japan running news

The JOC announced the full lineups for the men's and women's teams for September's Nagoya Asian Games . Being hosted in Japan the Asian Games are a pretty big deal, and it's pretty close to the maximum of 2 athletes per event. The men's and women's triple jump, the women's 400 m and the women's discus throw only have 1 athlete on the Japanese team, and it's a big FU to the shot putters apparently as nobody was named to either the men's or women's teams even though people ranked lower in the World Athletics Asian rankings than top JPN shot putters Daichi Morishita and Chiharu Saka did make the team in other events. But, let's focus on what it is, not what it isn't. Going off this week's Asian rankings 8 men and 5 women are ranked #1 in their event, with a total of 19 men and 14 women ranked in the top 3. Factor in a limit of 2 per nationality and the relays and Japan's chances of scoring a great medal haul are looking good. M...

The Tokyo World Athletics Championships have come and gone, and Japan pretty much performed as expected from an organizational standpoint. Things were smooth, efficient and polite, the Tokyo Olympics stadium was packed at every session, and things like all the teams being housed in one hotel and the warmup track being driving distance from the main stadium that would have caused major logistical problems most other places went without many hitches. Even where cost-cutting measures were evident, like the absence of the light shows for walk-ons in the premier track events, nobody really seemed to care. The atmosphere might not have been as much fun as Budapest two years ago, but it was still miles ahead of other recent World Championships. Budapest was a record-setting team performance for Japanese athletes , with one gold medal, one bronze, and a total of 11 top-8 placings. Although there was a lot of disappointment for the home crowd this time, the actual team results in Tokyo were al...

Fresh off the sting of world and Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi  not making the final in the women's javelin, national pride was salved a bit in the first event the next morning on day 8 of the Tokyo World Athletics Championships . In a tight 5-way race for the medals, women's 20 km national champion Nanako Fujii took 15 seconds off her own NR to take bronze in 1:26:18, 24 seconds behind Spain's Maria Perez , who added the 20 km gold to her 35 km victory last weekend with a 1:25:54, and 12 seconds behind Mexico's Alegna Gonzalez , who set an area record of 1:26:06. Fujii had to reach for bronze, beating Ecuador's Paula Milena Torres to the line by a step, with Peruvian Kimberly Garcia Leon 4 seconds back in 5th. All-time Japanese #2 Kumiko Okada was 18th in 1:30:12 and third teammate Ayane Yanai 37th in 1:35:44. That brought Japan's medal count for its home soil World Championships to 2, both bronze and both in race walks. With Kitaguchi out the home tea...

It's getting near the end of the Tokyo World Athletics Championships , and with only one bronze medal so far the host country's chances of the kind of team performance it was hoping for are fading. A look at who's in action on Day 8: 7:30 - Women's 20 km Race Walk Nanako Fujii (Edion) - 1:26:33 -  1st, Nationals Kumiko Okada (Fujitsu) - 1:28:17 -  2nd, Nationals Ayane Yanai (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 1:29:44 -  4th, Nationals Prognosis : Fujii's win at this year's National Championships makes her the fastest woman in the field on SB and 2nd on PB. Okada and Yanai aren't likely to factor into the top 8, but Fujii is a realistic medal contender. 9:00 / 10:35 - Men's Discus Throw Qualification Masateru Yugami (Toyota) - 64.48 m -  3rd, Nationals Prognosis : Yugami made it into the Worlds field on a host country slot and is ranked 3rd from its bottom. He's had a decent season, and while there's almost no chance of him making the final a PB in front of a h...

The JAAF has announced a team of 30 women and 39 men not including relay pools for the Tokyo World Athletics Championships with less than 2 weeks to go til competition kicks off. The only real chances for medals on the women's team are in the javelin throw and women's 20 km race walk. Defending world and Olympic champ Haruka Kitaguchi is ranked #1 in the javelin, but with uncharacteristically weak performances in her last two Diamond League appearances there are a lot of questions about whether she's going to be ready. Nanako Fujii is ranked 4th in the 20 km race walk and could break into the medals. Potential top 10 finishers on the women's team include NR holder Nozomi Tanaka in the 5000 m, Ririka Hironaka in the 10000 m, Momone Ueda in the javelin throw, and the entire marathon squad of Sayaka Sato , Yuka Ando and Kana Kobayashi , assuming the marathons actually go ahead given the currently scorching conditions in Tokyo that show no sign of ending. The relay...

The Budapest World Championships got off to a rocky start for the Japanese team as it came up empty-handed in the opening event in one of its two best shots at a medal. Silver medalist in the last two global championships, Koki Ikeda took the men's 20 km race walk out hard only to fade abruptly at 15 km and finish 15th in 1:19:44. Two-time defending world champion Toshikazu Yamanishi faded even earlier, ultimately landing 24th overall and 4th out of the four Japanese men in the race in 1:21:39. 24-year-old Yuta Koga took the top Japanese spot at 12th in his World Championships debut with a 1:19:02 season best, 1:15 out of the medals in a race that saw gold medalist Alvaro Martin of Spain clock a world-leading 1:17:32 and 2nd through 6th set new national records. Eiki Takahashi was 21st in 1:20:25. Fresh from doing her final training in St. Moritz, women's 5000 m NR holder Ririka Hironaka bookended the day with a good comeback run in the 10000 m after a long season of rec...

Update: 24 hours after announcing its team for the Budapest World Championships, the JAAF announced a list of 5 additional men, 8 additional women, and 1 women's double. The numbers below have been updated to include them. Two big announcements in the last week from the JAAF of its rosters for this month's Budapest World Championships and next month's Riga World Road Running Championships. 28 women, 48 men and 35 officials make up the Budapest team, with multiple winners from last month's Asian Championships, national record holders, and at least two real medal prospects in women's javelin throw world leader Haruka Kitaguchi  and men's 20 km race walk defending champion Toshikazu Yamanishi . Especially on the women's side, a lot of athletes on the cusp of making the quotas for their event didn't get there, but a few did, like Asian 10000 m champ Ren Tazawa , pictured above with coach Hiroaki Oyagi  and 1:00:08 half marathoner Tomoki Ota  in St. Moritz, S...

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...

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The Oregon 22 World Championships kicked off with Japan's two best medal chances coming through for gold and silver in the men's 20 km race walk, and most of its other top people performing up to potential. 2019 world champ and Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist Toshikazu Yamanishi set the tone with a fast start and threw in a series of surges whenever the pace slowed much beyond 4:00/km. In the late going he made a move for real, with only Tokyo silver medalist Koki Ikeda and Kenya's Samuel Gathimba able to stay with him. Ikeda took his turn with a surge of his own, and Gathimba dropped back to deal with 2019 bronze medalist Perseus Karlstrom of Sweden. But Yamanishi wasn't going to let Ikeda get away, and over the last 2 km he pulled away for a second-straight gold medal in a season-best 1:19:07. Ikeda scored silver in 1:19:14, with Karlstrom 4 seconds back for bronze again. Hiroto Jusho was 8th in 1:20:39, making for what will probably be the best Japanese team perf...

Update: Women's 10000 m member Narumi Kobayashi  was pulled from the team after testing positive in her pre-departure COVID test at Narita Airport. She is not reported to be experiencing any symptoms. No athlete will be added to the team in her place. Japan's final team for the Oregon 22 World Championships stands at 67 athletes, 41 men and 26 women. Its only real medal prospects are in the men's race walks, with top 8 prospects in a few of its other traditionally and recently strong events. Tokyo Olympics men's 20 kmRW silver medalist Koki Ikeda is the single best shot Japan has at an individual medal, among entrants the fastest in the world this year at 1:18:53 and #3 in the rankings. Defending world champ and Olympic bronze medalist Toshikazu Yamanishi is right there too off a win at March's WA Race Walking Team Championships. Eiki Takahashi is 3rd-fastest and Hiroto Jusho 11th in the field, so chances are very good of at least one other finish in the top ...

Update: On July 7 the JAAF added team members in five events after receiving notification from World Athletics that they had moved up from borderline positions. 41 men and 27 women will represent Japan at the Oregon 2022 World Championships later this month. Full squads of three will compete in the men's 200 m, men's 400 m, men's 110 mH, men's 3000 mSC, men's marathon, men's 20 kmRW and men's 35 kmRW, the 20 km featuring four athletes given the inclusion of defending world champion Toshikazu Yamanishi (Aichi Seiko). On the women's side the 5000 m, 10000 m, javelin throw, and marathon will have complete squads. Teams will also compete in all the relays except women's 4x400 m. A complete team breakdown with rank in each event quota: Men's 100 m (48) 28. Ryuichiro Sakai (Osaka Gas) - 10.02 (+1.1) 36. Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Tumbleweed TC) - 10.04 (+0.8) Men's 200 m  (56) 40. Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) - 20.46 50. Koki Ueyama (Sumitomo Denko)...

An update to last week's story on where Japan's potential team for next month's Oregon World Championships stands with 3 days left in the qualifying window. Men's 100 m (48) 33. Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Tumbleweed TC) - 10.04 (+0.8) withdrawn -  43. Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei) Men's 200 m  (56) quota -  38. Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) quota  - 50. Koki Ueyama (Sumitomo Denko) Men's 400 m  (48) quota  - 36. Fuga Sato (Nasu Kankyo) quota - 42. Kaito Kawabata (Chukyo Univ. AC) quota - 47. Julian Walsh (Fujitsu) Men's 5000 m   (42) 36. Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko) - 13:10.69 Men's 10000 m  (27) standard, not top 3 -  22. Ren Tazawa (Komazawa Univ.) - 27:33.44 Men's 110 mH  (40) 13. Shunsuke Izumiya (Sumitomo Denko) - 13.21 (-1.2) 19. Rachid Muratake (Juntendo Univ.) - 13.27 (-0.5) in range of quota  - 41. Shuhei Ishikawa (Fujitsu) in range of quota  - 42. Shunya Takayama (Zenrin) in range of quota  - 42. Shusei Nomoto (Ehim...

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...