Skip to main content

Hironaka, Ando and Ito Score Olympic 10000 m Spots


20-year-old Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post), marathoner Yuka Ando (Wacoal) and last year's men's runner-up Tatsuhiko Ito (Honda) joined the winners of December's 2020 National Championships 10000 m on the Tokyo Olympics team as they took the top spots at today's 2021 National Championships 10000 m in Shizuoka.

Hironaka, who debuted over the distance three weeks ago with a 31:30.03, Ando and Kenyan pacer Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) were all about the 31:25.00 Olympic standard, going out on sub-31 pace and burning off all competition, including Kamau. Hironaka took 1st in 31:11.75 with Ando next in 31:18.18, each of them clearing the JAAF's two criteria for Olympic selection, finishing in the top three and hitting the standard, to join 2020 winner Hitomi Niiya (Sekisui Kagaku) on the Olympic team.

No other women broke 32 minutes, 2021 National University Half Marathon champion Narumi Kobayashi (Meijo Univ.) running 32:08.45, the 8th-fastest Japanese collegiate women's time ever, for 3rd. The great Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal) was last in 34:00.53 after giving it one last try to make her final Olympic team.


Behind Kenyan pacers Rodgers Chumo Kwemoi (Aisan Kogyo) and Cleophas Kandie (Mitsubishi Juko), Takashi Ichida (Asahi Kasei), 2021 Hakone Ekiden champ Komazawa University's Ren Tazawa and Mebuki Suzuki, Ito and others went out dead even with the 27:28.00 Olympic standard. As the pace slowed toward 27:45 Ichida dropped off, leaving it for the Komazawa duo and Ito to battle over the final laps. 

With 800 m to go Ito took off, passing sub-27 man Kwemoi on the back stretch of the last lap but unable to hold him off as Kwemoi crossed the line in 27:33.33 to Ito's 27:33.38. Ito clocked 2:34 for the last 1000 m with his last two laps in in 62 and 59 after closing the gap to Kwemoi. But while he missed hitting the finish line first the national title his it was enough to guarantee Ito's place next to 2020 winner Akira Aizawa (Asahi Kasei), his friend and rival since their Hakone days, on the Olympic team.

Tazawa, 20, was next in a PB of 27:39.21 with 19-year-old Suzuki just behind in 27:41.68. Together they were just the third and fourth Japanese-born collegiate runners to ever break 27:45, Tazawa coming just one second short of Suguru Osako's Japanese-born collegiate record of 27:38.31. Ryota Natori (Konica Minolta) won the B-heat in 28:12.62.


2021 National Championships 10000 m

Ecopa Stadium, Shizuoka, 3 May 2021

Women's 10000 m
1. Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post0 - 31:11.75 - PB
2. Yuka Ando (Wacoal) - 31:18.18 - PB
3. Narumi Kobayashi (Meijo Univ.) - 32:08.45 - PB
4. Harumi Okamoto (Yamada Holdings) - 32:12.31
5. Sakiho Tsutsui (Yamada Holdings) - 32:16.07
6. Shiori Yano (Denso) - 32:20.44
7. Momoka Kawaguchi (Toyota JidoshokkI) - 32:21.36 
8. Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita) - 32:24.86 - PB
9. Akane Yabushita (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 32:26.24
10. Ikumi Fukura (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 32:29.42
-----
DNF - Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo)

Men's 10000 m A-Heat
OP - Rodgers Chumo Kwemoi (Aisan Kogyo) - 27:33.33
1. Tatsuhiko Ito (Honda) - 27:33.38
2. Ren Tazawa (Komazawa Univ.) - 27:39.21 - PB
3. Mebuki Suzuki (Komazawa Univ.) - 27:41.68 - PB
OP - Cleophas Kandie (Mitsubishi Juko) - 27:45.07
4. Takashi Ichida (Asahi Kasei) - 27:54.45
5. Keijiro Mogi (Asahi Kasei) - 28:01.32
6. Tatsuya Maruyama (Yachiyo Kogyo) - 28:01.80
7. Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) - 28:03.39
8. Yudai Okamoto (Sunbelx) - 28:04.17
9. Tatsuya Oike (Toyota Boshoku) - 28:04.60
10. Kyohei Hosoya (Kurosaki Harima) - 28:05.88
-----
DNF - Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Asahi Kasei)

Men's 10000 m B-Heat
1. Ryota Natori (Konica Minolta) - 28:12.62
2. Yusuke Tamura (Kurosaki Harima) - 28:15.66
3. Kiyoshi Koga (Yasukawa Denki) - 28:17.85
4. Hiroto Fujimagari (Toyota Kyushu) - 28:23.57
5. Kotaro Kondo (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 28:24.84

© 2021 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Stefan said…
Ririka Hironaka is truly a special athlete. She has already bettered her JP teammate Ayuko Suzuki's PB of 31:18 in the 10 000m and she is only 20 years old. I hope whoever coaches her does so with longevity in mind as she has all the attributes of an athlete who could become one of Japan's best. I would hate to read in a few years of an early retirement from the sport due to burn out or injury. Being with Hitomi Niiya in the Olympic team I hope proves beneficial. Hitomi certainly knows all about burn out and injury and is almost one minute faster at the 10 000m distance. There is a lot to learn from a great senior like Hitomi. I hope both athletes and of course, Yuka Ando, have a good showing at the Olympics.
Eric in Seattle said…
Eric in Seattle, I think Yuki Ando also made the Olympic A grade for 10k. I think there are just 3 women who have made the A for 10k, so this could be her first Olympic Team (unless there are a few others).
Andrew Armiger said…
Ah, too bad for Fukushi.

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Sprinter Shoji Tomihisa Retires From Athletics at 105

A retirement ceremony for local masters track and field legend Shoji Tomihisa , 105, was held May 13 at his usual training ground at Miyoshi Sports Park Field in Miyoshi, Hiroshima. Tomihisa began competing in athletics at age 97, setting a Japanese national record 16.98 for 60 m in the men's 100~104 age group at the 2017 Chugoku Masters Track and Field meet. Last year Tomihisa was the oldest person in Hiroshima selected to run as a torchbearer in the Tokyo Olympics torch relay. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the relay on public roads was canceled, and while he did take part in related ceremonies his run was ultimately canceled. Tomihisa recently took up the shot put, but in light of his fading physical strength he made the decision to retire from competition. Around 30 members of the Shoji Tomihisa Booster Club attended the retirement ceremony. After receiving a bouquet of flowers from them Tomihisa in turn gave them a colored paper placard on which he had written the characters