Skip to main content

Ndirangu and Wainaina Win Japanese National High School Championships

by Brett Larner

The 2011 National High School Track and Field Championships took place this weekend in Iwate prefecture, an area hard-hit by March's earthquake and tsunami.  Kenyan student at Japanese high schools swept the distance events, taking the top three spots in the boys' 5000 m and the top two in the girls' 3000 m.  Following the trail set by the talented Bitan Karoki (Kenya/Sera H.S.), Charles Ndirangu (Kenya/Sera H.S.) proved once again that Sera has top-notch scouts as he ignored the heat to win the 5000 m final in 13:40.99 by a margin of more than 15 seconds over Titus Waroru (Kenya/Chinzai H.S.).  Murgi Wainaina (Kenya/Toyokawa H.S.) had a narrower win over Ndirangu's teammate Susan Wylim (Kenya/Sera H.S.) in the girls' 3000 m final, winning by less than four seconds in 9:04.55.  Tomoka Kimura (Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S.) went for the 1500 m - 5000 m double after finishing 3rd in the 3000 m, but was outleaned in the 1500 m by first-year Yui Fukuda (Suma Gakuen H.S.), a teammate of 2011 national 1500 m champion Mika Kobayashi (Suma Gakuen H.S.).  Fukuda took the win in 4:17.15 with Kimura straight behind in 9:17.22.

2011 National High School T&F Championships
Iwate, Aug. 4-7, 2011
click here for complete results
Boys' 5000 m Final
1. Charles Ndirangu (Kenya/Sera H.S.) - 13:40.99
2. Titus Waroru (Kenya/Chinzai H.S.) - 13:56.64
3. Jeremiah Karemi (Kenya/Toyokawa H.S.) - 14:05.45
4. Ken Yokote (Sakushin Gakuin H.S.) - 14:06.02
5. Yuma Hattori (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) - 14:06.42
6. Kazuma Kubota (Kyushu Gakuin H.S.) - 14:12.82
7. Yuta Oyama (Toyokawa Kogyo H.S.) - 14:18.15
8. Yuta Katsumata (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) - 14:18.91
9. Kenya Sonota (Aomori Yamada H.S.) - 14:20.86
10. Tadashi Isshiki (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) - 14:22.21

Girls' 3000 m Final
1. Murgi Wainaina (Kenya/Toyokawa H.S.) - 9:04.55
2. Susan Wylim (Kenya/Sera H.S.) - 9:08.14
3. Tomoka Kimura (Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S.) - 9:10.19
4. Miyuki Oka (Kojokan H.S.) - 9:10.62
5. Yuriko Kosaki (Narita H.S.) - 9:15.52
6. Miki Sakakibara (Hamakita Nishi H.S.) - 9:15.80
7. Eri Makikawa (Seiryo H.S.) - 9:16.64
8. Katsuki Suga (Kojokan H.S.) - 9:18.08
9. Miyuki Uehara (Kagoshima Joshi H.S.) - 9:23.58
10. Ayano Ikeuchi (Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.) - 9:24.58

Boys' 1500 m Final
1. Masaki Toda (Tokyo Nogyo Prep H.S. #2) - 3:47.36
2. Yusuke Uchikoshi (Kugayama H.S.) - 3:47.48
3. Yudai Yamamoto (Suma Gakuen H.S.) - 3:48.41

Girls' 1500 m Final
1. Yui Fukuda (Suma Gakuen H.S.) - 4:17.15
2. Tomoka Kimura (Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S.) - 4:17.22
3. Shiho Takeda (Tokiwa H.S.) - 4:17.86

(c) 2011 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Bruce said…
I have input fairly complete results for 1500, 3000, 5000, and 3000m steeple. I focus on strong middle distance schools, which results in somewhat spotty coverage of the 800 (and also a few sprints). Of note is how the boys 1500m marks, led by 2 Kanto runners, take 5 of the top 6 places and 16 of the top 23 in the combined USA/Canada/Japan rankings. The Japanese high school girls take 5 of the top 8 and 16 of the top 23 in the same rankings. The ladies of Nippon also take 90 of the top 100 slots in the 3000m.
2011 InterHigh Results: http://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/MeetResults.aspx?Meet=138357#35218
USA/Canada?/JapanRankings: http://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/Division/Event.aspx?DivID=28139&Gender=M&Event=52
August 9, 2011 at 1:36 AM
Brett Larner said…
Thanks, Bruce, that's some great work you've done in putting these stats together.
August 10, 2011 at 12:19 AM
Bruce said…
Hope others find it interesting. Started out of my involvement with Tokyo area international schools in track and cross country. None of us had any knowledge of Japanese high school track and ekiden. Thanks to your site, I began slowly finding out what is going on and where to find data. Still takes a long time to find published results and to guess at name spellings.
August 10, 2011 at 1:18 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Saku Chosei H.S. Makes It 2 In a Row - National High School Ekiden Boys' Race

While the girls' race was a blowout by 2022 champ Nagano Higashi H.S. , the boys' race at Sunday's National High School Ekiden was a tense battle of turnover that saw all of the final top four teams take a stab at leading. 2023 3rd-placer Yachiyo Shoin H.S. handled the first 2 of the 7 stages in the 42.195 km race, with lead runner Rui Suzuki delivering a bold run on the 10.0 km First Stage that produced the fastest-ever time by a Japanese runner on the stage, 28:43, and put Yachiyo Shoin 29 seconds out front. Last year's Fifth Stage CR breaker Tetsu Suzuki ran Yachiyo Shoin down to put 2023 champ Saku Chosei H.S. into 1st on the 8.1075 km Third Stage, but Genta Sugano of last year's 8th-placer Sendai Ikuei H.S. had other plans and took the lead on the 8.0875 km Fourth Stage. Smiling and fist pumping to the crowd almost the entire way, Taketo Tsukada of last year's 6th-placer Omuta H.S. moved up from 3rd to 1st by 2 seconds over Saku Chosei on the 3.0 k...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nagano Higashi Girls Lead Start to Finish to Win National High School Ekiden

2022 National High School Ekiden girls' champion Nagano Higashi H.S. was back in force after a 5th-place finish last year, leading start to finish to win this year's national title Sunday in Kyoto. Lead runner Airi Mashiba kicked it off with a 19:30 stage win on the 6.0 km opening leg, something that head coach Fumio Yokouchi said later that he hadn't been expecting. That ended up being Nagano Higashi's only individual stage win in the 5-leg, 21.0975 km race, but the rest of its team ran well enough to hold a lead that was never less than 11 seconds but never more than 21. Last year's 4th-placer Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. spent most of the race in 2nd, but over the second half of the race Sendai Ikuei H.S. , 2nd last year by just 1 second, came from further back to run Kunei down on the anchor stage thanks in big part to a critical stage win on the 4th leg by Tsubomi Tezuka that put anchor Aoi Hosokawa in position to catch Kunei's Mizuki Oda . Nagano Higashi ...
1 comment
Read more

Japan Post Holds Off Sekisui Kagaku to Win Queens Ekiden National Title

  Japan Post  was back on top at the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championships Sunday in Sendai, holding off last year's winner Sekisui Kagaku  over the second half of a race that came as close as 1 second to take 1st with a final margin of victory of 27 seconds. Sekisui Kagaku was out fast with a win on the 7.0 km opening leg by Erika Tanoura  and a new CR for the 12:56 second leg by Yuma Yamamoto , 17 seconds better than her own CR from last year. Last year's 4th-placer Shiseido  briefly led on the 10.6 km third leg with an excellent 33:17 stage win from Rino Goshima , but behind her Japan Post's Ririka Hironaka  returned from her latest injury problems to pass Sekisui Kagaku's Sayaka Sato  and hand off 6 seconds ahead. New recruit Caroline Kariba  ran Shiseido down on the 3.6 km fourth leg and put Japan Post 22 seconds ahead of Sekisui Kagaku, but a duel of marathoners between JP's  Ayuko Suzuki  and Sekisui's Hitomi Niiy...
1 comment
Read more