japan running news

The mile isn't really a thing in Japan, especially on the roads, but it's starting to change a little bit. At Nike's new Ginza Mile road race, even in the middle of heavy rain the top 7 in the men's race all broke the national record of 4:00.02 set in March by Ojiro Honda (Waseda Univ.). Soma Nagahara (Juntendo Univ.) was first across the line to become the official new NR holder in 3:57.0, just beating Shunsuke Kuwata (Komazawa Univ.) by 0.3 in Kuwata's best race since the NYC Half in March. Kaisei Okada (Chuo Univ.) and Yuto Miyake (Chuo Univ.) were right behind in 3:57.9 and 3:58.1, and while there doesn't seem to be an official Taiwanese road mile NR it's pretty much a given that the 3:58.9 by Chien Tzu-Chieh (Chuo Univ.) for 5th was Taiwan's best-ever. Women's NR holder Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) easily won in 4:33.8, almost 2 seconds off her NR from 2023, with Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) 2nd in 4:36.87 and Ran Urabe ...

Japan's outdoor Grand Prix season kicks off Saturday in Kumamoto at the Kanakuri Memorial Meet . Streaming will be at the link above starting at 9:30 a.m. local time. Complete timetable and start lists . Main events and some noteworthy entries: GP Women's 800 m Heat 2  - 12:10 p.m. All-time JPN #4 Ayano Shiomi , 2:01.01 GP Men's 800 m Heat 2  - 12:30 p.m. GP Women's 3000 mSC  - 2:45 p.m. All-time JPN #4 Yuzu Nishide , 9:38.95 All-time JPN #5 Manami Nishiyama , 9:39.28 South Korean NR holder Ha-Rim Cho , 9:53.09 GP Men's 3000 mSC  - 3:05 p.m. All-time JPN #2 Ryoma Aoki , 8:18.75 All-time JPN #5 Yutaro Niinae , 8:19.54 All-time JPN #7 Hibiki Obara , 8:22.64 All-time U20 JPN #2 Tetsu Sasaki , 8:29.05 All-time U20 JPN #3 Soma Nagahara , 8:30.37 GP Women's 1500 m Heat 2  - 3:35 p.m. Teresiah Muthoni , 4:02.54 Margaret Ekalale , 4:09.64 all-time JPN #3 Ran Urabe , 4:07.90 All-time JPN #6 Tomoka Kimura , 4:09.79 All-time U20 #5 Mei Sakiyama , 4:13.67 GP Men's 1500...

We've been in transit back from NYC, where Komazawa University  2nd-year Shunsuke Kuwata turned in t he fastest-ever half marathon by a Japanese man outside Japan , and are catching up on a busy weekend in Japan and elsewhere. Saturday saw 2 new records and 2 international medals. At the rebranded Fukuoka Ohori Road Running race, Ojiro Honda (Tottori Johoku H.S.) took 1 second off the NR in the men's road mile, coming up just short of a sub-4 in 4:00.2. Laura Nicholson (Ireland) won the women's mile in 4:44 by 3 seconds over Yuzu Nishide (Daihatsu). Caroline Kariba (Japan Post) had a big win in the women's 5 km, outrunning the more accomplished Medina Eisa (Ethiopia) and Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) to win in 15:15 with Medina 2nd in 15:20 and Akidor 3rd in 15:33. Marathoner Mao Uesugi (Tokyo Metro) was the top Japanese finisher at 4th in 16:11. Kio Furuhashi (Surugadai Univ.) took the men's 5 km in 13:45 by 2 seconds over steepler Ryoma Aoki (Honda), 2n...

The 2026 Asian Cross Country Championships happen Saturday in Fukuoka in conjunction with Japan's National Cross Country Championships. Complete entry lists are at the links below, with Japan's entries for the 4 teams as listed. The senior men's 10 km team is especially strong, with 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura (Subaru) leading 3 other men all in the 27:36-27:37 range for 10000 m, Yuma Nishizawa (Toyota Boshoku), Hiromichi Nonaka (Koku Gakuin Univ.) and Kaisei Okada (Chuo Univ.). As of right now there is no info on streaming available, but we'll update this with links if it surfaces. Senior Men's 10 km Yuma Nishizawa (Toyota Boshoku) - 27:36.61 (Hachioji 2025) Hiromichi Nonaka (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 27:36.64 (Hachioji 2025) Kaisei Okada (Chuo Univ.) - 27:37.06 (Hachioji 2025) Ryuji Miura (Subaru) - 28:32.28 (Inzai 2021) / 8:03.43 NR (Monaco 2025) Senior Women's 10 km Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 31:03.14 (Osaka 2025) Momoka Kawaguchi (Uniqlo)...

It looked like it was going to be a big weekend, and it delivered. For the 3rd time in his career Suguru Osako broke the men's marathon NR, running 1 second under the standing record to take 4th in the Valencia Marathon in 2:04:55. All the way to 40 km he was steady on 2:58/km, 2:05:10 pace, and like a surprising number of other people in both the men's and women's races, there was a massive jump over the last 2.195 km from his projected finish time to his actual one. His run put Osako back on top of the Japanese charts, put the average of Japan's 10 fastest marathon times of the year under 2:06 for the first time, and got him into the L.A. Olympics marathon trials. Valencia has been trying to get top-tier Japanese athletes to come for years, and now that they finally managed to do it it paid off in a big way. Expect more next year. Back home, former Takushoku University captain Derese Workneh won a 3-way race against Toyota teammates Kazuya Nishiyama and Bedan Ka...

Following the track 5000 m held last weekend to pick the lineup for the U20 teams at January's Tallahassee World Cross Country Championships, the JAAF has announced its complete team lineup . The senior men's team features sub-28 runners Ryuto Igawa and Daiki Ozawa , with 31-minute women Momoka Kawaguchi and Wakana Itsuki lead the senior women's squad. The U20 men's team features 6 sub-14 high schoolers led by Haruki Niizuma with a 13:35.33 best, while at 15:27.28 Mei Hosomi leads a U20 women's team made up of a mix of high school runners, collegiate athletes and corporate leaguers. The complete team lineup with track 5000 m / 10000 m bests: Senior Men's 10 km Ryuto Igawa (Asahi Kasei) - 27:39.05 Daiki Ozawa (Fujitsu) - 27:55.74 Hiroto Yoshioka (Juntendo Univ.) - 28:08.02 Yuma Shimoo (NTN) - 28:27.52 Senior Women's 10 km Momoka Kawaguchi (Uniqlo) - 31:57.81 Wakana Itsuki (Kraftia) - 31:58.59 Sora Shinozakura (Yokohama T&F Assoc.) - 32:24.50 Mitsu ...

The grand prix distance events were absent from the program this year at the 73rd Hyogo Relay Carnival , with the top performances in the women's 5000 m and men's 10000 m Asics Challenge races going to steepler Yuzu Nishide (Daihatsu) in 15:49.48 and Japan-based Kenyan Emmanuel Kiplagat (Mitsubishi Juko) in 28:12.42. But there were a lot of new meet records, and one national record. Ryosuke Kusumi (Shiga) set a T37-class NR of 58.35 m in the para men's 400 m. Kairi Ikeno (Suma Gakuen H.S.) came less than 2 seconds short of a new high school record in the women's 2000 m , beating her own MR from last year by over 3 seconds in 5:55.36, almost 17 seconds ahead of 2nd place. The top 5 all broke or tied the men's high jump meet record, with both Yuto Seko (FAAS) and Tomohiro Shinno (Kyudenko) clearing 2.25 m and Takashi Eto (Kobe Digital Labo), Chao-Hsuan Fu (Taiwan) and Naoto Hasegawa (Niigata Albirex RC) clearing 2.20 m. Yuki Hashioka (Fujitsu) won the men...

Japan's National Cross Country Championships happened Saturday in Fukuoka, maybe the earliest selection race in the world for next January's World XC Championships in Florida. The senior men's 10 km lived up to the hype with a 4-way race between 3000 m SC NR holder Ryuji Miura , 10000 m NR holder Kazuya Shiojiri , sub-28 man Ryuto Igawa and Hakone Ekiden downhill specialist Aoi Ito . It came down to a sprint finish between Miura and Igawa, with Miura getting the win 28:24 to 28:25 and Shiojiri a few steps back in 28:29. Considering that the National Corporate Road 10 km Championships two weeks ago were won with a time over 29 minutes, times were fast overall with the top 6 under 29 minutes. The senior women's 8 km was a pack race most of the way, with one of the favorites Momoka Kawaguchi pulling away for the win in 26:25. 6th-place Wakana Itsuki was only 10 seconds behind 2nd-placer Sora Shinozakura , who clocked 26:31, showing what a close race it was. Anna Suzuki...

The 107th National Track and Field Championships and 39th U20 National Championships happen the next four days at Osaka's Yanmar Stadium Nagai. With the Bangkok Asian Championships in July, Budapest World Championships in August and Hangzhou Asian Games in September this will be the main national team selection event for all three. Streaming will be on the main channel above from 10:30 a.m. local time until things starting getting good at 18:00, and on a separate feed for field events at the same time. After that you need to be a subscriber to NHK BS1 to catch the TV broadcast of the main events.  Live results can be found here . Five events on the Thursday program have people in the World Championships quota, and out of those the men's 5000 m is going to be the race of the day. Everyone is there - NR holder Suguru Osako (Nike), indoor NR holder Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko), U20 NR holder Keita Sato (Komazawa Univ.), H.S. NR holder Hiroto Yoshioka (Juntendo Univ.), Olympian...

This weekend's main event on the Japanese calendar is Saturday's Oda Memorial Meet in Hiroshima , a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meet. Streaming starts at 10:30 a.m. local time, with the first main field final happening at 11:45 and the first one on the track at 14:15. Check the full meet schedule here . Entry lists are here . Track event previews: Women's 1500 m Final - 14:15 No Japanese women have cleared the Budapest World Championships standard of 4:03.50, but four are currently in the quota of 56. Three of them, Yume Goto (Uniqlo), Mizuki Michishita (Wacoal) and Saki Katagihara (Tsukuba Univ.) are entered, along with Tokyo Olympian Ran Urabe (Sekisui Kagaku) who's looking for enough points to break into the top 56. Goto is closest to the standard at 4:09.41, but realistically this race will be mostly about points. Men's 1500 m Final - 14:25 The four fastest men in the 1500 m, NR holder Kazuki Kawamura (Toenec), Nanami Arai (Honda), Keisuke Mor...

The Hokuren Distance Challenge 20th Anniversary Meet , a last chance set up by the JAAF for Japanese athletes to hit 2022 World Championships standards ahead of Sunday's deadline, produced two new qualifier. Pacing the men's 5000 m, Justus Soget (Honda) kept going when the rest of the field dropped off and crossed the line in a new PB of 13:12.90, the 18th Kenyan to qualify for Worlds in the 5000 m. Men's 10000 m pacer Benard Koech (Kyudenko) did the same, getting under the standard in 27:20.66 and also becoming the 18th Kenyan to qualify. Half marathon great Alexander Mutiso (ND Software) almost joined Koech but came up just short in 27:29.85 for 2nd. Among Japanese men the performance of the day was former 1500 m NR holder Nanami Arai (Honda), who ran an all-time JPN #3 PB of 3:36.63 for the win, short of the Worlds standard but adding further to the incremental step up this season for Japanese middle distance as a whole. Hironori Tsuetaki (Fujitsu) gave the 8:22.00...

The JAAF has set up one last chance for its middle and long distance athletes to hit the qualifying standards for next month's World Championships, adding an early meet to the Hokuren Distance Challenge series today ahead of Sunday's deadline to qualify. Streaming starts at 16:00 local time. A breakdown of the races: Men's 800 m - 16:15 - No Japanese man has ever broken the 1:45.20 Worlds standard, but national champion Mikuto Kaneko (Chuo Univ.) is close at 1:45.85. Given that he's currently 57th against the 800 m's 48-deep quota it'll take a NR for him to make it to Eugene. Women's 1000 m - 16:25 - Nationals 800 m top 2 Ayano Shiomi (Iwatani Sangyo) and Nozomi Tanaka (Jidoshokki) are both relatively close to making the quota, but instead of going for the standard or maxing points they're opting for a go at Tanaka's 2:37.72 NR for 1000 m. Only 3 athletes are entered. Women's 5000 m - 16:40 - Nobody in this race is in contention for the Or...

Both 3000 mSC were great, but the women's race was the unexpected highlight of day 3 of the National Track and Field Championships Saturday in Osaka. Tokyo Olympian Yuno Yamanaka (Ehime Ginko) took it out on NR and World Championships qualifying standard pace with a 3:10 first 1000 m despite steady rain, and while it wasn't a surprise to see collegiate record holder Reimi Yoshimura (Daito Bunka Univ.) go with her, relative unknowns Yuzu Nishide (Daihatsu) and Manami Nishiyama (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo). The next 1000 m was only 3:18, but none of the three could stay with Yamanaka. But even though she closed in 3:10 to win in a meet record 9:38.19, all three closed back on over the last lap. Nishide overcame at least two flubbed jumps to take 2nd in 9:38.95, Nishiyama 3rd in 9:39.28, and Yoshimura 4th in 9:39.86. The entire group moved up to all-time Japanese 2nd-5th with the NR just 5 seconds away, and even though they were short of the standard at least Yamanaka and possibl...

In the midst of rapidly rising new coronavirus infection numbers, Osaka held the 88th edition of its prefectural track and field championships at the massive Nagai Stadium over Thursday and Friday's national holidays. Not usually a big draw for high-level talent, the lack of racing opportunities these days meant more big names than usual, including 2017 and 2019 World Championships men's 4x100 m bronze medalist Shuhei Tada (Sumitomo Denko), who won the 100 m final in 10.46 (-0.5), and women's discus throw national record holder Nanaka Kori (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.), who dropped one of ten new meet records at the meet, six by women and four by men. A breakdown of the new records: Seika Aoyama (Osaka Seikei AC) ran the second-fastest 400 m time ever by a Japanese woman, 52.38, to win her qualifying heat in meet record time, going on to win the final in 54.11. Yuzu Nishide (Kansai Gaikokugo Univ.) took almost 15 seconds off the women's 3000 m steeplechase meet r...