Morita Goes Sub-32 in 10000 m Debut

Running her track 10000 m debut of a 32:27 road 10 km in the spring, Kaori Morita (Panasonic) closed hard off a slow opening pace to win the National Corporate Federation Women's Long Distance Time Trials 10000 m Friday afternoon in Yamaguchi.

A new filler meet to take up space on the calendar following the National Corporate Women's Ekiden's move to November, the Corporate Time Trials meet featured one heat of 3000 m and three 5000 m heats before its main focus, the 10000 m. After a 3:19 first 1000 m Morita's teammate Yuka Hori, winner of the 10.9 km Third Stage at Nationals, took over, leading the field at 3:12 to 3:14 / km pace through 7000 m. Morita, who won the 7.0 km First Stage, went to the front at that point with a 3:14 to 8000 m before taking off.

Clocking her fastest split up to that point with a 3:07 between 8 and 9000 m, Morita closed impressively with a 3:01 final km to dip under 32 minutes as she won in 31:59.94. Steepler Chikako Mori (Sekisui Kagaku) was 2nd in 32:05.99, a PB by almost a minute and a half, with Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) 3rd in 32:06.14 after winning the 5000 m B-heat in 15:56.57 less than an hour earlier. Morita's twin sister Shiori was a DNS.

National Corporate Federation Women's Long Distance Time Trials
Ishin Hyakunen Kinen Park Field, Yamaguchi, 12/9/17
click here for complete results

Women's 10000 m
1. Kaori Morita (Panasonic) - 31:59.94
2. Chikako Mori (Sekisui Kagaku) - 32:05.99
3. Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) - 32:06.14
4. Anna Matsuda (Kyocera) - 32:07.11
5. Riko Matsuzaki (Sekisui Kagaku) - 32:08.46
6. Harumi Okamoto (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 32:17.29
7. Rie Fujita (Kyocera) - 32:21.79
8. Yuka Hori (Panasonic) - 32:21.92
9. Yuri Nozoe (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 32:26.93
10. Natsumi Matsushita (Tenmaya) - 32:27.58

Women's 5000 m Heat 3
1. Mai Nishiwaki (Tenmaya) - 15:38.82
2. Kasumi Nishihara (Yamada Denki) - 15:39.43
3. Fumika Sasaki (Daiichi Seimei) - 15:40.69
4. Kanami Sagayama (Daiichi Seimei) - 15:41.34
5. Miyuki Uehara (Daiichi Seimei) - 15:41.51
6. Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:44.39
7. Hisami Ishii (Yamada Denki) - 15:45.32
8. Sakiho Tsutsui (Yamada Denki) - 15:46.89
9. Nanako Kanno (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 15:47.24
10. Azuki Horiguchi (Kyocera) - 15:50.71

Women's 5000 m Heat 2
1. Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) - 15:56.57
2. Natsuki Omori (Daihatsu) - 15:56.68
3. Mayuka Toda (Kyocera) - 15:57.51
4. Kanako Takemoto (Daihatsu) - 15:58.71
5. Ayari Harada (Daiichi Seimei) - 15:59.23

Women's 5000 m Heat 1
1. Misaki Minami (Wacoal) - 16:14.48
2. Aika Nakashima (Kyocera) - 16:14.59
3. Nazuna Yamasaki (Juhachi Ginko) - 16:15.43

Women's 3000 m
1. Ayaka Nakagawa (Sekisui Kagaku) - 9:27.51
2. Momoka Kawaguchi (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 9:34.10
3. Nagisa Shimotabira (Daihatsu) - 9:36.22

photo © 2017 M. Kawaguchi, all rights reserved
text © 2017 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Japan Post Holds Off Sekisui Kagaku to Win Queens Ekiden National Title

Japan Post was back on top at the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championships Sunday in Sendai, holding off last year's winner Sekisui Kagaku over the second half of a race that came as close as 1 second to take 1st with a final margin of victory of 27 seconds. Sekisui Kagaku was out fast with a win on the 7.0 km opening leg by Erika Tanoura and a new CR for the 12:56 second leg by Yuma Yamamoto , 17 seconds better than her own CR from last year. Last year's 4th-placer Shiseido briefly led on the 10.6 km third leg with an excellent 33:17 stage win from Rino Goshima , but behind her Japan Post's Ririka Hironaka returned from her latest injury problems to pass Sekisui Kagaku's Sayaka Sato and hand off 6 seconds ahead. New recruit Caroline Kariba ran Shiseido down on the 3.6 km fourth leg and put Japan Post 22 seconds ahead of Sekisui Kagaku, but a duel of marathoners between JP's Ayuko Suzuki and Sekisui's Hitomi Niiy...

2023 Champion Kamimura Gakuen Girls Ready for Sunday's National High School Ekiden

Ahead of the Dec. 22 National High School Ekiden in Kyoto, the 2023 national champion Kamimura Gakuen H.S. girls held an open practice session for the media. 2023 was Kamimura Gakuen's only 2nd national title ever. Can it make it two in a row? The Kamimura Gakuen girls won the Nov. 2 Kagoshima Prefecture High School Ekiden, its 9th-straight win and 31st victory overall in the prefectural qualifying race for Nationals. 3rd on her stage at Nationals last year as part of the winning team, Hina Ogura summed up this year's lineup. "There's no really dominant star runner this year, but each person is aware of their position on the team and working together to share in everyone playing leading roles." Sakine Noguchi ran the Second Stage at Nationals last year. "I think we've improved our stamina," she said, "so I hope that we can get the best possible results and all finish with a smile." Handling the First Stage last year, Rin Setoguchi said,...

Ekiden Great Naoki Okamoto to Retire in January at Age 40

The Chugoku Denryoku men's corporate team has announced that team member Naoki Okamoto , 40, will retire in January. Born in May, 1984, Okamoto went to Tohaku J.H.S. and Yura Ikuei H.S. before enrolling at Meiji University . His 2nd year at Meiji he helped it make it through the Hakone Ekiden qualifying race for the first time in 14 years and ran Hakone at the end of that season in 2005. He went on to run it his 3rd and 4th years too, placing 6th on the First Stage and 9th on the highly competitive Second Stage. After graduating in 2007 he joined Chugoku Denryoku. He was a regular on its team at the New Year Ekiden, winning the Fifth Stage in 2010. But where he really made his name was the National Men's Ekiden, held every January in Hiroshima where Chugoku Denryoku is based. Running it 19 times, he passed a total of 134 competitors in his career there and came to be recognized as one of the event's icons. He also won its Seventh Stage in 2009. In the marathon, ...

japan running news

Search This Blog