Skip to main content

Wanjiku Breaks 10000 m Collegiate Record, Sub-15 Women, and High Schoolers Under 28:15 and 13:40 at Nittai Time Trials


Half marathon collegiate record holder Mekubo Mogusu's 10000 m collegiate record lasted for over than 13 years until Joseph Razini Lemeteki (Takushoku Univ.) bettered it by 2 seconds with a 27:25.65 at the Sept. 27 Nittai University Time Trials meet. Lemeteki's record lasted less than 7 weeks, as Charles Kamau Wanjiku (Musashino Gakuin Univ.) won the latest Nittai iteration's A-heat in 27:18.89. With the always-fast Hachioji Long Distance meet just around the corner it was a surprisingly deep race, Wanjiku leading the top four under 27:30 and the top 13 all sub-28, four of them Japanese.

In the slowest heat, 57-year old Tatsuo Koizumi ran 32:38.88, short of Australian Keith Bateman's M55 world record of 31:51.86 but a M55 Japanese national record by almost two minutes and over 30 seconds under the known age 57 world record.


The B-heat was hot too, with three Sendai Ikuei H.S. runners going sub-29, Boniface Mutech and Shunsuke Yoshii running 28:11.48 and 28:11.96 and teammate Sosuke Hori going 28:40.90. Yoshii, the younger brother of U20 5000 m national record holder Yamato Yoshii, landed at #7 on the all-time Asian U20 and #6 on the Japanese U20 lists, two places on each behind his brother. 

Six high schoolers also went sub-14 in the 5000 m at Nittai. Oita Tomei H.S. 3rd-year Daniel Ndiritu led the way with a 13:18.75 for 3rd, the second-fastest time ever by a student at a Japanese high school. Tomonori Yamaguchi (Gakuho Ishikawa H.S.) ran 13:35.16 in the same heat, the third-fastest ever by a Japanese-born high schooler. 


With the East Japan Women's Ekiden happening Sunday women's races were thin, but one fast result came in the 5000 m A-heat. Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) ran a PB 14:55.43 to win by nearly a minute, the fastest women's time so far in the Nittai series' 292-meet history.. Complete results here.

© 2021 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Most-Read This Week

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."...

Batt-Doyle and Strintzos Break Records at Launceston Half

Australians Isobel Batt-Doyle and Haftu Strintzos turned in record-breaking performances to win the McGrath Launceston Running Festival Peppers Silo Half Marathon in Tasmania. Running with a private male pacer, NR holder Batt-Doyle dusted the field with the fastest half marathon ever by an Australian woman on Australian soil, a 1:08:46 CR that put her 2 and a half minutes ahead of runner-up Genevieve Gregson . Last year's runner-up Yumi Yoshikawa was almost a minute back from Gregson in 3rd in 1:12:03, but was almost run down by club runner Ayaka Shimoyamada . Starting slow in her international debut, Shimoyamada moved up from 7th over the 2nd half of the race to finish 4th in 1:12:06, kicking hard in the home straight to try to catch Yoshikawa and momentarily blacking out after finishing. Kaho Onishi was 7th in 1:12:45 in her own international debut. The men's half had pacing set at 2:53/km to try to deliver the first-ever sub-61 half marathon on Australian soil. CR holde...

CHN and JPN National Records Go Down - Weekend Track Update

There weren't any Japanese athletes in action at the Rabat Diamond League meet Sunday, but 2 lower-tier domestic meets produced new national records. At the Nittai University Time Trials meet in Yokohama, Samuel Kibathi (Toyota) led the top 5 in the men's 10000 m under 28 minutes in 27:39.97. In 3rd, China's Wenjie Wang took just over a second off his own NR from the same meet last year, setting a new record of 27:47.53. His teammate Haoran Tang was 6th in a 28:27.44 PB, with the top Japanese time in the race being a 28:33.39 for 8th from Jin Yuasa (Toyota). Amazingly, Wang and Tang were back the next day on day 2 of the Nittai meet, Wang running a PB of 13:35.58 for 4th in the A-heat and Tang winning the B-heat in a PB of 13:38.80. Isaac Ndiema took the A-heat in 13:26.49, with the fastest Japanese time going to Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu) with a 13:35.94 for 5th behind Wang. Other Nittai highlights: Deborah Chemutai (Univ. Ent.) won a photo finish against Yua Nagamori ...