Skip to main content

Osako and Yoroizaka Break 5000 m National Record at KBC Nacht

by Brett Larner

Eight years after it was set at on the same track, Suguru Osako (Oregon Project) and Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Team Asahi Kasei) made history at the KBC Nacht in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium, both breaking Takayuki Matsumiya's 13:13.20 Japanese men's 5000 m national record.  For Osako it was do or die, his last chance to clear the Beijing World Championships qualifying standard of 13:23.00 after his official debut season with the Oregon Project was repeatedly hit by setbacks, not least of all the series of doping allegations against his coach Alberto Salazar.  Osako came through in a big way, running 13:08.40 for 6th, easily breaking both the NR and the Beijing standard.  10000 m national champion Yoroizaka, already on the Beijing team in the 10000 m, unexpectedly hung on to the pace and likewise cleared the record and standard in 13:12.63.

After countless all-time top performances over 5000 m, 10000 m, half marathon and marathon have sent things bubbling in the right direction in the last few years, it was the first new Japanese men's national record at one of the major distances since Matsumiya set foot in Heusden.  With the gates now open more are bound to come.  At the very least Heusden remains a magical track for Japanese men, with 7 of the 10 fastest Japanese 5000 m times now having been run there.

Kota Murayama (Team Asahi Kasei), who outkicked Osako to win last month's National Championships 5000 m after running 13:19.62 in May, had an off day, running just 13:58.56 for 19th.  Another raft of Japanese corporate runners ran in the B-heat, Yoroizaka and Murayama's teammate Shuho Dairokuno (Team Asahi Kasei) leading the way with a PB 13:28.61 for 2nd.  In the women's 5000 m, 10000 m national champion Kasumi Nishihara (Team Yamada Denki) likewise turned in a PB performance but came up painfully shy of clearing the 15:20.00 Beijing standard, running 15:20.20 for 6th.  Teammates Yuika Mori and Shiho Takechi were 10th and 14th in 15:34.13 and 15:37.41.

KBC Nacht
Heusden-Zolder, Belgium, 7/18/15
click here for complete results

Men's 5000 m
1. Dejen Gebremeskel (Ethiopia) - 13:05.38
2. Bashir Abdi (Belgium) - 13:06.10
3. Ben True (U.S.A.) - 13:06.15
4. Albert Rop (Kenya) - 13:06.74
5. Eric Jenkins (U.S.A.) - 13:07.33
6. Suguru Osako (Japan/Nike Oregon Project) - 13:08.40 - NR
7. Thomas Farrell (Great Britain) - 13:10.48
8. Philip Kipyego (Kenya) - 13:10.69
9. Bernard Kimani (Kenya) - 13:10.83
10. Richard Ringer (Germany) - 13:10.94
11. Sindre Buraas (Norway) - 13:11.96
12. Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Japan/Asahi Kasei) - 13:12.63 (NR)
-----
19. Kota Murayama (Japan/Asahi Kasei) - 13:58.56
20. Naohiro Domoto (Japan/JR Higashi Nihon) - 14:17.23

Women's 5000 m
1. Mimi Belete (Ethiopia) - 14:54.71
2. Goytom Gebrselase (Ethiopia) - 14:57.33
3. Abbey D'Agostino (U.S.A.) - 15:03.85
4. Stephanie Twell (Great Britain) - 15:14.39
5. Jennifer Wenth (Austria) - 15:16.12
6. Kasumi Nishihara (Japan/Yamada Denki) - 15:20.20
7. Laura Whittle (Great Britain) - 15:22.00
8. Louise Carton (Belgium) - 15:23.82
9. Lidia Rodriguez (Spain) - 15:24.25
10. Yuika Mori (Japan/Yamada Denki) - 15:34.13
-----
14. Shiho Takechi (Japan/Yamada Denki) - 15:37.41

Men's 5000 m B-Heat
1. Frederick KIpkosgei (Kenya) - 13:28.32
2. Shuho Dairokuno (Japan/Asahi Kasei) - 13:28.61
3. Ross Proudfoot (Canada) - 13:29.32
4. Brian Shrader (U.S.A.) - 13:30.09
5. Roy Hoornweg (Netherlands) - 13:31.41
-----
11. Yuta Shitara (Japan/Honda) - 13:37.76
14. Kaido Kita (Japan/Chugoku Denryoku) - 13:43.91
15. Hiroto Inoue (Japan/Mitsubishi HPS) - 13:45.92
16. Masato Kikuchi (Japan/Konica Minolta) - 13:48.07

(c) 2015 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Brett Larner said…
This is the first real Japanese men's NR at a major distance since we started doing JRN full-time. Raising a glass of bubbly in toast tonight.
July 19, 2015 at 8:47 PM
Eryn said…
7 out of 10 best times for 5000 m on one track in Belgium ! Wow. This is amazing. I can't help thinking the track may be a bit short ;-)
July 20, 2015 at 5:30 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Nagoya Women's Marathon Preview and Streaming (updated)

Japan's winter marathon season of 6 major races in 7-straight weekends wraps up Sunday with the world's largest women-only marathon, the Nagoya Women's Marathon . The weather is looking pretty good, 6˚ at the start rising to 10˚ by the finish and sunny skies, but a moderate 7 m/s NW wind means a headwind finish that might impact the potential for some fast times. Official streaming kicks off at 9:00 a.m. local time. Live results will be here . Sheila Chepkirui won last year in 2:20:40, breaking away from Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba at 30 km and hanging on for the win. Sato negative split a 2:20:59 PB for 2nd, Chumba fading to 3rd in 2:21:36. All 3 are back this time, but they have pretty serious competition from Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Selly Chepyego Kaptich , 2:20:03 in Barcelona 2023. And of course, Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda . Maeda ran 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024 to make the Paris Oly...
Post a Comment
Read more

Chepkirui Over Sato Again to Win 2nd-Straight Nagoya Women's Marathon, Chen Breaks Malaysian NR (updated)

This year's Nagoya Women's Marathon felt like a changing of the guard, with some the bigger domestic names over the last few years fading early and a lot of newer faces stepping up with quality debuts or second marathons. The front group was set to be paced for 2:20 flat with the 2nd group at 2:23:30 to hit the auto-qualifying time for the 2027 MGC Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials race in Nagoya. Up front things went out OK, but after a 33:10 split at 10 km Ayuko Suzuki , 2:21:22 here 2 years ago, lost touch, ultimately finishing 23rd in 2:33:28. Windy conditions started to play with pacers' ability to keep things steady and the pace slowed majorly over the next 10 km, but even with a 34:05 second 10 km there were big-name casualties. 2024 Nagoya winner Yuka Ando was next to drop, ending up 17th in 2:30:32. NR holder Honami Maeda was next, followed quickly by Bahraini Kenyan Eunice Chumba and debuting Wakana Kabasawa . Maeda faded to 21st in 2:31:21, whil...
2 comments
Read more

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...
53 comments
Read more