japan running news

The Michitaka Kinami Memorial Meet in Osaka was the weekend's main event on the track, and women's pole vault NR holder Misaki Morota (Art Home) led the way with its biggest result. After struggling with injuries the last couple of years, Morota was back with a 4.50 m national record on her 1st attempt at the height, bettering the 4.48 m NR she set back in 2023 and outdoing 2nd place by 25 cm. Morota packed it in at that point and didn't try for 4.55 m, but as she looked back to peak form expect to see her try to take the record further this season. Other highlights from Kinami: Nanako Matsumoto (Toho Ginko) and Morgan Mitchell (Australia) both broke the meet record in the women's 400 m, Matsumoto getting the win in 52.24 and Mitchell 2nd in 52.27. Jaylah Hancock-Cameron (Australia) outran Ayano Shiomi (Iwatani Sangyo) for the win in the women's 800 m 2:01.85 to 2:04.09, while NR holder Rin Kubo (Sekisui Kagaku) struggled in the start of her corporate league ...

Josai University's Yuito Yamamoto brought Japan its first medal of the Chengdu World University Games , taking bronze in the only final with a Japanese athlete on the second day of athletics competition, the men's 10000 m. In a field of 17 starters Ugandan Dismas Yeko delivered the performance of the day, breaking 29 minutes to take gold in 28:59.25. Sezgin Atac of Turkey was relatively close behind in 29:06.62, leading Yeko and Ugandan Seth Akampa until Akampa was abruptly stopped by an official with 5 laps to go and disqualified, then losing touch over the final 1000 m. Yamamoto spent most of the race in 4th, then was suddenly bumped up to 3rd when Akampa was disqualified. He finished 16 seconds back from Atac in 29:22.95 for bronze over Kenyan Kelvin Kimtai Chepsigor . Yamamoto is scheduled to double in Sunday's half marathon. In semifinals, Hosei University's Naohiro Jinushi won the men's 400 m SF1 in 45.90, along with SF3 winner Reece Holder the only athl...

After years of pandemic-era delays, the Chengdu World University Games finally got underway July 27, with the first day of athletics competition happening Aug. 1. In the only one of the two finals featuring Japanese athletes on the 1st, athletes from China and Turkey swept the top four spots in the women's 10000 m. China's Yuyu Xia  closed with a 64-second last lap to take gold in 33:48.35, Turkey going 2-3 with Yayla Kilic Gonen scoring silver in 34:05.03 and Fatma Karasu bronze in 34:10.97. China's Xiuzhen Ma held off Risa Yamazaki of Nittai University for 4th 34:30.14 to 34:35.96, with Tomo Muramatsu of Ritsumeikan University 9th in 35:17.54. In women's qualifying rounds, Ritsumeikan's Ami Yamamoto took 3rd in Heat 2 of the 400 mH in 57.82 to advance. Aoyama Gakuin University's Yu Ishikawa was 3rd in Heat 3 of the 100 m in 12.02 -1.0 m/s and also advanced. Tsukuba University's Yuna Miura was 2nd in Heat 5 in 11.59 +0.4 m/s to join Ishikawa in the s...