Skip to main content

Fukatsu 1:01:25 CR at Tamana Half, 200+ Sub-1:06 at National University Half Championships

by Brett Larner
complete results coming soon

Three major half marathons across Japan started off the morning of Mar. 4 in style.  At the 63rd Kanaguri Hai Tamana Half Marathon, Komazawa University graduate Takuya Fukatsu (Team Asahi Kasei) ran a solo 1:01:25 course record, the all-time #8 Japanese mark on an unaided course and bettering the 1:01:31 mark set by Fukatsu's former Komazawa teammate Yusuke Takabayashi (Team Toyota) last month at Marugame.  Fukatsu ran together with Kenyans Kiragu Njuguna (Daiichi Kogyo Univ.) and Dishawn Karukuwa Maina (Team Aisan Kogyo) before dropping them in the second half of the race to win by over a minute.  Hiroko Miyauchi (Team Kyocera) won the women's 10 km in 33:09, with Shuhei Kondo (Oita Tomei H.S.) winning the high school boys' 10 km in 29:38.

At the Shizuoka Sunpu Half Marathon, Shinichi Yamashita (Takigahara SDF Base) won in a conservative 1:04:58 over Teikyo University's Katsunori Watanabe and Takuma Tamura, but the race was most noteworthy for the half marathon debut of 27:38 track ace Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin).  Sato clocked only 1:06:50, saying afterward that he is not in good condition but is hopeful of regaining form in time to earn an Olympic A-standard in the 10000 m this spring.



The deepest-ever half-marathon finish, beginning with Toshikatsu Ebina in 1:02:23.

Fukatsu's CR aside, the biggest half marathon results of the day came in Tachikawa, Tokyo at the National University Men's Half Marathon Championships.  Takushoku University second-year Kenyan Duncan Muthee took the race out fast at 1:00:40 pace, with a large group of Japanese students near 1:01-flat pace not far behind.  Times slowed somewhat, but Teikyo University second-year Toshikatsu Ebina managed to keep it moving well enough to win in an apparent course record of 1:02:23, with teammate Yudai Yamakawa making it a Teikyo 1-2 in 1:02:36.  The top thirteen student athletes all broke 1:03, and the depth of the field was record-setting.  Although complete official results are not yet available, Waseda University reported one of its runners had finished in 1:06:11 in 211th place.  If true, it appears that for the first time in history more than 200 runners may have broken 1:06 in one race.  The previous record of 188 came at the 2005 Ageo City Half Marathon, Japan's major fall university half.  These results will be confirmed and this story updated once complete results are available.

(c) 2012 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Unknown said…
http://danieldiaztecles.blogspot.com/
Someday I will run in Japan. The enthusiasm you see in the video is wonderful
March 5, 2012 at 8:45 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

High School Runner Hit by Car During Ekiden in Oita

On Oct. 27 in Kunisaki, Oita at a regional qualifying race for the prefectural high school ekiden, a male 2nd-year high school runner was struck by a car and injured. Although the athlete did not suffer career-ending injuries, the incident has raised questions about how it could have happened. A spokesperson from the prefectural high school athletics association said that there had been "a lack of adequate consideration" in the event's planning and that the association intends to consider its options for preventing the same thing from happening again. According to officials, the accident occurred along a narrow section of road which was closed in both directions for 320 m near the first exchange zone. A car driven by a local 86-year-old woman entered the course within the closed-off section from a parking lot reserved for race officials. When the runner tripped and fell after handing off the tasuki at the first exchange zone, his left leg was run over by the car which was
Post a Comment
Read more

Koku Gakuin Wins National University Ekiden for First Time in Anchor Stage Turnaround

Last month's Izumo Ekiden season opener was unusually action-packed with turnovers in the lead on every stage and a dramatic showdown between anchors Kotaro Shinohara (Komazawa Univ,), Aoi Ota (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) and Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Koku Gakuin Univ.). All three schools were expected to be up front again at today's National University Men's Ekiden , and race-morning lineup changes unexpectedly put Shinohara, Ota and Hirabayashi against each other again on the 2nd-to-last stage of the day. Komazawa was immediately in trouble when its first two runners Kosuke Shimako and Shunsuke Kuwata tanked, falling to 16th. AGU was out front after two of the eight legs, with Hibiki Yoshida from Izumo 4th-placer Soka University giving him a run for it and both just missing the 2nd leg CR. AGU led the rest of the way, with a 33:03 CR for the 11.8 km 4th leg by Asahi Kuroda giving it a lead of almost 1:30 that it took another CR from KGU's Ayumu Yamamoto to cut back down
Post a Comment
Read more

It's Koku Gakuin's Year - National University Ekiden Preview and Streaming

Komazawa University is trying to line up its fifth-straight National University Men's Ekiden win this Sunday, but after a runner-up finish to Koku Gakuin University last month at the Izumo Ekiden it's got a tough road ahead with two extra stages and a longer average stage length to deal with. TV Asahi has the live broadcast starting at 7:45 a.m. local time, with official streaming on TVer and unofficial streaming on mov3.co . Izumo was an unusually close and exciting race between Komazawa, KGU and Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University that saw the lead change every stage. All three teams were within a few seconds of each other at the start of the anchor stage, where Osaka Marathon winner Kiyoto Hirabayashi of KGU dropped Hakone First Stage winner Kotaro Shinohara from Komazawa and Third Stage winner Aoi Ota of AGU to take the win. KGU looks like the favorite here too, its top-8 10000 m average of 28:16.61 the class of the field and giving it a solid advantage ov
Post a Comment
Read more