japan running news

The last weekend of the academic and fiscal year saw at least 5 meets with good results domestically and abroad. Kicking things off Friday was the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne, where Tomohiro Shinno and Naoto Hasegawa took 1st and 3rd in the men's high jump, both of them only clearing 2.18 m along with 2nd-placer Roman Anastasios . 12 other Japanese athletes were in action on the second day of the meet on Saturday, where 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura ran 3:42.84 for 6th in the men's 1500 m. Nagiya Mori had a better one in the men's 3000 m with a 7:45.40 for 4th. Both Yota Mashiko and Rui Suzuki cleared 8:00 too, Mashiko's 7:53.84 the 2nd-fastest ever by a Japanese-born high schooler. Abigail Fuka Ido and Nagisa Takahashi both placed 3rd in their events, Ido going 23.85 (-0.9) in the women's 200 m and Takahashi clearing 1.82 m in the women's high jump. 8 Japanese men were at The TEN in California to run 10000 m. In the B-heat won by Edward Marks in ...

Japan's other big marathon this weekend, the Katsuta Marathon saw a tough four-way race in the men's marathon that came down to a sprint finish in the home straight. Tokyo University graduate student Hiroaki Furukawa , who last year launched action against the Hakone Ekiden organizers for not including a select team in the field for Hakone's 100th edition, passed Sota Yamamoto in the final meters to take 1st in 2:17:28 to Yamamoto's 2:17:29. 3rd and 4th-place Tatsuya Inagaki and Yudai Hiruta weren't far behind, Inagaki finishing in 2:17:41 and Hiruta in 2:17:56. The women's race wasn't as close, but the top three were still only a little more than a minute apart. Kana Numata scored the top spot in 2:44:34, with Natsuki Tomii 2nd in 2:45:33 and Natsumi Kuroda 3rd in 2:45:56. Furukawa and Numata both scored invitations to April's Boston Marathon for their wins, the only Japanese athletes currently in the elite field. In the 10 km race, high schoole...

After a few days without hardware, Japan picked up two medals on the eighth day of track and field competition at the Tokyo Paralympic Games . In the T52 men's 100 m final, Yuki Oya  ran 17.18 to take silver, 0.19 behind gold medalist Raymond Martin  of the U.S.A. and beating bronze medalist Leonardo de Jesus Perez Juarez  by 0.26.  Another medal came in the first edition of the 4x100 m universal relay. Initially finishing 4th of four teams in the final, the Japanese team was elevated to bronze when original runners-up China  were disqualified. The United States set a world record 45.52 for gold, with Great Britain  moving up to silver in 47.50 following China's DQ. Japan clocked 47.98 to pick up the bronze. In the T20 women's 1500 m all three Japanese athletes made the final, Anju Furuya  4th in 4:38.58, Sayaka Makita  6th in 4:54.60 and Moeko Yamamoto 7th in 4:55.03. Barbara Bieganowska-Zając of Poland won gold in 4:27.84, Furuya finishing ju...