Skip to main content

Kanaguri Memorial Meet Results

by Brett Larner

The Japanese outdoor track season got started Saturday at Kumamoto's Kanaguri Memorial Meet depite high winds and heavy rain from a passing storm that kept times from what was hoped.  Japan-based Africans won all the major races, with last year's winners Patrick Mutunga (Kenya/Team Toyota Boshoku) and Sally Chepyego (Kenya/Team Kyudenko) repeating in the men's and women's 5000 m A-heats in 13:26.48 and 15:42.81.  The Koichi Morishita-coached Yuya Konishi (Team Toyota Kyushu) clocked the fastest time of the day by a Japanese man, 13:39.46 for 2nd in the B-heat, while independent Yuka Ando (Tokinosumika T&F Assoc.) took 2nd behind Chepyego for the top Japanese time in 16:02.08.  The year's leading Japanese marathoner, Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko), started his buildup to August's World Championships, running a 14:07.46 shakeout in the men's 5000 m B-heat in his first race since running 2:08:00 at February's Tokyo Marathon.

In the men's 1500 m, last year's 10000 m national champion Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) took 3rd in 3:50.52 behind a strong solo 3:42.75 by Ethiopian Bikila Demma Daba (Team Kanebo).  61-minute half marathoner Yusuke Takabayashi (Team Toyota) was 5th in 3:51.98, while #1-ranked collegiate Suguru Osako (Waseda Univ.) was only 10th in 3:56.09.  Beatrice Wainaina Murugi (Kenya/Team Toyota Jidoshokki) won the women's 1500 m in 4:27.88 over collegiate Minami Nakaarai (Osaka Gakuin Univ.), with 2013 World XC junior women's team member Yui Fukuda (Suma Gakuen H.S.) in 4:33.40.

22nd Kanaguri Memorial Meet
Kumamoto, 4/6/13
click here for complete results

Men's 5000 m Heat 5
1. Patrick Mutunga (Kenya/Team Toyota Boshoku) - 13:26.48
2. Paul Tanui (Kenya/Team Kyudenko) - 13:28.67
3. Charles Ndirangu (Kenya/Team JFE Steel) - 13:32.76
4. Alex Mwangi (Kenya/Team YKK) - 13:47.22
5. Kazuharu Takai (Team Kyudenko) - 13:50.49
6. Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Team Konica Minolta) - 13:50.67
7. Paul Kuira (Kenya/Team Konica Minolta) - 13:51.50
8. Yuichiro Ueno (DeNA RC) - 13:54.49
9. Keita Shitara (Toyo Univ.) - 13:54.74
10. Chihiro Miyawaki (Team Toyota) - 14:00.04

Men's 5000 m Heat 4
1. Patrick Mwaka (Kenya/Team Aisan Kogyo) - 13:37.68
2. Yuya Konishi (Team Toyota Kyushu) - 13:39.46
3. Enock Omwamba (Kenya/Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 13:41.80
4. Micah Njeru (Kenya/Team Toyota Boshoku) - 13:50.52
5. Jeremiah Karemi (Kenya/Team Toyota Kyushu) - 13:50.58
6. Shota Hattori (Nittai University) - 13:50.70
7. Naoki Okamoto (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 13:52.77
8. Yuta Shitara (Toyo Univ.) - 13:55.58
9. Duncan Muthee (Kenya/Takushoku Univ.) - 13:59.71
10. Kazuma Kubota (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 14:00.08
-----
12. Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko) - 14:07.46

Women's 5000 m Heat 2
1. Sally Chepyego (Kenya/Team Kyudenko) - 15:42.81
2. Yuka Ando (Tokinosumika T&F Assoc.) - 16:02.08
3. Risa Takenaka (Team Shiseido) - 16:03.94
4. Ayari Maeda (Bukkyo Univ.) - 16:06.20
5. Mao Kiyota (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 16:08.16
6. Michi Numata (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) - 16:09.24
7. Kotomi Takayama (Team Sysmex) - 16:13.75
8. Aya Nagata (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) - 16:14.13
9. Eri Makikawa (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 16:14.73
10. Megumi Amako (Canon AC Kyushu) - 16:19.73

H.S. Boys' 5000 m Heat 6
1. Ryoichi Yoshida (Omuta H.S.) - 14:44.65
2. Takumi Minaura (Toyokawa H.S.) - 14:49.71
3. Takaya Arake (Miyazaki Nittai Prep H.S.) - 14:54.89

H.S. Girls' 3000 m Heat 4
1. Kotona Ota (Suma Gakuen H.S.) - 9:27.30
2. Chika Uemura (Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.) - 9:28.71
3. Kureha Seki (Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.) - 9:30.99

Men's 1500 m
1. Bikila Demma Daba (Ethiopia/Team Kanebo) - 3:42.75
2. Yuki Akimoto (Team Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) - 3:50.30
3. Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 3:50.52
4. Yasunari Kusu (Team Komori Corp.) - 3:51.64
5. Yusuke Takabayashi (Team Toyota) - 3:51.98
-----
10. Suguru Osako (Waseda Univ.) - 3:56.09

Women's 1500 m Heat 2
1. Beatrice Wainaina Murugi (Kenya/Team Toyota Jidoshokki) - 4:27.88
2. Minami Nakaarai (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) - 4:28.66
3. Miyuki Mandai (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) - 4:31.45
4. Risa Yokoe (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) - 4:33.00
5. Yui Fukuda (Suma Gakuen H.S.) - 4:33.40

(c) 2013 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Tokyo Olympics Marathon Trials Winner Nakamura Enters Waseda Grad School

An Olympian in the marathon at the Tokyo Olympics, Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) announced on his social media that he has entered Waseda University 's Graduate School of Sport Science with the start of the new academic year this week. A graduate of Mie's Ueno Kogyo H.S. , Nakamura went to Komazawa University before joining Fujitsu in 2015. His senior year of high school he was 3rd overall and 2nd Japanese in the 5000 m at the National High School Track and Field Championships, and in the fall the same year he ran what was at the time the 7th-fastest high school mark ever, 13:50.38. At Komazawa he scored four individual stage wins across the three big university ekidens. In 2019 he won the MGC Race, Japan's marathon trials for the Tokyo Olympics, where he was 62nd in 2:22:23. Nakamura indicated that he would be studying "top sports management" under professor Takeo Hirata . "I'll be balancing competition and academics," Nakamura wrote. "I'm r...

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

Australian Male Arrested on Drug Smuggling Charges After Entering Japan for Osaka Marathon

On Apr. 9 the Kinki Region Bureau of Health, Labor and Welfare's Drug Control Division arrested Matthew Inglis Fox , 38, an Australian business owner of no known fixed address, on charges of violating the importation regulations of the Narcotics Control Act by smuggling tablets containing marijuana elements from the United States. The suspect had entered Japan in February to run in the Osaka Marathon . The suspect was arrested on suspicion of smuggling approximately 12 pills containing marijuana by sending them from a U.S. airport to Osaka's Kansai Airport using an international courier service on Feb. 19. The Osaka branch of the Customs Service discovered the tablets in arriving cargo and suspected them to be narcotics. Customs contacted the Narcotics Control Division, which then began its investigation of the case. According to the Narcotics Control Division, the suspect denies the charges.  Translator's note: Fox, who received a lifetime ban from the Ageo City Half Mara...