japan running news

Following an earlier announcement of the half marathon teams for September's Copenhagen World Road Running Championships , on June 26 the JAAF announced the mile and 5 km squads that will join them. No women were named to the mile. Women 5 km Kana Mizumoto (Edion) - 15:06.98 Rina Kusu (Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:10.91 Half Marathon Yumi Yoshikawa (Canon) - 1:09:14 Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 1:09:20 Rina Shimizu (Noritz) - 1:09:22 Yuna Takahashi (Shimamura) - 1:09:23 Men Mile Ojiro Honda (Waseda Univ.) - 3:37.53 (1500 m) Tomoki Nakano (Toenec) - 3:37.92 (1500 m) 5 km Yota Mashiko (Waseda Univ.) - 13:20.35 Rui Suzuki (Waseda Univ.) - 13:20.64 Half Marathon Tomoya Ogikubo (Hiramatsu Byoin) - 1:00:22 Yuma Nishizawa (Toyota Boshoku) - 1:00:26 Neo Namiki (Subaru) - 1:00:29 Daisuke Sato (Chuo Univ.) - 1:00:40 © 2026 Brett Larner , all rights reserved

The JAAF announced the men's and women's half marathon teams today for this fall's World Road Running Championships in Copenhagen: Women Yumi Yoshikawa (Canon) - 1:09:14 (1st, 2026 Osaka Half) Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 1:09:20 (1st, 2026 Nat'l Corp. Half) Rina Shimizu (Noritz) - 1:09:22 (2nd, 2026 Osaka Half) Yuna Takahashi (Shimamura) - 1:09:23 (3rd, 2026 Osaka Half) Men Tomoya Ogikubo (Hiramatsu Byoin) - 1:00:22 (4th, 2026 Marugame Half) Yuma Nishizawa (Toyota Boshoku) - 1:00:26 (5th, 2026 Marugame Half) Neo Namiki (Subaru) - 1:00:29 (6th, 2026 Marugame Half) Daisuke Sato (Chuo Univ.) - 1:00:40 (7th, 2026 Marugame Half) Mile and 5 km teams, if any, will be decided after June's National Track and Field Championships. © 2026 Brett Larner , all rights reserved

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 ...

On the one hand it was too windy for really fast times at the Marugame Half , but on the other it wasn't, apparently. It was pretty much a strong tailwind over the first 10 km and just a strong a headwind over the last 10, so it wasn't a surprise that the lead group of men went through 5 km in 13:59 and 10 km in 27:51. Up front in it were 59:30 collegiate record co-holders Richard Etir and Kotaro Shinohara , and sub-59:30 guy Emmanuel Maru . But with the National University Half Marathon having moved to Marugame last year there were a million fast Hakone kids up in it to, Hiromichi Nonaka from Koku Gakuin University leading the way but lots more right behind. Etir and Maru opened up on the field after the turnaround, and by 15 km Etir was alone, 9 seconds ahead of Maru and on sub-59 pace running into the wind. Like everyone else he struggled to keep pace in the wind, sub-59 slipping away but easily taking the win in 59:07, a CR and new collegiate record by 23 seconds. Maru e...

In a lot of ways this was one of the more interesting races in National Men's Ekiden history. 2 of the country's current top high schoolers, Fukushima 's Yota Mashiko and Hyogo 's Haruki Niizuma , made sure the race got off right with a CR-pace attack from the beginning. Everyone went with them, but it quickly shook down to the 2 of them and Miyagi 's Hiroto Suzuki , a relatively unknown factor. Niizuma was fresh back from running last weekend's World XC Championships in Florida and showed the fatigue from that race and the travel, dropping off just before 5 km on the 7.0 km opening stage. Mashiko and Suzuki hit it in 13:37, a head-to-head battle between runners from the top 2 teams at December's National High School Ekiden . Mashiko, who ran the fastest-ever Japanese time on the opening leg for winner Gakuho Ishikawa H.S. there, had better credentials than Suzuki, 3rd on the third leg for runner-up Sendai Ikuei H.S. and opened up with 1 km to go. But ...

For the second time in a month Australians Andy Buchanan , Isaac Heyne , Sam Clifford , Ryan Gregson and Brett Robinson faced off against a big group of 60-61 minute Japanese men pulled in from a big February half marathon, and for the 2nd year in a row Buchanan outkicked them all for the win at the China Airlines Gold Coast Half Marathon . Robinson, 3rd at last month's Launceston Half Marathon , got things moving with a fast start that put the race on pace to go just over 60 minutes, well under Pat Carroll 's 1:01:11 Australian all-comers record that Launceston winner Teruki Shimada missed by just 1 second. Yuma Nishizawa , 1:00:29 at February's National Corporate Half Marathon where most of the Japanese men in the field ran, took over to keep it moving, then handed over to Launceston runner-up Isaac Heyne . Heyne did most of the work the rest of the way, the pace gradually slowing and incrementing over Carroll's record, until a move from 2:07 marathoner Naoya Sakud...

Fresh off the announcement of the elite fields for the ASICS Gold Coast Marathon come the fields for the China Airlines Gold Coast Half Marathon a day earlier on July 5. The top 3 Australian women from the June 1 Launceston Half Marathon , CR breaker Jessica Stenson , Caitlin Adams and Sarah Klein , are back together, with domestic competition Leanne Pompeani and Tara Palm and a group mostly from this year's National Corporate Half Marathon led by Yuri Mitsune , Wakana Itsuki and Aiwa Sakaguchi . The main domestic protagonists from Launceston, Isaac Heyne , Brett Robinson , Liam Boudin , Sam Clifford , Andy Buchanan and Ryan Gregson , are all on the Gold Coast too, but where they faced a group from the Marugame Half in Launceston this time it's a massive National Corporate Half contingent led by sub-61 men Yuma Nishizawa , Hideyuki Tanaka and Yoshiki Oshiro . 2:05 marathoner Kenya Sonota is also on the list, quietly down near the bottom of the elite field with only a 1...

Following up last weekend's NR-breaking Marugame Half where the top 24 men went under 61 minutes, today's National Corporate Half Marathon delivered another big one. Yuma Nishizawa (Toyota Boshoku) and Shadrack Kipchirchir (Chudenko) broke away from the pack mid-race and opened a substantial lead, but in the last few km Tsubasa Ichiyama (Sunbelx) closed the gap and passed them by. Ichiyama took almost a minute off his PB to win in 1:00:22, the 8th-fastest time ever by a Japanese man. Favorite Tatsuhiko Ito (Honda) closed hard to pass Nishizawa and Kipchirchir on the track but couldn't catch Ichiyama, 5 seconds behind in 2nd in 1:00:27 with Nishizawa right behind in 1:00:29 for 3rd. Coming off an injury in November that held him back at last month's New Year Ekiden , Ichiyama told JRN post-race, "This was a big confidence builder for my next race." That would be next month's Tokyo Marathon. The top 14 men were all under 61 minutes. Compared to that th...

Riding the momentum of its Day One win yesterday, Komazawa University dominated Day Two of the 99th Hakone Ekiden for the overall win. Combined with its CR wins at the Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden, the Hakone victory made Komazawa only the 5th school to score the triple crown of major ekiden wins in a single season. It was the first triple crown of head coach Hiroaki Oyagi 's career, his biggest achievement at the biggest road race in the world, the one that has eluded him for decades. And, with his post-race announcement that he will step back from his role as head coach, it was his last. Komazawa started Day Two with a 30-second lead over last year's 6th-placer Chuo University and 2:03 over 2022 Hakone champ Aoyama Gakuin University . Following the success of 1st-year Takuma Yamakawa on the uphill 5th leg yesterday, Oyagi opted to put 1st-year Aoi Ito on the steep downhill 6th leg. Ito excelled, outrunning Chuo's Haruto Wakabayashi by 17 seconds to ...

Two-time national champion Komazawa University rode the momentum of its course record win at last month's Izumo Ekiden to score a third-straight National University Men's Ekiden win Sunday in Nagoya and Mie, its 15th national title in 29 starts under head coach Hiroaki Oyagi . Komazawa's leading runner Kensuke Tsubura was 4th on the opening leg, star 1st-year Keita Sato broke the 2nd leg course record to move into 2nd, 60:40 half marathoner Chikara Yamano took the lead on the 3rd leg, and from there it was only a question of whether Komazawa could keep it together and how much they would win by. Komazawa runners won three of the remaining five stages after Yamano and took top 2 on another, with 4th-year Ren Tazawa running an incredible 49:38 course record on the 17.6 km 7th leg, 43 seconds under the old record. Anchor Kyosuke Hanao had a lead of over a kilometer for the 19.7 km 8th leg and could have jogged it in, but he soloed a 57:30 stage win to bring Komazawa h...