japan running news

Japan's best university track meet happened the last 4 days in Tochigi at the 105th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships . The race of the meet was without a doubt the D1 men's 3000 mSC, where Japanese U20 all-time #2 Tetsu Sasaki (Waseda University) and Sanetada Ono (Tokai Univ.) pushed each other to both break one of the oldest records in Japanese athletics, 10-mile NR holder Masanari Shintaku 's 8:35.2 Kanto Regionals meet record from 1977. Just starting his 2nd year at Waseda, Sasaki got the win and record in 8:24.96, landing just outside the all-time Japanese top 10. Ono took just over a second off his PB to go under Shintaku's old record too in 8:31.41 for 2nd. On the women's side the race of the meet was the D1 women's 5000 m. Undefeated in the 5000 m and 10000 m at Kanto Regionals her first 3 years, Daito Bunka University 4th-year Sarah Wanjiru lost her shot at a perfect scorecard when she got taken down over the last lap in Thursday...

Josai University followed up its women's domination of the college ekiden circuit this season and its men's 7th-place finish at the Hakone Ekiden with a start-to-finish win at the National University Mixed-Gender Ekiden , short and sweet with 6 stages of 2.0 to 5.0 km and 3 women and men from universities across the country. Only 9th last year, Josai was out front on the 1st leg and never looked back, winning all 6 individual stages. A 6:01 CR by Yuna Onishi on the women's 2.0 km 2nd leg and a 5:20 CR tie on the men's 2.0 k 5th leg by Manato Ozawa put Josai close to Nittai University 's 58:27 overall last year, but ultimately they came up just short in 58:30. But even that was enough to put Josai well over a minute ahead of Daito Bunka University , whose runner-up curse saw them finish 2nd yet again in 59:43, 2nd runner Mana Aiba tying Onishi's CR and helping keep DBU ahead of Juntendo University , 3rd in 59:46. Last year's 5th-placer Tsukuba University ...

University men's ekiden season got started with the Izumo Ekiden two weeks ago and last weekend's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifying race. This week it's the first national-level university women's ekiden of the season, the Morinomiyako Ekiden in Sendai. Because of Hakone's popularity and Tokyo's massive size the Kanto Region dominates men's running to the point that it's almost impossible for a university from any other part of the country to beat even a single Kanto team at Izumo or next month's National University Men's Ekiden. Not so at Morinomiyako or December's Mt. Fuji University Women's Ekiden. The Kanto Region still has the biggest share of the field, with 11 of the 26 teams in the field this year based in Kanto. But it doesn't dominate the same way it does for collegiate men. There's almost always a Kanto Region team in the top 3, and it's almost always last year's 2nd-placer Daito Bunka University , but a Kant...

The National University Track and Field Championships wrapped up Sunday with another collegiate record. Following Mao Shimano 's 100 mH hurdle record Saturday , the Toyo University men dominated in the 4x400 m relay final. Running with a completely different lineup from when it set the 3:04.08 meet record 2 years ago, the Toyo team of Rui Yamasaki , Kira Hirakawa , Kentaro Shirahata and Katsuo Tsujiura ran 3:03.64 for the win, 0.07 under the old collegiate record set by Nihon University in 2000 before any of them had been born. The women's 4x400 m final wasn't quite up to collegiate record level, but the top 2 teams still both broke the meet record. Sonoda Gakuen University scored the win in 3:35.41 with a lineup that included Hinata Tochio and Yuzuki Nakao from its 2023 MR-setting lineup with the addition of 2nd-year twins Ayu Yoshii and Mayu Yoshii . Ritsumeikan University was 2nd in 3:36.28, but that was good enough to break SGU's old record of 3:36.71. Af...

Former Juntendo University teammates and co-NR holders  Rachid Muratake and Shunsuke Izumiya had the chance to make history in the first track event of the evening session on day 7 of athletics at the Paris Olympics . No Japanese man had ever made it to the final of an Olympic 110 m hurdles before, and with the top 2 finishers in each semifinal plus the next 2 fastest going on to the final both lined up in their SF with the 2nd-fastest season best time in their race. Muratake was up first, but with a 13.26 (+0.1) for 4th in SF1 his chances of getting through didn't look good. Senegal's Louis Francois Mendy kept Muratake's hopes alive when he ran only 13.34 (-0.1) for 3rd in SF2, leaving it to SF3 and Izumiya. Izumiya was sluggish through the early and middle phases of the race but came back with a brilliant last 20 m to take 3rd. When his time of 13.32 (+0.6) came up it meant Muratake was in as Japan's first Olympic finalist, but Izumiya himself was just short of k...

Tsukuba University 's track in Tsukuba, Ibaraki may lose its certification from the JAAF as an officially-certfed facility due to wear and tear on the track surface and other shortcomings. The track is used to hold meets for local high school and junior high school students, but without official certification the future of these meets would be in question. The university is seeking funding of over 30 million yen [~$230,000 USD] in order to update and maintain the city's only certified track. Track certification is divided into four categories that determine the level of competition that can be held at a facility. Certification depends on factors such as the number of lanes, seating capacity, and presence or absence of a warmup track. The Tsukuba University track is certified as a level three facility, meaning it is suitable for regional competitions. Built in 1973, the Tsukuba University track is one of only eight certified facilities in the prefecture of Ibaraki. It is mostl...

September's turning out to be one of the biggest months of the year on the track in Japan. This weekend it's the 89th National University Track and Field Championships , going ahead with no spectators in Niigata's massive Big Swan Stadium. The whole meet will be livestreamed, with the first day kicking off at 10:00 a.m. Friday local time. 27 events feature returning national champions, in nine of which they're not the #1 seed. Ranked only 4th in his field, men's 110 mH national champ Nobuaki Morito (Waseda Univ.) will have the hardest time defending, his best of 13.79 putting him 0.43 behind collegiate national record holder Shunsuke Izumiya (Juntendo Univ.). Likewise for defending men's 10000 mRW champ Yuta Koga (Meiji Univ.) - 39:44.21, over a minute behind #1-seeded Koki Ikeda (Toyo Univ.). Also ranked 4th in her field, 2019 women's pole vault champ Akane Wakazono (Tsukuba Univ.) will have the biggest challenge to repeat among the women, 21 cm se...

Their activity curtailed by the coronavirus crisis, university sports teams are beginning to move toward resuming team practices. On May 27 the University of Tsukuba sports department released guidelines for gradually restarting team activities. Training sessions of up to one hour with fewer than 20 people are expected to be phased in, and it is expected that the university's facilities will reopen on June 19, the date on which the ban on traveling between prefectures in scheduled to be lifted. The heads of each program within the department had submitted proposals for an early resumption of team training, but the university would not permit the use of on-campus facilities before that date. Based at Tsukuba, men's high jump national record holder Naoto Tobe (28, JAL) has been training at a nearby facility instead. Nittai University is expected to maintain restrictions on access to its campus until June 10, and facilities at the university cannot be used until then. Junt...

On Apr. 16 the city government of Tsukuba, Ibaraki just northeast of Tokyo announced that along with two other events in August and September, it was canceling the 40th running of the Tsukuba Marathon scheduled for Nov. 22 due to the effects of the coronavirus crisis. Last year the Tsukuba Marathon had 11,461 finishers with winning times of 2:14:18 for men and 2:46:24 for women, with another 2,002 finishers in its accompanying 10 km. Tsukuba is the third October/November Japanese marathon with a field of around 10,000 to cancel in the last few weeks, following the Oct. 18 Chiba Aqualine Marathon and the Oct. 25 Mito Komon Manyu Marathon , also in Ibaraki. The Nov. 1 Toyama Marathon and Nov. 8 Fukuoka Marathon, each with a field of over 10,000, both announced last week that they were suspending opening registrations for this year pending decisions about the races could realistically be put on. Tsukuba's Nov. 22 date makes it the farthest away race on the calendar to cancel s...

The Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai is one of the best races on the calendar in Japan or anywhere else, 43 Tokyo-area university men's teams of 10 to 12 runners each racing a half marathon head-to-head in hopes of becoming one of the lucky 10 teams to join the field for the 2020 Hakone Ekiden. Tens of thousands of alumni, fans, and school marching bands aligned under the crisp autumn skies of suburban parkland, all united in anticipation of that single moment when the announcer calls out the name of the final team to make the cut. In the only race of its kind on the university circuit, teams are scored on the aggregate time of their first 10 finishers, with the 10 fastest going on to January's main event. In warm and sunny conditions that seemed to hold times back by about a minute, Ledama Kisaisa (Obirin Univ.) led the way in 1:01:01 to become the first man in 18 years to win the Yosenkai 3 years in a row. After setting a 1:00:44 course record last year Kisaisa sought to become th...

The 31st annual Six University Track and Field Meet, a competition between Tokai University, Nittai University, Juntendo University, Nihon University, Tsukuba University and Chukyo University, took place this holiday weekend at Chiba Sports Park Field in Chiba. Facing afternoon temperatures climbing over 35 degrees, organizers made the decision to cancel the men's 5000 m scheduled for 3:25 p.m.  In its place, an unofficial time trial was held later at 5:30 p.m. Despite the two-hour difference the temperature at the start was still 31 degrees. Tsukuba University second-year Kento Nishi finished first in the time trial in 14:48 after taking the lead with two laps to go. Wiping sweat from his face post-race Nishi said, "I don't think 14:48 was too bad in this kind of heat." source article: https://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/etc/20180714-OHT1T50165.html translated and edited by Brett Larner

Priding itself on having one of the flattest courses in the country, the 37th Tsukuba Marathon took place Nov. 26 at Tsukuba University in Ibaraki. Just four weeks after a course record-setting win at the Toyama Marathon, 2012 London Olympics marathoner Arata Fujiwara , 36, won the men's race in 2:18:08. With a 4th-place finish on the anchor stage of last year's Hakone Ekiden to his name, Akihiro Kaneko led a group of six through 30 km before the action began. "I didn't want to fall apart mid-race, so I was careful to keep it conservative and stay in the group," Fujiwara said post-race. At 39 km he suddenly took off without warning, running alone the rest of the way to the finish line. "I think my last kilometer was about 2:50," he said. His experience showed in the ease with which he put away the 23-year-old Kaneko and other younger athletes. "The time wasn't great, but it gives me hope for the future," Fujiwara smiled. With regard...

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/local/ibaraki/news/20151111-OYTNT50379.html translated by Brett Larner The Tsukuba Marathon in Tsukuba, Ibaraki will feature the country's first wave start system at its 35th running on Nov. 22, staggering the race's start based on entrants' declared times.  The move is intended to reduce congestion and risk of falling at the start, and experts from Tsukuba University will study its effects. Currently, almost all domestic Japanese marathons feature a single start.  In many races with 10,000 or more entrants it can take more than 10 minutes for the last runners to cross the start line.  Official results utilize gross time, the time from the starting gun to when the runner crosses the finish line, but with the growth of mass participation the large discrepancy between gross time and net time, a runner's actual time from the start line to the finish line as determined by timing chips, has become an increasing problem.  Another is that the...

http://mainichi.jp/sports/news/20121029k0000m050036000c.html translated by Brett Larner With 28 teams on the starting line for the six-stage, 38.6 km National University Women's Ekiden Championships on Oct. 28 in Sendai, defending national champion  Ritsumeikan University  celebrated the championships' 30th anniversary by running 2:06:05 to take a record-setting seventh national title.  Rival Bukkyo University  was relegated to the runner-up position for the second-straight year, 1:05 behind Ritsumeikan, while Tsubuka University  was 3rd in its first Nationals appearance in nine years, making the seeded top six for the first time in ten years. Ritsumeikan sat in 4th at the end of the First Stage, 13 seconds behind the lead before junior Akane Yabushita  took over with a stage-best run to put Ritsumeikan into the lead.  The team sustained the lead through the Third Stage and was unchallenged all the way to the finish.  After starting the Sec...