japan running news

The 2023 National University Track and Field Championships wrapped with two meet records, one as old as one of the women who broke it, in its final two events. Ai Watanabe of Sonoda Gakuen Joshi University started her afternoon with a win in the 800 m final at 12:30 in 2:07.89, over half a second up on 2nd-placer Mahiro Hasegawa (Kyoto Kyoiku Univ.). Two hours later she was back to run 2nd for Sonoda in the 4x400 m. Yuzuki Nakao put them into the lead, and Watanabe, Hinata Tochio and anchor Marin Adachi carried the momentum all the way to a 3:36.71 MR, breaking Fukushima University 's 2004-era 3:37.30 record. 2nd-placer Fukuoka University just missed joining them under the record too at 3:37.41, with Waseda University close behind in 3:37.65 for 3rd. Immediately following that, after its first three runners built a solid lead the Waseda men looked to be in range of not just the meet record but the collegiate 4x400 m record of 3:03.71 from 2000. Just behind them, Budapest Wo...

  Waseda University's Yudai Nishi  gave Japan its first silver medal of the Chengdu World University Games on the fourth day of athletics competition, taking 2nd in the men's 200 m final. After winning SF1 in a PB of 20.43 +0.9 m/s, Nishi started conservatively in the final. In the middle of the field coming into the straight, Nishi closed the fastest in the field to move up into 2nd but came up short of catching gold medalist Isadore Matsoso of South Africa. Matsoso clocked 20.36 to Nishi's 20.46, with Amlan Borgohain of India taking bronze with a season best 20.55. Waseda's Aoi Inage was last in 21.10 after having run a PB 20.64 +1.1 m/s for 3rd in SF3. Both Japanese men in the 5000 m heats qualified easily for the final, Komazawa University's Taiyo Yasuhara jogging a 14:42.91 for 5th in Heat 1 and Tokai University's Shotaro Ishihara cruising to 2nd in Heat 2 in 14:31.91. Tsukuba University's Saki Katagihara made it through to the final in the women...

Waseda University's Atsushi Shobu added another medal to Japan's so far petite haul on day 3 of athletics competition at the Chengdu World University Games . Running the men's 3000 mSC, Shobu sat at the back of the lead pack throughout the race. In 5th at the bell, Shobu moved up into 3rd on the back straight, then was overtaken by Germany's Nick Jager heading into the curve. Both passed Czech Damian Vich and kept up their duel for 2nd until the final obstacle, where Shobu hesitated and lost ground. Jens Mergenthaler took gold in 8:38.42, Jager making it a German 1-2 with a silver in 8:40.53 to Shobu's 8:40.84 for bronze. The men's 400 m final was maybe the race of the day, with the top 6 all running new PBs and Portugal's Joao Coelho and Australian Reece Holder both going under the WUG record in a photo finish. Coelho was timed at 44.782 for gold, with Holder officially running 44.785 for silver. Romanian Mihai-Sorin Dringo took bronze in a PB of 45.2...