japan running news

Day 4 of the 2026 National High School Championships saw this year's first meet record. In a breakaway race Bilith Boi (Sapporo Yamanote H.S.) dropped the rest of the lead quartet to take the boys' 5000 m in a 13:34.53 MR, outrunning crosstown rival Sei Yoshida (Tokaidai Sapporo H.S.) whose 13:36.34 was the fastest-ever by a Japanese-born runner at Nationals. 3rd-placer Kogo Yonenaga (Kagoshima Kogyo H.S.) just made it under 13:40 too in 13:39.86, with Kemboi Kiprop (Kurashiki H.S.) dropping off for 4th in 13:42.76. In a season that's already seen a girls' heptathlon high school NR from Sawa Okada , Mirei Eguchi (Tokaidai Sagami H.S.) stayed solid throughout the second day of the heptathlon to win in a 5447 PB. That was enough to move her up to all-time #3 on the Japanese high school lists behind Okada's 5559 from May and previous record holder Meg Hemphill 's 5519. The girls' 400 mH final had great times up front too. Yuna Kusuda (Kagoshima Joshi H.S...

Hosts Japan swept the team titles and won 3 of the 4 individual titles at the 18th Asian Cross Country Championships Saturday in Fukuoka. With the Asian XC races integrated into the National Cross Country Championships the winners of 3 of the main races saw Japanese winners who weren't part of Asian XC scoring, starting off with the U20 Women's 6 km. China 's Jinhua Hu did a lot of the work up front to pull the lead quartet along and was rewarded with the only individual Asian XC title not won by Japan. But in the last km she fell victim to Nami Kawakami , winner of the 1st leg for 2025 National High School Ekiden champion Nagano Higashi H.S. , who outkicked Hu for the overall win and national title in 19:51. Nodoka Ashida was 3rd overall in 19:55, with Yui Onotora and Mona Utsunomiya taking 2nd and 3rd in the Asian XC placing. Japan took the team title over China, with India winning bronze. Yudai Fujii finished strong to win the U20 men's 8 km national title, ou...