Oda Memorial Meet Entry Lists

by Brett Larner

Entry lists are up for the 2011 Oda Memorial Track and Field Meet on Apr. 29 in Hiroshima, one of the big meets on the spring Japanese calendar. This year's meet features an extra round of distance events with separate 5000 m qualifier heats for the World University Games 5000 m teams alongside the regular open 5000 m heats.

The university men's 5000 m may be the most exciting race of the day, with 2011 Hakone Ekiden champion Waseda University fielding big guns Shota Hiraga, Suguru Osako, Yuki Yagi and Yo Yazawa and rival Meiji University its ace Tetsuya Yoroizaka along with star first-year recruits Yuki Arimura and Genki Yagisawa. #1-ranked first-year Kazuto Nishiike will be debuting for Hosei University, while 2010 Kanto Regional 5000 m champion Taku Fujimoto (Kokushikan Univ.) will tune up to defend his title at May's Kanto Regionals.

Like Waseda, Ritsumeikan University will be putting all its best people into the university women's 5000 m, including seniors Michi Numata, Risa Takenaka and Hanae Tanaka along with outstanding sophomore Akane Yabushita. 2010 national champion Bukkyo University has star Hikari Yoshimoto in the open women's 5000 m and will instead field senior Mai Ishibashi, junior Shiho Takechi and first-year Risa Shibuya.

The open men's 5000 m features a number of Japan-based Kenyan pros as well as high school sensation Charles Ndirangu (Sera H.S.). 2009 national 5000 m champion Yuichiro Ueno (Team S&B) leads the domestic men. The open women's 5000 m looks to be more competitive, with top Japan-based Africans Sally Chepyego (Team Kyudenko), Betelhem Moges (Team Denso) and Felista Wanjugu (Team Univ. Ent.) lining up against 10000 m junior national record holder Megumi Kinukawa (Team Mizuno), 10000 m collegiate national record holder Hikari Yoshimoto (Bukkyo Univ.), road 10 km collegiate national record holder and 2010 university 5000 m national champion Kasumi Nishihara (Bukkyo Univ.), and 2011 World Championships marathon team member Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku).

2011 Oda Memorial Meet Entry List Highlights

Big Arch Stadium, Hiroshima, April 29, 2011

University Men's 5000 m

Yuki Arimura (Meiji Univ.)

Taku Fujimoto (Kokushikan Univ.)

Shota Hattori (Nittai Univ.)

Shota Hiraga (Waseda Univ.)

Kazuto Nishiike (Hosei Univ.)

Suguru Osako (Waseda Univ.)

Wataru Ueno (Komazawa Univ.)

Yuki Yagi (Waseda Univ.)

Genki Yagisawa (Meiji Univ.)

Yo Yazawa (Waseda Univ.)

Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Meiji Univ.)

Ikuto Yufu (Komazawa Univ.)

University Women's 5000 m

Mai Ishibashi (Bukkyo Univ.)

Sayo Nomura (Meijo Univ.)

Michi Numata (Ritsumeikan Univ.)

Risa Shibuya (Bukkyo Univ.)

Ayuko Suzuki (Nagoya Univ.)

Shiho Takechi (Bukkyo Univ.)

Risa Takenaka (Ritsumeikan Univ.)

Toshika Tamura (Matsuyama Univ.)

Hanae Tanaka (Ritsumeikan Univ.)

Akane Yabushita (Ritsumeikan Univ.)

Open Women's 5000 m

Sally Chepyego (Kenya/Team Kyudenko)

Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku)

Megumi Kinukawa (Team Mizuno)

Kazue Kojima (Team Unv. Ent.)

Betelhem Moges (Ethiopia/Team Denso)

Shoko Mori (Team Otsuka Seiyaku)

Hitomi Niiya (Team Toyota Jidoshokki)

Kasumi Nishihara (Team Yamada Denki)

Felista Wanjugu (Kenya/Team Univ. Ent.)

Hikari Yoshimoto (Bukkyo Univ.)

Open Men's 5000 m

Joseph Gitau (Kenya/Team JFE Steel)

Kazuo Ietani (Team Sanyo Tokushu Seiko)

Soji Ikeda (Team NTT Nishi Nihon)

Peter Kariuki (Kenya/Team Mazda)

Nicholas Makau (Kenya/Team Yachiyo Kogyo)

Kota Murayama (Josai Univ.)

Charles Ndirangu (Kenya/Sera H.S.)

Tsuyoshi Ogata (Team Chugoku Denryoku)

Naoki Okamoto (Team Chugoku Denryoku)

Yuichiro Ueno (Team S&B)

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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