Skip to main content

National and Asian Cross-Country Championships Results

by Brett Larner

Following the rebranding of the Chiba International Cross-Country Meet earlier this month as the trendier-sounding X-Run Chiba, Japan's mini XC season saw most of its action over the weekend.  The other big domestic meet alongside Chiba, the Fukuoka International Cross-Country Meet was likewise rebranded this year as the National Cross-Country ChampionshipsYukari Abe (Team Shimamura) was crowned the first senior women's national champion, winning the 8 km race in 27:13 by a second over Tomoka Kimura (Team Univ. Ent.).  With Ethiopian Kassa Mekashaw (Team Yachiyo Kogyo) running up front to keep the pace hot, first-year pro Takashi Ichida (Team Asahi Kasei) had a surprise win over Hakone Ekiden Fifth Stage star Daichi Kamino (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) and, fresh from breaking 1:01 at the Marugame Half, the ascendant Keijiro Mogi (Asahi Kasei) to pick up the inaugural senior men's 12 km title in 35:59.  Fukiko Ando (Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.) and Sota Watanabe (Yoshihara Kogyo H.S.) won the junior titles, with Chinatsu Tarumoto (Suma Gakuen H.S.) and Kenyan Rogers Chumo Kwemoi (Team Aisan Kogyo) winning the non-championship junior 4 km races.

Two days later in Bahrain, Bahraini athletes, most (all?) African-born athletes running under Bahrain colors, nearly carried off a perfect sweep of every race at the Asian Cross Country Championships, taking the top three in the senior women's and men's races and in the junior men's race as well as all four team titles.  As usual, Japan's junior women were the only ones able to make a dent, with Japan's top two Yukai Mukai and Rika Kaseda taking 3rd and 4th to beat Bahrain's third scorer Edao Bontu.  Other top-placing Japanese athletes were Daiju Nakashima, 4th in the junior men's race, Tsubasa Hayakawa, 7th for senior men, and Rina Yamazaki, just 9th in the senior women's race.  In addition to the junior women's team silver, the junior and senior men both picked up team silvers behind Bahrain, with the senior women proving the weak link at 4th behind Bahrain, China and India.

Cross country season wraps up for Japanese athletes next week at the World University Cross Country Championships in Italy.

National Cross-Country Championships
Fukuoka, 2/27/16
click here for complete results

Senior Women's 8 km
1. Yukari Abe (Shimamura) - 27:13
2. Tomoka Kimura (Universal Entertainment) - 27:14
3. Moeno Shimizu (Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) - 27:20
4. Honoka Yuzawa (Meijo Univ.) - 27:29
5. Sakie Arai (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) - 27:37
6. Kureha Seki (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 27:39
7. Reno Okura (Hokuren) - 27:42
8. Maki Izumida (Rikkyo Univ.) - 27:46
9. Shiori Morita (Panasoinc) - 27:59
10. Rina Koeda (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 28:01

Senior Men's 12 km
1. Kassa Mekashaw (Ethiopia/Yachiyo Kogyo) - 35:53
2. Takashi Ichida (Asahi Kasei) - 35:59
3. Daichi Kamino (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 36:02
4. Keijiro Mogi (Asahi Kasei) - 36:15
5. Kazuki Tamura (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 36:21
6. Hazuma Hattori (Toyo Univ.) - 36:32
7. Shota Baba (Komazawa Univ.) - 36:35
8. Hiroshi Ichida (Asahi Kasei) - 36:36
9. Shota Maeda (Daito Bunka Univ) - 36:47
10. Kazuma Taira (Waseda Univ.) - 36:49

Junior Women's 6 km
1. Fukiko Ando (Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.) - 19:43
2. Yuka Sarumida (Toyokawa H.S.) - 19:56
3. Mikuni Yada (Ruteru Gakuin H.S.) - 20:03
4. Wakana Kabasawa (Tokiwa H.S.) - 20:09
5. Sae Hanada (Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S.) - 20:10

Junior Men's 8 km
1. Sota Watanabe (Yoshihara Kogyo H.S.) - 24:19
2. Yoji Sakai (Suma Gakuen H.S.) - 24:22
3. Ryota Takemoto (Omuta H.S.) - 24:23
4. Junnosuke Matsuo (Akita Kogyo H.S.) - 24:23
5. Hayato Seki (Saku Chosei H.S.) - 24:30

Junior Women's 4 km
1. Chinatsu Tarumoto (Suma Gakuen H.S.) - 13:41
2. Yuna Wada (Nagano Higashi H.S.) - 13:41
3. Tsuzumi Terao (Yamada H.S.) - 13:54
4. Yuki Edao (Kumamoto Eishin Joshi Gakuin H.S.) - 14:02
5. Yuka Matsumura (Kitakyushu Municipal H.S.) - 14:04

Junior Men's 4 km
1. Rogers Chumo Kwemoi (Kenya/Aisan Kogyo) - 12:15
2. Hibiki Yasuda (Mashita Seifu H.S.) - 12:33
3. Takuro Donji (Mashita Seifu H.S.) - 12:34
4. Taiki Nakajima (Koku Gakuin Prep Kugayama H.S.) - 12:35
5. Iori Sugawara (Koku Gakuin Prep Kugayama H.S.) - 12:38

Asian Cross-Country Championships
Bahrain, 2/29/16
click here for complete results

Senior Women
1. Eunice Chumba (Bahrain) - 29:35.38
2. Ruth Jebet (Bahrain) - 29:41.24
3. Mimi Belete (Bahrain) - 29:45.90
4. Alia Mohammed Saeed (UAE) - 29:59.74
5. Damaris Muthee (Bahrain) - 30:10.48
6. Gashaw Tigest (Bahrain) - 30:17.34
7. Sanjivani Baburao Jadhav (India) - 30:48.88
8. Xinyan Zhang (China) - 30:57.24
9. Rina Yamazaki (Japan) - 31:22.03
10. Swati Haridas Gadhave (India) - 31:31.15
-----
12. Yuka Miyazaki (Japan) - 32:18.41
16. Kyoko Koyama (Japan) - 33:49.17

Team Scoring
1. Bahrain - 6
2. China - 32
3. India - 34
4. Japan - 37

Senior Men
1. Albert Rop (Bahrain) - 32:35.22
2. Isaac Korir (Bahrain) - 32:58.73
3. Ayalew Aweke (Bahrain) - 33:06.27
4. Gopi Thonakal (India) - 33:43.63
5. Evans Rutto (Bahrain) - 33:48.05
6. Dazza Al Mahjoub (Bahrain) - 34:22.28
7. Tsubasa Hayakawa (Japan) - 34:38.40
8. Shuho Dairokuno (Japan) - 35:19.65
9. Man Singh (India) - 35:41.21
10. Mohammadjavad Savadi (Iran) - 35:41.21
-----
15. Mitsutaka Tomita (Japan) - 37:15.96
17. Naohiro Domoto (Japan) - 37:53.23

Team Scoring
1. Bahrain - 6
2. Japan - 31
3. Iran - 35

Junior Women
1. Dalila Abdulkadir (Bahrain) - 21:54.37
2. Desi Mokonin (Bahrain) - 22:00.43
3. Yuka Mukai (Japan) - 22:06.29
4. Rika Kaseda (Japan) - 22:26.65
5. Edao Bontu (Bahrain) - 22:40.18
6. Nana Kuraoka (Japan) - 22:48.42
7. Nozomi Tanaka (Japan) - 22:48.43
8. Mekonen Tigest (Bahrain) - 22:55.57
9. Shinobu Koyoshigawa (Japan) - 22:56.07
10. Aman Shuba (Bahrain) - 23.42.59

Team Scoring
1. Bahrain - 8
2. Japan - 13
3. India - 39

Junior Men
1. Ali Abdi (Bahrain) - 26:17.55
2. Desalegn Derara (Bahrain) - 26:19.02
3. Ibrahim Abdi (Bahrain) - 27:10.09
4. Daiju Nakashima (Japan) - 27:34.58
5. Hyuga Endo (Japan) - 27:45.80
6. Kiseki Shiozawa (Japan) - 27:48.57
7. Tomoki Ota (Japan) - 28:11.83
8. Kisan Narshi Tadvi (India) - 28:54.87
9. Shota Onizuka (Japan) - 29:04.52
10. Ansar Imam Dargiwale (India) - 29:29.48

Team Scoring
1. Bahrain - 6
2. Japan - 15
3. Iran - 49

© 2016 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Ninja Runner Yuka Ando Leads Japanese Women's Marathon Team in London: "I Want to Go For It"

Her form has been dubbed "ninja running." Both arms held straight down with almost no movement. That idiosyncratic style carried Yuka Ando , 23, to the fastest-ever marathon debut by a Japanese woman, 2:21:36, at March's Nagoya Women's Marathon to land at #4 on the all-time Japanese lists. All at once Ando found herself catapulted to the top level of women's marathoning, a candidate for Japan's next great marathoner. When she was younger Ando ran moving her arms like other runners, but she had a bad habit of moving robotically, her upper body and lower body not working in sync. The turning point came in 2014 when she joined Suzuki Hamamatsu AC . Working there with coach Masayuki Satouchi to eliminate the faults in her form, the pair arrived at the ninja running style that let her run relaxed. "Other people keep asking me, "Isn't it hard to run like that?" but for me it's comfortable," she said. The efficient form helped her mai

Yamaguchi 10th at United Airlines NYC Half - Weekend Overseas Results

2024 national cross-country champion Tomonori Yamaguchi was the top Japanese finisher in the men's race at the United Airlines NYC Half , taking 10th in 1:04:36. A 2nd-year at Waseda University , Yamaguchi was one of three collegiate runners running New York in the 11th year of JRN's development program collaboration between the Ageo City Half Marathon and the New York Road Runners, a program that has seen people like future half marathon and marathon NR breaker Yuta Shitara and Paris Olympic team member Akira Akasaki make their international debuts. Yamaguchi's Waseda teammate Taishi Ito started fast, going with the leaders through 5 km in 14:29 before losing touch. Hosei University senior Rei Matsunaga went through in 14:42 in his last race before joining the JR Higashi Nihon corporate team in April. Yamaguchi, who caught COVID after winning last month's National Cross-Country Championships, started more conservatively with a 15:11 first 5km. But where both Ito

Rui Aoki Wins National University Men's Half Marathon - Weekend Results

Yuka Ando 's win at the Nagoya Women's Marathon was the big news of the weekend, but there were other high-level races happening, even in Nagoya. Held in parallel with the marathon, the Nagoya City Half Marathon saw Australians Natalie Rule and Ed Goddard take easy wins by about 2.5 minutes each, Rule in 1:13:57 and Goddard in 1:04:01. The new Biwako Marathon also had a non-Japanese winner, China's Yousheng Guan scoring 1st in 2:14:58 with Japan's Hirohito Sugai next in 2:16:40. Mikiko Ota won the women's race in 2:50:44. The Shizuoka Marathon returned for its first running in five years, with club runner Shumpei Oda leading the top 7 men under 2:20 in 2:15:36. Women's winner Remi Tanaka ran 2:41:23, beating runner-up Ayumi Sano by exactly 7 minutes. And in Tokyo, Rui Aoki continued what has been a great season so far for Koku Gakuin University with a win at the National University Men's Half Marathon . Aoki and Hiro Konda of Chuo Gakuin Unive