Skip to main content

Japan Dominates Asian Cross Country Championships

Japan dominated the 14th Asian Cross Country Championships Thursday in Guiyang, China, winning all four team gold medals to hold the hosts China back to silver in every race.

Japan's only individual gold came in the Junior Women's race, one of its usual areas of strength. Yuna Wada led a Japanese sweep of the top four positions to win the 6 km race in 20:43 with scoring teammates Ririka Hironaka and Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu just behind.


With the meet also serving as China's National Championships Chinese athletes won the individual gold in the other three races, Dan Li, Cairen Suolong and Jianhua Peng all showing better closing speed to beat their Japanese rivals by 3~4 seconds. Li won the Senior Women's 8 km by 3 seconds over Japan's Yukari Abe, leading China to its closest call on a team gold as it took silver at 14 points to Japan's 12. Suolong outkicked Yuhi Nakaya, 2018 Japanese junior national champion and star runner at 2017 National High School Ekiden champ Saku Chosei H.S., by 4 seconds to win the Junior Men's 8 km, where Japanese men finished 2nd through 4th to take the team gold. Peng duplicated Suolong's performance, outkicking Japan's Kazuya Nishiyama by 4 seconds for the win. Again, Japanese men went 2~4 to win the team gold.


14th Asian Cross Country Championships

Guiyang, China, 3/15/18
click here for complete results

Junior Women's 6 km
Individual
1. Yuna Wada (Japan) - 20:43
2. Ririka Hironaka (Japan) - 20:45
3. Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu (Japan) - 20:48
4. Nozomi Tanaka (Japan) - 21:13
5. Zeng Ting (China) - 22:42

Team
1. Japan - 6
2. China - 20

Senior Women's 8 km
Individual
1. Dan li (China) - 28:03
2. Yukari Abe (Japan) - 28:06
3. Jadhav Sanjivani (India) - 28:19
4. Nanami Watanabe (Japan) - 28:27
5. Xinjan Zhang (China) - 28:41
-----
6. Yuka Hori (Japan) - 28:44
7. Rina Nabeshina (Japan) - 28:57
9. Rika Kaseda (Japan) - 29:50

Team
1. Japan - 12
2. China - 14
3. India - 28

Junior Men's 8 km
Individual
1. Cairen Suolang (China) - 25:35
2. Yuhi Nakaya (Japan) - 25:39
3. Ren Tazawa (Japan) - 25:42
4. Ryunosuke Chigira (Japan) - 26:02
5. Reito Hanzawa (Japan) - 26:15
-----
7. Kiyoto Suzuki (Japan) - 26:29

Team
1. Japan - 9
2. China - 19
3. Iran - 31

Senior Men's 12 km
Individual
1. Jianhua Peng (China) - 38:22
2. Kazuya Nishiyama (Japan) - 38:26
3. Shunsuke Imanishi (Japan) - 38:28
4. Kosei Yamaguchi (Japan) - 38:37
5. Ciwang Danmuzhen (China) - 39:07
-----
6. Kazuma Taira (Japan) - 39:11
8. Hayato Mera (Japan) - 39:39

Team
1. Japan - 9
2. China - 16
3. Iran - 32

© 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Murayama and Sasaki Making U.S. Debut at New York Mini 10 km

Every year since 2012 that there's been a United Airlines NYC Half , JRN has partnered with the NYRR and November's Ageo City Half Marathon to bring two top-tier collegiate Japanese men to the NYC Half for what's usually been their international debuts. For years we've wanted to extend that program to include top collegiate women, but that has always faced 2 problems. For one, while the half marathon distance is the main focus for Japanese collegiate men due to the stage lengths at the Hakone Ekiden, few collegiate women run it. Those that do run the National University Women's Half Marathon in Matsue, held the same day as the NYC Half. This year, though, we're finally making it happen in a slightly different way. Amisa Murayama and Nazuki Sasaki of 2025 Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden national collegiate championship runner-up Tohoku Fukushi University are joining the field for the NYRR's Mastercard New York Mini 10 km on June 6. After running an 18:14 CR ...
Post a Comment
Read more

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."...
82 comments
Read more

Some Reflections on the Ekiden

by Brett Larner This ekiden season I've had a few thoughts kicking around, and watching this week's Hakone Ekiden a few of them became clearer.  These are still in progress, but at the moment this is what I'm thinking in terms of running as a spectator sport and about the quality of Japanese men's distance running right now. Quality: Japanese men's running is coming up very, very quickly.  I was in the lead car at November's Ageo City Half Marathon , where 18 men, 17 of them university runners, broke 63 minutes.  As it was going on we all thought it was a slow race because there were so many people running that pace all the way, no separation at all in the mass of the pack. See the JRN header photo above, taken just past halfway.  That's pretty unusual in Japan, especially at the university level; generally you'll get a handful of guys who run an aggressive pace and a mass running dead on a safe pace, 3:00/km in a half marathon, for example. Th...
18 comments
Read more