japan running news

With temperatures reported as high as 35˚C and sunny conditions, a total of 3,858 people were reported to have run Sunday's Lake Saroma 100 km and 50 km Ultramarathon . The conditions were bad enough that 3 runners were taken to the hospital with heatstroke and world champion Haruki Okayama had to drop out mid-race, but that didn't stop Hong Kong's Kok Wai Tse from running strong over the 2nd half of the race to come from behind with an excellent 6:28:39 for the win. At halfway Tse was almost 2 minutes behind a lead group that included Hideaki Yamauchi and Hideo Nojo , but when they faded in the heat Tse was there to take over. He ultimately finished over 13 minutes ahead of 2nd-place Shion Oe , who likewise had a more conservative start and spent most of the race with eventual 3rd-placer Naoki Matsuo . Yamauchi was ultimately 4th in 6:47:32, splitting 3:07:39/3:39:53, with Nojo 5th in 6:49:37 with even more painful splits of 3:07:30/3:42:07. In the women's race Mik...

Soka University 's Stephen Muthini broke the course record at the Hakodate Half Marathon Sunday to win in a PB 1:01:08. Muthini led from the early going, dragging a lead group of 10 behind him. Past 10 km he picked up the pace, cutting the lead group down to 6, including 2025 Tokyo World Championships marathon team member Yuya Yoshida (GMO). Near 15 km Takuma Yamakawa of Komazawa University went to the front, but Muthini was quick to retake the lead and gradually pulled away from Yamakawa and Yoshida. Yoshida ended up 2nd behind Muthini in a PB of 1:01:23, with Yamakawa 3rd also in a new PB of 1:01:25. Times were fast across the board, with 8 of the top 10 men running lifetime PBs. Yoshida, a 2-time winner of the Fukuoka International Marathon including a 2:05:16 CR last December, is Japan's leading hope of ending its dry spell of World Championships marathon medals, the last being Tsuyoshi Ogata 's bronze at the 2025 Helsinki World Championships. His Tokyo Worlds team...

110 teams took part in the 72nd National Oga Ekiden in Akita Saturday, with 30 teams in the open division, 12 universities, 44 high school boys' teams and 24 high school girls' teams. The Shingenden Kogyo corporate team won the open division for the 2nd year in a row, with Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University winning the 7-stage, 64.8 km university division in 3:14:28. In the 5-stage, 21.0975 km high school girls' race, Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. took the win in 1:10:43. Right from the start it was a tough race against Sendai Ikuei H.S. , which fielded 3 teams. Ritsumeikan Uji's lead runner Yui Ueda and Sendai Ikuei A's Rikka Kuroda both clocked 14:09, and a great stage-winning run from 2nd runner Nodoka Ashida put Ritsumeikan Uji out front. But Sendai Ikuei B's Miriam Njeri closed down the lead from 1:14 to 24 seconds on the 3rd leg, and her teammate Non Tachibana rode that momentum to overtake Ritsumeikan Uji for the lead. It came down to the anchor...

https://www.athletics.com.au/news/historic-elite-female-field-set-to-descend-on-iconic-tcs-sydney-marathon-course-in-2025/ Paris Olympics women's marathon alternate Ai Hosoda  is scheduled to run in Sydney.

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...

Australia's Gold Coast Marathon is back for its 45th running with title sponsorship from longtime partner ASICS. Two-time winner Rodah Tanui is the top name in the women's race with a 2:23:14 in Copenhagen two years ago, with her strongest competition coming from Olympian Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh , who set a Mongolian NR of 2:26:32 in Tokyo last year. Zerihun Alemtsehay and Caroline Kilel both have recent sub-2:30 times, and debuting Ethiopian Tegest Ayalew looks to have a sub-2:30 in her too. Pacing is planned to be a 1:12:00 first half, an ambitious goal for pretty much everyone except maybe Tanui. Up front in the men's race are a solid trio of 2:07 runners made up of Ethiopians Gizealew Ayana and Japan-based Derese Workneh , and Kenyan Mathew Samperu . The top tier of Japanese men come in at the 2:08 level, including Mizuki Higashi , Yuki Takei , and Ryoma Takeuchi , a pacer at Gold Coast last year. Past winner Yuki Kawauchi has only run under 2:20 once in 2024 a...

On June 25 the JAAF announced that director Mitsuki Ogata is stepping down and will be replaced by vice-chair Yuko Arimori . A two-time Olympic marathon medalist, Arimori will be both the first woman and first Olympian to lead the JAAF. Arimori was born in 1966 in Okayama. In 1985 she graduated from Shujitsu H.S. and entered Nittai University . After graduating in 1989 she joined the Recruit corporate team under the leadership of head coach Yoshio Koide . In January, 1990 she ran 2:32:51 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon, at the time a debut marathon national record. The next year she placed 4th at the Tokyo World Championships, then took the silver medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Four years later Arimori followed that up with a bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. She retired from competition in 2007. After retiring, Arimori became active in a wide range of area, including as chair of Special Olympics Japan, a sports organization for intellectually-challen...

https://agerpres.ro/english/2025/06/22/romanian-long-distance-runner-delvine-relin-meringor-gets-three-year-doping-suspension--1461627 With Meringor's disqualification Hikari Onishi  moves into 6th in the Nagoya results, Natsuki Omori  to 7th, and New Zealand's Camille French  to 8th. Read the full ADAK decision here .