Skip to main content

Tomoya Onishi Stage Record on Kyushu One-Circuit Ekiden Day Three

by Brett Larner

With the top Japanese men's 10000 m and half marathon times of the year and a 9th-place finish at the World Half Marathon Championships under his belt within the last month, Miyazaki Prefecture's Tomoya Onishi, 23, delivered another big run with a 43:55 stage record for the 15.3 km Fourth Stage on Day Three of the 2010 Kyushu One-Circuit Ekiden, Oct. 31 on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu. Onishi's time broke the existing stage record by 1:12, 5 seconds per km, and was equivalent to a solid 46:11 10-miler. Stage runner-up Ryuji Watanabe of Fukuoka Prefecture also broke the old Fourth Stage record with a 44:16 clocking.

As with the first two days of the ten-day Kyushu One-Circuit Ekiden, the Miyazaki Prefecture team dominated the early stages of Day Three. A weak run from Third Stage runner Noritaka Yokoyama put Miyazaki 59 seconds behind rivals Fukuoka prefecture at the start of the Fourth Stage, and the team spent the next four stage edging back toward the lead, coming within 18 seconds at the start of the final 12.4 km Eighth Stage. Miyazaki anchor and 2009 World Championships marathoner Masaya Shimizu went to work, reeling in struggling Fukuoka anchor Yutaka Kusaga and retaking the lead. A crushed Kusaga folded and had a rare DNF, meaning that Fukuoka would receive a penalty clocking for the anchor stage of 5 minutes slower than the slowest finisher. Despite this penalty, Fukuoka finished 2nd overall for the day. Nagasaki Prefecture maintained its 3rd place spot as the ekiden moves into its fourth day.

2010 Kyushu Isshu Ekiden Day Three
click here for complete results from Day Three
Stage Best Performances
First Stage (13.4 km) - Kenichi Shiraishi (Miyazaki Pref.) - 39:22
Second Stage (11.7 km) - Kenji Higashino (Miyazaki Pref.) - 35:55
Third Stage (10.4 km) - Yuya Konishi (Fukuoka Pref.) - 30:34
Fourth Stage (15.3 km) - Tomoya Onishi (Miyazaki Pref.) - 43:55 - CR
Fifth Stage (20.0 km) - Noritaka Fujiyama (Nagasaki Pref.) - 1:00:21
Sixth Stage (20.2 km) - Tomoyuki Sato (Miyazaki Pref.) - 1:01:21
Seventh Stage (14.4 km) - Kenichiro Setoguchi (Miyazaki Pref.) - 44:10
Eighth Stage (12.4 km) - Masaya Shimizu (Miyazaki Pref.) - 37:51

Top Team Performances - 117.8 km
1. Miyazaki Pref. - 5:56:53
2. Fukuoka Pref. - 6:03:55
3. Nagasaki Pref. - 6:08:20
4. Oita Pref. - 6:10:26
5. Kagoshima Pref. - 6:13:11

Top Team Standings After Day Three - 286.9 km
1. Miyazaki Pref. - 14:31:20
2. Fukuoka Pref. - 14:44:36
3. Nagasaki Pref. - 14:52:04
4. Oita Pref. - 15:09:20
5. Kagoshima Pref. - 15:12:36

(c) 2010 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Australian Male Arrested on Drug Smuggling Charges After Entering Japan for Osaka Marathon

On Apr. 9 the Kinki Region Bureau of Health, Labor and Welfare's Drug Control Division arrested Matthew Inglis Fox , 38, an Australian business owner of no known fixed address, on charges of violating the importation regulations of the Narcotics Control Act by smuggling tablets containing marijuana elements from the United States. The suspect had entered Japan in February to run in the Osaka Marathon . The suspect was arrested on suspicion of smuggling approximately 12 pills containing marijuana by sending them from a U.S. airport to Osaka's Kansai Airport using an international courier service on Feb. 19. The Osaka branch of the Customs Service discovered the tablets in arriving cargo and suspected them to be narcotics. Customs contacted the Narcotics Control Division, which then began its investigation of the case. According to the Narcotics Control Division, the suspect denies the charges.  Translator's note: Fox, who received a lifetime ban from the Ageo City Half Mara...

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

Tokyo Olympics Marathon Trials Winner Nakamura Enters Waseda Grad School

An Olympian in the marathon at the Tokyo Olympics, Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) announced on his social media that he has entered Waseda University 's Graduate School of Sport Science with the start of the new academic year this week. A graduate of Mie's Ueno Kogyo H.S. , Nakamura went to Komazawa University before joining Fujitsu in 2015. His senior year of high school he was 3rd overall and 2nd Japanese in the 5000 m at the National High School Track and Field Championships, and in the fall the same year he ran what was at the time the 7th-fastest high school mark ever, 13:50.38. At Komazawa he scored four individual stage wins across the three big university ekidens. In 2019 he won the MGC Race, Japan's marathon trials for the Tokyo Olympics, where he was 62nd in 2:22:23. Nakamura indicated that he would be studying "top sports management" under professor Takeo Hirata . "I'll be balancing competition and academics," Nakamura wrote. "I'm r...