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

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

Takeshi Soh Reflects on 54 Years in the Sport on His Retirement as Asahi Kasei Head Coach

After 54 years at the Asahi Kasei corporate team, first as athlete and then as coach, Takeshi Soh will retire at the end of this month. Together with his twin brother Shigeru Soh they formed a duo who were icons of the Japanese marathoning world and went all the way to the Olympics. After retiring from competition Takeshi devoted himself to coaching young athletes and came to play a primary role in the leadership of Japanese long distance. His list of achievements is long, and so is the list of those he influenced and inspired. His twin Shigeru was chosen for three Olympic teams in the marathon, Montreal in 1976, Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984. Takeshi was named to the Moscow and Los Angeles teams, placing 4th in L.A. to confirm his position as one of the greatest names in the sport in that era. After becoming a coach the twins helped lead Hiromi Taniguchi to gold at the 1991 Tokyo World Championships, Koichi Morishita to silver a year later at the Barcelona Olympics, and o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Japan Names Marathon Teams for Tokyo World Championships

On Mar. 26 the JAAF named its women's and men's marathon teams for September's Tokyo World Championships. On the women's side the team has veterans Sayaka Sato and Yuka Ando off the strength of a runner-up finish for Sato in Nagoya this year and a win in Nagoya last year by Ando, and newcomer Kana Kobayashi , 23, who has risen quickly from being a fun runner at Waseda University last year to a 2nd-place finish in Osaka Women's this year. Paris Olympics 6th-placer Yuka Suzuki was named alternate after finishing 3rd behind Kobayashi in Osaka Women's. On the men's side the team is led by last year's Fukuoka International Marathon CR breaker Yuya Yoshida and this year's Osaka runner-up Ryota Kondo . The 3rd spot on the team is reserved for JMC Series winner Naoki Koyama , who hasn't cleared the 2:06:30 World Championships qualifying standard and has to wait for the May 4 qualifying deadline for confirmation that the 1184 points he has in the Roa...
1 comment
Read more

Tokumoto and Yamakawa Take Over at Shibaura Kogyo in Quest for Hakone Debut

In a quest to make its first Hakone Ekiden, Shibaura Kogyo University announced this week that former Surugadai University head coach Kazuyoshi Tokumoto , 45, and former Reitaku University head coach Tatsuya Yamakawa , 40, will take over as head and assistant coach starting in April. In a statement issued by the university Tokumoto commented, "I'm pleased to have been named head coach of Shibaura Kogyo University's track and field team. When they came to feel me I could feel their passion about achieving their dream of becoming the first science and technology university to compete in the Hakone Ekiden. I was happy to accept because I felt that this was an environment in which I could grow too. It's my responsibility to help them become the 45th university ever to compete in Hakone. I hope that you'll enjoy Act II of the Tokumoto Show and cheer us on as Shibaura Kogyo heads down the road to Hakone." Yamakawa's comments read, "I arrived early in Feb...
1 comment
Read more