Weekend Track Roundup

As regional corporate track meets wound themselves down, the weekend's biggest results came at the Golden Grand Prix meet in Osaka. A quick women's 3000 m saw 10 of the 11 starters go under 9 minutes, six in PB times. Japan-based Ethiopian Shuru Bulo (Toto) led the way in 8:47.24, with the Pre Classic-bound Rina Nabeshima (Japan Post) running 8:51.72 to land 4th both overall and on the Japanese all-time rankings. First-year Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu (Meijo Univ.) ran 8:58.63 for 8th overall, just missing the 1994-era national collegiate record by 0.31 seconds.

The men's 3000 m was also solid, with seven men breaking 8 minutes, six of them Japanese and five in PB times. Kenyan Evans Keitany (Toyota Boshoku) won in 7:54.05 with Hazuma Hattori (Toenec) just behind in a best of 7:54.73. Shota Onizuka (Tokai Univ.) broke into the all-time Japanese collegiate top ten, running 7:57.56 for 6th. Australian Ryan Gregson won the men's 1500 m in 3:37.72 over American Patrick Casey. Indoor mile Japanese national record holder Ryoji Tatezawa (Tokai Univ.) just missed becoming only the fifth Japanese collegian to ever break 3:40, taking 5th in a PB of 3:40.49.

In corporate league regional action, arguably the best mark came in the men's 10000 m at the Kyushu region meet, where Daniel Kipkemoi (Nishitetsu) won in 27:45.11 by more than 17 seconds over Joel Mwaura (Kurosaki Harima). Already the fastest Japanese man so far this year for 10000 m, Shuho Dairokuno was 3rd in 28:12.19. On a roll this season, marathoner Keiko Nogami (Juhachi Ginko) won the 10000 m in a PB of 32:07.70 over the interesting Minami Yamanouchi (Kyocera), who returned the next day to win the 5000 m in 15:44.31.

Japan based-Kenyans won the major events at the East Japan region corporate meet, where Rosemary Wanjiru (Starts) took the women's 10000 min 31:57.66, lapping top Japanese woman Yuka Hori (Panasonic) who was 4th in 33:24.25. Runner-up in the 10000 m, Wanjiru's teammate Grace Kimanzi (Starts) won the 5000 m in 15:21.84. In the men's 10000 m Alexander Mutiso (ND Software) was the fastest at 28:38.11, top Japanese man Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Konica Minolta) running only 29:03.80. Jonathan Ndiku (Hitachi Butsuryu) had a busy day on the second day of the meet, winning the 3000 m SC in 8:41.80 at 11:35 a.m. and then returning six hours later to take 2nd in the 5000 m in 13:28.89 behind teammate Richard Kimunyan, winner in 13:28.21. The fastest Japanese man of the day, Kazuki Onishi (Kanebo) took 13th in 13:49.39.

At the Chugoku region meet, Naoki Okamoto (Chugoku Denryoku) returned from a DNF at the Boston Marathon to win the men's 10000 m in 28:28.73 over 5000 m winner Yudai Okamoto (JFE Steel). Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) continued her comeback from running 2:23:46 in Osaka in January, winning the women's 10000 m in 32:30.39 by more than 30 seconds over teammate Mizuki Tanimoto. Usually holding its championship events together with Chugoku, the tiny Hokuriku region's only noteworthy result in its separate meet this year was a 28:56.00 winning time in the men's 10000 m by Japan-based Kenyan Alex Mwangi (YKK).

© 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Morii Surprises With Second-Ever Japanese Sub-2:10 at Boston

With three sub-2:09 Japanese men in the race and good weather conditions by Boston standards the chances were decent that somebody was going to follow 1981 winner Toshihiko Seko 's 2:09:26 and score a sub-2:10 at the Boston Marathon . But nobody thought it was going to be by a 2:14 amateur. Paris Olympic team member Suguru Osako had taken 3rd in Boston in 2:10:28 in his debut seven years ago, and both he and 2:08 runners Kento Otsu and Ryoma Takeuchi were aiming for spots in the top 10, Otsu after having run a 1:01:43 half marathon PB in February and Takeuchi of a 2:08:40 marathon PB at Hofu last December. A high-level amateur with a 2:14:15 PB who scored a trip to Boston after winning a local race in Japan, Yuma Morii told JRN minutes before the start of the race, "I'm not thinking about time at all. I'm going to make top 10, whatever time it takes." Running Boston for the first time Morii took off with a 4:32 on the downhill opening mile, but after that Sis

The Ivy League at the Izumo Ekiden in Review

Last week I was contacted by Will Geiken , who I'd met years ago when he was a part of the Ivy League Select Team at the Izumo Ekiden . He was looking for historical results from Izumo and lists of past team members, and I was able to put together a pretty much complete history, only missing the alternates from 1998 to 2010 and a little shaky on the reverse transliterations of some of the names from katakana back into the Western alphabet for the same years. Feel free to send corrections or additions to alternate lists. It's interesting to go back and see some names that went on to be familiar, to see the people who made an impact like Princeton's Paul Morrison , Cornell's Max King , Stanford's Brendan Gregg in one of the years the team opened up beyond the Ivy League, Cornell's Ben de Haan , Princeton's Matt McDonald , and Harvard's Hugo Milner last year, and some of the people who struggled with the format. 1998 Team: 15th of 21 overall, 2:14:10 (43

Hirabayashi Runs PB at Shanghai Half, WR Holder Nakata Dominates Fuji Five Lakes - Weekend Road Roundup

Returning to the roads after his 2:06:18 win at February's Osaka Marathon, Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Koku Gakuin University) took 5th at Sunday's Shanghai Half Marathon in a PB 1:01:23, just under a minute behind winner Roncer Kipkorir Konga (Kenya) who clocked a CR 1:00:29. After inexplicably running the equivalent of a sub-59 half marathon to win the Hakone Ekiden's Third Stage, Aoi Ota (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) was back to running performances consistent with his other PBs with a 1:02:30 for 8th. His AGU teammate Kyosuke Hiramatsu was 10th in 1:04:00. Women's winner Magdalena Shauri (Tanzania) also set a new CR in 1:09:57. Aoyama Gakuin runners took the top four spots in the men's half marathon at the Aomori Sakura Marathon , with Hakone alternate Kosei Shiraishi getting the win in 1:04:32 and B-team members Shunto Hamakawa and Kei Kitamura 2nd and 3rd in 1:04:45 and 1:04:48. Club runners took the other division titles, Hina Shinozaki winning the women's half

japan running news

Search This Blog