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First-Year Yoshimura Sets Steeplechase Meet Record - Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships Day Four Highlights



Japan's best collegiate meet wrapped up Sunday with day four of the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships at Kanagawa's Sagamihara Gion Stadium. The biggest result of the day came in the women's steeplechase, where first-year Reimi Yoshimura (Daito Bunka Univ.) doubled from her 1500 m Kanto title on Friday to win by almost 35 seconds in a new meet record of 9:57.46. Her time also broke her own Kanto Region record, a pretty impressive wrap to just her second month of collegiate competition.



A few hours later her senior teammate Natsuki Sekiya, last year's double 5000 m and 10000 m winner but skipping the 10 this year in favor of last weekend's 10000 m National Championships, took a close race against Rino Goshima (Chuo Univ.) to win the 5000 m title. Her victory meant that three different DBU women took the top spot in all four events from 1500 m to 10000 m, boding well for the team's chances in ekiden season this fall.



In D1 men's distance action, Ryohei Sakaguchi (Tokai Univ.) took the steeplechase title in 8:44.29, beating Ryoma Aoki (Hosei Univ.) by just 0.27. Kenyans took the top three spots in the 5000 m, with James Bunuka (Surugadai Univ.) running 13:45.03 to become the double 5000/10000 champ. Another Kenyan, Charles Ndungu (Nihon Univ.), won the half marathon in 1:04:57 by 17 seconds over Hayato Miyashita (Toyo Univ.).



In D2, Kota Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) was the only man to break 9 minutes in the steeple, winning in 8:59.67. In the 5000 m Kenyans were even more dominant than in D1, with Ledama Kisaisa (Obirin Univ.) leading a sweep of the top five spots in 13:44.57 and like Bunuka completing the 5/10 double. As in the 10000 m, this year's Hakone Ekiden uphill Fifth Stage winner Yuhei Urano (Koku Gakuin Univ.) was the top Japanese man in the 5000 m, running 14:06.98 for 6th. His teammate Hidekazu Hijikata (Koku Gakuin Univ.) won the half marathon in 1:05:18.



As for most of the rest of the meet, windy conditions kept marks in the sprints and jumps out of the record books. Apart from Yoshimura's steeplechase record, the only other meet record to fall came in the D2 men's pole vault. Kazuya Ishibashi (Seiwa Univ.) cleared 5.36 m for the win, 25 cm lower than D1 winner Masaki Ejima's record set yesterday but good enough for the D2 record.



In overall team scoring, Tsukuba University won the women's team title with 114 points, double the score of 6th-place Daito Bunka University which lacked the field program to back up its success in the distance events. As always, Nihon University won the D1 men's team title with 121 points, threatened by 2019 Hakone Ekiden champ Tokai University on the track but strong enough on the field to hang on to its top position. D2 saw the closest matchup, with Ryutsu Keizai University scoring 95 points for 1st over Keio University with 91.5 and Tokyo Gakugei University at 91.

98th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships

Day Four Highlights
Gion Stadium, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, 5/26/19
complete results

Women

Women's 200 m Final +3.6 m/s
1. Kanako Yuasa (Nittai Univ.) - 23.65
2. Sae Miyazono (Kokushikan Univ.) - 24.01
3. Amika Miyazaki (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.)  24.07

Womens 800 m Final
1. Rika Kikuchi (Juntendo Univ.) - 2:09.03
2. Airi Ikezaki (Juntendo Univ.) - 2:09.20
3. Erina Hosoi (Keio Univ.) - 2:09.79

Womens 5000 m Final
1. Natsuki Seikya (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 16:05.77
2. Rino Goshima (Chuo Univ.) - 16:06.57
3. Yuka Suzuki (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 16:08.21
4. Mimiri Wada (Toyo Univ.) - 16:15.00
5. Yukina Ueda (Tsukuba Univ.) - 16:18.00

Women's 400 m Hurdles Final
1. Kana Koyama (Waseda Univ.) - 58.07
2. Moeka Sekimoto (Waseda Univ.) - 58.35
3. Natsumi Murakami (Waseda  Univ.) - 59.47

Women's 3000 m Steeplechase Final
1. Reimi Yoshimura (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 9:57.46 - MR
2. Yuna Takahashi (Juntendo Univ.) - 10:31.44
3. Shoko Tsujita (Juntendo Univ.) - 10:32.98
4. Rika Shishido (Hakuoh Univ.) - 10:38.48
5. Yurina Kinoshita (Chuo Univ.) - 10:41.88

Women's Shot Put Final
1. Yuri Saito (Tsukuba Univ.) - 15.18 m
2. Fumika Ono (Saitama Univ.) - 14.87 m
3. Yuka Ebihara (Nihon Joshi Taiiku  Univ.) - 14.56 m

Women's Heptathlon Final Standings
1. Karin Odama (Nittai Univ.) - 5528
2. Konoka Takahashi (Tokyo Gakugei Univ.) - 5471
3. Haruna Hashimoto (Tsukuba Univ.) - 5245

Women's 4x400 m Relay Final
1. Waseda Univ. - 3:40.34
2. Nittai Univ. - 3:41.08
3. Chuo Univ. - 3:42.12

Division 1 Men

D1 Men's 200 m Final +3.7 m/s
1. Jun Yamashita (Tsukuba Univ.) - 20.47
2. Soshi Mizukubo (Josai Univ.) - 20.55
3. Yoshihiro Someya (Chuo Univ.) - 20.57

D1 Men's 800 m Final
1. Junya Matsumoto (Hosei Univ.) - 1:48.30
2. Kazuyoshi Tamogami (Chuo Univ.) - 1:49.00
3. Tatsuya Nishikubo (Waseda Univ.) - 1:49.02

D1 Men's 5000 m Final
1. James Bunuka (Surugadai Univ.) - 13:45.03
2. Vincent Raimoi (Kokushikan Univ.) - 13:47.05
3. Paul Gitonga (Kokushikan Univ.) - 13:55.38
4. Toshiya Sato (Hosei Univ.) - 13:59.51
5. Akira Aizawa (Toyo Univ.) - 14:05.84

D1 Men's Half Marathon Final
1. Charles Ndungu (Nihon Univ.) - 1:04:57
2. Hayato Miyashita (Toyo Univ.) - 1:05:14
3. Takeshi Nishida (Tokai Univ.) - 1:05:19
4. Shota Ezomori (Toyo Univ.) - 1:05:34
5. Ryota Natori (Tokai Univ.) - 1:05:40

D1 Men's 400 m Hurdles Final
1. Masaki Toyoda (Hosei Univ.) - 49.25
2. Kazunari Takada (Hosei Univ.) - 50.31
3. Rui Takahashi (Tsukuba Univ.) - 50.38

D1 Men's 3000 m Steeplechase Final
1. Ryohei Sakaguchi (Tokai Univ.) - 8:44.29
2. Ryoma Aoki (Hosei Univ.) - 8:44.56
3. Takumi Yoshida (Waseda Univ.) - 8:49.23
4. Yusuke Tanabe (Hosei Univ.) - 8:54.25
5. Kosei Hitomi (Hosei Univ.) - 8:56.15

D1 Men's Triple Jump Final
1. Shunsuke Izumiya (Juntendo Univ.) - 16.08 m +2.0 m/s
2. Itsuki Kamisaki (Kokushikan Univ.) - 16.01 m +3.4 m/s
3. Taiga Murakami (Nihon Univ.) - 15.83 m +2.0 m/s

D1 Men's Discus Throw Final
1. Ryoga Tobikawa (Tokai Univ.) - 48.36 m
2. Shota Hasegawa (Tsukuba Univ.) - 47.58 m
3. Hitoshi Okumura (Kokushikan Univ.) - 47.58 m

D1 Men's 4x400 m Relay Final
1. Toyo Univ. - 3:06.29
2. Waseda Univ. - 3:06.47
3. Chuo Univ. - 3:06.72

Division 2 Men

D2 Men's 200 m Final +4.3 m/s
1. Yudai Takemoto (Tokyo Keizai Univ.) - 21.01
2. Daiki Fujimura (Keio Univ.) - 21.08
3. Naofumi Oya (Keio Univ.) - 21.13

D2 Men's 800 m Final
1. Masaki Ishikawa (Yokohama Kokusai Univ.) - 1:50.01
2. Ryosuke Sasaki (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:50.91
3. Yuta Asaumi (Ryutsu Keizai Univ.) - 1:51.22

D2 Men's 5000 m Final
1. Ledama Kisaisa (Obirin Univ.) - 13:44.57
2. Vincent Yegon (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) - 13:45.20
3. Titus Wambua (Musashino Gakuin Univ.) - 13:47.60
4. Daniel Kayiok (Obirin Univ.) - 13:53.28
5. Noah Kiplimo (Nihon Yakka Univ.) - 14:02.35
6. Yuhei Urano (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 14:06.98

D2 Men's Half Marathon Final
1. Hidekazu Hijikata (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:05:18
2. Ichitaka Yamashita (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:05:21
3. Mamoru Sasaki (Jobu Univ.) - 1:05:25
4. Yuya Yoshida (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:05:27
5. Shunsuke Kambe (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:05:31

D2 Men's 400 m Hurdles Final
1. Jo Tanabe (Tokyo Gakugei Univ.) - 51.73
2. Isshin Takahashi (Jobu Univ.) - 51.86
3. Mikiyasu Endo (Tokyo Gakugei Univ.) - 51.92

D2 Men's 3000 m Steeplechase Final
1. Kota Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 8:59.67
2. Joya Tamura (Teikyo Univ.) - 9:04.77
3. Ryota Sakai (Komazawa Univ.) - 9:07.40
4. Taiju Nishikata (Kanagawa Univ.) - 9:07.66
5. Tomoki Osawa (Soka Univ.) - 9:08.26

D2 Men's High Jump Final
1. Soma Doi (Tokyo Gakugei Univ.) - 2.12 m
2. Shunsuke Kuboki (Tokyo Gakugei Univ.) - 2.12 m
3. Ryo Ishikawa (Keio Univ.) - 2.09 m

D2 Men's Pole Vault Final
1. Kazuya Ishibashi (Seiwa Univ.) - 5.36 m - MR
2. Kosaku Miyaki (Tokyo Univ.) - 5.25 m
3. Amo Iwakawa (Chiba Shoka Univ.) - 4.90 m

D2 Men's Hammer Throw Final
1. Jose Ricardo Rendon Henobi (Jobu Univ.) - 58.53 m
2. Hajime Hamada (Ryutsu Keizai Univ.) - 57.90 m
3. Takahiro Oshima (Ryutsu Keizai Univ.) - 56.78 m

D2 Men's 4x400 m Relay Final
1. Rikkyo Univ. - 3:10.71
2. Tokyo Keizai Univ. - 3:12.68
3. Keio Univ. - 3:13.11

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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