japan running news

Following this past weekend's National Championships, the JAAF has announced the complete lineup of 41 women and 45 men for September's Nagoya Asian Games national team. Times listed are athletes' 2025-26 best. Women 100 m Midori Mikase (Sumitomo Denko) - 11.33 Abigail Fuka Ido (Toho Ginko) - 11.35 200 m Abigail Fuka Ido (Toho Ginko) - 22.79 Aiko Iki (Osaka Gas) - 23.41 400 m Nanako Matsumoto (Toho Ginko) - 52.14 800 m Rin Kubo (Sekisui Kagaku) - 1:59.52 Ayano Shiomi (Iwatani Sangyo) - 2:01.01 1500 m Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 4:04.16 Mizuki Michishita (Sekisui Kagaku) - 4:10.48 5000 m Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 14:34.10 Yuma Yamamoto (Sekisui Kagaku) - 14;59.89 10000 m Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 30:54.40 Ririka Hironaka (Uniqlo) - 30:56.32 100 mH Hitomi Nakajima (Hasegawa) - 12.71 Mako Fukube (NKK) - 12.72 400 mH Honoka Aoki (Zenrin) - 55.92 Satsuki Umehara (Sumitomo Denko) - 56.22 3000 mSC Miu Saito (Panasonic) - 9:24.72 Manami Nishiyama (Mitsui...

Compared to yesterday's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai half marathon conditions were tougher for the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon today, and the effects of the warmer weather showed in the results. With people like Tokyo Olympics 10000 m gold medalist Selemon Barega , 57:50 for the half marathon, and 59:30 collegiate record co-holder Richard Etir in the race the men went out in a leisurely 14:52 for the downhill first 5 km, with Sydney Marathon 6th placer Masato Arao in the lead and a pack of over 50 in tow. Victor Kipchirchir made a couple of tries to get things moving, shaking the front pack down to 16 by 10 km and 9 by 15 km. Things really broke up on the same hill that featured near the end of the Tokyo World Championships marathons, leaving it down to Barega, Etir, Benard Kimeli and Paul Kuira with 1 km to go. Barega and Etir were head-to-head heading onto the track, and even though Etir tried to pull off a replay of the Tokyo Worlds men's marathon finish Barega hung on for t...

Following Saturday's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifier half marathon, the weekend's other big half is Sunday's Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon . The Tokyo Marathon Foundation has been trying to get this race off the ground for the last few years, and it is pretty cool. Starting and finishing on the track in the National Stadium built for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and following basically the same course as the one originally planned for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, the MGC Race Olympic marathon trials, and last month's Tokyo World Athletics Championships marathon, it's quickly gotten popular as a mass participation race. But as an elite race it's got a few problems. The uphill finish that was such an important strategic part of the MGC and World Championships marathons means it'll never be as fast as it could be. And its timing in the middle of ekiden season severely limits the number of Japanese athletes and Japan-based Africans who can run it, especially fo...

Between international travel and illness we've been AWOL for a while, but it's time to catch up on what's been going on. The Hokuren Distance Challenge series rolled on with two more meets in Kitami on the 16th and Chitose on the 12th . After shaving 0.05 off the South Korean men's 1500 m NR last month at the HDC Shibetsu meet , Jae Ung Lee took the NR into new territory with a 3:36.01 win in Kitami. He was pushed all the way by Nanami Arai (Honda), who moved up to all-time Japanese #3 with a 3:36.58 for 2nd. The women's 3000 m in Kitami was fast too, with an 8:41.62 win from Caroline Kariba (Japan Post) and an all-time Japanese #5 8:48.90 PB from her injury-prone teammate Ririka Hironaka for 2nd. Margaret Ekalale (Toyota Jidoshokki) led the women's 1500 m in 4:09.64, with Na Yeon Park just missing the South Korean NR by 0.07 in 4:14.25 for 2nd. Ayano Shiomi (Iwatani Sangyo) inched back toward 2-flat to win the women's 800 m in 2:02.60, one of the f...

A new, nominally one-off event held as part of Osaka's hosting of Expo 2025, Sunday's ACN Expo Ekiden pit top top corporate and collegiate teams against each other on a 7-stage, 54.5 km course. The new race lost a bit of steam when New Year Ekiden runner-up Honda declined to participate, when winner Asahi Kasei pulled out days before the race, and when the top two teams at the Hakone Ekiden, Aoyama Gakuin University and Komazawa University , didn't field A-list lineups. In their absence it was pretty much a blowout for New Year Ekiden 3rd-placer Toyota , who led start-to-finsh off a great leading run by Yamato Yoshii and stage best titles on 4 of the 7 individual legs to win in 2:32:48. Fujitsu came on strong over the 2nd half with wins by 4th and 5th runners Daniel Kosen and Kazuya Shiojiri and strong runs on the final stages by Hiroki Matsueda and Kengo Suzuki to move into 2nd, finishing 1:14 behind Toyota in 2:34:02. Hakonen 3rd-placer Koku Gakuin University b...

Ekiden season saw two of its first important races happen this weekend. Modeled after January's Kitakyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden, Sunday's Okukuma Ekiden in Kumamoto put corporate, collegiate and high school teams together on a marathon-length course with teams of 4 all running double-digit distances and high schoolers with teams of 7 and all but the 10.0 km First Stage split into two parts. Tosu Kogyo H.S. starting runner Taiyo Iwasa led corporate leaguer Tomoya Ogikubo (Hiramatsu Byoin) by 2 seconds on the First Stage, with Omuta H.S. third runner Yuma Matsuda passing both teams to take the lead. It took until the anchor stage for Hiramatsu Byoin's Yeneblo Biyazen to catch Omuta, crossing the line in 2:06:39 with Omuta anchor Nobuyuki Anai 7 seconds back for 1st in the high school division. Soka University was the only other team to go under 2:07, 3rd overall and 2nd in the college/corporate division in 2:06:57. Rakunan H.S. was next in 2:07:07, with e...

  The biggest domestic meet of the weekend was the four-day Kanto Region Track and Field Championships , but there were other good meets happening across the country. At the Kinami Memorial Meet in Osaka, Kazuto Iizawa (Sumitomo Denko) had a near-miss on the Japanese NR, running a meet record 3:35.77 for the win to come in at all-time JPN #2. 2nd through 4th-placers Abraham Guem (South Sudan), Felix Muthiani (Kenya) and Dezhu Liu (China) were all under the old MR and under 3:38, and the top 10 all went under 3:40. All told it was one of the best non-international championship men's 1500 m ever on Japanese soil. The women's 3000 mSC also saw a new MR from Shuangshuang Xu (China) in 9:47.45, with 2nd through 4th-placers Miu Saito (Nittai Univ.), Georgia Winkcup (Australia) and Manami Nishiyama (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) all breaking 10 minutes. At part one of the Chugoku Corporate Championships in Hiroshima, Rebecca Mwangi (Daiso) had an easy win in the women's 5000 m ...

There are so many 10000 m time trial meets going on this month that you have to wonder if there's a limit. Two weeks ago the Nittai University Time Trials and Kyushu Corporate Time Trials had winning times of 27:40.58 and 28:12.70 in their fastest heats. Last weekend was the Autumn Distance Challenge meet at Tokyo's National Stadium, with Hiroki Nakayama (Teikyo Univ.) clocking the fastest men's time out of ten heats in 28:35.65 and 1st-year Haruka Ogawa (Rikkyo Univ.) leading the three women's heats in 32:29.14. Wednesday was the MARCH Taikosen meet, with Issei Sato (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) fastest out of the four heats in 28:11.00. There's another edition of Nittai on Saturday with eleven heats of 10000 m on the program and the 10000 m National Championships , Japan's selection event for the Paris Olympics, are coming right up on Dec. 10. But the big one is Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance meet. Happening in Minami Osawa in western Tokyo this year, H...

This ekiden season is all about the lead-up to the 100th running of the legendary Hakone Ekiden in January. But a big part of making this year what it is is Komazawa University trying to cap the centenary by accomplishing something no team has ever done. Last year Komazawa became one of only five teams in history to pull off the triple crown, winning October’s Izumo Ekiden, November’s National University Ekiden, and Hakone in the same season. This year they’re trying to go one better and achieve the first double triple crown. At the Izumo Ekiden a month ago Komazawa kicked off its campaign with a definitive win, breaking its own overall course record from last season by 41 seconds and winning by double the margin it did that time, all despite the loss of star senior Ren Tazawa to graduation. Sunday they look to ride that momentum to a fourth-straight win at the National University Ekiden , 106.8 km from Nagoya to Ise in eight stages. TV Asahi will broadcast the race live starting a...

Ekiden season is back with the first of the Big Three University Ekidens, Monday's Izumo Ekiden in Shimane. Last year Komazawa University became one of the few schools to win all three, Izumo, November's National University Ekiden, and January's Hakone Ekiden, in a single season. This year Komazawa is aiming to become the first school to win the triple crown two years in a row, and with Hakone celebrating its 100th running that means something even more. But it won't be easy. Izumo is shorter and faster than the other races, with 6 stages totaling 45.1 km and an average stage length of 7.5 km. Komazawa is in its top tier for sure, with the 2nd-best 6-man 5000 m average in the field, 13:35.86. U20 5000 m NR holder Keita Sato , who trained in Boulder and St. Moritz this year with OAC , leads that average and is set to double in Izumo after running the Asian Games 5000 m on Wednesday. But with the graduation of fastest-ever Japanese-born collegiate 10000 m man Ren Tazawa...

The 107th National Track and Field Championships and 39th U20 National Championships happen the next four days at Osaka's Yanmar Stadium Nagai. With the Bangkok Asian Championships in July, Budapest World Championships in August and Hangzhou Asian Games in September this will be the main national team selection event for all three. Streaming will be on the main channel above from 10:30 a.m. local time until things starting getting good at 18:00, and on a separate feed for field events at the same time. After that you need to be a subscriber to NHK BS1 to catch the TV broadcast of the main events.  Live results can be found here . Five events on the Thursday program have people in the World Championships quota, and out of those the men's 5000 m is going to be the race of the day. Everyone is there - NR holder Suguru Osako (Nike), indoor NR holder Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko), U20 NR holder Keita Sato (Komazawa Univ.), H.S. NR holder Hiroto Yoshioka (Juntendo Univ.), Olympian...

Results at the 99th Hakone Ekiden on Jan. 2 and 3 this year showed that the high level seen over the last few years hasn't slowed down at all. Eleven university teams cleared 11:00:00 for the complete 10-leg, 217.1 km course, tying last year's record numbers . Before 2020, when ten teams did it, there had never been more than three in a single edition. Winner Komazawa University 's time was the 3rd-fastest ever, with runner-up Chuo University running the 5th-fastest ever and 3rd-placer Aoyama Gakuin University the 9th-fastest. Komazawa and Chuo were both in the all-time top ten for both the Day One and Day Two segments, with overall 7th-placer Hosei University the 10th-fastest ever for Day Two. Both Komazawa and Chuo went under the 3:00/km barrier for average pace over the entire course, which includes a stage that climbs to 874 m elevation and another that drops back down. At the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships, where teams run 100....

Already the course record-breaker at the Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden this season, 2021 Hakone Ekiden champion Komazawa University came one step away from its first-ever triple crown of single-season ekiden wins as it won a highly competitive 2023 Hakone Ekiden Day One over defending champ Aoyama Gakuin University and last year's 6th placer Chuo University . Things got off to an unexpected start when Select Team runner Hayate Nitta of non-qualifier Ikuei University decided to take his one and only Hakone shot and run it up to his ability on the 21.3 km 1st leg even though the rest of the field opted to jog. At one point Nitta had a lead of almost a minute and a half, but as beautiful as it would have been for him to pull it off, Meiji University 's Shunpei Tomita and Komazawa's Kensuke Tsubura still managed to run him down in the final kilometer. Tomita took the stage win in 1:02:44, 1:02:08 half marathon pace vs. his 1:02:10 PB despite the slow s...