Skip to main content

World Championships Long Distance Preview

by Brett Larner

Japan's medal chances in the long distance events at the Daegu World Championships may be very slim at best, but the country is nevertheless sending a strong contingent including three national record holders and some of the best young talent to have emerged in recent years.  Chief among them are Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin), on the cusp of a national record in the last two years, and the resurgent Megumi Kinukawa (Team Mizuno), the women's 10000 m junior national record holder coached by Samuel Wanjiru's high school-era coach Takao Watanabe.

2011 World Championships Japanese Long Distance Team

Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - Men's 10000 m
2011 national champion, 10000 m
Born: Nov. 26, 1986 (24 yrs.)
PB: 27:38.25 (2009; all-time Japanese #3)
3000 m: 7:44.63 (2010; all-time Japanese #2)
5000 m: 13:23.57 (2006)

In university Sato was described by his competitors as a monster, breaking Hakone Ekiden stage records his first three years and just missing a fourth as an injured senior.  Along with 2011 World University Games 10000 m champion Suguru Osako a graduate of Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S., Sato has come very close to setting national records in the 3000 m and 10000 m since joining the corporate ranks in 2009 but has shown peaking problems both years.  This year he has shown a more gradual approach, focusing on 1500 m early in the season, running a perfunctory sub-28 at the Cardinal Invitational, then winning his first national title with a superb kick.  Everything points to him peaking for Worlds, and if that is the case then it may be time for Sato to claim his first national record.


Kazuya Watanabe (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - Men's 5000 m
2011 national champion, 5000 m
Born: July 7, 1987 (24 yrs.)
PB: 13:23.15 (2011; all-time Japanese #8)
1500 m: 3:38.11 (2008/2011; all-time Japanese #2)
10000 m: 27:47.79 (2011)

Prior to this spring Watanabe was best-known for this.  This year, having changed corporate teams, he has come on very strong, making the all-time Japanese top ten for 5000 m with a win at the Golden Games in Nobeoka meet, winning the 5000 m national title, breaking 27:50 for 10000 m and exactly tying his all-time Japanese #2 1500 m PB.  Watanabe's biggest strength is his last kick, a trait that may serve him well in picking up places in the carnage of the last lap at Worlds.


Minori Hayakari (Kyoto Koka AC) - Women's 3000 mSC
2011 national champion & national record holder, 3000 mSC
Born: Nov. 29, 1972 (38 yrs.)
PB: 9:33.93 (2008; national record)
5000 m: 15:11.42 (2005; all-time Japanese #7)

The only member of the Daegu long distance squad over age 30, the veteran Hayakari's accomplishments on the track outside her steeplechase national record are under-appreciated but impressive.  The pioneer of the Japanese women's steeplechase, Hayakari has started to see competition from younger runners but still maintains enough of an edge to take the national title this year.


Megumi Kinukawa (Team Mizuno) - Women's 5000 m, 10000 m
2011 national champion, 5000 m; junior national record holder, 10000 m
Born: Aug. 7, 1989 (22 yrs.)
PBs: 5000 m: 15:09.96 (2011; all-time Japanese #6)
10000 m: 31:10.02 (2011; all-time Japanese #4)

Kinukawa is the story of this year's team, a high school prodigy and schoolmate of Samuel Wanjiru who lost most of the last three years to illness and injury.  With a tentative comeback underway this spring, Kinukawa suddenly took off following Wanjiru's death with a series of sensational runs that earned her the 5000 m national title and put her on the Japanese all-time lists for both 5000 m and 10000 m, runs she dedicated to Wanjiru and to the coach they shared, Takao Watanabe.  If anyone on the Japanese team has a chance of a medal it is Kinukawa, more likely in the 10000 m where, should she choose to double, she is a good bet to become the third Japanese woman to break 31 minutes.  Her characteristic racing style is to negative split, so if all goes well look for her to be moving up late in the race.


Hitomi Niiya (Team Universal Entertainment) - Women's 5000 m
Born: Feb. 26, 1988 (23 yrs.)
PB: 15:13.12 (2011; all-time Japanese #10)


Niiya has had one of the more interesting careers in recent years, a high school star who won the first Tokyo Marathon in her debut at age 18 and has struggled with ups and downs ever since and who was fired from her corporate team this spring when she wanted to remain with legendary coach Yoshio Koide rather than move to the team's new base hundreds of km to the south.  Running a big 5000 m PB as an independent she looked to be the favorite for the Japanese 5000 m national title but despite going out at national record pace she fell victim to Kinukawa's surprise return and finished 2nd.  Returning a few weeks later she broke the 5000 m World Championships A-standard and cracked the all-time Japanese top ten list to earn a spot alongside Kinukawa in Daegu.


Kayo Sugihara (Team Denso) - Women's 10000 m
2011 national champion, 10000 m
Born: Feb. 24, 1983 (28 yrs.)
PB: 31:34.35 (2011)
5000 m: 15:15.34 (2007)

The least-known member of the Japanese team, Sugihara has had a steady progression in her times over the last few years but has constantly remained below the radar.  She led the second pack in the 10000 m at this year's Cardinal Invitational on her way to a PB and then won the national title in a well-paced strategic effort.  Sugihara has an unusual, mechanical running form that should stand out at the World Championships.


Hikari Yoshimoto (Bukkyo University) - Women's 10000 m
collegiate national record holder, 10000 m
Born: Jan. 14, 1990 (21 yrs.)
PB: 31:30.92 (2010; collegiate national record)
5000 m: 15:26.72 (2010)

The youngest member of the Japanese long distance crew, Yoshimoto is the #1-ranked university runner in Japan.  After a brilliant 2010 she has struggled this season, her best performance being Nationals where she led the 10000 m the entire race before being outkicked by Sugihara and marathon team member Remi Nakazato (Team Daihatsu).  Picked for the Worlds team over all-time Japanese #2 Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal), if Yoshimoto is healthy she should be capable of improving on her collegiate record, but based on her season to date Daegu looks more likely to end up an experiential run.

(c) 2011 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Ninja Runner Yuka Ando Leads Japanese Women's Marathon Team in London: "I Want to Go For It"

Her form has been dubbed "ninja running." Both arms held straight down with almost no movement. That idiosyncratic style carried Yuka Ando , 23, to the fastest-ever marathon debut by a Japanese woman, 2:21:36, at March's Nagoya Women's Marathon to land at #4 on the all-time Japanese lists. All at once Ando found herself catapulted to the top level of women's marathoning, a candidate for Japan's next great marathoner. When she was younger Ando ran moving her arms like other runners, but she had a bad habit of moving robotically, her upper body and lower body not working in sync. The turning point came in 2014 when she joined Suzuki Hamamatsu AC . Working there with coach Masayuki Satouchi to eliminate the faults in her form, the pair arrived at the ninja running style that let her run relaxed. "Other people keep asking me, "Isn't it hard to run like that?" but for me it's comfortable," she said. The efficient form helped her mai

Yamaguchi 10th at United Airlines NYC Half - Weekend Overseas Results

2024 national cross-country champion Tomonori Yamaguchi was the top Japanese finisher in the men's race at the United Airlines NYC Half , taking 10th in 1:04:36. A 2nd-year at Waseda University , Yamaguchi was one of three collegiate runners running New York in the 11th year of JRN's development program collaboration between the Ageo City Half Marathon and the New York Road Runners, a program that has seen people like future half marathon and marathon NR breaker Yuta Shitara and Paris Olympic team member Akira Akasaki make their international debuts. Yamaguchi's Waseda teammate Taishi Ito started fast, going with the leaders through 5 km in 14:29 before losing touch. Hosei University senior Rei Matsunaga went through in 14:42 in his last race before joining the JR Higashi Nihon corporate team in April. Yamaguchi, who caught COVID after winning last month's National Cross-Country Championships, started more conservatively with a 15:11 first 5km. But where both Ito

Rui Aoki Wins National University Men's Half Marathon - Weekend Results

Yuka Ando 's win at the Nagoya Women's Marathon was the big news of the weekend, but there were other high-level races happening, even in Nagoya. Held in parallel with the marathon, the Nagoya City Half Marathon saw Australians Natalie Rule and Ed Goddard take easy wins by about 2.5 minutes each, Rule in 1:13:57 and Goddard in 1:04:01. The new Biwako Marathon also had a non-Japanese winner, China's Yousheng Guan scoring 1st in 2:14:58 with Japan's Hirohito Sugai next in 2:16:40. Mikiko Ota won the women's race in 2:50:44. The Shizuoka Marathon returned for its first running in five years, with club runner Shumpei Oda leading the top 7 men under 2:20 in 2:15:36. Women's winner Remi Tanaka ran 2:41:23, beating runner-up Ayumi Sano by exactly 7 minutes. And in Tokyo, Rui Aoki continued what has been a great season so far for Koku Gakuin University with a win at the National University Men's Half Marathon . Aoki and Hiro Konda of Chuo Gakuin Unive