japan running news

Japan finally got onto the medal board at the Cali 22 World U20 Championships with medal-winning performances in two of the country's strongest events bookending the fifth day of the meet and one more unexpected one to punctuate them. In the day's first event, Ai Oyama and Ayane Yanai took silver and bronze in the women's 10000 m race walk. It almost literally couldn't have been closer up front, with Mexican Karla Ximena Serrano beating Oyama by just 0.09 to take gold in a PB 46:24.35. Yanai was all alone in the bronze position in 46:43.07, almost a minute ahead of 4th-placer Olivia Sandery of Australia. The Japanese men were expected to medal in the day's last event, the 4x100 m relay where they had led the qualifying round. First three runners Kowa Ikeshita , Hiroto Fujiwara and Shunki Tateno lacked the same kind of spark in the final, and when anchor Hiroki Yanagita took the baton he was back in a group around 4th~6th. But with a brilliant run he ran down...

Atsushi Haraguchi was the only Japanese athlete in action in a final on day four of the Cali 2022 World U20 Championships , taking 7th in the men's pole vault final. Haraguchi only made one successful clearance, passing on 4.90 m and 5.05 m before making 5.15 m on his second attempt. Passing again on 5.25 m, he took three shots at 5.35 m. Success there would have tied his PB, but Haraguchi missed all three to end up 7th. Anthony Ammirati of France took gold with a 5.75 m clearance, Finland's Juho Alasaari in silver with a 5.60 m U20 NR and Poland's Michal Gawenda bronze at 5.45 m. In qualifying rounds, the men's 4x100 m team of Koki Ikeshita , Hiroto Fujiwara , Shunki Tateno and Hiroki Yanagita led the qualifiers with a season best 39.12, the only team to score an auto-qualifying time. Jamaica was next at 39.24 and Nigeria 3rd at 39.41. Tateno seemed to be in good shape after a DNS in yesterday's 200 m heats, with Yanagita turning in a solid anchor leg run. Ho...

The Cali 22 World U20 Championships got underway Monday, with Japan fielding a team of 34. There are eight current U20 Japanese women under 9:10 for 3000 m, but even though that distance has been an area of strength in past World U20 Championships Japan was strangely absent from the first track final of the meet. Gold went to Kenyan Betty Chelangat in 9:01.03, Ethiopian Tsiyon Abebe taking silver in 9:03.85 and Kenyan Nancy Cherop bronze in 9:05.98. U20 and high school NR holder Keita Sato ran the day's other final, the men's 5000 m. Ranked 6th in the field on SB, Sato spent the first 2/3 of the race hovering around 8th to 10th before abruptly fading after 3600 m and finishing 11th in 14:26.19. High schooler Hiroto Yoshioka made a big play to get into contact with the lead group right before Sato dropped and held on for 7th in 14:10.68, the only athlete born outside Africa to make the top 10. Ethiopia took gold here with Addisu Yihune outkicking Eritreans Merhawi Mebrah...