japan running news

Japan didn't quite pull off a sweep of the men's and women's half marathon at the 2025 FISU World University Games , but it was pretty close. In the men's race Waseda University 's Shinsaku Kudo , the fastest man in the race with a best of 1:00:06 from Marugame this past February, led start to finish, keeping it around 62-flat pace before finishing in a WUG record 1:02:29. Turkey's Ramazan Bastug spent most of the race in a small chase pack with Ryuto Uehara (Koku Gakuin Univ.) and Kento Baba (Rikkyo Univ.) before dropping them both for silver in 1:02:35. Uehara was just behind in 1:02:39 for bronze, with Baba missing out on the medals in 1:02:44 for 4th. In the women's race China's Xiuzhen Ma had to deal with the Japanese trio of Makoto Tsuchiya (Ritsumeikan Univ.), Mariya Noda (Daito Bunka Univ.) and Ayaka Maeda (Kansai Univ.). And she did, running a PB 1:12:48 for gold over Tsuchiya by 10 seconds. Noda scored the bronze medal in 1:13:16, with M...

One of Japan's best remaining gold medal contenders at the 2025 FISU World University Games after throwing a PB of 81.23 m in Australia in March, Rin Suzuki (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) struck out in the men's javelin throw final of the 5th day of competition, throwing 71.65 m on his first attempt and finishing 10th after being unable to better it. Mao Shimano (Nihon Joshi Taiiku Univ.) did better in the women's 100 mH final at 7th in 13.17 (+0.1), an improvement on her 8th-place standing after the semifinals, but was still 0.22 out of the medals. Gold went to Finland's Saara Keskitalo in 12.88, with Switzerland's Simon Wieland taking gold in the men's javelin with a season best 79.33 m on his first attempt. In qualifying rounds, Aoi Murakami (Nittai Univ.) had no problems qualifying for the women's javelin throw final, throwing 53.91 for 7th among the qualifiers. Atsushi Haraguchi (Higashi Osaka Univ.) was 11th of 12 qualifiers in the men's pole vault...

After a wind-aided 12.93 at the Fuse Sprint meet, Nihon Joshi Taiiku University 's Mao Shimano turned in the biggest performance of the 3rd day of this year's National University Track and Field Championships . Running the women's 100 mH final with a -1.8 m/s headwind, Shimano took 0.02 off her own collegiate record with a 13.02 for the win. That was also way under the old meet record of 13.23, and despite the wind 2nd-placer Rei Honda of Juntendo University made it under too with a 13.12 for 2nd. Another meet record fell in the women's 5000 m. After winning the 10000 m in a 31:48.44 MR on Thursday, Daito Bunka University 3rd-year Sarah Wanjiru took 5 seconds off her own 5000 m MR, dropping her only real competition Daisy Cherop of Josai Kokusai University on the last lap to win in 15:30.04 and complete the distance double. The 1st-year Cherop was 2nd in 15:39.52, with Juntendo's Airi Tajima 3rd in 15:57.14 in a 3-way sprint finish against Sayo Imanishi o...

Japan's National Track and Field Championships and U20 National Track and Field Championships, doubling as its trials for the Paris Olympics team, got rolling Thursday at Niigata's Denka Big Swan Stadium. Highlights below, complete results here . Finals Men's 3000 m SC Final One of the favorites, Seiya Sunada fell on the barrier coming into the home straight on the second lap and ultimately finished 2nd to last. Yutaro Niinae took over after a 2:52 first 1000 m and led the rest of the way, pushing the pace until by the bell it was just him, Chuo University 's 19-year-old Daichi Shibata and mile NR holder Ryoma Aoki . All three were still together in the last 100 m, but Aoki had the gear to win it in 8:24.21, his first time under 8:30 since last October. Shibata was next in 8:24.68, a PB by 18 seconds, and Niinae 3rd in 8:25.45, a 3-second PB. Already 27th of 36 in the Paris quota, Aoki is pretty much a lock to make the Paris Olympics along with NR holder Ryuji Miura...