japan running news

The 2026 National High School Championships wrapped Wednesday. It's been a big season for the high school girls' 100 m hurdles, with 6 of the 10 fastest-ever times by Japanese high school girls having been run across 5 different races since May 29. A bit surprisingly, only one of those 6 made the final at high school Nationals, but Yui Yoshinaga (Nagasaki Nichidai H.S.) showed her quality with a 13.44 win by 0.31, 0.11 off her all-time #7 mark of 13.33 from June despite a -2.1 m/s headwind. Koki Takajo (Miyazaki Nishi H.S.) took the boys' 110 mH in 13.90 (-1.2) and Yutaro Takenobu (Fukodai Joto H.S.) the boys' 3000 mSC in 8:48.64. The boys' shot put saw the biggest performance of the day, as Takara Ogaki (Atsuma H.S.) threw a 18.62 m PB on his 4th attempt, enough for the win by 90 cm and landing him at all-time Japanese #3 on the high school lists. The day's other field event titles went to Yukiya Izutani (Oji Kogyo H.S.), 5.10 m in the boys' pole vaul...

In maybe the most competitive event so far at the 2026 National High School Championships , Chihiro Obata (Iida H.S.) took the win in the boys' 5000 m race walk in 20:07.28 by 3 seconds over Yuki Kaida (Chuodai Yokohama H.S.) and other 3 seconds over Koya Hayashi (Tosu Kogyo H.S.) - 20:13.12. Right behind Hayashi, the next 3 were all under 20:17 and 2 more under 20:28, with almost everyone in the top 15 clocking a new PB. Impressive given the hot and humid summer conditions. Girls' 3000 m winner Mirriam Njeri (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) also impressed, putting 7 seconds on Nami Kawakami (Nagano Higashi H.S.) to win in 9:02.42. Other winners included Yui Yoshinaga (Nagasaki Nichidai H.S.), 11.57 (+0.7) in the girls' 100 m, Sekito Matsushita (Shizuoka H.S.), 10.27 (+0.7) in the boys' 100 m, Nana Ishihara (Hakuodai Ashikaga H.S.), 6.31 m (+1.1) in the girls' long jump, and Rinoa Akagi (Shigakudai Kagawa Nishi H.S.), 50.35 m for the win in the girls' javelin throw. ...