toshikazu Yamanishi delivered Japan its first gold medal of the Taipei 2017 Summer  Universiade, covering the men's 20 km race walk in 1:27:30 to win by 50 seconds over Mexico's Julio Salazar Enriquez . Fumitaka Oikaw a took bronze in 1:30:11 to follow up on Japan's silver and bronze pair at the London World Championships and further establish Japan's position among the leaders of the sport. Third Japanese man Tomohiro Noda was 7th, bettering Mexico on team scoring. Japan's other finalists of the day couldn't match the walkers' performances, Jun Yamashita taking 8th in the men's 200 m final and Kenji Ogura 9th in the men's javelin throw final. Both men in the 110 m hurdles made it to the semifinals, however, Taio Kanai winning Heat Three and Shusei Nomoto 2nd in Heat Two. Taipei 2017 Summer Universiade Day Four Japanese Results Taipei, Taiwan, 8/26/17 click here for complete results Men's 200 m Final   (-3.8 m/s) 1. Jeffrey John...

by Brett Larner Daisuke Matsunaga (Toyo Univ.) became the first Japanese athletics medalist of the 2015 Gwangju World University Games on day two of competition, winning bronze in the men's 20 km in 1:22:06 after falling just over 30 seconds off a close race between eventual gold medalist Dane Bird-Smith (Australia) and Benjamin Thorne (Canada). 12 hours later, Keisuke Nakatani (Komazawa Univ.) repeated the feat in the final track final of the day, winning bronze in the men's 10000 m in 29:19.30 four seconds back from gold medalist Igor Maximov (Russia) and just losing out to Nicolae-Alexandru Soare (Romania) for silver.  After winning the 5000 m and 10000 m at May's Kanto Regional University Track and Field Championships and running a 28:31.84 best for 10000 m and winning the 3000 mSC national title in June, Hironori Tsuetaki (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) had a rare off day, finishing 9th in just 29:52.91. Sprinter Anna Doi (Daito Bunka Univ.) made it to the women...