japan running news

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 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. ...

After two days of flight cancelations and delays that ended up with him arriving in Niigata 4.5 hours before the race, Indian men's 5000 m NR holder Gulveer Singh came through with a record-breaking run to win the 5000 m on the first day of the Yogibo Athletics Challenge Cup Continental Tour Bronze meet. Set up as a shot at the 13:08.40 Japanese NR, the race went out with steady 63-second laps with pacing from 10-mile world best holder Benard Koech . After the pack settled out 2024 Komazawa University grad Mebuki Suzuki was at the front behind Koech with this year's Komazawa captain Kotaro Shinohara right with him. When a gap opened Singh moved up from 5th or 6th to go with them. Koech stepped off at 4000 m leaving Suzuki to lead, Shinohara struggling to hang on and coming back twice after falling off. At the bell Singh went to the front, and with a 55-second last lap he held off Suzuki in the last 100 m to win in 13:11.82, 7 seconds under his old NR. Suzuki ran a PB 13:18....

Start lists are up for this weekend's Yogibo Athletics Challenge Cup Continental Tour Bronze meet in Niigata with scratches and a few additions since the initial entry list announcement two weeks ago. Prominent withdrawals include women's long jump NR holder Sumire Hata , former men's 100 m NR holder Yoshihide Kiryu , men's indoor 5000 m NR holder Keita Sato , and Paris Olympians Ryuichiro Sakai , Tomoki Ota , Ryoichi Akamatsu , and Wakana Kabasawa . Indian men's 5000 m NR holder Gulveer Singh has joined the 5000 m field in pursuit of a new NR. Times listed below are athletes' 2023-2024 best in each event. Streaming of day one of the meet starts at 14:30 Saturday, with day two starting at 10:00 a.m. Sunday. Live results are here . Men's 100 m Shuhei Tada (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.10 Naoki Nishioka (Tokai Gyosei H.S.) - 10.11 Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.11 Ryo Wada (Miki House) - 10.13 Shoto Uno (Orico) - 10.16 Kuk Young Kim (South Korea) - 10.25 Kenji Ma...

The Sept. 28-29 Yogibo Athletics Challenge Cup Continental Tour Bronze meet in Niigata announced its preliminary field on Wednesday. A lot of the international field has yet to be added, but what's been announced includes Paris Olympians Yoshihide Kiryu , Ryuichiro Sakai , Kentaro Sato , Fuga Sato , Joseph Nakajima , Abraham Guem , Tomoki Ota , Rachid Muratake , Daiki Ogawa , Ryoichi Akamatsu , Tomohiro Shinno , Yume Goto , Wakana Kabasawa , Haruki Kokai , Sumire Hata , Marina Saito and Momone Ueda , NR holders Shuhei Tada , Ko Ochiai , Sho Kawamoto , Keita Sato , Naoto Tobe , Yuji Tsutumi , Ryoji Tatezawa , Kanta Shimizu , Kotaro Shinohara , Rin Kubo , Tomoka Kimura and Nanaka Kori , Monaco Diamond League winner Margaret Akidor , and more. Current list top entries by 2023-2024 best in each event: Men's 100 m Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei) - 10.03 Ryuichiro Sakai (Osaka Gas) - 10.08 Shuhei Tada (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.10 Naoki Nishioka (Tokai Gyosei H.S.) - 10.11 Yuki Koike (...

Monday a relatively busy day in Paris Olympics athletics for the Japanese national team. Things started off slowly with all three men in the 400 mH heats finishing near the bottom of the field of 39 starters, Daiki Ogawa running 50.21 for 33rd, Kaito Tsutsue 50.50 for 35th and the high potential Ken Toyoda last among the 37 finishers in 53.62 after a mid-race injury. All three head to the repechage round, but in Toyoda's case he'll likely be a DNS. All three Japanese men in the 400 m repechage round, Joseph Nakajima , Fuga Sato and Kentaro Sato , gave it a miss in order to focus on the 4x400 m relay where their chances of making the final are higher. In the men's 3000 mSC heats, national record holder Ryuji Miura made it through to the final, running close to his season best with an 8:12.41 for 4th in Heat 2. Ryoma Aoki was one of the casualties of the slow pace in Heat 3, finishing 8th in 8:29.03 and missing out on advancing. In the men's 200 m heats 21-year-old...

There still aren't many Japanese athletes on the ground in athletics at the Paris Olympics. Day 3 on Saturday saw only 3 men in action, all in the 100 m. Abdul Hakim Sani Brown was the only one to make it out of the heats and into Sunday's semifinals, running 10.02 (0.0) for 2nd in Heat 4 behind Jamaican Oblique Seville . Ryuichiro Sakai missed a time qualifying spot by only 0.01, running 10.17 (+0.3) for 5th in Heat 7. Akihiro Higashida was 5th in Heat 1, running 10.19 (+0.6). In the semifinals Sani Brown had an unlucky draw, running SF 3 against Kishane Thompson , Fred Kerley , Andrew De Grasse , Ferdinand Omanyala and others. Totally determined to make the final, Sani Brown ran a PB 9.96 (+0.5) for 4th, the 2nd-fastest ever by a Japanese man and just 0.01 off the NR. But with the fastest times ever in Olympic semifinals coming in two of the three races it took a 9.93 to make the final on time, putting it out of Sani Brown's range. His best just wasn't enough, bu...

Japan's Olympic trials, National Track and Field Championships and National U20 Championships , wrap up Sunday in Niigata at Denka Big Swan Stadium. Light rain is forecast in the afternoon and evening, ut with 7 new National Championships meet records and an U20 national record so far, there's a good chance of one outright national record, maybe two, on the last day of the meet.  Live results will be here . The final schedule: Women's Shot Put Final  14:45 Already having made a comeback in her main event with a win in the women's discus throw, local  Nanaka Kori  will be going for a repeat on her 2023 national title in the shot put. She's the only woman over 16 m this season, and one of only two in the field to have ever done it, along with #3-ranked Fumiko Ono . Nanaka Kori (Niigata Albirex RC) - 16.19 m SB / 16.57 m PB Honoka Oyama (Imamura Byoin) - 15.75 m SB / 15.78 m PB Fumika Ono (Tsukuba Univ.) - 15.74 m SB / 16.37 m PB Haruka Osako (Somay-Q) - 15.28 m SB / P...

Japan's Olympic trials, National Championships and National U20 Championships , continue Saturday in Niigata at Denka Big Swan Stadium. Live results will be here . The schedule: Finals Men's Discus Throw Final 12:15 No Japanese men are in range of making the Olympic team, so this is strictly a national-level competition with last year's winner Yuji Tsutsumi looking to hold off Shinichi Yukinaga and Masateru Yugami to repeat. Only Yukinaga has thrown over 60 m this season, and his 62.52 puts him only 7 cm behind Tsutsumi's career best. Shinichi Yukinaga (Shikoku Univ. AC) - 62.52 m SB / PB Masateru Yugami (Toyota) - 59.31 m SB / 62.16 m PB Yuji Tsutsumi (Alsok) - 59.07 m SB / 62.59 m PB Hiroki Kitahara (Niigata Iryo Fukushi Univ.) - 57.24 m SB / PB Kosei Yamashita (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) - 55.68 m SB / PB Koshiro Fujiwara (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) - 55.32 SB / PB Men's Pole Vault Final  14:50 Likewise in the men's pole vault, Paris is out of range. It's a p...

  Japanese men's 400 m national record holder Kentaro Sato (Fujitsu) sat for online interviews on June 18. Sato's 44.77 NR cleared the Paris Olympics qualifying standard of 45.00, and if he wins the National Championships later this month in Niigata he'll be named to the Paris team. "To put it simply, it's the meet that decides who's #1 in Japan," he said. "I haven't won a national title yet. I'm preparing to run for time, for place, and for an Olympic spot." As he trains Sato is paying close attention to the condition of his left Achilles tendon, which he injured two years ago. "I'm more focused on time than place," he said. "If I can run 44 at Nationals then I'll get the place I'm looking for. If I can put together a 400 m the way I want to do it then I can run a national record. That means focusing on something faster than just the NR. Sub-44.5 is what I'm thinking." Also entered at Nationals are to...

  After three days of athletics competition at the Hangzhou Asian Games Japan has yet to score gold, but its haul of silver and bronze medals more than doubled over the course of the two days. Men's 400 m NR holder Kentaro Sato took silver Saturday, starting slow as Fuga Sato did the leading in the first half of the race, then reeling in the competition over the last 120 m. Asian record holder Yousef Ahmed Masrahi of Saudi Arabia got away from him, just, winning gold in 45.55 with Sato in 45.57. Bahraini Abbas Yusuf Ali knocked Fuga Sato off the podium with a PB 45.65, Fuga 4th in 45.70. It took til Sunday night for the next medal to land, with Ryoma Aoki and Seiya Sunada going 2-3 in the men's 3000 m steeplechase. Favorite Avinash Mukund Sable of India took it out fast with a 2:40.97 first 1000 m, too fast to sustain but enough to set put him far out front for most of the race. Sable led at 2000 m with 5:27.48 before starting to fade, giving Aoki hope as he closed har...

  Athletics started Friday at the Hangzhou Asian Games , with Japanese athletes scoring medals in 3 of the day's 5 finals. Yutaro Murayama and Nanako Fujii kicked it off at 7:00 a.m. in the 20 km race walk. Murayama was the only man able to go with Chinese duo Jun Zhang and Zhaozhao Wang , but both pulled away to make it a 1-2 for the Games hosts in the opening event. Zhang took gold in 1:23:00, Wang silver in 1:24:08 with Murayama 33 seconds back in 1:24:41 for bronze. Tomohiro Noda was well back in 4th in 1:27:08, having served a 21-second penalty mid-race. Starting 10 minutes later, the women's race podium ended up looking exactly the same but with very different race development. China's Jiauyu Yang and Zhenxia Ma were way out front most of the way and couldn't have been closer at the end, Yang taking gold in 1:30:03 and Ma silver in 1:30:04. Fujii was almost a kilometer behind in 1:33:49 for silver, with teammate Yukiko Umeno 4th in 1:39:44. In the evening s...

  The biggest international championships outside the Olympics are underway in Hangzhou, China, with 12,500 athletes from 45 countries representing 60% of the world’s population competing across 61 sports at the 19th Asian Games . Athletics runs Sept. 29 to Oct. 5, and while official event entry lists haven’t been released yet JRN has pieced them together from the national team entry lists in the events where Japanese athletes will be competing. Additions and corrections welcome, and we’ll update the lists below as official entry and start lists are released. Complete meet schedule and results here .  4 Japanese athletes and one relay team arrive in Hangzhou ranked #1 in their events. The gold medalist at July’s Asian Championships, NR holder Sumire Hata leads the women’s long jump field at 6.97 m, with a 21 cm margin over India’s Shaili Singh and another 11 cm over China’s Shiqi Xiong and Sri Lanka’s Lakshini Sandaradura . Kentaro Sato is the fastest in the men’s 400 m f...