In Hiratsuka, even third place beat Japan’s 30-year-old relay record
By AthRecs Editorial · 2 min read
Three teams lined up for the women’s 4×1500m in Japan. Iwatani won in 17:20.12. Read down to the last line of the results to see how good this race was.
At Lemon Gas Stadium on Sunday, the team in third crossed the line in 17:47.39. Had a Japanese team run that time the day before, it would have beaten the national record by almost 44 seconds. On 1 November in Hiratsuka, two teams had already finished.
The four women who took 71 seconds off the mark
Ayano Shiomi opened for Iwatani Corporation. She came to this race with an 800m background and experience of winning a medal in the mixed 2×2×400m at the World Relays. Ayu Koyama took the second leg. In July alone she had raced 1500m, 3000m and 5000m in eight days.
Iroha Kodama, 18, took the third leg in her first season with Iwatani. She had made the senior Japanese 1500m final in June. Mahiro Hasegawa, another new member of the team, anchored. Between them they covered 6000 metres in 17:20.12, an average of 4:20.03 per leg. That is an average calculated from the team result. The official finish sheet does not give four individual splits.
Three times inside 18:31.18
The previous Japanese record, 18:31.18, dated back to 1996. The corporate select team finished second in 17:40.44. The university select team followed in 17:47.39. Iwatani beat the old mark by 1:11.06, and World Athletics lists its winning time as an Asian area record.
Relay results have a habit of giving four runners one line of print. Look up each of these four and you find an 800m specialist beside a runner who spent part of the summer racing 5000m, a teenager beside a World Relays medallist. All of them had exactly 1500 metres to contribute on Sunday.
Quick answers
Who ran Japan’s 17:20.12 women’s 4×1500m relay?
Ayano Shiomi, Ayu Koyama, Iroha Kodama and Mahiro Hasegawa ran in that order for Iwatani Corporation on 1 November 2026 in Hiratsuka.
4x1500mHiratsuka平塚陸上競技岩谷産業