japan running news

Fresh off the sting of world and Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi  not making the final in the women's javelin, national pride was salved a bit in the first event the next morning on day 8 of the Tokyo World Athletics Championships . In a tight 5-way race for the medals, women's 20 km national champion Nanako Fujii took 15 seconds off her own NR to take bronze in 1:26:18, 24 seconds behind Spain's Maria Perez , who added the 20 km gold to her 35 km victory last weekend with a 1:25:54, and 12 seconds behind Mexico's Alegna Gonzalez , who set an area record of 1:26:06. Fujii had to reach for bronze, beating Ecuador's Paula Milena Torres to the line by a step, with Peruvian Kimberly Garcia Leon 4 seconds back in 5th. All-time Japanese #2 Kumiko Okada was 18th in 1:30:12 and third teammate Ayane Yanai 37th in 1:35:44. That brought Japan's medal count for its home soil World Championships to 2, both bronze and both in race walks. With Kitaguchi out the home tea...

Saturday is the first day of the Tokyo World Athletics Championships . A quick guide to Japanese athletes in action in the morning and evening sessions: 7:30 - Women's 35 km Race Walk Yukiko Umeno (Juntendo Univ.) - 2:46:53 - 1st, Nationals Masumi Fuchise (Kenso) - 2:52:38 - 3rd, Nationals Maika Yagi (Chiba Kogyo Ginko) - 2:56:18 -  4th, Nationals Prognosis : Umeno is 16th in the field on season best and 20th in the Road to Tokyo rankings. Top 8 is a stretch. 7:30 - Men's 35 km Race Walk Masatora Kawano (Asahi Kasei) - 2:21:47 -  1st, Nationals 2024 Satoshi Maruo (Aichi Seiko) - 2:24:24 -  2nd, Nationals Hayato Katsuki (SDF Academy) - 2:24:38 -  1st, Nationals Prognosis : One of Japan's best chances to score a medal and rack up top 8 placings at this World Championships. Kawano is ranked #2 behind the legend Evan Dunfee of Canada, Katsuki has the 4th-best SB, and Maruo is ranked #5. 9:00 / 10:40 - Women's Discus Throw Qualification Nanaka Kori (Niigata Alb...

The JAAF has announced a team of 30 women and 39 men not including relay pools for the Tokyo World Athletics Championships with less than 2 weeks to go til competition kicks off. The only real chances for medals on the women's team are in the javelin throw and women's 20 km race walk. Defending world and Olympic champ Haruka Kitaguchi is ranked #1 in the javelin, but with uncharacteristically weak performances in her last two Diamond League appearances there are a lot of questions about whether she's going to be ready. Nanako Fujii is ranked 4th in the 20 km race walk and could break into the medals. Potential top 10 finishers on the women's team include NR holder Nozomi Tanaka in the 5000 m, Ririka Hironaka in the 10000 m, Momone Ueda in the javelin throw, and the entire marathon squad of Sayaka Sato , Yuka Ando and Kana Kobayashi , assuming the marathons actually go ahead given the currently scorching conditions in Tokyo that show no sign of ending. The relay...

  Day 6 of the Budapest World Championships started with Japan getting onto the medal board for the first time as one of its best individual chances came through. All three Japanese men in the 35 km race walk went out with the lead group and stayed there until just past 20 km, where 2021 50 km national champion Satoshi Maruo lost contact. 2023 35 km national champ Tomohiro Noda lasted another 8 km before dropping, leaving last year's Oregon silver medalist Masatora Kawano in contention for another medal as the pack dwindled. By 31 km it was down to just Kawano, last year's 4th-placer Brian Pintado of Ecuador, and 20 km gold medalist Alvaro Martin of Spain. Kawano dropped back with 2 km to go, Martin pulling away to take a second gold in a 2:24:30 national record and Pintado getting onto the medal stand with a 2:24:34 area record for silver. Kawano finished with a 2:25:12 SB for bronze, Japan's first medal of any kind in a World Championships that looks set to produce ...

In what was considered Japan's best chance of medaling in Tokyo Olympics athletics, the Japanese men came up with a 6th-place finish by national record holder Masatora Kawano  in the final Olympic men's 50 km race walk. 2018 Asian champion Hayato Katsuki  had an early setback, losing a shoe in the first couple of km and never making his way back into contact. Kawano and national champion Satoshi Maruo  stayed near the front of the main pack until a move from Canadian Evan Dunfee  began to break it up.  Maruo soon fell off, but Kawano looked to be one of the medal contenders as the pack turned into five behind breakaway leader Dawid Tomala  of Poland. Without warning, around 42 km Kawano suddenly pulled off the course and went to his hands and knees to vomit. He could have been out of it at that point, but Kawano quickly bounced back up and set off to regain contact. He did, but the effort cost him in the final push. Tomala took gold in 3:50:08, with Germa...

Hayato Katsuki kicked off the final day of  Jakarta Asian Games  athletics competition with Japan's last individual medal of the Games, a gold in the men's 50 km racewalk. Katsuki finished in 4:03:30 more than three minutes up on silver medalist Qin Wang of China and almost seven minutes ahead of bronze medalist Hyun Myeong Joo of South Korean despite sustaining a five-minute time penalty 34 km into the race. Japan's Satoshi Maruo was another three minutes back in 4th. Indoor mile national record holder Ryoji Tatezawa was in range of a top six finish at best in the men's 1500 m, but in a race that went out slowly enough for announcers to be comparing it to a Japanese high school qualifying round race Tatezawa lacked the gears to stay relevant over the final lap, finishing 9th of 11 finishers in 3:49.40. The relays went about as expected. The women's 4x100 m and 4x400 m each finished 5th, while the men's teams brought home medals over both distances....

Thanks to a last-minute rush Japan walked away from the London World Championships with a passable haul. The JAAF judges performance in terms of medals and top 8 finishes. Up to Saturday, only one Japanese athlete had met either, 18-year-old sprinter Abdul Hakim Sani Brown finishing 7th in the men's 200 m final as the first Japanese man to make a 200 m final at Worlds since 2003. Three other Japanese athletes had scored top 10 placings, Yuki Kawauchi and Kentaro Nakamoto in the men's marathon and Ayuko Suzuki in the women's 10000 m, but under the JAAF's criteria these were not viewed as success. Saturday's men's 4x100 m final brought the first Japanese medal of the Championships, with Japan following up on its Rio Olympics silver with a bronze, its first-ever Worlds medal in the discipline. Sunday morning brought Japan's best-ever showing in the men's 50 km race walk, Rio bronze medalist Hirooki Arai moving up to silver, Kai Kobayashi taki...

Rio Olympics men's 50 km Race Walk bronze medalist Hirooki Arai followed up with Japan's first silver medal of the London World Championships, leading teammate Kai Kobayashi to a Japanese double medal haul. Far behind the championships record pace set by eventual gold medalist Yohann Diniz of France, Arai, Kobayashi and teammate Satoshi Maruo all sat together in the chase pack through 15 km. Maruo began to drop back approaching 20 km, but Arai and Kobayashi stayed up front through 35 km before making a break that took them all the way to silver and bronze medal finishes 2 seconds apart just over 8 minutes behind Diniz. Maruo fought his way back through the pack, ultimately finishing 5th just over a minute and a half behind his medalist teammates. On paper the men's 20 km crew had the potential to repeat the 50 km results, but it wasn't to be. One by one Rio Olympics 7th placer Daisuke Matsunaga and world #2 and #3-ranked Eiki Takahashi and Isamu Fujisawa sli...