japan running news

Increasingly heavy rain throughout the day couldn't hold back four meet records at the 57th Mikio Oda Memorial Meet Saturday in Hiroshima, a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze label meet. On the field, NR holder Haruka Kitaguchi (JAL) set a new MR of 63.45 m on her 3rd attempt, then took that up to a winning 64.50 m on her 5th attempt. On the track, Rose Wangui of Sera H.S. won the U20 women's 3000 m by over 23 seconds in a MR 9:03.03, over 10 seconds under the old MR. Australian Georgia Winkcup took 5 seconds off the women's 3000 mSC MR, winning in 9:46.27 by almost 10 seconds over Manami Nishiyama (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo). The top 7 in the men's 1500 m all broke the old MR, with Nanami Arai (Honda) getting the win in 3:40.24 with the top 5 all under 3:41. In other races, quadruple U20 NR holder Keita Sato of 2023 Hakone Ekiden champ Komazawa University scored the first major win of his career on the track, holding back in the 1st half of the men's 500...

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...

With the MGC Race , Japan's marathon trials for the 2024 Paris Olympics, scheduled to be held Oct. 15 in the middle of ekiden season, on Apr. 25 the National Corporate Federation (JITA) announced that special measures will be taken regarding the qualifying races for the National Corporate Ekiden Championship races. Teams with an athlete that has qualified for the MGC Race will be allowed to compete in the Queens Ekiden and New Year Ekiden as long as they finish at the qualifying races in October and November. The Princess Ekiden, the qualifying race for the Queens Ekiden national, is scheduled for Oct. 22 in Fukuoka, while the six regional qualifying races for the New Year Ekiden will take place from Nov. 3 to Nov. 12. The top 8 teams at last year's Queens Ekiden are automatically qualified for this year's race and do not have to run the Princess Ekiden. With many teams' best athletes scheduled to run the MGC, a number of teams had expressed concerns to the JITA that th...

There were big meets across the country this weekend, but the biggest results were at the Nittai University Time Trials in suburban Yokohama. Across the fastest two 10000 m heats Saturday night, a total of 10 men, 7 of them university athletes, broke 28 minutes. Topping the list was 19-year-old Tokyo Kokusai University 1st-year Richard Etir , who just missed a world-leading time as he blasted a new collegiate record of 27:06.88 to win the A-heat. Emmanuel Maru (Toyota Boshoku) was also under 27:10, taking 2nd in 27:09.96. 2023 Hakone Ekiden champ Komazawa University added another sub-28 runner to its roster as 4th-year Takumi Karasawa took 5th in 27:57.52, with Waseda University 3rd-year Haruto Ishizuka 6th in 27:58.53. In the B-heat, Yamanashi Gakuin University 2nd-year James Mutok won in 27:50.54, edging Soka University 3rd-year Kamina Leakey by just 0.08. YGU 1st-year Birian Kipyegon was 3rd in 27:51.65. 3000 m was the main event for women at Nittai, with Judy Jepngetic...

The fastest Japanese man inside the qualifying window for October's MGC Race Olympic marathon trials not to have hit any of the qualifying criteria, Kento Nishi (Osaka Gas) got it done with a 2:10:01 win at the Nagano Marathon less than two months after his 2:08:11 PB at February's Osaka Marathon. Nishi, Kensuke Horio (Kyudenko) and Kenji Yamamoto (Mazda) all needed to run in the mid-2:11 range to qualify via the two-race sub-2:10 average route, and when 2022 Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Michael Githae (Suzuki) took the race out on mid-2:10 pace it was exactly what they could have hoped for. Githae did all the work as others in range of qualifying like Reo Kuniyuki (Otsuka Seiyaku), Shogo Kanezane (Chugoku Denryoku) and Daisuke Hosomori (YKK) dropped off the lead pack. A surge from Horio after halfway cut the lead group down to just Githae, the three qualifying hopefuls, and Yamamoto's teammate Shun Sadakata (Mazda), and it stayed that way until Githae attack...

2019 Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon men's winner Amos Kurgat (Chudenko) and last year's women's champ Dolphine Omare (U.S.E.) were back on top with repeat wins this time. Despite a good field with four sub-60 runners the men's race went out too slow for Kurgat's liking. Within the first 5 km he was away, leading by 6 seconds at 5 km and never looking back as he won by over a minute in 1:00:20. The pack behind him came down to a five-way sprint finish, with past Marugame Half winner Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) turning in one of his better runs in years with a 1:01:37 for 2nd. Former Soka University top man Philip Mulwa (GMO) was 3rd in 1:01:38 in his corporate league debut, with top Japanese man Kiyoshi Koga (Yasukawa Denki) 4th in 1:01:40. Omare led start to finish in the women's race, initially with company from the debuting Hellen Ekarare (Toyota Jidoshokki) and Ethiopian great Tirunesh Dibaba through 5 km in 16:06 but soon leaving both behind. Omare ca...

The morning of Apr. 22 China's Jiaju Zhao arrived at Fujikyu Highland Conifer Forest in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi, the finish point of the Ultra-Trail Mt. Fuji long course race, covering the 164.7 km distance in 19:35:24 to take the win. Yuya Kawasaki was a close 2nd in 19:54:57, with 1:01:37 half marathoner Tomonori Onitsuka 3rd in 20:59:25. Just under 5 hours later, Zhao's teammate Fuzhao Xiang won the women's long course race in 24:14:51 to make it a Chinese debutant double. Xiang said that she ran in memory of the late Liang Jin , 2nd at UTMF in 2019. UTMF is an international trail race through the foothills of Mt. Fuji, put on with international-quality environmental awareness and race management. A total of 3400 people ran this year between the long course and the 68.4 km short course race, the most in the event's history, and international athletes were welcomed back for the first time since 2019. Japanese athletes took the short course races, with Kento Tamur...

It's another busy weekend on the roads and track across Japan. Sunday's Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon has a good matchup between the great Tirunesh Dibaba and Japan-based Kenyan Dolphine Omare in the women's race . Tirunesh has run 1:06:50, but after 5 years away from the sport her recent best is only a 1:11:35 in Houston in January. Omare bettered that by a kilometer in winning Gifu last year in 1:08:13, and was even better with a 1:07:56 win at last year's National Corporate Half. Australian Isobel Batt-Doyle and Japan's Reia Iwade have both run under 70 minutes, and there are interesting debuts from Kenyan Hellen Ekarare and Australian Genevieve Gregson , but it's hard not to see Omare as the favorite again. The men's race has sub-60 Japan-based Kenyans Amos Kurgat , Joseph Karanja , Vincent Raimoi and Paul Kuira up front, with support from sub-61 men Macharia Ndirangu , Joel Mwaura and Kiyoshi Koga . Kurgat, Karanja, Raimoi and Keira all have exper...