Kanaguri Memorial Meet Entry Lists Published

by Brett Larner

After most of its spring road season was cancelled in the wake of the Mar. 11 disasters to strike its northeastern region, a sign came that Japan's running community has started to get back on its feet in the form of the release of the entry lists for the first major domestic track meet of the season, the Apr. 9 Kanaguri Memorial Meet in Kumamoto on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu.

The A-heats of the men's and women's 5000 m promise much of the best action. In the men's 5000 m, along with Josephat Ndambiri (Kenya/Team Komori Corp.), Ibrahim Jeilan (Ethiopia/Team Honda) and a host of other top Japan-based African talent, two runners will receive special focus. Hakone Ekiden star Ryuji Kashiwabara (Toyo Univ.) kicks off his senior year with the stress of his home prefecture Fukushima being the site of Japan's ongoing nuclear troubles. Having run 28:23 for 10000 m last fall as a high school student in earthquake and tsunami-hit Sendai, Kenta Murayama (Komazawa Univ.) will begin his university career at the meet after having lived through the disasters.

Also in the men's 5000 m is 2011 World Championships men's marathon team member Hiroyuki Horibata (Team Konica Minolta) in his first appearance since his 2:09:25 PB at the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon in early March. Two other contenders for the World Championships marathon squad, Yoshinori Oda (Team Toyota) and 5000 m national record holder Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta) are also on the entry list.

The women's 5000 m includes a number of athletes who were to run the cancelled Mar. 20 National Jitsugyodan Half Marathon Championships along with a number of more track-focused runners. 1500 m national record holder Yuriko Kobayashi (Team Toyota Jidoshoki) has the fastest PB in the field and is scheduled to double at both 1500 m and 5000 m. Her best competition in the 5000 m comes from Ethiopian Betelhem Moges (Team Denso) and Kenyan Sally Chepyego (Team Kyudenko). Also noteworthy is 10000 m junior national record holder Megumi Kinukawa (Team Mizuno), still struggling to make a comeback after years lost to injury and illness. Other top contenders include Kobayashi's teammate Kazue Kojima (Team Toyota Jidoshoki) and her former university teammate Michi Numata (Ritsumeikan Univ.)

2011 Kanaguri Memorial Track & Field Meet

Entry List Highlights

click here for complete entry lists

Men's 5000 m A-Heat Highlights

Taku Fujimoto (Kokushikan Univ.)

Daniel Gitau (Kenya/Team Fujitsu)

Hiroyuki Horibata (Team Konica Minolta)

Ibrahim Jeilan (Ethiopia/Team Honda)

Ryuji Kashiwabara (Toyo Univ.)

John Maina (Kenya/Takushoku Univ.)

Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta)

Kenta Murayama (Komazawa Univ.)

Duncan Muthee (Kenya/Takushoku Univ.)

Patrick Mwaka (Kenya/Team Aisan Kogyo)

Alex Mwangi (Kenya/Team YKK)

Josephat Ndambiri (Kenya/Team Komori Corp.)

Yoshinori Oda (Team Toyota)

Cosmas Ondiba (Kenya/Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.)

Suguru Osako (Waseda Univ.)

Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin)

Yusuke Takabayashi (Team Toyota)

Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Team Konica Minolta)

Titus Waroru (Kenya/Chinzai H.S.)

Edward Waweru (Kenya/Team NTN)

Ikuto Yufu (Komazawa Univ.)

Women's 5000 m A-Heat Highlights

Sally Chepyego (Kenya/Team Kyudenko)

Mayumi Fujita (Team Juhachi Ginko)

Ai Igarashi (Team Sysmex)

Ann Karindi (Kenya/Team Toyota Jidoshoki)

Megumi Kinukawa (Team Mizuno)

Yuriko Kobayashi (Team Toyota Jidoshoki)

Kazue Kojima (Team Toyota Jidoshoki)

Nanae Kuwashiro (Team Toto)

Hiroko Miyauchi (Team Kyocera)

Yoko Miyauchi (Team Kyocera)

Betelhem Moges (Ethiopia/Team Denso)

Seika Nishikawa (Team Sysmex)

Michi Numata (Ritsumeikan Univ.)

Mika Okunaga (Team Kyudenko)

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

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

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

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