japan running news

A large number of universities that raced last month's Hakone Ekiden competed in the 46th Kanagawa Half Marathon Feb. 4 in Yokohama, with Chuo University 3rd-year Kazusa Takanuma taking the win in a PB 1:02:19. A graduate of Shizuoka's Fujieda Meijo H.S. , Takanuma has never made Chuo's starting roster for any of the major university ekidens, his main achievement to date having been a 22nd-place finish in last May's Kanto Regionals half marathon. Before Kanagawa his best was a 1:03:35 from the 2022 Ageo City Half Marathon, and with another 63-minute time last year he showed the potential he has over long distances. His PB in Kanagawa showed the realization of that potential. 2nd in 2023, Chuo had a disappointing 13th-place finish at Hakone this year. Next month star seniors Yamato Yoshii , Shota Nakano and Jin Yuasa will all graduate. On Jan. 30 Takumi Sano was named captain of Chuo's 2024-25 team, and 3rd-years without ekiden experience like Takanuma are expe...

Most Japanese distance teams head north to Hokkaido for the summer to escape the heat and get ready for ekiden season. Part of that summer is the Hokuren Distance Challenge , a series of track meets in different towns across the island geared toward producing fast times, a domestic alternative to the European circuit. It's been a cooler and wetter summer than usual this year, but with the Doha World Championships coming later in the calendar that in normal years this time around the HDC has expanded from four to five meets. The first three meets in the series have come and gone, and with the two biggest still to come here's a summary of some of the better results so far. Hokuren Distance Challenge Chitose Meet Chitose, Hokkaido, 7/6/19 complete results Women's 3000 m A 1. Hellen Ekalale (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 8:48.73 2. Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki TC) - 9:01.54 3. Momoka Kawaguchi (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 9:16.01 4. Nao Yamamoto (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 9:17.31 5...

For the second Universiade in a row Japan pulled off a near-sweep of the half marathon medals, taking all three men's individual medals, women's gold and bronze and both team golds. Komazawa University's Kei Katanishi and Naoki Kudo went 1-2, leaving national university half marathon champion Kengo Suzuki over 30 seconds behind to hold off Uganda's John Kateregga for bronze. Wataru Tochigi took 6th to make it 4 Japanese men in the top 6, the only misstep coming from Takato Suzuki of national champion Aoyama Gakuin University who finished only 12th after scratching in the 10000 m. Not so for women's gold medalist Yuki Munehisa . Munehisa had led most of the women's 10000 m only to get dropped in the last kilometer and wind up outside the medals in 4th. In the half marathon she was bound and determined not to end up the same way again, doing all the heavy lifting to drop Turkey's Esma Aydemir with teammate Saki Fukui in a supporting role. Munehisa ...

The IUAU has announced a 38-member team for the Aug. 23-28 Summer Universiade in Taiwan, with 24 men and 14 women representing 26 universities. Rio Olympian Kazuya Shiojiri (Juntendo Univ.) leads the team in men's long distance, with newly sub-10.10 Shuhei Tada (Kwansei Gakuin Univ.) an expected favorite in men's sprints. Javelin throw and heptathlon collegiate record holders Haruka Kitaguchi (Nihon University) and Meg Hemphill (Chuo University) lead the women's team. The complete team roster: Men Sprints Shuhei Tada (Kwansei Gakuin University) Yusuke Tanaka (Nihon Wellness University) Jun Yamashita (Tsukuba University) Sho Kitagawa (Juntendo University) Takamasa Kitagawa (Juntendo University) Shusei Nomoto (Waseda University) Taio Kanai (Hosei University) Ryo Kajiki (Josai University) Long Distance Wataru Tochigi (Juntendo University) Kazuya Shiojiri (Juntendo University) Takato Suzuki (Aoyama Gakuin University) Kengo Suzuki (Kanagawa University) Nao...

by Brett Larner 【 #世界陸上 🇬🇧 #TBS 8月開幕】 《 #関東インカレ ２日目・桐生祥秀》 期待された桐生のスイッチは入らず。しかし、今季の走りのレベルは「９秒８台レベル」と土江コーチ 続きは https://t.co/Yye7JlUp3n #桐生祥秀 #TBS #世界陸上 pic.twitter.com/3f4yeOjkXq — TBSテレビ陸上 ８月は世界陸上ロンドン (@tbsrikujou) May 26, 2017 Day two of the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships saw one of the the country's greats, Rio Olympics men's 4x100 m silver medalist Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.), lining up in the meet's 100 m for the final time of his college career. Heading into the semi-finals with the fastest time in the heats, Kiryu easily topped the semis with a 10.15 +1.8 m/s to take the top spot among the qualifiers for the final. There he ran 10.24 -0.5 m/s to add one last Kanto 100 m title to his collection. Anchoring Toyo's 4x100 m team he brought them home in 4th in 39.56, leaving just one more event, the 200 m, before he wraps up his final appearance at Japan's best meet. #関東インカレ 橋岡優輝 6回目 8m04 +0.1 跳んだ直後の雄叫び、記録が分かり喜びを爆発させる様子、ス...

by Brett Larner Toyo University fourth year Daisuke Matsunaga delivered the biggest result of the third day of competition at the 2016 Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, breaking the men's 10000 m national university record by two seconds to win in 38:16.76.  Meet records also came in the D1 women's hammer throw and D1 men's pole vault, Hitomi Katsuyama (Tsukuba Univ.) breaking her own record by nearly two meters with a throw of 62.61 m and Koki Kuruma (Juntendo Univ.) clearing 5.40 m to tie the existing Kanto Regionals record. Kuruma's Juntendo teammate Kazuya Shiojiri returned from a 3rd-place finish as the top Japanese man in Thursday's D1 10000 m and the fastest time in the 3000 mSC heats on Friday to win the D1 3000 mSC final, just missing the 39-year-old meet record by 2 seconds to take first in 8:37.84.  Soyoka Segawa continued the Daito Bunka University domination of the women's steeple, claiming the title in 10:10.68. Th...

by Brett Larner Japan 's contingent ran well at Saturday's World University Cross Country Championships in Cassino, Italy, scoring two individual and two team medals in a field made somewhat softer by the absence of South Africa , whose team management reportedly forgot to apply for visas , and the United States which elected not to send a team to compete internationally.  In the women's 6.2 km, Moeno Shimizu (Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) and Maki Izumida (Rikkyo Univ.) were part of a tight four-way battle for the podium, both outlasting Jennifer Louise Nesbitt (Great Britain) but unable to top winner Sevilay Eytemis (Turkey).  Eytemis scored gold in 21:57, Shimizu taking silver three seconds back and Izumida bronze a stride behind.  With women's team scoring based on the first three of six finishers Japan took the gold thanks to Shimizu, Izumida and Nanako Kanno (Ritsumeikan Univ.), 8th overall in 22:27.  Nesbitt's 4th-place finish led Great Britain to the team si...

by Brett Larner Strong winds made for tough conditions and slow times at most of the weekend's main races.  The newly-formatted X-Run Chiba , a retooling of the longstanding Chiba International Cross-Country Meet, saw Yusuke Nishiyama (Komazawa Univ.) emerge on top of the day's longest race, the university men's 12 km.  Nishiyama outkicked Kenta Ueda , son of Yamanashi Gakuin University head coach Masahito Ueda , by 5 seconds to take the win in 37:48.  Maki Izumida (Rikkyo Univ.) had an even closer win in the university women's 6 km, running 20:54 to beat Ai Hosoda (Nittai Univ.) by just 3 seconds.  Rodgers Chumo Kwemoi (Kenya/Team Aisan Kogyo) won the men's 8 km by nearly a minute in 25:05, Yuki Kanehira (Team Sysmex) joining him at the top of the women's 8 km podium in 29:04.  With the junior high school races now serving as the National Junior High School Cross-Country Championships Maebashi Fujimi J.H.S. easily dominated, taking both the boys' and...

by Brett Larner The IUAU has announced the Japanese men's and women's rosters for July's Universiade , the World University Games, in Gwangju, South Korea.  2012 London Olympian Anna Doi (Daito Bunka Univ.), 2014 World Junior Championships men's 400 m silver medalist Nobuya Kato (Waseda Univ.) and 200 m 4th-placer Yuki Koike (Keio Univ.) feature prominently in the sprints, with 2014 Youth Olympics men's high jump silver medalist Yuji Hiramatsu (Tsukuba Univ.) leading the field contingent.  The strong men's distance squad is led by 2015 National University Half Marathon champion Tadashi Isshiki (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) and 2015 Kanto Regionals D2 double 5000 m and 10000 m champion Hironori Tsuetaki (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), while 2015 National University Half Marathon champion Ayumi Uehara (Matsuyama Univ.) and 2015 Kanto Regional double 5000 m and 10000 m champion Sakurako Fukuuchi (Daito Bunka Univ.) front the women's distance group. 28th Universiade ...

by Brett Larner Japan's team for this weekend's World Cross Country Championships in Guiyang, China features 21 athletes.  As always, its strongest contingent is its junior women, in this case led by 9:00.89 high schooler Azusa Sumi , undefeated since 2013, and teammate Yuka Sarumida of Toyokawa H.S.   The junior men's team features three athletes with 5000 m bests under 14 minutes including 2014 World Junior Championships team member Shota Onizuka (Omuta H.S.). 2015 Fukuoka International Cross Country Meet winner Mai Shoji (Chukyo Univ.) leads the senior women's squad which also includes her collegiate rival Maki Izumida (Ritsumeikan Univ.).  Once again this year, Japan's senior men are largely giving World Cross a miss, with only three entered versus six on the each of the other three squads.  Corporate runners are completely absent, with 2015 Hakone Ekiden winner Aoyama Gakuin University 's Kazuma Kubota the biggest name of the three and Juntendo U...

by Brett Larner 2014 Gold Coast Airport Marathon winner Asami Kato (Team Panasonic) topped what may have been the deepest women's half marathon ever run on Japanese soil, running 1:10:36 to win the last big race of the Japanese season, the 36th running of the Matsue Ladies' Half Marathon .  After a relatively conservative first half splitting 33:42 at 10 km Kato pushed the pace relentlessly, cutting the lead group down to a trio with Kotomi Takayama (Team Sysmex) and Ai Inoue (Team Noritz) by 15 km and dropping both by 20 km to win by 11 seconds.  Takami was next in 1:10:47, Inoue rounding out the top 3 in 1:11:02. Matsue also served as the National University Women's Half Marathon Championships, this year acting as the selection race for the team for this summer's World University Games where Japanese women have medalled every time since 1985 including a sweep of the podium in 2009.  Five collegiate women led by Ayumi Uehara (Matsuyama Univ.) were in contentio...

by Brett Larner photo courtesy of David Monti, Race Results Weekly Asian junior record holder Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.) brought Japan its first medal of the 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships, taking bronze in 10.34 (-0.6) behind Americans Kendal Williams and Trayvon Bromell .  Kiryu gave the nation a scare by barely making it to the final when he finished 4th in his semi-final.  In both the semi and final he displayed problems with the second half of his race, but what he had on the day proved enough for him to get on the podium and join past World Juniors medalists like Shota Iizuka and Genki Dean in the Japanese books. Further history was made when both Nobuya Kato and Kaisei Yui got through the semis to make the men's 400 m final, the first time two Japanese athletes have ever made a world-level final.  Both won their opening heats yesterday.  In semi-final 1, Yui ran a PB 46.68 to get into the final on time.  Kato, running semi-final 2, came...

2014 Asian Junior Athletics Championships Japanese Medalists Summary Taipei, Taiwan, June 12-15, 2014 click here for complete results Men's 10000 m   - June 13 1. Hazuma Hattori (Japan) - 31:10.60 2. Sharwan Kharb (India) - 31:52.37 3. Yaser Salem Bagharab (Yemen) - 32:22.42 4. Tzu-Ming Wang (Taiwan) - 36:38.02 5. Han-Hsuan Li (Taiwan) - 38:40.29 Women's 5000 m   - June 12 1. Maki Izumida (Japan) - 16:18.345 1. Daria Maslova (Kyrgyzstan) - 16:18.345 3. Ji Hyang Kim (North Korea) - 16:28.13 4. Sakiho Tsutsui (Japan) - 16:35.79 5. Sanjivini Jadhav (India) - 17:00.75 Men's 5000 m   - June 15 1. Musaab Adam M Ali (Qatar) - 14:34.07 2. Makoto Mitsunobu (Japan) - 14:38.99 3. Sharwan Kharb (India) - 14:39.41 4. Khalil Naseri (Iran) - 14:58.88 5. Wei Zhang (China) - 15:29.28 Women's 3000 m   - June 15 1. Daria Maslova (Kyrgyzstan) - 9:16.23 2. Hanami Sekine (Japan) - 9:17.55 3. Sanjivini Jadhav (India) - 9:35.02 4. Jin Hyang Pak (North...

by Brett Larner While the corporate leagues take a breather after their regional track and field championships last week , Kanto-area university runners are bracing for the second weekend of Japan's best track meet, the Kanto Regional University Track and Field Championships  at Yokohama's Nissan Stadium. The men's 800 m should be highlights of the meet,  Nihon University  senior Sho Kawamoto  having set a national record of 1:45.75 two weeks ago at the Golden Grand Prix Tokyo meet in Tokyo's National Stadium.  His second-year teammate Jun Mitake  is the next-best runner in the field with a 1:48.67 PB, so while another NR is probably too much to ask between the two of them they should have a good chance of taking the 1:48.06 meet record set in 2009 by Kenyan Daniel Gitau , another Nihon University runner. It says a lot about the quality of Kanto university men's distance running that four of the five Japanese men in this week's ARRS world top 200 ran...

by Brett Larner While many of the top Hakone Ekiden stars were lining up in Shikoku at the Marugame Half, a half dozen of the top Hakone teams had their first and second-years just south of Tokyo for the 36th running of the Kanagawa Half Marathon .  A large pack ran at course record pace through 15 km before Hakone 5th-placer Aoyama Gakuin University 's star first-year  Tadashi Isshiki  took off.  Relative unknowns  Daisuke Nakamura  (Kokushikan Univ.) and Takuya Maeda  (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) went after him, but over the last 3 km Isshiki built a 20-second lead that never cracked.  On track for Kanagawa's first sub-63 clocking, just after the final left turn Isshiki followed a course marshall's flag directing the lead police motorcycle and briefly ran off the course.  He quickly realized the error and recovered but lost precious seconds and had to be content with a 1:03:01 course record in his half marathon debut. Nakamura outran Maed...

by Brett Larner Despite a year that has seen her coach and most of her teammates depart Sendai Ikuei H.S. , Kenyan Mary Waithera  brought the highlight of the meet to the final day of the National Sports Festival in Gifu.  The favorite in the junior women's 3000 m, Waithera obliterated rival Rosemary Wanjiru  (Kenya/Aomori Yamada H.S.) and all Japanese competitors with a meet record 8:48.16, a four-second PB and one of the upper-echelon times of the year worldwide.  Wanjiru was nearly twenty seconds back in 9:06.99, with Shiori Yano  (Kitakyushu Municipal H.S.) the top Japanese finisher at 3rd overall in 9:12.91, outkicking a tight pack of four other Japanese athletes.  As she steadily improves Waithera looks set to become another in the lineage of Kenyan greats to have passed through Sendai Ikuei, most notably including the late Beijing Olympics marathon gold medalist Samuel Wanjiru . 2012 National Sports Festival Day Four Nagaragawa Field, Gifu Memor...

by Brett Larner   High school track continued along the road to next month's National Championships with a nationwide round of regional championships this weekend.  Thirty-three girls across the country broke the 9:30 mark over 3000 m, with the fastest time of the weekend going to Kenyan Mary Waithira  (Sendai Ikuei H.S.), who set an impressive meet record of 9:00.85 at the Tohoku Regionals meet over Kenyan rival Rosemary Wanjiru  (Aomori Yamada H.S.), who ran 9:07.44.  The fastest performance by a Japanese girl came at the South Kanto Regionals meet, where Maki Izumida  (Hakuoh Joshi H.S.) won in 9:17.74.  All but three regions featured winning times under 9:30. Boys' performances were less noteworthy, but in the Tokai Region 5000 m Kenyan Jeremiah Karemi  (Toyokawa H.S.) set a meet record of 13:52.51.   Charles Ndungu (Sapporo Yamanote H.S.) also set a meet record in the Hokkaido Region 5000 m, running 13:57.81.  Both boys' a...