Skip to main content

National Sports Festival Athletics Highlights Part Two

by Brett Larner
click here for part one

After a meet record in the men's 10000 m race walk earlier in weekend, the second half of the 71st National Sports Festival saw two more race walk meet records.  In the senior women's 5000 mRW, Kumiko Okada (Bic Camera) broke the record set 21 years ago with a new mark of 21:24.94 to win by almost a minute.  The junior men's 5000 mRW was closer, with Masatora Kawano (Gotemba Minami H.S.) pushing Ryutaro Yamamoto (Toyama Shogyo H.S.) to break his own record.  Yamamoto bettered his 2015 record by 12 seconds in 19:56.66, Kawano also coming in under Kawano's old mark in 20:02.38.

In the junior men's 3000 m, 9th-grader Hiroto Hayashida (Sakuragahara J.H.S.) bettered his high school competition to win in a new junior high school national record of 8:19.14.  No records were set in the junior women's 3000 m, but Kenyan Helen Ekarare (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) delivered one of the fastest performances in National Sports Festival history as she won in 8:58.36.  Nozomi Tanaka (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) came up short of winning a national title again, outrunning Rika Kaseda (Narita H.S.) for 2nd in 9:05.03 with Kaseda just 0.70 seconds behind.

With his Rio Olympics men's 4x100 m relay silver medalist teammates Ryota Yamagata (Seiko) and Asuka Cambridge (Dome) having appeared earlier in the weekend, Shota Iizuka (Mizuno) wrapped up his season and the National Sports Festival in the 4x100 m final.  Running anchor, Iizuka brought his hometown Shizuoka team home in 3rd in 40.07.  Aichi got the win in 40.00 with 100 m champ Takuya Nagata (Hosei Univ.) running opposite Iizuka, and Fukuoka a surprising 2nd in 40.03.

71st National Sports Festival Athletics Highlights - Part Two
Iwate, Oct. 10-11
click here for complete results

Junior Women's 400 m Final
1. Rin Aoki (Soyo H.S.) - 54.67
2. Yukina Shimada (Tsuruga H.S.) - 54.82
3. Minami Hatano (Tokai Prep Boyo H.S.) - 55.10

Junior Men's 400 m Final
1. Daichi Inoue (Tokyo H.S.) - 47.33
2. Naoki Kitadani (Kagaku Gijutsu H.S.) - 47.61
3. Yushi Uike (Saikyo H.S.) - 47.64

Senior Men's 800 m Final
1. Tatsuya Nishikubo (Waseda Univ.) - 1:51.17
2. Takumi Murashima (Juntendo Univ.) - 1:51.18
3. Sho Kawamoto (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 1:51.18

Junior Men's 3000 m Final
1. Hiroto Hayashida (Sakuragahara J.H.S.) - 8:19.14 - JHS NR
2. Ren Tazawa (Aomori Yamada H.S.) - 8:19.80
3. Ryuto Igawa (Kyushu Gakuin H.S.) - 8:20.36

Junior Women's 3000 m Final
1. Helen Ekarare (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) - 8:58.36
2. Nozomi Tanaka (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) - 9:05.03
3. Rika Kseda (Narita H.S.) - 9:05.73
4. Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu (Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S.) - 9:14.21
5. Yuna Wada (Nagano Higashi H.S.) - 9:16.42

Senior Women's 100 m Hurdles Final +2.8 m/s
1. Meg Hemphill (Chuo Univ.) - 13.35
2. Sayaka Kobayashi (Aichi Taiiku Univ.) - 13.46
3. Chisato Kiyoyama (Ichigo Track Team) - 13.53

Senior Men's 110 m Hurdles Final +0.3 m/s
1. Wataru Yazawa (Descente Track Club) - 13.62
2. Taio Kanai (Hosei Univ.) - 13.74
3. Masanori Nishizawa (Tottori T&F Assoc.) - 13.80

Junior Men's 5000 m Race Walk Final
1. Ryutaro Yamamoto (Toyama Shogyo H.S.) - 19:56.66 - MR
2. Masatora Kawano (Gotemba Minami H.S.) - 20:02.38 (MR)
3. Yu Takeuchi (Horikoshi H.S.) - 20:11.91

Senior Women's 5000 m Race Walk Final
1. Kumiko Okada (Bic Camera) - 21:24.94 - MR
2. Nanako Fujii (Kitakyushu Municipal H.S.) - 21:14.52
3. Mizuka Takayama (Niigata Iryo Fukushi Univ.) - 22:20.36

Junior Men's Triple Jump Final
1. Tsukasa Mizutani (Obihiro Nogyo H.S.) - 15.48 m +1.6 m/s
2. Kota Nishimura (Rakunan H.S.) - 15.35 m +0.4 m/s
3. Tomoro Yokomori (Nirasaki H.S.) - 15.29 m +1.7 m/s

Women's 4x100 m Relay Final
1. Tokyo - 45.45
2. Osaka - 45.52
3. Hokkaido - 45.64

Men's 4x100 m Relay Final
1. Aichi - 40.00
2. Fukuoka - 40.03
3. Shizuoka - 40.07

Senior Women's High Jump Final
1. Miyuki Fukumoto (Konan Gakuen AC) - 1.75 m
2. Yuki Watanabe (Mirait Technologies) - 1.75 m
3. Moeko Kyoya (Hokkaido Hi-Tech AC) - 1.72 m
3. Riko Kamisaka (Funabashi Municipal H.S.) - 1.72 m

Junior Men's Long Jump Final
1. Yuto Nakano (Meijo Prep H.S.) - 7.15 m +2.0 m/s
2. Yasunari Kobatake (Iida H.S.) - 7.14 m +2.2 m/s
3. Kaede Kato (Tokyo H.S.) - 7.11 m +0.7 m/s

Junior Men's Javelin Throw Final
1. Junichiro Aizawa (Seibudai H.S.) - 69.67 m
2. Hiroshi Ikegawa (Takikawa Daini H.S.) - 66.30 m
3. Shugo Maeda (Kikugawa Nanryo H.S.) - 64.53 m

Senior Men's Javelin Throw Final
1. Ryohei Arai (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 81.62 m
2. Takuto Kominami (Kokushikan Univ.) - 75.85 m
3. Yukifumi Murakami (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 74.02 m

© 2016 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Updates on Transfers

April 1 is the start of Japan's new academic and fiscal year, and there's always a wave of transfer announcements to go with it. Some notable ones yesterday: 800 m NR holder Rin Kubo skipped university to go straight to 2023 Queens Ekiden national champion Sekisui Kagaku after her graduation from Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S. Multiple NR holder Nozomi Tanaka rejoined the Toyota Jidoshokki women's team after having left it to pursue a solo pro career as a New Balance athlete. Already on the team for this fall's Nagoya Asian Games in the 10000 m, Ririka Hironaka announced a switch from her longtime home at Japan Post to the Uniqlo women's team. Collegiate marathon record holder Asahi Kuroda joined the 2026 national champion GMO corporate team after graduating from 2026 Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University last week. Hakone Ekdien First Stage CR holder Rui Aoki joins the Sumitomo Denko corporate team after running his final race for 2025 Izumo Ekiden w...

Chien Breaks TPE NR, Iwata Betters ID-Class WR - Weekend Track Roundup

The last weekend of the academic and fiscal year saw at least 5 meets with good results domestically and abroad. Kicking things off Friday was the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne, where Tomohiro Shinno and Naoto Hasegawa took 1st and 3rd in the men's high jump, both of them only clearing 2.18 m along with 2nd-placer Roman Anastasios . 12 other Japanese athletes were in action on the second day of the meet on Saturday, where 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura ran 3:42.84 for 6th in the men's 1500 m. Nagiya Mori had a better one in the men's 3000 m with a 7:45.40 for 4th. Both Yota Mashiko and Rui Suzuki cleared 8:00 too, Mashiko's 7:53.84 the 2nd-fastest ever by a Japanese-born high schooler. Abigail Fuka Ido and Nagisa Takahashi both placed 3rd in their events, Ido going 23.85 (-0.9) in the women's 200 m and Takahashi clearing 1.82 m in the women's high jump. 8 Japanese men were at The TEN in California to run 10000 m. In the B-heat won by Edward Marks in ...

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."...