Skip to main content

Kenyans Sweep National Corporate T&F Championships 1500 m and 5000 m

by Brett Larner

Along with the men's 10000 m on the first day of competition, Japan-resident Kenyans swept the men's and women's 5000 m and 1500 m at the 2011 National Jitsugyodan Track & Field Championships, Sept. 24-25 in Tokushima.  Daniel Gitau (Team Fujitsu), best known for his quadruple win in the 800 m, 1500 m, 5000 m and 10000 m at the 2009 Kanto Regional Track & Field Championships, doubled here with wins in the 1500 m and 5000 m, outkicking two-time world junior 3000 mSC champion Jonathan Ndiku (Team Hitachi Cable) in both races.  The top collegiate 10000 m runner of 2010, Yusuke Hasegawa (Team S&B) had the best run of his pro career as he finished 4th in the 5000 m in 13:34.70.  Along with Yuichiro Ueno and Kensuke Takezawa, S&B runners now hold three of the ten fastest 5000 m times of the year by Japanese men.

Sally Chepyego (Team Kyudenko), a teammate of men's 10000 m winner Paul Tanui (Team Kyudenko), had a comfortable frontrunning win in the 5000 m in 15:23.09 ahead of a four-way battle which included 1500 m specialists Mika Yoshikawa (Team Panasonic) and Yuriko Kobayashi (Team Toyota Jidoshokki).  Yoshikawa emerged from the pack to take 2nd in 15:31.78, the 3rd-best time of the year by a Japanese woman.  With both Yoshikawa and Kobayashi having opted for the longer distance the field was open for Kobayashi's teammate Ann Karindi (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) to take the 1500 m, winning in 4:13.03.  Grace Kimanzi (Team Starts) narrowly beat yet another Toyota Jidoshokki runner, Ayaka Mori, for 2nd in 4:20.04.

2011 National Jitsugyodan Track & Field Championships
Pocari Sweat Stadium, Tokushima, 9/24-25/11
click here for complete results

Men's 5000 m Final
1. Daniel Gitau (Kenya/Team Fujitsu) - 13:32.25
2. Jonathan Ndiku (Kenya/Team Hitachi Cable) - 13:34.06
3. Patrick Mwaka (Kenya/Team Aisan Kogyo) - 13:34.28
4. Yusuke Hasegawa (Team S&B) - 13:34.70
5. Josephat Ndambiri (Kenya/Team Komori Corp.) - 13:37.14
6. Yuki Matsuoka (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 13:37.52
7. Samuel Ndungu (Kenya/Team Aichi Seiko) - 13:39.29
8. Gideon Ngatuny (Kenya/Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 13:41.21
9. Nicholas Makau (Kenya/Team Yachiyo Kogyo) - 13:41.33
10. Yuya Konishi (Team Toyota Kyushu) - 13:47.28

Women's 5000 m Final
1. Sally Chepyego (Kenya/Team Kyudenko) - 15:23.09
2. Mika Yoshikawa (Team Panasonic) - 15:31.78
3. Yuriko Kobayashi (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) - 15:33.36
4. Yuko Shimizu (Team Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:33.89
5. Misaki Onishi (Team Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:34.47
6. Chihiro Takato (Team Wacoal) - 15:40.72
7. Yoshie Kurisu (Team Tenmaya) - 15:41.01
8. Yurie Doi (Team Starts) - 15:41.38
9. Mariko Nakao (Team Shiseido) - 15:44.61
10. Risa Kikuchi (Team Hitachi) - 15:45.38

Men's 1500 m Final
1. Daniel Gitau (Kenya/Team Fujitsu) - 3:46.01
2. Jonathan Ndiku (Kenya/Team Hitachi Cable) - 3:47.24
3. Yasuhiro Tago (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 3:47.52
4. Fumikazu Kobayashi (Team NTN) - 3:48.90
5. Hikaru Miyazaki (SDF Academy) - 3:49.31

Women's 1500 m Final
1. Ann Karindi (Kenya/Team Toyota Jidoshokki) - 4:13.03
2. Grace Kimanzi (Kenya/Team Starts) - 4:20.04
3. Ayaka Mori (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) - 4:20.99
4. Satomi Ueda (Team Toto) - 4:24.40
5. Sayuri Sendo (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) - 4:24.41

(c) 2011 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

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

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

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 ...
Post a Comment
Read more