japan running news

The Tachikawa City Half Marathon took place Sunday, Mar. 9 in Showa Kinen Park, Tokyo. Chuo Gakuin University 's new 2025-26 season captain Hiro Konda ran 1:02:11 to take the overall win. 2nd last year, Kondo showed the growth of his strength. "We all ran with the image of the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai* in our minds," he said. "Every second, every meter mattered, so I was totally focused on winning." Yuta Asakawa of Teikyo University was 2nd in 1:02:29, with Yusei Tomita of Nihon University 3rd in 1:02:47. With the win the priority over time, Konda's plan was to take the lead in middle of the race once they hit the hillier part of the course. But feeling that the pace was too slow while he looked for a place to make a move, Konda picked it up on a downhill with about 3 km to go. "Just like I expected, I started to pull away, so I pushed it from there," he said. The Tachikawa City Half had hosted the National University Men's Half Marathon Ch...

On July 28, Reiri Nakashima , 25, a member of a winning Hakone Ekiden team while in college, and 2018 1500 m national champion Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu , 23, announced on Twitter that they have gotten married. Nakashima was a member of Tokai University 's 2019 Hakone-winning team, while Takamatsu was a member of national champion teams at both the National High School Ekiden and National University Women's Ekiden. Together they form one of the power couples of Japanese athletics. The daughter of a Kenyan father and Japanese mother, Takamatsu came to Japan at age 1. At Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. she won the Second Stage at the National High School Ekiden, helping lead the team to the overall win. She was also a member of Meijo University 's undefeated team at the National University Women's Ekiden and Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden. She retired after graduating in 2022. Hailing from Himeji, Nakashima ran the downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, helping Tokai score...

Meijo University  led almost start-to-finish at Sunday's National University Women's Ekiden, taking five of the six individual stage bests to become only the second school to win five-straight national titles. Opening runner Yuma Yamamoto  waited until the last km of her 6.6 km stage to turn it on, opening a 7-second lead to win it in 21:48. Second runner Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu overcame a bad season to break the record for her stage, running 12:01 for 3.9 km and building Meijo's lead to 23 seconds. Third runner Yuna Wada  added another 56 seconds to the lead with a 21:51 win on her 6.9 km stage, and fourth runner Nanase Tanimoto  turned in a 15:37 stage record for 4.8 km to chalk up another 14 seconds.  10000 m collegiate record holder Narumi Kobayashi  was the weakest link, finishing only 3rd on the 9.2 km Fifth Stage on individual time but still stretching out Meijo's lead to 2:07. Anchor Yuka Masubuchi  had more than enough to work with with onl...

Earlier this week after the Princess Ekiden my friend Becky asked a couple of good questions. "I'm always curious on why they don't let women run Hakone, and why women-only ekidens are so much shorter," she said. Japan is hopelessly behind on a lot of social issues, especially women's equality. In March this year the World Economic Forum ranked Japan 120th out of 156 countries in gender equality, just over a month after Tokyo Olympics organizing committee head and former prime minister Yoshiro Mori  was forced to, publicly at least, step down from his position after making comments derogatory of women. Which is not to say that that stopped him from turning up at the Olympic Stadium to catch Olympic athletics action and hang with his boys Thomas Bach  and Seb Coe this past summer, of course. On the other hand, things can also be oddly progressive at times. Japan was the first country in the world to put on an annual women-only marathon, way back in 1979 before it...

Two of Japan's best collegiate athletes broke stage records at Sunday's Tokai Region University Ekiden , a regional championship race for universities in the greater Nagoya area.  In the women's race, eight teams competed over five stages totaling 26.6 km. Four-time national champion Meijo University  tuned up for the year-ending Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden with a win in Tokai, leading start to finish and taking four out of five stage stage bests to close out with a lead of three and a half minutes over Chukyo Gakuin University . Meijo fourth-year Rika Kaseda , the top collegiate 10000 m runner of 2020 with a PB of 31:39.86 at last weekend's National Championships , took a second off the record for the 5.9 km Third Stage, winning it in 18:10. Chukyo Gakuin first-year Yumeka Inaba  was the only runner to break up Meijo's domination, beating Meijo fourth-year Sena Komori  by 11 seconds to win the 4.7 km Fourth Stage in 17:02. Meijo's final time of 1:28:25 was ov...

Men's long jump collegiate record holder Yuki Hashioka (Nihon Univ.) added 20 cm to the National University Track and Field Championships meet record, jumping a world-leading 8.29 m (-0.6) on his final attempt to pick up the national title. With the event cut back to four attempts as part of the meet's coronavirus measures, Hashioka opening with a 7.92 m (+1.1) that would have been enough for the win, lengthening that to 8.06 m (-0.2) on his second jump, then after a fouled third attempt dropped his meet-winning jump. Just 3 cm off his collegiate record, Hashioka will get a shot to better that at next month's National Track and Field Championships. Hashioka's was the only world-leading performance of the day, but two other meet records also went down. Men's 3000 m steeplechase collegiate record holder Ryuji Miura (Juntendo Univ.) took his first collegiate national title, running 8:28.51 to take over 3 seconds off Kazuya Shiojiri 's meet record. In the wome...

After an unexpected breakthrough last year to win its first national title in 12 years, Meijo University took full advantage of its new recruits to win the Morinomiyako Ekiden , the Japanese University Women's Ekiden Championships, for the second year in a row Sunday in Sendai. First-year Yuna Wada , who set up Nozomi Tanaka for the gold medal in this year's U20 World Championships 3000 m, took it out hard for Meijo, winning the 6.4 km First Stage by two seconds over Naruha Sato of last year's 3rd-placer Ritsumeikan University . After a rocky start 2017 runner-up Daito Bunka University 's Yuka Suzuki made up a 42-second deficit on the 5.6 km Second Stage, turning it into a 15-second lead over Ritsumeikan with Meijo dropping to 3rd. Star Meijo first-year Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu got it back under control, just missing the CR on the 6.8 km Third Stage as she put Meijo back into the lad for good. DBU, Ritsumeikan and darkhorse Tokyo Nogyo University battled to...

3000 m world U20 champion Nozomi Tanaka (ND28 AC) added another championships win to her resume, outrunning the field in the senior women's 5000 m to take the Fukui National Sports Festival 5000 m title on the opening day of athletics competition. Off a slow first 1000 m Tanaka and rival Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu (Meijo Univ.) , both first-years in university, emerged after 4000 m to contend for the win in a sprint battle over the last lap. As at July's World U20 Championships Tanaka had the superior closing speed, winning in 15:34.22 to Takamatsu's 15:35.47. Keiko Nogami '(Juhachi Ginko) made a quick turnaround from her silver medal in August's Jakarta Asian Games marathon to take 3rd in 15:37.28. Takamatsu's older sister Nozomi Musembi Takamatsu (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) dropped out midway through the race. National Sports Festival Athletics Day One Highlights 9.98 Stadium, Fukui, 10/5/18 complete results Senior Women's 5000 m Final 1. Nozomi T...

After a disappointing 5th-place finish in this year's Jakarta Asian Games 400 m, Julian Walsh (Toyo Univ.) brought the highlight of the third day of the 87th National University Track and Field Championships as he tied the meet record 45.75 to win the 400 m national title. It was a very close race with newcomer   Rikuya Ito (Waseda Univ.) pushing Walsh to the record and finishing 2nd in 45.79. Just a 2nd-year, Ito looks set to take over as Japan's top collegiate 400 m runner following Walsh's graduating next spring. 3rd-year Mitsuki Kawauchi (Kinki Univ.) may give him a challenge for the title next year, close behind this time in 3rd in 45.96. In the women's 5000 m 1st-year Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu (Meijo Univ.) outkicked her older competition in a slow race to complete a 1500 m / 5000 m national title double in 16:06.83. Her male counterpart Josphat Ledama Kisaisa (Obirin) also pulled off a double, dropping Patrick Mathenge Wambui (Nihon) as he did in the ...

Following up the Ritsumeikan University women's 4x100 m meet record in the qualifying heats on the first day of the 87th National University Track and Field Championships , Nittai University did Ritsumeikan one better in day two's final. Nittai came on strong on the third leg with a solid run from third year Mae Hirosawa , but it was first-year anchor Miku Yamada who really impressed, pulling away to open almost half a second on Ritsumeikan in the best first-year relay anchor performance since future Olympic silver medalist  Shota Iizuka 's 2010 Kanto Regionals run. Yamada crossed the line in 44.59 to take 0.23 off Ritsumeikan's day-old meet record and 0.21 off the 12-year-old national university record. Just a week after missing out on a medal at the Jakarta Asian Games, Meg Hemphill (Chuo Univ.) rounded out her collegiate heptathlon career by tying the meet record of 5550 set last year by Jakarta bronze medalist Yuki Yamasaki . Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu (Mei...

On the first day of competition at the World U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland, Japanese runners were the first non-East African runners across the line in both of the day's distance finals. In the boys' 10000 m Takuro Miura was 9th in 30:12.25 almost three laps behind championships record-setting Rhonex Kipruto (Kenya). In the women's 5000 m, Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu was 7th in 15:55.74, just over 21 seconds out of the medals. The talented Miku Moribayashi was last in 17:08.55. In qualifying rounds, nine of the eleven Japanese athletes in action advanced. Ayaka Kawata and Ayano Shiomi led the way in the women's 800 m, both winning their heats and clocking the two fastest times among all qualifiers. Yuki Hashioka also recorded the best mark in the men's long jump qualifying rounds, jumping 7.92 m (+1.1 m/s ) to head into the final ranked #1. Yugo Sakai jumped a PB of 7.69 m (+2.0 m/s) to join Hashioka in the final with the #3 ranking. World U20 ...

The 100 m final got most of the attention on the second day of the 102nd Japanese National Track and Field Championships , but arguably the best race of the day came in the women's 3000 m steeplechase. 4 of the top 5 women ran PBs and broke 10 minutes, winner Yukari Ishizawa (Edion) coming in at all-time Japanese #5 in 9:53.22, runner-up Nana Sato (Starts) all-time JPN #9 in 9:56.95, and 5th-placer Manami Nishyama (Matsuyama Univ.) running a PB 10:04.70 to land all-time Japanese collegiate #9. The women's 100 m final provided one of the bigger surprises of the day, with the relatively unheralded Nodoka Seko (Crane) outrunning defending national champ Kana Ichikawa (Mizuno) and national record holder Chisato Fukushima (Seiko) to win in 11.64 (+0.8 m/s). A tense men's 100 m final saw 2013 national champ Ryota Yamagata (Seiko) better national record holder Yoshihide Kiryu  (Nihon Seimei) and 2017 London World Championships 4x100m relay team members Aska Cambridge ...

A new meet record in the boys’ 400 m courtesy of Sri Lanka’s Aruna Dharshana topped the results on Day Two of the Asian Junior Athletics Championships in Gifu. Dharshana’s mark of 45.79 led a Sri Lankan 1-2, with Japan’s Shuji Mori picking up the bronze in 47.09. Japan earned a 1-2 of its own in the girls’ 1500 m, where Ririka Hironak a ran a PB 4:17.62 to win gold by 4 seconds over teammate Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu . Durga Pramod Deore of India was a distant 3rd for bronze. Japan’s only other gold of the day came in the boys’ long jump, where Yugo Sakai jumped 7.61 m (-0.1 m/s) to beat China’s Keqi Zhou by just 7 cm. A missed opportunity came in the boys’ 10000 m, where Waseda University’s Yuhi Nakaya  ran only 30:04.24 for silver, beaten by winner Cairen Suolang of China in a 30:01.51 PB run. Japan also took silver in the boys’ 1500 m, Saife Saifeldin of Qatar getting the win in 3:49.30 to Reito Hanzawa ’s 3:49.66 and Iraqi bronze medalist Hussein Haitham Lafta ’s ...

Japan's outdoor season rolled on April 28 with the 52nd Oda Memorial Meet , one of the events used in selection for Japan's national team for this summer's Jakarta Asian Games. Rosemary Monica Wanjiru (Starts) topped the day's results with a 15:08.61 meet record in the Women's Grand Prix 5000 m, easily leaving senior teammate Grace Kimanzi and veteran Ann Karindi (Toyota Jidoshokki) behind to take the top spot. #織田記念 グランプリ 女子5000m 山ノ内みなみさん(京セラ)15:21.31 pic.twitter.com/TW3Muk8tbB — Tさんrunner (@Runner_2653) April 29, 2018 Dropping a massive PB for 4th, Minami Yamanouchi (Kyocera) was the first Japanese women in 15:21.31. Longtime readers might remember Yamanouchi as a 17-year-old high schooler from Fukushima casually breaking high school boys' records and running sub-3 marathons for fun. Now 24, she has landed at the Kyocera corporate team under the tutelage of former men's half marathon national record holder and fellow Fukushima native Ats...

Saturday was the first full day of the Japanese outdoor track season with two large time trial meets and university intramurals across the country. The top marks of the day came over 3000 m at Tokyo's Setagaya Time Trials meet. In the women's A-heat Japan-based Kenyan Grace Mbuthye (Starts) won in 8:58.55, while another Japan-based Kenyan Evans Yego (Sunbelx) took the men's A-heat in 7:58.50. Both times were the 2nd-fastest outdoor marks in the world so far this season. Other notable marks: Kei Fumimoto (Kanebo) turned in the fastest Japanese time of the day at 8:06.95 for 4th in the A-heat. Junior high school 1500 m, 3000 m and 5000 m national record holder Kosuke Ishida made his high school debut in the C-heat running for Tokyo Nogyo Daini H.S. , finishing 3rd in 8:22.85, about 5 seconds off his best. After taking 7th at last month's NYC Half, 2017 World University Games half marathon gold medalist Kei Katanishi (Komazawa Univ.) got back into action, warm...

Japan dominated the 14th Asian Cross Country Championships Thursday in Guiyang, China, winning all four team gold medals to hold the hosts China back to silver in every race. Japan's only individual gold came in the Junior Women's race, one of its usual areas of strength. Yuna Wada led a Japanese sweep of the top four positions to win the 6 km race in 20:43 with scoring teammates Ririka Hironaka and Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu just behind. Wada Yuna of Japan wins Junior Women’s 6km cross country race of 14th Asian Cross Country Championship . Japan also won Team championship pic.twitter.com/Q6l0b48pKV — Asian Athletics (@asianathletics) March 15, 2018 With the meet also serving as China's National Championships Chinese athletes won the individual gold in the other three races, Dan Li , Cairen Suolong and Jianhua Peng all showing better closing speed to beat their Japanese rivals by 3~4 seconds. Li won the Senior Women's 8 km by 3 seconds over Japan's ...

Fresh off a third-place finish in the women's 2000 m at France's Decanation last week just days after her 18th birthday, Nozomi Tanaka (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) took her month-old 3000 m PB and position in Japan's all-time rankings even further. Having hovered close to 9-flat for the last year Tanaka, the daughter of 2:29:30 amateur marathoner  Chihiro Tanaka ,  finally broke through with an 8:59.83 to take the top Japanese spot in the 3000 m at August's National High School Track and Field Championships. Oo Monday she took over a second off that time to win the Shizuoka Long Distance Time Trials women's 3000 m A-heat in 8:58.81 over rivals including 5000 m all-time high school #2 Shuri Ogasawara (Yaanashi Gakuin Prep H.S) and 3000 m all-time junior #4 Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu (Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S.). Tanaka's new PB moved her up to all-time #4 among Japanese juniors and #3 among high school students for 3000 m, still 6 1/2 seconds off the records h...