Announcement

**LuckySpikes** · 01-09-23, 19:10

Live streams/broadcasts for Saturday 2nd September to Monday 4th September:

Sorry, no teaser notes tonight except to say ... If you don't have a VPN you can still watch ISTAF Berlin (live) and Padova (on-demand) without any geo-blocking. ISTAF isn't what it used to be but the fields are still good. The Padova meeting is one of the top Bronze meetings and Monday's Bellinzona meeting is always very good with a cracking atmosphere. The Czech Club Championships have good domestic fields entered as well as several good foreign athletes based in Czechia such as Viktoria Forster (SVK), Majd Eddin Ghazal and ... Haruka Kitaguchi ! The streams produced by the Czech federation are always very good.

The Big Half is on the BBC Red Button (and iPlayer). The trials for the 5km & Road Mile for the World Road Running Champs are this coming Friday (also on the BBC).

I don't know yet if there'll be live streaming of Saturday's Birell 10km Race Prague (WA Elite Label). There's only 10 minutes of it on Czech TV so I'm not linking to that.

Saturday to Sunday

Czech Club Championships (Hodonín, CZE)
Finnkampen (Stockholm, SWE) - Annual Sweden vs Finland match

Saturday

? Balkan U18 Championships (Sivas, TUR)
Diamond League Xiamen (Xiamen, CHN)

Sunday

The Big Half incl British Trials for HM at World Road Running Championships (London, GBR)
ISTAF Berlin (Berlin, GER) - WA Continental Tour Silver meeting
Meeting Internazionale Città Di Padova (Padova, ITA) - WA Continental Tour Bronze meeting

Monday

Galà dei Castelli (Bellinzona, SUI) - WA Continental Tour Silver meeting
New Haven Road Race incl USA 20km Championships (New Haven, CT, USA)

All the details and links at https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8dc4g...zb2vzfqu2&dl=0

The next major post will possibly be on Monday evening for the Hammer meeting in Hungary (Conti Tour Silver). If not, definitely on Tuesday evening for Wednesday's Palio Città della Quercia in Rovereto (Silver) and the Memoriał Wiesława Maniaka in Szczecin (Challenger, but always a good little meeting).

**LuckySpikes** · 02-09-23, 21:39

Added to the latest document above for Monday evening is ...

International Pole Vault in the Square a.k.a. Salto con l'Asta in Piazza (Chiari, ITA) - Women's competition; There's a decent line-up for this including Bruni, Molinarolo, Commonwealth bronze medalist Imogen Ayris (NZL) and some of Italy's best youngsters; The Men's comp is on Tuesday evening, also being live streamed

**LuckySpikes** · 04-09-23, 17:08

Live stream for Tuesday 5th September:

There's no sign yet of any live streaming for tomorrow's Németh Pál Memorial hammer meeting in Hungary.

Tuesday

International Pole Vault in the Square a.k.a. Salto con l'Asta in Piazza (Chiari, ITA) - Men's competition; The field for this isn't as good as for Monday evening's women's comp. Nate Richartz (USA) heads the field

All the details and links at https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/5h3zn...yibqbvw0p&dl=0

The next major post tomorrow (Tuesday) evening for Wednesday's Palio Città della Quercia in Rovereto (CT Silver) and the Memoriał Wiesława Maniaka in Szczecin (CT Challenger, but always a good little meeting).

**LuckySpikes** · 05-09-23, 18:59

Live streams/broadcasts for Wednesday 6th September:

Wednesday

Palio Città della Quercia (Rovereto, ITA) - WA Continental Tour Silver meeting; There's really good fields across the board (not a weak one amongst them) with quite a lot of the athletes who competed in Bellinzona also competing here. It's hard to pick the stand-out events but the Women's 800 looks like it will be a another good one including Hurta-Klecker, Vivian Chebet Kiprotich, Shanahan, Bello, Coiro, Abigail Ives & Yarigo amongst others. A total of 14 Brits are entered here, also including Alex HW, Hannah Nuttall. Tom Gale & Molly Caudery
Memoriał Wiesława Maniaka (Szczecin, POL) - WA Continental Tour Challenger meeting; This is always a nice little meeting with a good atmosphere. The line-ups are decent and the Men's Shot Put is the strongest with Walsh, Otterdahl, Steen & Sinancevic included. There's a combined competition & prize money for both the Men's and Women's 100 & 200 hence why so many of the athletes are doubling here; In all, there's 6 Brits due to compete including Amy Hunt (200) and Charlie Dobson (400) although Laviai Nielsen is double-entered with Rovereto

All the details and links at https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/2szlg...nmm2esgpy&dl=0

The next major post will be on Thursday evening for Friday's events including the Brussels DL and the UK trials for the 5km & Road Mile teams at the World Road Running Championships.

**LuckySpikes** · 07-09-23, 17:45

Live streams/broadcasts for Friday 8th September:

Friday

UK 5km & Mile Road Championships incl British Trials for World Road Running Championships (Gateshead / Newcastle-upon-Tyne, GBR) - Last week's Big Half winners, Jack Rowe & Calli Thackery, are both back in the 5km here with Rowe saying he'd prefer to run the 5km in Latvia on 1st October. Others entered in the Men's 5km include Tom Mortimer, Osian Perrin & Henry McLuckie. It's a good Women's 5km field that also includes Nuttall, Eloise Walker, Nesbitt, Quirk & Ockenden. The Men's Mile includes Adam Fogg, Elson & West. However, the Women's Mile is no longer on the timetable. With a chance to run in a World Championships it's very, very poor if they couldn't raise a field for that
Zagreb City Challenge (Zagreb, CRO) - M & W Long Jump in the city square; Part of the Boris Hanžeković Memorial Conti Tour Gold meeting; There's fairly good line-ups for this, 7 athletes in each field, including Sawyers, Gardasevic & Tiffany Flynn in the Women's and Gayle, Will Williams, Konate & Adcock in the Men's
Memorial van Damme - Brussels Diamond League (Brussels, BEL) - If you want to watch some of the field events before the main TV window, Belgian TV are broadcasting from 6.15pm UK time (VPN needed)

All the details and links at https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/hsw77...fmlw6vlvl&dl=0

The next major post will be tomorrow (Friday) evening for the weekend's events including the Boris Hanžeković Memorial (Conti Tour Gold) in Zagreb, plus the Men's Shot Put there on Saturday, the Great North Run, the 5th Avenue Mile and more.

**LuckySpikes** · 08-09-23, 18:21

Live streams/broadcasts for Saturday 9th September to Sunday 10th September:

On BBC1 at 12.30pm on Saturday there's a half-hour programme, Mo Farah's Last Mile ... "Sir Mo Farah revisits his incredible career with fellow athlete Sir Brendan Foster as he prepares for his final race."

Saturday to Sunday

Finnish Relay Championships (Turku, FIN) - A lot of Finland's best sprinters are entered at this meeting with all sorts of relays

Saturday

European Road Mile (Brașov, ROU) - The Men's race is definitely the better of the two for this inaugural edition with a decent field that includes Mohad Abdikadar Sheik Ali (ITA; 3:33.8 PB in Padova last week), Brian Fay and a couple of guest athletes such as Garrett O'Toole (USA)
Ivan Ivančić Memorial (Zagreb, CRO) - Men's Shot Put by the city fountains as part of the Boris Hanžeković Memorial Conti Tour Gold meeting; There's a loaded field for this with many of the best putters bar Crouser

Sunday

Brașov International 10km (Brașov, ROU) - WA Elite Label race; The latest entrant info is a couple of weeks old but these (separate M + W) races are likely to be loaded. They certainly were last year with 3 men running sub-27 and 3 women going under 30:40. Expected to head this year's line-ups are the likes of Weldon Langat (2nd last year in 26:55), Edward Zakayo and in the Women's race, Agnes Ngetich (6th Budapest WCh 10,000) and Esther Borura (30:15 PB). Sam Harrison is also entered
Great North Run (Newcastle-upon-Tyne to South Shields, GBR) - Half Marathon; There's been some high-profile withdrawals in both races so the Men's will likely be billed as Mo Farah versus Muktar Edris. There's also a quartet of good Japanese athletes and Ireland's Efrem Gidey making his HM debut. In the Women's race Peres Jepchirchir & Sharon Lokedi head the field that also includes Purdue, Markovc and Japan's Wakana Itsuki (70:23 PB) wearing the terrific black and yellow kit of Kyudenko
International Pole Vault for Women (Beckum, GER) - WA Continental Tour Challenger meeting; There's a good line-up of 15 women for this including McTaggart, Caudery, Svabikova, Bradshaw & Chevrier
Boris Hanžeković Memorial (Zagreb, CRO) - WA Continental Tour Gold meeting
5th Avenue Mile (New York City, USA) - Road Miles; Josh Kerr heads a good line-up for the Men's race but it's the Women's race that's really loaded with 10 women who've run sub-4 including Jess Hull, Reekie, Snowden, Courtney-Bryant, Hiltz, Nozomi Tanaka, Elle St. Pierre and Sarah Healy. This stream is dead easy to watch for anyone in the UK

All the details and links at https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/inlue...0jjr45tlx&dl=0

The next major post will be on Wednesday for the start on Thursday of the four-day Japanese University Team T&F Championships (usually more loaded than their Individual Championships and there's excellent streaming coverage) and hopefully also for the Ibero-American U18 Championships and Brazilian U23 Club Championships, both starting on Friday.

**LuckySpikes** · 09-09-23, 15:17

Added to the latest document above is the following event happening on Sunday and Monday ...

Indian Grand Prix - Meet 5 (Chandigarh, IND) - I will be more diligent next year in listing these Indian Grand Prix meetings because they are usually a pretty good quality and the Indian Federation does a decent job with their streaming coverage. This particular meeting has been added to the schedule to allow some extra athletes to qualify for the Asian Games, especially in the relays. Overall, it's not the deepest of these Grand Prix meetings but the Asian champion in the 100 Hurdles, Jyothi Yarraji, is also a handy 200m runner and here she's making her debut in the 400, perhaps to prove herself worthy of a place on the 4x4 team at the Asian Games? In the Women's 800 K.M. Chanda, the silver medalist at the recent Asian Championships, faces the 1500 NR-holder, Harmilan Bains

**LuckySpikes** · 13-09-23, 21:23

Live streams/broadcasts for events starting on Wednesday 14th September and Thursday 15th September:

Thursday to Sunday

Japanese University Team T&F Championships a.k.a. Emperor's Cup (Kumagaya, JPN) - The Japanese collegiate system is second only to the NCAA and these Team Championships are actually more prestigious than their Individual Championships held in late April. Whilst there were some holes in the line-ups in April, most of the entry lists here show no such issue, except the Men's 5 & 10 where some athletes are instead deep in training for the Hakone Ekdien. However, pretty much every university athlete who competed in the recent Asian Championships, World University Games and/or Budapest is due to compete here. For examples, Asian 100m champion, Hiroki Yanagita (knocking on the door of sub-10), and the Women's Half Marathon winner at the World Uni Games, Hikaru Kitagawa, is in the 5 & 10 here. Others entered include Yuki Joseph Nakajima in the 400, Rachid Muratake in the 110 Hurdles and 10,000m collegiate record holder, Richard Etir (KEN). Ryuji Miura is entered in Saturday's 5000 but is more likely to run the Steeple in Eugene instead! The Women's 10,000 should be another good one. It features a very good 19yo Kenyan, Sarah Wanjiru, but also includes four 32-mid women - Muramatsu, Einaga, Tanimoto & Kitagawa. Three of them plus Miku Isono (also here) had a great race at the Kansai region Univ Champs back in May, that race won by Hikaru Kitagawa with a terrific kick. They might be trailing Wanjiru here but, in common with many Japanese stream providers, YTV are very good at showing what's happening behind a runaway leader so I'm looking forward to seeing them race again with Tanimoto added to the mix. So, these championships are well worth a watch. YTV's streaming coverage is excellent and a lively atmosphere is created by the students watching their team-mates compete

Friday to Sunday

Brazilian U23 Club Championships (Bragança Paulista, BRA) - There's no entry/start lists yet but I do know that some good athletes are competing here, including several Budapest team members
Ibero-American U18 Championships (Lima, PER) - No idea yet of who's competing here but eligible nations are Spain, Portugal, all of South and Central America and any Spanish or Portuguese speaking countries in the Caribbean and Africa

All the details and links at https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gldiu...90zwkicd7&dl=0

The next major post will be on Friday evening for the weekend's streams including the Diamond League Final, the European Road race U20, the Sydney Marathon, the half marathons in Copenhagen & Porto and more.

**LuckySpikes** · 15-09-23, 19:47

Live streams/broadcasts for Saturday 16th September to Sunday 17th September:

There's also a possibility of Saturday's South African Cross Country Championships being added to the roster.

Saturday to Sunday

Days 3 & 4 of the Japanese University Team T&F Championships a.k.a. Emperor's Cup (Kumagaya, JPN) - For your convenience, included again in the document below; See the teaser notes in the post above
Days 2 & 3 of the Brazilian U23 Club Championships (Bragança Paulista, BRA) - For your convenience, included again in the document below
Days 2 & 3 of the Ibero-American U18 Championships (Lima, PER) - For your convenience, included again in the document below
DNA U20 Clubs - Clash of the Clubs (Rome, ITA) - This involves 11 champion club teams from across Europe including GB's Blackheath & Bromley (plus a second Italian club to make 12 teams). Using the Dynamic New Athletics format there's 2 matches on Saturday and then 'A' and 'B' Finals on Sunday
Athletics Cup of Slovenia (Novo mesto, SLO) - I haven't listed many of Slovenia's meetings this year but I should do with this one because it's better quality despite being almost all domestic athletes. Whilst a couple of Slovenia's big names are missing (most notably Ceh & Mismas-Zrimsek) there's still a number of good athletes competing, especially in the Women's events - e.g., Anita Horvat (200 & 400), Klara Lukan (3000), Neja Filipic (LJ), Lia Apostolovski (HJ), Eva Pepelnak (TJ), Veronika Sadek (1500 & 3000), Maja Mihalinec Zidar (100 & 200) & Agata Zupin (100 & 400H). There's also a few good match-ups such as Nika Glojnaric, Joni Tomicic Prezelj & Milica Emini (SRB) in the Women's 100 Hurdles
Prefontaine Classic - Diamond League Final (Eugene, OR, USA)

Saturday

European Road Race U20 – Trofeo Opitergium (Oderzo, ITA) - WA Label race; International 10km (Men) & 5km (Women); Under 20s from across Europe are congregating in Italy this weekend (see also the DNA U20 Clubs event above)! This is a really nice event giving European youngsters experience of international championship-style road racing. It's run on a loop of approx 900m, partly through the old town. The Italians have strong teams in both races but expected to challenge them in the Men's race are a pair of Frenchmen, Nils Serre Gehri (29:23 PB) and Pierre Boudy, U20 European silver in the Steeple. GB's Rebecca Flaherty looks like the favourite in the Women's race but there's also a number of athletes competing who placed 4th or 5th in the European U20s at distances from 800 to 5000
Sydney Marathon incl Australian Marathon Championships (Sydney, AUS) - WA Platinum Label race; The fields are strong here with 9 sub-2:06 men and 6 sub-2:22 women including the likes of Gabriel Geay, Getaneh Molla, Amedework Walelegn, Angela Tanui & Judith Korir. I've been impressed with Walelegn in his last 2 marathons (winning both in Korea) and so the very pale Ethiopian could be due a big breakthrough at this distance. The prohibitive favourites for the Aussie titles are Brett Robinson and Sinead Diver
Bangsaen10 (Chonburi, THA) - WA Elite Label race; International 10km road race; There's decent fields here though not super-deep. The Women's race looks the more competitive with 5 women between 31 and 32 minutes including Faith Chepkoech & Loice Chemnung. The Men's field is headed by Chimdessa Debele (ETH: 27:10 PB) and Hicham Amghar (MAR; 27:24 PB)

Sunday

Porto Half Marathon (Porto, POR) - WA Label race; There's no word on who's competing here but it's usually a good quality race
Dam tot Damloop (Amsterdam to Zaandam, NED) - International 10 mile road race; Almaz Ayana is the headline name here and she faces a cast of good but not outstanding Kenyans as well as Diane van Es and Sarah Lahti (SWE). The Men's field has a bit of strength at the top, including the likes of Geoffry Kipchumba, Matthew Kimeli and intriguingly, Adel Mechaal in only his third race longer than 10km
Copenhagen Half Marathon (Copenhagen, DEN) - WA Gold Label race; There's really strong fields here with 9 sub-60 men including Kennedy Kimutai (58:28 PB), Richard Yator Kimunyan and Bernard Kiprop Koech (2:04:09 marathon recently). After his 7:34.8 3000m PB last week, Henrik Ingebrigtsen is making his HM debut and Emile Cairess will be hoping to breach the one hour mark. There's star names in the Women's race too with 13 sub-68 athletes and 2 prominent debutantes. The line-up is headed by the likes of Gladys Chepkirui, Hawi Feysa, Irine Cheptai, Sarah Chelangat (UGA), Jesca Chelangat & Karoline Grovdal - with both the Chelangats making their HM debuts

All the details and links at https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1l7sy...5fmg6wbyg&dl=0

The next major post will be on Thursday evening for the start on Friday of the 3-day Japanese Corporate T&F Championships in Gifu. Guess who's due to race there!

**LuckySpikes** · 21-09-23, 19:55

Live streams starting on Friday 22nd September:

Friday to Sunday

All Japan Corporate T&F Championships (Gifu, JPN) - I'm reluctant to big this meeting up too much since there's often quite a number of withdrawals. However, some absences have already been notified and, if there's not many more, a lot of these line-ups will be good. The distance fields have been announced as startlists a few days ago so hopefully they will stay strong. The Kenyans are out in force for those and the Men's 10,000 'A' race is set to include the likes of Stanley Waithaka Mburu, Evans Keitany, Jonathan Ndiku and Benson Kiplangat. The Women's 5000 'A' race and 10,000 are looking very nice too, with a bit more Japanese interest than the Men's equivalents. The 5000 includes a number of good young Kenyans but also the likes of Wakana Kabasawa (having a very nice year), Momoka Kawaguchi and Nagisa Shimotabira who has also had a minor breakthrough this year. In the 10,000 there's Eva Cherono and Pauline Kamulu as well as a number of sub-32 Japanese women such as Rino Goshima (hoping to recapture her early-2023 form), Momoka Kawaguchi (again), Hina Yanagitani & Wakana Itsuki and other stalwarts in the 32-low/mid range such as Misaki Hayashida, Natsuki Omori and Mikuni Yada. After a temperature-led break of 9 weeks for long-distance track running in Japan, the 5000s and 10,000s get back in full swing now and historically there's always plenty of re-writing of the Japanese yearly lists in these last 3 months of the year. As well as being entered in the 10,000, Japan's # 1 steepler, Yuno Yamanaka, is running her first Steeple of the year after working on both her speed and endurance in other events this season. Manami Nishiyama (9:39 PB) might give her a good race here. The "guess who" at the end of the post above of course concerns Nozomi Tanaka, not a woman who likes to let a week pass by without racing! She's entered in the 800 here

All the details and links at https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/g8nut...df60j52fo&dl=0

The next major post will be tomorrow (Friday) evening for the weekend's free streams including the Berlin Marathon, our first streamed Ekiden of the season, the start of the World Cross Country Tour with Lidingöloppet, the USA 10km Championships, the Vitality London 10,000 (10km road race) and more.

**LuckySpikes** · 22-09-23, 21:48

Live streams/broadcasts for Saturday 23rd September to Sunday 24th September:

Join me, why don't you, for the wonderful world of Japanese Ekidens!

Yes, it's that time of the year again when the Ekiden season starts to get into full flow. It's my conservative guesstimate that there's at least 250 Ekidens in Japan every year. On this thread I'll bring you streaming links for around 40 of them between now and the end of February with another couple in March and April.

There's around 18 Ekidens shown on national TV ... all the national level events, I think, except one non-championship High School event - and all the national championships in the different categories - as well as some very strong regional events that are also top-notch such as the Princess Ekiden and the East Japan ekidens. The coverage on most of these national TV broadcasts is terrific - really next-level stuff. The Japanese just seem to get how to cover road racing.

Of the other 20 or so Ekidens, shown mostly on YouTube, the coverage is often very good since many of the streams are produced by regional or local TV channels. Some of those Ekidens are at the prefectural/inter-municipal level (Japan has 47 prefectures) but, given the depth of talent in Japan, even at that level there's often a good number of very good athletes competing. There is usually live streaming of about 10 other Ekidens but I won't be including those because the quality of coverage isn't great, making them a difficult watch.

I've produced a schedule of all the Japanese Ekidens we should be able to watch in the coming months. You'll find that document linked at the bottom of every Ekiden listing this season.

If you haven't watched an Ekiden before, this Saturday's Kansai region University Women's Ekiden isn't a bad place to start. Yes, the coverage is more basic than the big TV productions - just one camera bike instead of multiple bikes and not so much of the on-screen graphics. However, it's still easy to follow and to keep tabs on how the chasing teams are doing because they also make use of a couple of fixed camera points around the loop (approx 700m before the 'stadium' and also on the steep hill into the stadium) and in Ekiden broadcast tradition you also get to see all the changeovers. The "relay stations" (changeover zones) are all-important in Ekiden tradition - 'eki' means station and 'den' means to convey and the concept of Ekidens is linked to how messages used to be transported/communicated in ye olden days in Japan. And they're a fun part of the race where you see how well athletes are finishing and also how aggressively the new runners start. All the TV productions and many of the other streams will show all the action at the relay stations but also have an inset picture showing what's going on at the front of the race.

Apologies, there's no teaser notes tonight except for the Kansai region University Women's Ekiden which I mostly already had prepared (some of it a copy & paste from last year!) Also, to mention a bit about the Berlin Marathon. There were a load of Japanese racing there last year but only 2 this year due to the Marathon Grand Challenge (Japan's Olympic Trials) being in 3 weeks' time. However, one of those two is Hitomi Niiya, not competing at those Trials but instead trying to break the Japanese NR in Berlin - she's said she's no longer bothered about making Olympic & Worlds teams (maybe she'll change her mind for the Tokyo WCh in 2025?) The figures to beat are 2004 Olympic champion Mizuki Noguchi's 2:19:12, set when she won Berlin in 2005. Niiya's own PB is 2:19:24 from Houston earlier this year.

I'm hopeful of announcements of live streams for 3 events on Sunday - the Milla de Madrid (elite road miles), the London 10,000 (10km road race) and the Senko Challenge (Women's 1500, 3000 & 5000 in Japan). If streams are confirmed or I decide to list them speculatively, I will post on this thread by Saturday night at the latest.

Saturday to Sunday

Days 2 & 3 of the All Japan Corporate T&F Championships (Gifu, JPN) - Included in the document below again, for your convenience; See the teaser notes in the post above
Décastar (Talence, FRA) - WA Combined Events Tour Gold meeting
Nippon Sports Science University Long Distance Meeting a.k.a. Nittai University Time Trials (Yokohama, JPN)

Saturday

Kansai region University Women's Ekiden (Kobe, JPN) - This is a qualifier for the Morino Miyako Ekiden, a.k.a. the All Japan University Women's Ekiden Championship, at the end of October. Kansai region is strong for distance running (containing big cities such as Osaka, Kyoto & Kobe) so the standard of this race is good. Three of its teams - Ritsumeikan Uni, Osaka Gakuin Uni & Kansai Uni - are already qualified for Morino Miyako by finishing Top 8 at Morino Miyako last year (but they're still competing here). The first 3 teams here which are not those 3 will also qualify. This is a slightly unusual Ekiden in that it uses the same loop for each of the legs. The 3.25km loop is deceptively tough with a lot of undulation - long gradual drags uphill and long gradual downhills as well as a steep little kick up before re-entering the 'stadium' at the end of each lap. The 2021 & 2022 winners were Ritsumeikan University (burgundy vest with a white "R"; bib 1) and the 2020 victors were Kansai University (white vest with navy stripe across & navy shorts; bib 4). Osaka University of Arts are also usually up there in the top 4 or 5 - they'll be in the all-red kit with gold piping (with bib 6). The bib numbers reflect each team's finishing position last year. The Kansai region's big 3 athletes on the national collegiate scene are all due to start - Rio Einaga (Osaka Gakuin) on leg 1, Hikaru Kitagawa (Osaka Uni of Arts) on leg 4 and Tomo Muramatsu (Ritsumeikan) on leg 5. Kitagawa, the World University Games champion in the Half Marathon, was the only one of those 3 to have a good race in the 10,000 at last week's Japanese team collegiate championships. Here she needs another good run to help her team qualify for Morino Miyako. Going on leg 2 for Sonoda Women's Uni is Ai Watanabe, the top collegiate 800m runner in Japan. They're more of a sprints university though so they're not expected to figure highly here. Last year's winning time of 1:39:12 was the joint fastest in the last 8 years but the course record is 1:36:58 by Ritsumeikan Uni in 2010
International U16 match - CRO-CZE-HUN-SLO-SVK (Trnava, SVK)
Lidingöloppet (Lidingö, SWE) - World Cross Country Tour Silver meeting; The longest (30km) and largest cross country race in the world
The Great Cow Harbor 10k incl USATF 10km Championships (Northport, NY, USA)

Sunday

Run Your City Joburg 10k (Johannesburg, RSA)
Subida Pedestre al Desfiladero de La Hermida (Panes to Potes, ESP) - 28.5km international road race, net 276m uphill; This looks tough!
Berlin Marathon (Berlin, GER) - WA Platinum Label race; This is on FloTrack for UK viewers hence the various less-than-ideal viewing options that I've listed
Běchovice - Praha incl Czech 10km Championships (Běchovice to Prague, CZE)
10 Miles Garoto (Vila Velha to Vitória, BRA) - International 10 Mile road race; Usually decent races with a few Africans included

All the details and links at https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/r2n4x...7x6zjs3q4&dl=0

The next major post will be on Thursday evening for the start on Friday of the athletics at the Asian Games in Hangzhou.

**LuckySpikes** · 23-09-23, 19:46

Sunday additions update:

It looks like YTV isn't streaming this particular Senko Challenge meeting in Japan. Usually they notify upcoming streams at least a couple of days in advance. A shame because they're fun little meetings.

I'm less confident now that the Milla de Madrid and the Vitality London 10,000 are going to be live streamed this year (they have been streamed the last couple of years). However, if it turns out that they are streamed tomorrow then I will add them retrospectively.

I have made a discovery though - added to the latest document above is Sunday morning's ...

Kizuna Record Challenge (Sagamihara, JPN) - Men's mid/long-distance meeting; There's 3 or 4 of these meetings a year, sometimes producing good results. This edition looks fair to middling with a lot of University and High School athletes. But it does include a few Kenyans such as (in the 5000 'A' race) Leakaey Kamina, the winner of the 5000 at last weekend's Japanese University Team Championships

**LuckySpikes** · 28-09-23, 19:18

Live streams/broadcasts for Friday 29th September:

I investigated a number of viewing options for the Asian Games and some (e.g. Korean TV) were patchy in terms of athletics coverage. However, everyone can watch all the sessions on the reliable Chinese TV stream linked in the document and all the evening sessions can be viewed with English commentary if you have a VPN.

Friday 29th Sep to Thursday 5th Oct

Asian Games (Hangzhou, CHN) - A lot of the biggest names of Asian athletics are competing such as Salwa Eid Naser, Chopra and in the High Jump, Barshim & Woo. Bahrain, after missing July's Asian Championships, have sent a strong team. Japan led the medal table at those Asian Championships but I don't think they will at this event. Most of their absolute biggest names aren't competing (mostly because they weren't selected in the first place) but they still have a number of good chances with, for example, the two Sato's in the Men's 400 (now both sub-45) and Ririka Hironaka in the Women's 5 & 10. Each nation can have a maximum of 2 athletes per event

Friday

Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival (Fayetteville, AR, USA) - NCAA D1, D2, NAIA & NJCAA meeting; This is not terribly deep in terms of the D1 teams competing but probably a bit better on the D2 side. The Preview article linked in the document breaks it down better than I can

All the details and links at https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/xzd9s...ekpkozl7l&dl=0

The next major post will be tomorrow (Friday) evening for the weekend's free streams including the World Road Running Championships, the Athletics Challenge Cup (CT Bronze) meeting in Japan, various road races, a couple of Ekidens and more.

**LuckySpikes** · 29-09-23, 20:22

Live streams/broadcasts for Saturday 30th September to Sunday 1st October:

There's a few events that I'm waiting to find out if they'll be streamed or not. They usually are streamed/broadcast ...

Saturday 5.30pm
- Giro al Sas (Trento, ITA) - famous old International Men's 10.1km road race
Sunday
- Great Scottish Run (Glasgow, GBR) - Half Marathon; Usually on the BBC online but not looking likely this year
- Trento Half Marathon (Trento, ITA)

I'll update the document and this thread if any of those live streams do transpire.

The Cardiff Half Marathon (quite loaded) is taking place on Sunday. However, the TV highlights won't be broadcast until Friday 6th October so the listing for that will be posted next Thursday.

Saturday 30th Sep to Thursday 5th Oct

Days 2 to 7 of the Asian Games (Hangzhou, CHN) - Included in the document again for your convenience; See the teaser notes in the post above. Now that the swimming and track cycling are completed I'm predicting that there will now be full coverage of the athletics sessions on the unofficial CCTV5 stream (the first evening was limited coverage)

Saturday to Sunday

Athletics Challenge Cup (Niigata, JPN) - WA Continental Tour Bronze meeting; Japan GP Series; There's good, mostly domestic line-ups here but they promised to be much more international until most (40+) of the international athletes were crossed out about 2 weeks ago. I don't know if the Japanese government are restricting foreign entry to the country again because of rising COVID cases? Anyway, there's still some very competitive fields in the short sprints & 400 Hurdles and good fields for the 5000s and field events (especially the Men's). Also, the Women's 800 features Airi Ikezaki and 20yo Ai Watanabe who have both made good progress this year and offer a glimmer of hope that more Japanese women can start to getting close to 2:00-something again! There's also some other good youngsters in those 800s including 18yo Yuri Nishida who looks a good prospect

Saturday

15k Nocturna (Valencia, ESP) - There's no word yet on who's competing in this night race but usually there's a few good internationals along with some of Spain's top athletes

Sunday

Oku-Kuma Ekiden (Taragi, JPN) - High School Boys' teams versus University Men's teams & Corporate Men's teams; High schoolers against senior men? "Surely that's not a fair fight?", you might say. However, the format of this particular race is the leveller. All the 61 teams run the marathon distance but the High School teams do it using 7 athletes whilst the senior men have just 4 athletes. This also lends the race an interesting dynamic. A third of the way through his leg a senior athlete might have 20m advantage over a high schooler. However, 200m later he might find himself 10m behind because the high schooler has flown past him whilst kicking to finish his shorter leg! A bit disconcerting for the senior athlete! The question is then whether the senior athlete can use the rest of his leg to re-establish the advantage he had over the high school team ... In last year's inaugural edition it was indeed the High Schoolers who got the upper hand with Sekucho High School winning in 2:07:16 by 16 seconds from the Toyota Motor Kyushu 'A' team
Akita 25 Municipal Ekiden Furusato Akita Run! (Yurihonjo, JPN) - Mixed sex ekiden comprising School pupils 10-18yo, senior Men & Women and Masters Men; Inter-municipal ekidens like this are always fun because of the various age groups on each team. Akita is one of the smaller prefectures in Japan with a population of just over 900,000 so this ekiden isn't flooded with a ton of big talents. However, last year they did have a few promising high school boys and girls who are approaching being national level athletes. Last year's winners were Odate City (bib 4 every year), followed by Akita City (bib 1) and Yokote City (bib 3). Misato Town (bib 28) won the Town division by finishing 4th of the 25 teams overall. As with all ekidens (and Japanese athletics in general) there's always colourful kits too, which makes it easier to watch!
Women's Challenge 10km Grand Prix series Round 6 (Johannesburg, RSA) - Tadu Teshome (2:17:36 marathoner), called Tadu Nare during this series, has dominated the series and is back again for this final round. It looks like her compatriot Selam Gebre will also be racing along with Blandina Makatisi from Lesotho, a sub-32 & sub-70 athlete
Košice International Peace Marathon (Košice, SVK) - WA Label race; There's pretty good fields for the 100th edition of this race. Seven of the Men have PBs at 2:07-flat or quicker, including Philemon Rono and Kebede Tulu (2:05:19 for 2nd in Sevilla this year). Four of the women have recent times in the 2:23 to 2:24 range including defending champ Margaret Agai (KEN) and there's 3 more at 2:30-low or better
Köln Marathon incl German Marathon Championships (Köln, GER) - Usually this race has decent international fields but I can see no mention this year of any athlete other than those contesting the German Championships. Perhaps the elite races are domestic-only this year? With the best German men like Petros, Ringer & Pfeiffer not there, the national title looks likely to be won by an athlete with a PB in the 2:14 to 2:16 range or by debutante Jonathan Dahlke who has 28:37 and 62:29 PBs. Another debutante, Esther Jacobitz, is the favourite for the Women's national title
International San Sebastián Half Marathon (San Sebastián, ESP) - The Men's race is quite interesting with 5 men who have either (or both) a HM PB in the 61-62 min range or a sub-2:10 marathon PB, as well as Steeple NR-holder Fernando Carro. Morocco's Abderrahmane Aferdi might be the favourite - he's had a breakthrough year. The Women's race isn't as deep but includes old-stagers Elena Loyo, Irene Pelayo & Yesica Más
Morat-Fribourg (Morat to Fribourg, SUI) - International 17.17km road race (Net 162m uphill - climbs 130m between 1.5km & 5.5km and also 40m in the last 400m or so); This classic old race has a lot of up and down, but mostly up! The 400m run-in to the finish line is pretty brutal. There's a number of elite Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes resident in Switzerland and several of them are racing here. 2021 winner Cornelius Kangogo looks like the favourite in the Men's but the 2-3-4 from last year are also competing. The Women's race should be a battle of the Kenyan duo vs the Ethiopian duo
World Road Running Championships (Riga, LAT) - Half Marathon, 5km & Road Mile; These races are loaded! Faith Kipyegon, Welteji, Kejelcha, McSweyn, Jess Hull, Beatrice Chebet, Eisa, Aregawi, Gebrihiwet, Gressier, Ebenyo and Peres Jepchirchir are just some of the big names due to line-up. Nozomi Tanaka competes in the Mile, just 55 minutes after completing the 5km. What a gal !
TC 10 Mile & Twin Cities Marathon (St. Paul, MN, USA) - both WA Label races; There's nice fields for the 10 Mile race - the Men's including the likes of James Ngandu, Reid Buchanan, Zouhair Talbi & steepler, Yemane Haileselassie (ERI). Heading the Women's field are Carrie Verdon, Laura Thweatt & Makena Morley although 2020 NCAA XC champ Mercy Chelengat looks like a threat to take the victory. The marathon fields are weaker - three sub-2:10 Kenyans but in the Women's at least there's 11 women in the 2:29 to 2:34 range. Last year the streaming coverage of the 10 Mile wasn't too bad but for the Marathon we got that annoying marathon coverage, quite typical of local TV in Western countries
Singelloop Breda incl Dutch Half Marathon Championships (Breda, NED) - International Half Marathon; WA Label race; There's very little info on who's competing this year but this is usually a decent international race. It seems like Vincent Kibet and the Women's course record holder, Naom Jebet (68:08 PB), head the line-ups
Grand Prix Sudamericano Semana de Mar (Mar del Plata, ARG) - WA Continental Tour Challenger meeting; Athletes from 10 South American nations are competing with the hosts, Brazil & Uruguay all with 10 or more athletes there. Amongst the more familiar/better athletes competing are Lucas Carvalho (BRA; 400), Gabriel Kehr (CHI; Hammer), Eliane Martins (BRA; Long Jump) and a decent crop of Brazilian women in the 100 against Argentina's best

All the details and links at https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ubl6c...hkxnrjfg9&dl=0

The next major post will possibly be mid-week for South American track & field but if not, then it will be on Thursday evening for those Cardiff Half Marathon highlights on Friday.

**LuckySpikes** · 30-09-23, 11:56

Added to the latest document above are the events in the beautiful city of Trento, both with good fields ...

Saturday

Giro al Sas (Trento, ITA) - International Men's 10.1km road race; Kibiwott Kandie versus Yeman Crippa

Sunday

Trento Half Marathon (Trento, ITA) - Muktar Edris headlining here

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