Defending World Champion Nakadai Fifth at 100 km World Championships

by Brett Larner

For the second-straight year, Shinji Nakadai (Harriers AC) was the top Japanese man at the IAU 100 km World Championships, held this year in Winschoten, Netherlands. The defending individual men's world champion, Nakadai made no attempt to follow the reckless early pace set by eventual winner Giorgio Calcaterra, who averaged as fast as 3:42/km in the first stages of the race. Neither did any of the other athletes in the field, as Calcaterra took the world title by a margin of over 15 minutes. The strong American squad kept three men in the top pack throughout the race and ended up taking the individual silver and bronze medals as well as team gold led by veteran Michael Wardian. Nakadai faded after 80 km, taking 5th in 6:48:32, but thanks in large part to a solid 10th-place run by teammate Yoshiki Takada Japan was able to nail down the team silver medal by just 1:51 over Calcaterra's Italy squad which went home with bronze.

The women's race saw a similarly dominating individual performance as Russia's Marine Bychkova won in 7:27:19 by nearly 14 minutes over British runner Joanna Zakrzewski. South Africa's Lindsay Anne van Aswegen took the bronze medal less than a minute behind Zakrzewski. Three Russian women finished in the top ten, giving the Russians the team gold to with Bychkova's individual medal. The American women claimed silver with two women in the top ten. The Japanese women's team were relatively weak individually, but thanks to a tight pack finish by top three members Naomi Ochiai, Yuko Ito and Shiho Katayama they managed to edge the South African and British squads for team bronze by a narrow margin.

2011 100 km World Championships
Winschoten, Netherlands, 9/10/11
click here for complete results

Men
1. Giorgio Calcaterra (Italy) - 6:27:32
2. Michael Wardian (U.S.A.) - 6:42:49
3. Andrew Henshaw (U.S.A.) - 6:44:35
4. Pieter Vermeesch (Belgium) - 6:47:01
5. Shinji Nakadai (Japan) - 6:48:32
6. Matt Wood (U.S.A.) - 6:50:23
7. Jonas Budd (Sweden) - 6:52:19
8. Yoshiki Takada (Japan) - 7:03:55
9. Andr Collet (Germany) - 7:04:35
10. Dominique Bordet (France) - 7:04:37
-----
18. Masakazu Takahashi (Japan) - 7:12:33
30. Kenichi Ito (Japan) - 7:32:19
39. Yoshikazu Hara (Japan) - 7:46:16
41. Shingo Inoue (Japan) - 7:47:35

Men's Teams
1. U.S.A. - 20:17:47
2. Japan - 21:05:00
3. Italy - 21:06:51

Women
1. Marine Bychkova (Russia) - 7:27:19
2. Joanna Zakrzewski (Great Britain) - 7:41:06
3. Lindsay Anne van Aswegen (South Africa) - 7:42:05
4. Irina Vishnevskaya (Russia) - 7:45:27
5. Meghan Arbogast (U.S.A.) - 7:51:10
6. Annette Bednosky (U.S.A.) - 7:54:59
7. Gloria Vinstedt (Sweden) - 7:55:09
8. Sabine Hofer (Austria) - 8:02:17
9. Kerry Jacqueline Koen (South Africa) - 8:06:29
10. Maria Aksenova (Russia) - 8:06:54
-----
12. Naomi Ochiai (Japan) - 8:10:14
13. Yuko Ito (Japan) - 8:11:13
14. Shiho Katayama (Japan) - 8:13:46
17. Mai Fujisawa (Japan) - 8:19:49
22. Akiko Oda (Japan) - 8:29:18
37. Wakako Oyagi (Japan) - 9:19:47

Women's Teams
1. Russia - 23:19:40
2. U.S.A. - 23:56:20
3. Japan - 24:35:13

(c) 2011 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

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