japan running news

At the Mar. 19 Melbourne Track Classic in Australia, Tokyo Olympics Japanese national team member Kosei Yamaguchi (Aisan Kogyo) ran 8:27.74 to win the men's 3000 m steeplechase. His first steeple race since the Olympics, Yamaguchi was just over 5 seconds off the 8:22.00 qualifying standard for July's Oregon World Championships despite 34˚C temperatures and windy conditions. Yamaguchi was 2nd in last year's National Championships steeplechase in 8:19.96, the 3rd-fastest ever by a Japanese man and enough to qualify him for the Olympic team. At last week's Sydney Track Classic he ran a 3000 m PB of 7:56.16 for 10th. Also in Melbourne, sprinter Jun Yamashita (ANA) was 5th in the men's 200 m in 21.18 +2.2 m/s. Akiko Ito (Cerespo) was also 5th in the women's 400 m hurdles in 59.18, improving on her time in Sydney. Mikuto Kaneko (Chuo Univ.) ran 1:49.33 for 7th in the men's 800 m, almost 4 seconds off his all-time JPN #3 best of 1:45.85. Ryoji Tatezawa (DeN...

The Sydney Track Classic , a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze Label meet, took place Mar. 12 in Sydney, Australia. In the men's 3000 m, Tokyo Olympics 3000 m steeplechase national team member Kosei Yamaguchi (Aisan Kogyo) ran a PB of 7:56.19. Yamaguchi split roughly 2:40 and 5:20 en route before picking up the pace over the last 1000 m to go under 8 minutes for the first time. Yamaguchi ran as a tune-up for the steeple at next weekend's Melbourne Track Classic. Among other Japanese athletes, in the men's 800 m, Mikuto Kaneko (Chuo Univ.) ran 1:47.29 for 3rd in the A-heat, the third-best time of his career. Former national champion Ryoji Tatezawa (DeNA) was last in the B-heat in 1:52.49. Akiko Ito (Cerespo) was 3rd in the women's 400 m hurdles in 59.36, and Ryo Sato (Takatomi Club) took 4th in the men's high jump, clearing 2.11 m. source article: https://www.rikujyokyogi.co.jp/archives/67784 translated and edited by Brett Larner

On the final day of the 2019 National Track and Field Championships Shunya Takayama (Zenrin) and Kensuke Izumiya (Juntendo Univ.) raced each other to a men's 110 m hurdles national record-tying 13.36. With one of the favorites, Taio Kanai (Mizuno) out after a false start in the semis, Takayama and Izumiya were side by side. In the middle of the heaviest rain of the day they went right to the line together. Izumiya looked as though he had it, but on review Takayama was timed at 13.354 and Izumiya at 13.356, both tying Takayama's national record on official time. Having cleared the Doha standard Takayama earned a place on the national team for this fall's Doha World Championships. The rain also impacted the women's and men's 200 m. Local collegian Mei Kodama (Fukuoka Univ.) won the women's 200 m in 23.80 (-0.4 m/s), a PB but on the slow side for a national championship. Favorite Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Univ. of Florida) fought off Yuki Koike (Sumitomo ...

by Brett Larner The fourth day of competition at the 2014 World Junior Championships brought Japan its first gold medal of the week as Daisuke Matsunaga set a championships record 39.27.19 in the men's 10000 m race walk.  Silver and bronze medalists Diego Garcia (Spain) and Paulo Yurivilca (Peru) both set new national junior records to get on the podium, but Matsunaga was in another class as he beat Garcia by almost 30 seconds.  Yuga Yamashita (Japan) came up just short of the medals at 4th in 40:15.27. Likewise just out of the medals, sprinter Yuki Koike ran 20.34 (+2.3) for 4th in the men's 200 m final, just 0.4 s from claiming bronze.  Teammate Masaharu Mori took 6th in 20.84, the first time a world-level championships has seen two Japanese athletes make a 200 m final.  Both ran the final less than 90 minutes after helping the Japanese men's 4x100 m team make the final by winning Heat 2 in a junior world-leading time of 39.23 just ahead of hosts U.S.A. ...

by Brett Larner Day three of competition at the IAAF World Junior Championships was a big one for Japan, with two individual medals and a near miss on a third.  In the men's 400 m Nobuya Kato and Kaisei Yui made history with their runs, the first time two Japanese athletes had qualified for a world-level final, and Kato took it one step further when he ran 46.17 for silver behind winner Machel Cedenio (Trinidad and Tobago).  Yui, who ran a PB 46.68 to make the final, was 7th in 47.08 between two American athletes.  In the men's long jump, Shotaro Shiroyama (Japan) jumped 7.83 m to unexpectedly win bronze, with teammate Kodai Sakuma 5th in 7.71 m.  Chinese athletes Jianan Wang and Qing Lin went 1-2, Wang winning with a jump of 8.08 m.  In the women's 3000 m Nozomi Musembi Takamatsu , the daughter of Japanese and Kenyan parents, ran a 6-second PB of 9:02.85 but came up just over 2 more seconds short of the podium as she was beaten by American Mary Cain i...