japan running news

At the South Kyushu Region High School Track and Field Championships held June 12-15 at the Prefectural Sports Park Field in Okinawa, more than a dozen students who ate boxed lunches provided by event organizers fell ill with stomach pain and vomiting. Prefectural officials are investigating whether the students suffered food poisoning. According to the prefectural high school athletics association, the boxed lunches were provided for students who worked at the meet. After some students who ate them started to say they felt unwell, organizers reported the situation to public health authorities. They are currently consulting with schools that participated in the meet to find out whether other students also became sick. A parent of one student who became sick commented, "Some students both competed in the meet and worked at it. There might be some of them whose performances are suffering because of this." source article: https://ryukyushimpo.jp/national/entry-5318898.html trans...

https://worldathletics.org/news/news/emmanuel-kiprop-kipruto-suspension A very interesting and groundbreaking case involving  Emmanuel Kiprop Kipruto , who was a member of Asahi Kasei 's 2025 New Year Ekiden national champion team. Sure to be the first of many such cases. The timing of this decision 13 days out from the 2026 New Year Ekiden is probably not a coincidence.

On Aug. 25 the JAAF announced that it has reversed 29-year-old sprinter Fuga Sato 's disqualification in the July 6 National Championships men's 400 m final, giving him the national title for the second time in his career. It is unusual for official results to be amended after the end of the competition. According to the JAAF, there was a discrepancy in officials' interpretation of World Athletics rules in disqualifying Sato. The reversal elevated Sato in the final update to World Athletics' rankings following the Aug. 24 Tokyo World Athletics Championships qualification deadline, moving him up from outside the quota to 46th of 48 qualified athletes. He is now expected to be named to his third-straight World Championships team. The events in question were part of the National Track and Field Championships, which doubled this year as the main selection event for the Tokyo World Championships. Sato finished 1st in the men's 400 m final on July 6 but was ruled to have ...

In March this year it was learned that Genki Dean , 33, a javelin thrower who represented Japan in the Paris Olympics, had gotten married. His partner was Yuka Sato , 32, another javelin thrower who retired last fall. Reporters broke the news of their "javelinuptials" with a wry smile. As a 20-year-old 3rd-year at Waseda University Dean had a massive breakthrough with what was at the time the 2nd-best mark in Japanese history, qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics. He struggled with injury for years, but last year he returned to the Olympics when he represented Japan in Paris. This season he is competing around the world in hopes of qualifying for the Tokyo World Championships. But against that backdrop was an ongoing struggle with another woman, his ex-fiancee. "I met him in 2017, and we clicked right away and became lovers," she said. The pair started living together, and she soon got pregnant. According to her, at first Dean was really happy about it and cried ...

On Apr. 23 the city government of Matsumoto, Nagano announced that it was canceling this fall's Matsumoto Marathon after discovering accounting fraud in the event's operation. "We are going to conduct a review of how the race has been conducted up to now," a statement from the city read. Mayor Yoshinao Gaun apologized at a press conference, saying, "We sincerely apologize for letting down everyone involved in putting the event together." The Matsumoto Marathon is run by an executive committee made up of representatives from the city, the Matsumoto Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Shinano Mainichi Newspaper, and the relevant track and field associations. According to city officials, financial records for the November, 2023 edition of the race were fraudulently manipulated. Income from participants' entry fees was lower than expected, and although the city managed to get the Shinano Mainichi, to which it had outsourced overall event management, to r...

A close 2nd at December's National High School Ekiden , 90% of the members of the five-time national champion Omuta H.S. team in Fukuoka will transfer to Tottori Johoku H.S. in Tottori at the start of the new school year next month. The mass transfer comes as a backlash against Omuta's treatment of head coach Ken Akaike , 52, with most team members and parents choosing to continue running under Akaike following his move to Johoku. Akaike had resigned as head coach at Omuta in March, 2023 after it came out that he had used corporal punishment on team members. But many team members at the time and their parents asked him to continue, and he returned to a coaching position at the school after undergoing training. Effectively serving as head coach, he led the team at last December's National High School Ekiden where they finished 2nd in a close-fought battle that went all the way to the end. According to multiple sources, in November the month before the National High School ...

A Chinese influencer ignored restrictions and race officials' directions and ran on the Hakone Ekiden course to shoot video during the race's uphill Fifth Stage on Jan. 2. He later apologized. The influencer, Shen Haoze , posts about running and marathons, and on the Chinese social media site Weibo has nearly 5 million followers. A clip of him running on the closed road course of the Hakone Ekiden's Fifth Stage alongside course record setter Hiroki Wakabayashi of defending champion Aoyama Gakuin University and shooting video went viral on social media. Race officials can be heard warning him to get off the course due to the danger to the competing athletes, but Shen ignored them, setting off a firestorm of criticism from users in both Japan and China. Comments included, "These athletes are putting their whole lives into the race. What the hell does he think he's doing?" and "He has no regard for the danger to them." Shen later posted an apology on...

On Nov. 2 the Asahi Kasei corporate team issued a statement denying the allegations of doping regulation violations issued a day earlier by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) in its announcement of the provisional suspension of team member Koki Ikeda , 26, the silver medalist in the men's 20 km race walk at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and 2022 Oregon World Championships. Team management filed a petition with the AIU asking for the provisional suspension to be reversed and stated that it would "assert and prove to the AIU that no rules whatsoever had been violated." The AIU claims that Ikeda's biological passport, which collects detailed blood data over time and allows for monitoring of changes, contained suspicious readings that suggested use of a prohibited method. Asahi Kasei management said that after holding a hearing with Ikeda and consulting with experts in the field, they "believe no rules have been violated" and said they would "work diligently to...

https://apnews.com/article/ioc-sponsors-toyota-bridgestone-panasonic-olympics-3d47737847d3d211165697e57233146b

Juntendo University is one of the true powers of the Hakone Ekiden, with 11 wins in 65 appearances and producing current 3000 mSC and 10000 m national record holders Ryuji Miura and Kazuya Shiojiri . But an investigation by the Weekly Shincho gossip rag has uncovered students' accusations of abuse and power harassment against a famed honorary head coach. The university administration has acknowledged that student athletes were put in danger and indicated that the coach in question would step away from any coaching duties. The accused man is Keisuke Sawaki , 80, former head coach of the Juntendo track and field team and currently serving as a specially-appointed professor and honorary head coach at the university. A Juntendo alumnus and two-time Olympian who competed in long distance track events at both the 1968 Mexico City and 1972 Munich Olympics, as head coach Sawaki led Juntendo to 9 of its 11 Hakone victories. Those successes led to him serving at one point as executive dir...

The Inter-University Athletics Union of Japan  has announced that it has discovered a history of incorrect practices at meets hosted by the Kokusai Budo University track and field team at its home track. According to the IUAU, for a period running at least from April, 2014 through October, 2023, the following methodologies not in compliance with official regulations were common at KBU meets: When there was a headwind on the home straight of the track, the 100 m and 110 m hurdles, including those in combined events, were run in the opposite direction without proper certification to do so. In the 110 mH the distance from the start to the first hurdle, 13.72 m, is 30 cm shorter than from the 10th hurdle to the finish, 14.02 m. When KBU conducted the 110 mH in reverse it placed all hurdles 30 cm closer to the finish to account for that but measured the distance from the marks for the regular direction with a tape measure and marked it with tape. When races were run in the reverse dire...

The Paris Olympics have just ended and the Paralympics are set to kick off next week on the 28th, but the focus is already shifting to the Los Angeles Olympics 4 years down the road. International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach , 70, will step down from his position at the end of his term next June. The word is that IOC member Morinari Watanabe , 65, president of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), is planning to run in the election for Bach's successor in March. If elected, Watanabe would become the first Japanese head of the IOC. While Bach was a gold medalist in the men's fencing team competition at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Watanabe never competed at the Olympics let alone medaled. After joining the Jusco retail chain in 1984, he worked as a salaryman office worker for the Aeon Group, Jusco's renamed parent corporation and served as director of the Japan Gymnastic Association. In 2017 he became FIG's first Asian president. Under Watanabe...

On June 10th the Aomori Prefectural Sports Association handed down a warning to the Aomori Athletics Association after a former AAA director who resigned in April this year had improperly used funds to buy home appliances for personal use in 2019. The director, who had been in charge of accounting at the AAA, conducted a bank transfer of over 180,000 yen (~$1650 USD at the time) from the AAA account to pay for the appliances. The director was found to have created false documents to cover the purchase, which was conducted online. The fraud was discovered in May, 2019 after other members of the AAA executive board investigated, and the director repaid the full amount the next month. These details of the case had been kept internally among the executive board for the last five years. In the APSA censure issued this week, it directed the AAA to take action to ensure proper management and operation procedures. source article: https://www.aba-net.com/news/news-115299.html translated and ...

A petition for World Athletics to allow the ten men who made the Paris Olympics marathon quota via world rankings but were replaced by unqualified universality place athletes to run. Sent to JRN by the race director of a major marathon.

  According to investigators, two-time Olympic marathon medalist Erick Wainaina has had his case referred to prosecutors after allegedly injuring a railway employee by striking him in the face at a station in Setagaya, Tokyo. Wainaina, 50, was the bronze medalist in the marathon at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and won silver in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Wainaina is suspected of assaulting a woman in her late teens and a male Tokyu Denentoshi Line employee by hitting them in the face during an altercation at Komazawa University Station in March this year, resulting in minor injuries to the man's face. According to investigators, the incident began on the train between Wainaina and the woman, and after getting off at Komazawa University Station he hit her in the face when she asked him to go to the station office with her to report it. When the male railway employee responded to the situation Wainaina reportedly hit him too. In response to questioning Wainaina is said to have answered,...

  Following 400 m hurdler Masaki Toyoda 's suspension for a violation of anti-doping regulations , the Fujitsu corporate team published a statement on its website, including comments from Toyoda's legal team , explaining the ruling and the circumstances surrounding the case. Toyoda was a member of the 2019 Doha World Championships team and holds a best of 48.87. Early in the morning of May 19, 2022, the Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA) conducted a doping test of Toyoda. The prohibited substance trenbolone was detected in urine taken during the test, resulting in a two-year suspension that began May 21, 2022. He did not compete at the National Track and Field Championships the next month. The amount of trenbolone detected in Toyoda's urine sample was 1.4 ng/ml, well below the minimum analytical precision of 2.5 ng/ml required by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for analytical equipment. As a general rule, if a non-specified prohibited substance such as trenbolone is dete...

  On April 8 the Japan Sports Arbitration Agency upheld a two-year doping suspension against 2019 Doha World Championships team member Masaki Toyoda , 26, of the Fujitsu corporate team, rejecting an appeal from the Japan Anti-Doping Agency for a stricter sentence. Metabolites of the prohibited substance trenbolone were detected in a urine sample taken from Toyoda during a drug test in May, 2022. After a hearing, on Jan. 5 this year the Japan Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel determined that Toyoda would be given a two-year suspension back-dated to start on May 21, 2022.  JADA filed a complaint with the JSAA arguing that Toyoda's use of prohibited substance had been intentional and that a four-year suspension beginning on June 21, 2022 would be appropriate. In response, the JSAA ruled that since trenbolone would be of no benefit to a 400 m hurdler Toyoda's intake of the substance had been unintentional, and upheld the original two-year suspension. source article: https://www.jiji...

On Feb. 28 sports maker ASICS apologized on its official website for a typo on T-shirts made for the Mar. 2 Tokyo Marathon 2024. ASICS is an official partner of the Tokyo Marathon. Earlier in February this year it began selling limited edition Tokyo Marathon 2024 t-shirts. However, a spelling mistake was discovered in the design on the back of the t-shirt. In a map showing the course, the English word "FINISH" was printed as "FUNISH." "We have discovered that some of the Tokyo Marathon 2024 limited edition t-shirts released in February, 2024 have a printing mistake," said the company's statement on the incident. "We sincerely apologize to all customers who were inconvenienced by buying the faulty products." ASICS indicated refunds would be offered to anyone who asked for them and promised to take steps to prevent this kind of problem from happening again, saying, "We will further improve our quality control and take every step possible...

Blasting up-tempo music, dozens of runners ran through a narrow shopping arcade in Osaka whooping and screaming to each other last week. Fuji News Network talked to Takayuki Komure , director of the Higashi Nakadori Shopping Arcade Association, about the incident. "I was working in my shop at the time," said Komure. "I heard extremely loud music and people screaming "Wooooo!" outside and wondered what was going on. When I went out to see what was happening there was a big group of people running straight at us. It was really scary. I thought a bunch of gangsters or motorcycle punks had come to work us all over." The incident took place on the Higashi Nakadori Shopping Arcade, a narrow shopping street 200 m long located near Osaka Station, at around 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 22, the first night of the long weekend. Wearing matching t-shirts, the large group of runners ran down the center of the 4~5 m-wide arcade. Some people could be seen running with th...

On Feb. 15 JADA announced that Soka University 3rd-year Leakaey Kamina of Kenya has been given a 3-year suspension for a doping violation. His period of suspension will date from Oct. 12, 2023, the day he was notified of the test result, and competition results including his performance at the Oct. 9 Izumo Ekiden have been annulled. As a result, Soka will lose its best-ever 2nd-place team result at Izumo, with 3rd-place Josai University and below being elevated one position. According to JADA, Kamina was tested after winning the National University Track and Field Championships 5000 m on Sept. 16 , and his urine sample was found to contain the steroid nandrolone. That performance has also been annulled. A Soka University spokesperson said that Kamina had been back in Kenya from late July until early September immediately before the National University Championships. Kamina told them that he got sick while there and asked a friend to buy medicine for him. He said that he took the me...