Skip to main content

Osako Wins World University Games 10000 m

by Brett Larner

Click photo for video highlights.

2011 Hakone Ekiden champion Waseda University's star sophomore Suguru Osako, the Asian junior area record holder for the half marathon, won his first world title on the second day of the 2011 World University Games as he ran a season-best 28:42.83 to take the men's 10000 m.  Russian Sergey Rybin took the race out at a blistering speed, clocking 2:44.13 for the first 1000 m and going through halfway in 13:53.21.  The pace burned most of the competition before Rybin began to slow.  By 8000 m Rybin was running slower than 3:00 / km, and, staggering after being passed by Osako on the last lap, he dropped out with less than 200 m to go.  The 20-year-old Osako, who ran most of the race with 26-year-old South African Stephen Mokoka, executed a long kick over the last 400 m to win by more than ten seconds.  Mokoka took silver, with 26-year-old Moroccan Ahmed Tamri picking up bronze in 29:06.20.  Meiji University senior Tetsuya Yoroizaka, 21, who last month ran 27:44.30 at the Aviva UK Trials, had an off day as he finished 5th in only 29:32.21 after running together with Osako in the early stages of the race.

Osako will return Aug. 19 in the men's 5000 m where his PB of 13:31.27 from earlier this season ranks him #4 in the field.  Joining him is Komazawa University sophomore Ikuto Yufu, who ran a 10000 m PB of 28:02.46 in June.

2011 World University Games Men's 10000 m
Shenzhen, China, 8/17/11
click here for complete results

1. Suguru Osako (Waseda Univ.) - 28:42.83
2. Stephen Mokoka (South Africa) - 28:53.09
3. Ahmed Tamri (Morocco) - 29:06.20
4. Evgeny Rybakov (Russia) - 29:10.86
5. Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Meiji Univ.) - 29:32.21
6. Sibabalwe Gladwin Mzazi (South Africa) - 29:34.65
7. Joseph Chebet (Uganda) - 30:03.52
8. Rolf Rufenacht (Switzerland) - 30:18.24
9. Stsiapan Rahautsou (Belarus) - 30:29.33
10. Paul Avila (Bolivia) - 32:13.50

(c) 2011 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Brett Larner said…
Yes, Osako was pretty sugoi. His dad emailed and said, "I was pretty surprised, to be honest. I think he was a bit lucky." I think he meant that the suicidal Russian blew up. Great last kick from Suguru, at any rate.

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Takeuchi Wins Niigata Half in Boston Tune-Up

Running in cold, windy and rainy conditions, Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Software) warmed up for April's Boston Marathon with a win at Wednesday's Niigata Half Marathon . Takeuchi sat behind Nittai University duo Susumu Yamazaki and Ryuga Ishikawa in the early stages, then made a series of pushes to pick up the pace. Each time he tucked in behind whoever went to the front, while behind them others dropped off. Before 15 km only Yamazaki and Riki Koike of Soka University were left, and when Takeuchi went to the front the last time after 15 km only Koike followed. By 16 he was gone too, leaving Takeuchi to solo it in to the win in 1:03:13 with a 17-second negative split. "This was my last fitness check before the Boston Marathon next month, and my time was right on-target," he said post-race. "Everything went as planned. I'm looking forward to racing some of the world's best in Boston, and my goal there is to place in the single digits." Just back from tr