japan running news

The Asian Athletics Championships wrapped up Saturday in Gumi, South Korea with a string of record-setting performances. At the top of the list was the men's 200 m final , where Towa Uzawa ran a championships record and PB 20.21 (+0.8) to win gold, putting him at all-time Japanese #4 and all-time Asian #6. Saudi Abdul Abdu I Atafi and India's Animesh Kujur took silver and bronze in 20.31 and 20.32, with veteran Shota Iizuka 4th in a season best 20.66 that put him one step closer to a 14-straight year under 20.50. NR holder Rin Kubo turned in one of the fastest performances of her career so far in the women's 800 m final , just losing out to China's Wu Hongjiao . Wu delivered a meet record 2:00.08 for gold, Kubo just behind her in 2:00.42 for silver and India's Pooja Pooja a few strides back in 2:01.89 for bronze. Ayano Shiomi was 5th in 2:03.59. Yuta Sakiyama came up with a PB 83.75 m throw on his final attempt in the men's javelin , good enough for all-...

Indoor track isn't much of a thing in Japan, but there's still a small national team at this weekend's Nanjing World Indoor Championships . High jumpers Naoto Hasegawa and Sota Haraguchi were the only Japanese athletes in action in final on Friday's opening day. Hasegawa became the first Japanese man to make top 8 in a World Indoor Championships high jump final, taking 7th with a 2.20 m SB. Haraguchi was 13th of 13 with a 2.14 m SB clearance. In the men's 400 m Fuga Sato made it through the opening heats with a 46.60 SB for 2nd in Heat 3, while Ryo Yoshikawa ran only 47.47 for 5th in Heat 2 and did not advance. Sato was eliminated in the semifinals after he was last in SF1 in 48.31. Yoshiki Kinashi and Naoki Nishioka both made it through the men's 60 m heats, Kinashi running 6.60 m for 2nd in Heat 8 and Nishioka 6.67 for 3rd in Heat 4. In the semifinals both were eliminated, Nishioka improving to 6.62 for 4th in SF3 and Kinashi running 6.63 for 5th in SF2....