Year-to-Date High School Best Marks 3k/5k 2011 (HS)

Japanese high schools are similar to American high schools, except the school year begins in April.  The track and field varsity athletes compete to make it to the national championships in August, the JV athletes and new-to-the-sport athletes compete in other meets, with local championships through out Japan in August and early September focusing on the younger athletes.  Track and field will continue throughout the autumn.

Starting in September the middle distance runners focus on qualifying their team to make the national high school EKIDEN championships in December.  Ekiden is a RELAY, and the boys compete a full marathon (8 runners) and the girls a half marathon (5 runners).

Since April, most varsity boys have been running 5000 meters on track, with sophomores (and junior high athletes) focusing on the the 3000 meter. Many boys move up from the 3000 meter race to the 3000 meter steeplechase event.  The 1500 meter is a less-aspired to event, reserved for "speedsters".

For the girls, the premier track and field event is the 1500 meter; the 3000 meter event is reserved for those who have already made their mark in the 1500 meter. The concept seems to be "speed first".  Consequently, very few girls run the 3000 meter if they can' t break 10:30. But note that several hundred girls are under 10:00 for the 3000 meter.  When the autumn season rolls around, and the high school ekiden championships are looming, large numbers of female athletes will start moving into the 3000 meter and 5000 meter events. That is to say, through early September the relative numbers of girls in these events has been small but that is about to change.

The results below are limited to high school teams with at least 4 athletes with a posted result at 5000 meters (boys) and 3000 meters (girls). The biggest obstacle to making this list complete is that most major meets limit entry to 3 entrants per event. The results for many smaller meets, jv meets, sophomore-only meets etc. are hard to find. Thus it is hard to build a universally comprehensive list of marks for athletes who are below the 3rd place on their team depth chart, resulting in many fine teams not represented here for lack of data. Many squads have members who did not make this listing. Hundreds of top middle distance athletes from schools without deep rosters are missing as well.

Cross country as Americans know it is a very rare event in Japan, much like the high school 3000 meter steeple chase was in America 40 years ago (even today!). So, most of the times below were set on the track. During the autumn there will be many road races added to the high school schedule, in preparation for the ekiden. Whether on the track on on a road race, times will be a bit faster than a cross country meet run on a golf course.