Skip to main content

18-Year-Old Azusa Sumi Clears Beijing 5000 m Standard in Kitami

by Brett Larner

After a superb come-from-behind 15:21.07 PB for 2nd at the National Championships two weeks ago, 18-year-old Azusa Sumi (Team Univ. Ent.) did what she needed to do to make the Beijing World Championships team, dropping a 2:59 last 1000 m to go under the 15:20.00 Beijing standard for the first time as she won the Hokuren Distance Challenge Kitami Meet women's 5000 m A-heat in 15:17.62.  Sumi ran much of the race with 19-year-old Miyuki Uehara (Team Daiichi Seimei) right on standard pace but needed to bring the kick that took her from 4th to 2nd on the last lap at Nationals into play to go under.  Uehara just missed joining her but likewise marked a big improvement to her PB with a 15:21.40.  Now #2 among juniors worldwide so far this year, Sumi should join Nationals 1st and 3rd placers Misaki Onishi (Team Sekisui Kagaku) and Ayuko Suzuki (Team Japan Post), both of whom already had the Beijing standard, on the World Championships team but must wait for pending official confirmation.

The other big news of the meet came in the men's 5000 m race walk.  20 kmRW world record holder Yusuke Suzuki (Team Fujitsu) and 5000 mRW national record holder Eiki Takahashi (Team Fujitsu) worked together to go after Takahashi's 18:51.93 NR, Suzuki getting away in the end but both taking a large chunk off the record.  Suzuki won in a new NR of 18:37.22, Takahashi just a fraction of a second behind in 18:37.60.

In other noteworthy news, 30 km national university record holder Yuma Hattori (Toyo Univ.), 21, returned from the Achilles injury that stopped him from making a planned marathon debut in Tokyo this year to take more than 15 seconds off his 5000 m PB, finishing 4th in the men's A-heat in 13:36.76 behind winner Paul Kuira (Team Konica Minolta).  His younger brother Hazuma Hattori (Toyo Univ.), 20, a 1:02:31 half marathoner, won the 1500 m A-heat in a PB 3:42.06, leading five men under 3:43.  London Olympics marathoner Arata Fujiwara (Miki House), still hopeful of making a comeback in time to make the Rio de Janeiro team, ran his first track race in a long, long time, running 14:08.40 for 21st in the 5000 m B-heat well ahead of rival Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) who ran 14:20.56 for 33rd shortly after coming just shy of his 1500 m PB with a 3:51.99 for 5th in the B-heat.

Hokuren Distance Challenge Kitami Meet
Kitami, Hokkaido, 7/12/15
click here for complete results

Women's 5000 m A-Heat
1. Azusa Sumi (Universal Entertainment) - 15:17.62
2. Miyuki Uehara (Daiichi Seimei) - 15:21.40
3. Ayumi Hagiwara (Uniqlo) - 15:35.60
4. Moeno Nakamura (Universal Entertainment) - 15:41.95
5. Yuki Hidaka (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 15:42.68
6. Miyuki Oka (Denso) - 15:46.61
7. Chikako Mori (Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:48.31
8. Hanami Sekine (Japan Post) - 15:48.33
9. Mai Tsuda (Uniqlo) - 15:49.38
10. Eri Hayakawa (Toto) - 15:49.38

Men's 5000 m A-Heat
1. Paul Kuira (Kenya/Konica Minolta) - 13:28.21
2. Rodgers Shumo Kwemoi (Kenya/Aisan Kogyo) - 13:28.62
3. Samuel Mwangi (Kenya/Konica Minolta) - 13:33.39
4. Yuma Hattori (Toyo Univ.) - 13:36.76
5. Chiharu Nakagawa (Toenec) - 13:37.90
6. Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Konica Minolta) - 13:38.53
7. Yudai Okamoto (JFE Steel) - 13:38.56
8. Joseph Mumo (Kenya/Hitachi Butsuryu) - 13:39.86
9. Hideyuki Tanaka (Toyota) - 13:41.78
10. Taku Fujimoto (Toyota) - 13:42.94

Men's 5000 m B-Heat
1. Shin Kimura (Meiji Univ.) - 13:51.76
2. Kenta Matsubara (Toyota) - 13:51.99
3. Tomoya Onishi (Asahi Kasei) - 13:52.35
4. Hiroki Kadota (Kanebo) -13:56.14
5. Fumihiro Maruyama (Asahi Kasei) - 13:56.63
-----
21. Arata Fujiwara (Miki House) - 14:08.40
33. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) - 14:20.56

Women's 3000 m A-Heat
1. Tsadkan Tesema (Ethiopia/Toto) - 9:04.98
2. Naoko Koizumi (Denso) - 9:06.72
3. Yuki Mitsunobu (Denso) - 9:07.59
4. Risa Yokoe (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 9:10.51
5. Rina Yamazaki (Panasonic) - 9:11.76

Men's 1500 m A-Heat
1. Hazuma Hattori (Toyo Univ.) - 3:42.06
2. Tatsuhiko Hori (Toyo Univ.) - 3:42.51
3. Yuta Matsuda (SGH Group) - 3:42.52
4. Toshihiro Kenmotsu (NTT Nishi Nihon) - 3:42.69
5. Tatsuro Okazaki (Osaka Gas) - 3:42.84

Men's 3000 mSC
1. Jun Shinoto (Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) - 8:48.23
2. Hiroshi Ichida (Asahi Kasei) - 8:55.95
3. Naoyuki Jin (Kitasato Byoin) - 8:58.53

Men's 5000 mRW
1. Yusuke Suzuki (Fujitsu) - 18:37.22 - NR
2. Eiki Takahashi (Fujitsu) - 18:37.60 (NR)
3. Kai Kobayashi (Bic Camera) - 19:24.00

(c) 2015 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Ninja Runner Yuka Ando Leads Japanese Women's Marathon Team in London: "I Want to Go For It"

Her form has been dubbed "ninja running." Both arms held straight down with almost no movement. That idiosyncratic style carried Yuka Ando , 23, to the fastest-ever marathon debut by a Japanese woman, 2:21:36, at March's Nagoya Women's Marathon to land at #4 on the all-time Japanese lists. All at once Ando found herself catapulted to the top level of women's marathoning, a candidate for Japan's next great marathoner. When she was younger Ando ran moving her arms like other runners, but she had a bad habit of moving robotically, her upper body and lower body not working in sync. The turning point came in 2014 when she joined Suzuki Hamamatsu AC . Working there with coach Masayuki Satouchi to eliminate the faults in her form, the pair arrived at the ninja running style that let her run relaxed. "Other people keep asking me, "Isn't it hard to run like that?" but for me it's comfortable," she said. The efficient form helped her mai

Yamaguchi 10th at United Airlines NYC Half - Weekend Overseas Results

2024 national cross-country champion Tomonori Yamaguchi was the top Japanese finisher in the men's race at the United Airlines NYC Half , taking 10th in 1:04:36. A 2nd-year at Waseda University , Yamaguchi was one of three collegiate runners running New York in the 11th year of JRN's development program collaboration between the Ageo City Half Marathon and the New York Road Runners, a program that has seen people like future half marathon and marathon NR breaker Yuta Shitara and Paris Olympic team member Akira Akasaki make their international debuts. Yamaguchi's Waseda teammate Taishi Ito started fast, going with the leaders through 5 km in 14:29 before losing touch. Hosei University senior Rei Matsunaga went through in 14:42 in his last race before joining the JR Higashi Nihon corporate team in April. Yamaguchi, who caught COVID after winning last month's National Cross-Country Championships, started more conservatively with a 15:11 first 5km. But where both Ito

Rui Aoki Wins National University Men's Half Marathon - Weekend Results

Yuka Ando 's win at the Nagoya Women's Marathon was the big news of the weekend, but there were other high-level races happening, even in Nagoya. Held in parallel with the marathon, the Nagoya City Half Marathon saw Australians Natalie Rule and Ed Goddard take easy wins by about 2.5 minutes each, Rule in 1:13:57 and Goddard in 1:04:01. The new Biwako Marathon also had a non-Japanese winner, China's Yousheng Guan scoring 1st in 2:14:58 with Japan's Hirohito Sugai next in 2:16:40. Mikiko Ota won the women's race in 2:50:44. The Shizuoka Marathon returned for its first running in five years, with club runner Shumpei Oda leading the top 7 men under 2:20 in 2:15:36. Women's winner Remi Tanaka ran 2:41:23, beating runner-up Ayumi Sano by exactly 7 minutes. And in Tokyo, Rui Aoki continued what has been a great season so far for Koku Gakuin University with a win at the National University Men's Half Marathon . Aoki and Hiro Konda of Chuo Gakuin Unive