japan running news

by Brett Larner In its third appearance at France's DecaNation Japan turned in its best team performance to date, placing 4th out of 6 teams.   Tomoka Kimura (Team Univ. Ent.) led the way in the women's 2000 m, taking over 6 seconds off the rarely-challenged national record with a 5:47.17 for 2nd, the best placing among any of the ten women on the team.  Her counterpart on the men's squad Masaki Toda (Team Nissin Shokuhin) went one better to win the men's 2000 m in 5:14.39.  Rio Olympian and 2016 national champion Julian Walsh (Toyo Univ.) likewise won the men's 400 m, running 46.09.  Five other men including Walsh's Toyo and Rio teammate Yoshihide Kiryu took 2nd in their events, coming ten points short overall of overtaking Ukraine to make the team podium. DecaNation 2016 Paris, France, 9/13/16 click here for detailed results Women 100 m - Ami Saito (Kurashiki Chuo H.S.) - 11.89 (-0.4 m/s) - 3rd 400 m - Seika Aoyama (Osaka Seikei Univ.) - 54.2...

by Brett Larner The favorite to win the women's 3000 mSC at the weekend's National University Track and Field Championships after her runner-up finish last year, 19-year-old Anju Takamizawa (Matsuyama Univ.) instead opted to head to France as part of the Japanese team for the Sept. 13 DécaNation meet at Paris' Stade Charléty.  On June 28 Takamizawa broke the junior national record with a 9:55.79 to win the National Championships in Niigata.  A month later on July 26 she was back in Niigata to break her own junior national record with a 9:54.95 at the Niigata Prefecture Championships.  In Paris Takamizawa did it again, running another junior national record of 9:53.72 for 4th.  Her Paris performance also just broke the 9:53.87 collegiate national record set by Mayuko Nakamura (Tsukuba Univ.) at last year's National Championships, establishing Takamizawa as Japan's leading current steepler.  The 9:33.93 Japanese national record set by the great Minori Hayaka...