japan running news

Ekiden season is back with the first of the Big Three University Ekidens, Monday's Izumo Ekiden in Shimane. Last year Komazawa University became one of the few schools to win all three, Izumo, November's National University Ekiden, and January's Hakone Ekiden, in a single season. This year Komazawa is aiming to become the first school to win the triple crown two years in a row, and with Hakone celebrating its 100th running that means something even more. But it won't be easy. Izumo is shorter and faster than the other races, with 6 stages totaling 45.1 km and an average stage length of 7.5 km. Komazawa is in its top tier for sure, with the 2nd-best 6-man 5000 m average in the field, 13:35.86. U20 5000 m NR holder Keita Sato , who trained in Boulder and St. Moritz this year with OAC , leads that average and is set to double in Izumo after running the Asian Games 5000 m on Wednesday. But with the graduation of fastest-ever Japanese-born collegiate 10000 m man Ren Tazawa...

The athletics component of the Hangzhou Asian Games wrapped Wednesday and Thursday with road events spread across both days and the final evening of track and field action Wednesday. In road racing, Japan's Subaru Ishida was the top individual finisher in the 35 km race walk mixed team event Wednesday morning, beating China's Qin Wang by just 16 seconds in 2:31:12. China's top woman Shijie Qieyang took the individual win in 2:45:13 and beat Japan's Masumi Fuchise by 5:46, giving China the team gold in 5:16:41 to Japan's 5:22:11. India was a distant bronze in 5:51:15. The second individual Japanese woman, Maika Yagi was 4th in 2:59:52, with Hayato Katsuki a DNF after receiving a penalty. The marathons took place Thursday morning. The men's race was a tight pack through 38 km that included 2:06 men Yohei Ikeda of Japan and Shumi Dechasa of Bahrain, 2:07 runners Jie He and Shaouyui Yang of China and Japan's Toshiki Sadakata , 2:08 Mongolian Gantulga D...

After taking silver in the Hangzhou Asian Games 10000 m, former NR holder Ririka Hironaka was back in the 5000 m to try again for gold. And you can't say she didn't try. Hironaka immediately dictated the terms of the race, leading the first 1000 m in 3:00.43 and most of the way to 2000 m in 6:04.28 before pulling into the 2nd lane to let Ethiopian Bahraini Bontu Edao Rebitu do some of the work. The pace immediately slowed, with 3000 m and 4000 m splits of 9:14.44 and 12:24.30, until Hironaka attacked again. Over the last 1000 m she accelerated steadily and one by one cracked all three African-born athletes and India's Anita until the only one left behind her was 3000 m SC silver medalist Parul Chaudhary of India. On the back straight Hironaka managed to open some distance on Chaudhary and it looked like she might actually pull off the win, but with less than 50 m to go Chaudhary reeled her back in to take gold in 15:14.75 to Hironaka's 15:15.34, a 2:51.04 closing k...

Women's pole vault national record holder Misaki Morota kicked off the evening session on the fourth day of athletics competition at the Hangzhou Asian Games with a new NR and a silver medal. Morota cleared every height from 3.80 m to 4.40 m on her first attempt, then did it again at 4.48 m, 7 cm over her old record. China's Ling Li and Chung Niu only jumped once each, both clearing 4.30 m on their first attempts, leaving all three women to go for 4.53 m. Li made it on her first attempt, but both Morota and Niu failed, leaving Li in gold, Morota in silver and Niu in the bronze position. Li went on from there to make it over 4.63 m, breaking her own Games record by 3 cm. In the men's 200 m final, Koki Ueyama took the final in 20.60 (-0.2), beating Saudi Abdullah Akbar Mohammed by 0.03 to win Japan's first athletics gold medal in Hangzhou. Chun-Han Yang of Taiwan edged out veteran Femi Ogunode of Qatar for bronze, 20.74 to 20.75. A few minutes later Shunya Takayama...

Opposite the Hangzhou Asian Games and World Road Running Championships, the Continental Tour Bronze Yogibo Athletics Challenge Cup meet took place this weekend in Niigata. The highlight on Saturday came in its last race, the men’s 5000 m A-heat, where 20-year-old Shunsuke Yoshii , a 2nd-year at Hakone Ekiden runner-up Chuo University , ran 13:22.01 for the win after getting quality pacing almost the entire way from pacer Amos Bett (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.). Chuo 4th-year Shota Nakano was 2nd in 13:28.04 and Yusuke Tamura (Kurosaki Harima) 3rd in 13:29.12. Combined with their older brothers Yamato Yoshii and Kazuki Tamura , Yoshii and Tamura now stand as the fastest and 3rd-fastest brothers over 5000 m in Japanese history. Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) handled pacing work in the women’s 5000 m, where Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) was the last one left standing at Akidor’s pace with a 15:36.47 for the win. 2nd-placer Yuna Takahashi ran 15:42.37, with 3rd and 4th-place Mikun...

  After three days of athletics competition at the Hangzhou Asian Games Japan has yet to score gold, but its haul of silver and bronze medals more than doubled over the course of the two days. Men's 400 m NR holder Kentaro Sato took silver Saturday, starting slow as Fuga Sato did the leading in the first half of the race, then reeling in the competition over the last 120 m. Asian record holder Yousef Ahmed Masrahi of Saudi Arabia got away from him, just, winning gold in 45.55 with Sato in 45.57. Bahraini Abbas Yusuf Ali knocked Fuga Sato off the podium with a PB 45.65, Fuga 4th in 45.70. It took til Sunday night for the next medal to land, with Ryoma Aoki and Seiya Sunada going 2-3 in the men's 3000 m steeplechase. Favorite Avinash Mukund Sable of India took it out fast with a 2:40.97 first 1000 m, too fast to sustain but enough to set put him far out front for most of the race. Sable led at 2000 m with 5:27.48 before starting to fade, giving Aoki hope as he closed har...

  Athletics started Friday at the Hangzhou Asian Games , with Japanese athletes scoring medals in 3 of the day's 5 finals. Yutaro Murayama and Nanako Fujii kicked it off at 7:00 a.m. in the 20 km race walk. Murayama was the only man able to go with Chinese duo Jun Zhang and Zhaozhao Wang , but both pulled away to make it a 1-2 for the Games hosts in the opening event. Zhang took gold in 1:23:00, Wang silver in 1:24:08 with Murayama 33 seconds back in 1:24:41 for bronze. Tomohiro Noda was well back in 4th in 1:27:08, having served a 21-second penalty mid-race. Starting 10 minutes later, the women's race podium ended up looking exactly the same but with very different race development. China's Jiauyu Yang and Zhenxia Ma were way out front most of the way and couldn't have been closer at the end, Yang taking gold in 1:30:03 and Ma silver in 1:30:04. Fujii was almost a kilometer behind in 1:33:49 for silver, with teammate Yukiko Umeno 4th in 1:39:44. In the evening s...

  The biggest international championships outside the Olympics are underway in Hangzhou, China, with 12,500 athletes from 45 countries representing 60% of the world’s population competing across 61 sports at the 19th Asian Games . Athletics runs Sept. 29 to Oct. 5, and while official event entry lists haven’t been released yet JRN has pieced them together from the national team entry lists in the events where Japanese athletes will be competing. Additions and corrections welcome, and we’ll update the lists below as official entry and start lists are released. Complete meet schedule and results here .  4 Japanese athletes and one relay team arrive in Hangzhou ranked #1 in their events. The gold medalist at July’s Asian Championships, NR holder Sumire Hata leads the women’s long jump field at 6.97 m, with a 21 cm margin over India’s Shaili Singh and another 11 cm over China’s Shiqi Xiong and Sri Lanka’s Lakshini Sandaradura . Kentaro Sato is the fastest in the men’s 400 m f...