Skip to main content

Solid Fields Lined Up for Kumamoto Kosa 10 Miler and Nittai Time Trials

by Brett Larner

The Fukuoka International Marathon is not all that is happening in Japan this weekend. Across Kyushu the Kumamoto Kosa 10 Miler, annually the world's most competitive race at that distance, has a fantastic matchup of a large share of the top young talent to make the pro ranks in the last two years, all tuning up for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden national championships. 10 mile junior world record holder Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) is unquestionably the favorite as he continues his build toward an impending marathon debut, but the domestic field includes the likes of Tomoya Onishi (Team Asahi Kasei), Takuya Fukatsu (Team Asahi Kasei), Masato Kihara (Team Kanebo), Yu Mitsuya (Team Toyota Kyushu), Ryuji Ono (Team Asahi Kasei) and Yuki Iwai (Team Asahi Kasei), sub-28 minute 10000 m men one and all. If Ono is back to full health after a year lost to injury Asahi Kasei's prospects for the New Year Ekiden will be very promising indeed even without an African ringer.

Many of those not running Fukuoka or Kumamoto Kosa will be lining up in Yokohama at this year's final full edition of the Nittai University Time Trials. The entry list for the two-day meet of long distance track events includes past junior World XC champions Ibrahim Jeilan (Ethiopia/Team Honda) and Caleb Ndiku (Kenya/Team Nissin Shokuhin), 3000 mSC national record holder Yoshitaka Iwamizu (Team Fujitsu), 2010 Tokyo Marathon winner Masakazu Fujiwara (Team Honda), 2010 National University 5000 m champion Kasumi Nishihara (Bukkyo Univ.), 2010 Kanto Regional University 5000 m champion Taku Fujimoto (Kokushikan Univ.), 10000 m national collegiate record holder Hikari Yoshimoto (Bukkyo Univ.), 10000 m junior national record holder Megumi Kinukawa (Team Mizuno), 2009 double 1500 m and 5000 m national champion Yuichiro Ueno (Team S&B) and many more. Look for exclusive coverage by JRN photographer Daniel Seite.

(c) 2010 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin
Post a Comment
Read more

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi
Post a Comment
Read more

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and
Post a Comment
Read more