Three Meet Records at U20 National Championships

Held in parallel with this weekend's senior National Championships, the U20 National Track and Field Championships happened Thursday through Sunday at Osaka's Yanmar Stadium Nagai. The timing meant most of the top U20 talent was in the senior championships, but even so there were three new meet records across disciplines.

On Friday Raika Murakami (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) bettered the 9-year-old MR in the U20 women's hammer throw by almost a meter and a half, winning with a 59.43 m opening throw even though she fouled every attempt after that.

In Sunday's U20 men's long jump Nozomi Watanabe (Tsukuba Univ.) set a new MR, jumping 7.85 m (+1.6) on his fourth attempt. 2nd-placer Kosuke Tsuneizumi (Chuo Univ.) closed with a 7.66 (+2.1) jump but came short of overtaking Watanabe.

Also Sunday, the top 6 all broke the old U20 men's 3000 m MR of 8:16.20 despite running at the peak of mid-afternoon heat and sunlight. Shintaro Kudo (Ichinoseki Gakuin H.S.) took the national title in 8:08.05, Ren Sato (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) 2nd in 8:10.47 and Kotaro Suzuki (Koku Gakuin Kugayama H.S.) 3rd in 8:11.63, PBs by all. High schoolers taking the top 3 spots was no small feat given that over half the field was made up of university runners.

In other distance results, Hinata Maeda (APU) won a tight U20 men's 1500 m that saw the top 4 all within 0.13 sec. Maeda was the only runner under 4:00, winning in 3:59.97. Hiroto Yoshioka (Saku Chosei H.S.) won the U20 men's 5000 m in a solid 13:54.98, runner-up Rui Aoki (Koku Gakuin Univ.) getting under 14 minutes for the first time in 13:59.34. Ryotaro Onuma (Josai Univ.) outkicked Runa Yamaguchi (Nihon Univ.) in the home straight to win the U20 men's 3000 mSC 8:48.83 to 8:51.20.

Misaki Shitamori (Kitakyushu Municipal H.S.) ran a PB 4:21.43 for the win in the U20 women's 1500 m by nearly a second over Riho Yoshida (Toyokawa H.S.). Akari Matsumoto (Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S.) had the same margin of victory in the U20 women's 3000 m, winning in 9:20.25. Corporate leaguer Ramu Shibata (Wacoal) took the U20 women's 5000 m in 16:09.17, beating Marin Machi (Suzuki) by just 0.48 sec. Karin Kameoka (Takushoku Univ.) won the U20 women's 3000 mSC in 10:29.15, everyone in the top 3 running a PB to make the podium.

Complete results from the U20 National Track and Field Championships are available here.

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