Fukube Breaks 100 mH NR - National Corporate Track and Field Championships Highlights

The 70th National Corporate Track and Field Championships took place Friday through Sunday at Gifu Memorial Center Nagaragawa Field in Gifu. The performance of the meet happened Sunday, when Mako Fukube (NKK) broke her own women's 100 mH NR. Opening with a 13.00 (-1.5) meet record to win her qualifying heat, Fukube was back 3 hours later to run 12.73 (+1.1) in the final. That took 0.09 off the NR she set in the semifinals at July's Oregon World Championships, and put her under the qualifying standard for next summer's Budapest World Championships. Runner-up Masumi Aoki (77 Ginko) ran 13.03 in the final, 0.07 under the old MR, with Chisato Kiyoyama (Ichigo) just off the old MR at 13.12.

A near-miss on another NR came in the women's 100 m. Mei Kodama (Mizuno) won her qualifying heat in 11.24 (+1.3), 0.18 under the 2001-era MR and just 0.03 from Chisato Fukushima's 2010 NR of 11.21. Hopes were high that Kodama would get the NR in the final, but while her 11.39 (-0.0) there was only enough to get under the old MR again Kodama still walked away from the meet at #2 on the all-time Japanese lists and with the NR looking like hers for the taking. Kodama also picked up the MR in the 200 m, running 23.41 (-1.0) to go 0.18 under the 2000-era NR in the qualifying round and going under it again with a 23.49 (-0.7) in the final.

Other meet records that fell over the weekend:

Shunya Takayama (Zenrin) won the men's 110 mH final in 13.39 (+0.8), 0.09 under the MR set by Taio Kanai last year.
NR holder Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) ran 4:10.41 to win the women's 1500 m, 0.60 under the previous MR from 1994.
Olympic and World Championships silver medalist Koki Ikeda (Asahi Kasei) set a men's 10000 mRW MR of 38:15.86.
Sumire Hata (Shibata Kogyo) jumped a PB 6.67 m (+1.6) on her 6th attempt in the women's long jump, bettering Kumiko Ikeda's 2005 MR and inching Hata closer to Ikeda's NR of 6.86 m.
Mariko Morimoto (Uchida Kensetsu) got the women's triple jump MR with a 13.71 (+1.4) jump on her 3rd attempt.
Women's discus throw NR holder Nanaka Kori (Niigata Albirex RC) picked up the antique MR with a 2nd attempt of 56.15 m, 0.22 m up on Yuka Murofushi's MR from 1999. Kori also won the women's shot put with a throw of 15.55 m.

In distance events:

Steepler Ryoma Aoki (Honda) won the men's 1500 m in 3:40.90.
Judy Jepngetich (Shiseido) took the junior women's 3000 m in 8:50.68.
Last year's women's 10000 m winner Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) did it again, winning in 31:17.40 by less than 3 seconds over Pauline Kamulu Kaveke (Route Inn Hotels).
Stanley Waithaka (Yakult) won the men's 10000 m in a photo finish with MR holder Richard Kimunyan (Hitachi Butsuryu), Waithaka timed at 27:19.86 and Kimunyan at 27:19.92. Benard Koech (Kyudenko) was right behind in 27:20.02 for 3rd, making this the most exciting race of the meet.
Teresiah Muthoni (Daiso) scored the women's 5000 m title in 14:57.81, not far off the MR of 14:55.32.
Jonathan Ndiku (Hitachi Butsuryu) won the men's 5000 m in 13:22.69 after doubling in the 3000 mSC, where he was 2nd in 8:32.01.
Yukari Ishizawa (Hitachi) won the women's 3000 mSC in 10:14.03.
Philemon Kiplagat (Aisan Kogyo) won a close men's 3000 mSC in 8:30.18, beating Ndiku by just over a second with Olympian Kosei Yamaguchi (Aisan Kogyo) 3rd in 8:37.63.

One other record fell on the track over the weekend. At Friday's Nighter Time Trial in Nagasaki, girls' 3000 m H.S. NR holder Caroline Kariba, a 2nd-year at Kamimura Gakuen H.S., broke her own record, winning in 8:42.31. Kariba was nearly 30 seconds up on teammate Airi Tashima, with Kamimura Gakuen runners taking the top 5 spots.

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My Training for 1:00:44

Hi, I'm Ayumu Kobayashi . Today I'm going to write about this year's National Corporate Half Marathon and the training I did for it. I hope other runners will find it even a little bit helpful. At the Corporate Half on Feb. 13 I was 10th in 1:00:44. My goal had been to run 61 minutes, so I hit that target. My Training Menu In January I ran a total of 681 km. Key workouts: Jan. 11: 1000 m x 5 at 2:50/km Jan. 12: 22.5 km Jan. 15: 9 km variable pace Jan. 17: 25 km Jan. 24: 1000 m x 8 at 2:52/km Jan. 27: 1 km + 4 km + 2 km Jan. 30: 16 km at 3:18/km avg. In January I was tired from the New Year Ekiden and had some knee pain after it, so I just jogged for 10 days until I started doing workouts again on the 11th. That's why I only ran 681 km for the month. But even on the jog days I was aware that I had the Corporate Half coming up, so I was doing around 30 km. It's pretty meat and potatoes, but I think it was really important. February (training for the 10 days before...

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