japan running news

With great conditions at what organizers billed as the highest-label half marathon in the southern hemisphere, the only half marathon in the south with a World Athletics Elite Label or better, Japan's Teruki Shimada and Australian Commonwealth Games champ Jessica Stenson broke the men's and women's course records at the McGrath Launceston Running Festival Peppers Silo Half Marathon Sunday in Tasmania. The men's race start list read like a rematch of February's Marugame Half Marathon, with most of the 10 fastest men in the race having run there. On the Australian side was an interesting lineup of marathon NR holder Andy Buchanan , half marathon NR holder Brett Robinson , and road 10 km NR holder Sam Clifford , with Teikyo University duo Shimada and Jinya Ozaki and Rikkyo University pair Kento Baba and Hiroto Kuniyasu leading the Japanese contingent in their collective international debuts. Baba, who ran 1:00:26 to finish 2 seconds ahead of Buchanan, was taske...

The Asian Athletics Championships wrapped up Saturday in Gumi, South Korea with a string of record-setting performances. At the top of the list was the men's 200 m final , where Towa Uzawa ran a championships record and PB 20.21 (+0.8) to win gold, putting him at all-time Japanese #4 and all-time Asian #6. Saudi Abdul Abdu I Atafi and India's Animesh Kujur took silver and bronze in 20.31 and 20.32, with veteran Shota Iizuka 4th in a season best 20.66 that put him one step closer to a 14-straight year under 20.50. NR holder Rin Kubo turned in one of the fastest performances of her career so far in the women's 800 m final , just losing out to China's Wu Hongjiao . Wu delivered a meet record 2:00.08 for gold, Kubo just behind her in 2:00.42 for silver and India's Pooja Pooja a few strides back in 2:01.89 for bronze. Ayano Shiomi was 5th in 2:03.59. Yuta Sakiyama came up with a PB 83.75 m throw on his final attempt in the men's javelin , good enough for all-...

The Gumi Asian Athletics Championships rolled on Thursday and Friday. In top Japanese results: Gold medal favorite Rachid Muratake came through in the men's 110 mH final , the only athlete under 13.3 at 13.22 (+0.7) for the win over China's Liu Junxi and Qin Weibo . Yumi Tanaka added a silver to the count in the women's 100 mH final , 2nd in 13.061 (-0.1) in a photo finish with bronze medalist Wu Yanni of China, 13.068. Indian Jyoti Yarraji won gold in 12.96. Kenyan-born Kazakhstani Daisy Jepkemei outran Ririka Hironaka and Mikuni Yada in the women's 10000 m for gold in 30:48.44, but both Japanese women brought A-game. Hironaka's 30:56.32 for silver was her best time since 2023 and a great step back in the right direction after another round of injury and recovery, with Yada's 31:12.21 for bronze a PB by almost 8 seconds. The up-and-coming Yutaro Niinae ran a season best 8:24.41 for silver in the men's 3000 mSC , 3 seconds behind Indian gold medali...

Day two of the Gumi Asian Athletics Championships got started with a pair of Japanese medals in the men's hammer throw . China's Wang Qi built up from an opening throw of 69.80 m, throwing further every attempt until his winning 74.50 m in the last round. Shota Fukuda sat in 2nd at 71.89 m after his second attempt, but teammate Tatsuto Nakagawa overtook him with a final throw of 71.97 m for silver, knocking Fukuda back to bronze. NR holder Misaki Morota took bronze in the women's pole vault , clearing 4.13 m. China's Niu Chunge dominated, tying Morota's NR of 4.48 m for gold, with Xu Huiqin taking silver at 4.23 m. Japan's Akari Osakaya was 6th at 3.98 m. One of Japan's anticipated golds didn't materialize in the men's 400 m , where Qatari Ammar Ismail Y Ibrahim outran NR holder Kentaro Sato for the win in 45.33. Sato held off Sri Lanka's Kalinda Kumarage for silver 45.50 to 45.55, with Fuga Sato 5th in 45.59. But the first Japanese gol...

The Gumi Asian Athletics Championships got moving with a silver in the men's 20 km race walk from #2 ranked Kento Yoshikawa , part of a breakaway trio with China's Wang Zhaozhao and India's Servin Sebasthiyan . The #1-ranked Wang pulled away in the last km to win in 1:20:37, Yoshikawa close behind in 1:20:46 and Sebasthiyan taking bronze in 1:21:14. Ryo Hamanishi was just out of the medals in 4th in 1:21:58. China's Su Lingdan was untouchable in the women's javelin throw with a 63.29 m PB for gold, but Momone Ueda and Sae Takemoto took silver and bronze. Ueda threw a season best 59.39 m on her final attempt, overtaking Takemoto's 4th-round 58.94 m. Another bronze came in the women's triple jump . China's Li Yi beat Uzbekistan's Sharifa Davronova by 6 cm for gold 13.80 m to 13.74 m, with Mariko Morimoto beating Maoko Takashima by 1 cm for bronze. Morimoto was 13.65 m on her 5th jump, but although Takashima came back with a big final attempt...

The 2025 Asian Athletics Championships kick off today in Gumi, South Korea and run through Saturday. Meet schedule, entry lists and results will be on the meet site. Day One streaming is above, with other days here . The top tier of Japanese athletes like Ryuji Miura and Nozomi Tanaka who've already hit their qualifying marks for the Tokyo World Championships are mostly skipping the Asian Championships, giving the next tier of people a chance to get into Tokyo via an area title or score enough world rankings points to have a shot at making the Tokyo quota. From that point of view the race of the day is the men's 10000 m. Between people who've hit the standard, qualifiers via cross country, and area champions, the only person in the quota of 27 on points is 2024 Japanese national champ Jun Kasai . He was scheduled to run but is out with injury. Next in line is India's Gulveer Singh , who missed the standard by just 0.22 with a 27:00.22 at The Ten earlier this season. ...

November's National University Ekiden is the second stop of the three-race university men's ekiden season. Even more than the season-opening Izumo Ekiden, it's pretty much a given that however many teams there are in the field from the Tokyo-area Kanto Region, where almost all the best high schoolers go for university in order to have the chance to run the Hakone Ekiden, the top team from outside Kanto will finish behind all of them. Not including two select teams that don't count in scoring, the 15 Kanto teams at last year's Nationals took the top 15 spots in the field of 25 schools. Koku Gakuin University , Komazawa University , Aoyama Gakuin University , Soka University , Waseda University , Josai University , Rikkyo University and Teikyo University filled the 8-podium to earn places at the 2025 National University Ekiden, with the other 7 having to run yesterday's Kanto Region Qualifier alongside 13 other Kanto-area teams to try to make the return trip. ...

A native of Shimabara, Nagasaki, Ryota Kondo , 25, visited Nagasaki City Hall ahead of September's Tokyo World Championships where he will represent Japan in the marathon. At February's Osaka Marathon Kondo set a debut marathon national record of 2:05:39, finishing 2nd overall and in the top Japanese spot to earn himself a place on the Japanese national team for the World Championships. "I like to go hiking in Oehara, or up the steep slopes in Nagayo and Nameshi," he told city officials. "Climbing steep hills strengthens my legs and hips." At the Tokyo World Championships the men's marathon will start at 8:00 a.m. on September 15. The race is likely to happen in lingering late-summer heat. "I tend to be pretty positive about things," Kondo said. "I think the hot conditions will prevent a lot of other athletes from performing up to their full ability. The way I see it, when things get tough it's an opportunity." Kondo is the third ...