Skip to main content

Kora and Murakami Break Meet Records, Fuwa Returns - National University Track and Field Championships Day 1


The 91st National University Track and Field Championships got underway in Kyoto Friday. Shion Ono (Juntendo Univ.) was the first athlete to take a national title on the track, beating Yuiri Ogata (Nittai Univ.) by 0.20 to win the women's 1500 m final in 4:22.75. The men's 1500 m looked like it would go the same way, with favorites Keita Sato (Komazawa Univ.) and Kazuto Iizawa (Tokai Univ.) side by side with 400 m to go. But on the back straight Chuo University duo Tomohiro Chimori and Tomoki Nakano made contact, and when Iizawa responded Sato was left behind. Iizawa hung on to the win in 3:45.33 with both Chuo runners within 0.90. Sato fell to 7th in 3:47.61.

The women's 10000 m was one of the most anticipated races of the weekend, with collegiate NR holder Seira Fuwa (Takushoku Univ.) entered after an Achilles injury in January that kept her out of the spring season and the Oregon World Championships. Saying that she was at about 40% fitness, Fuwa took the lead after a 3:16 opening 1000 m, holding steady on a very conservative 3:20/km pace through halfway until Yui Komatsu (Matsuyama Univ.) took over. Komatsu's lead only lasted 2000 m before Fuwa threw in a 3:14 to go back into the lead, then a 3:13, and finally closing in 3:06 to win in 32:55.31. That's over 2 minutes slower than her all-time Japanese #2 best from last December, but it was a big first step back toward full fitness for the highest-potential woman in Japanese distance running. Let's hope her coach has learned a lesson about doing too much too soon.

The men's 10000 m was all Philip Mulwa (Soka Univ.) all the way, except for a brief move to the front around 3000 m by Boniface Murua (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.). Mulwa dropped Murua and the rest of the lead pack early in the second half, at one point opening a lead of over 50 m before slowing in the final 2000 m. But that was enough of a lead to hold everyone off, Mulwa taking the national title in 28:36.70 with Murua 2nd in 28:38.37 and Charles Ndungu (Nihon Univ.) 3rd in 28:41.11. Jinichiro Kameda (Kansai Univ.) pulled off an upset for 4th, outkicking Yuito Nakamura (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) 28:49.45 to 28:51.55. It's rare to see a runner from outside the Tokyo-area Kanto Region who can compete with Hakone Ekiden schools, but the Osaka-area Kameda did exactly that. Beating the course record breaker of the most competitive stage on Hakone Day 2, a key player in his team's overall victory this year, was worth bonus points for style.

In other track finals on the meet's opening day, Shizuho Moriyama (Fukuoka Univ.) won the women's 400 m final in 53.62 by 0.03 over Marin Adachi (Sonoda Gakuen Joshi Univ.), with Joseph Nakajima (Toyo Univ.) winning the men's 400 m in 46.18. Yusuke Oyoshi (Teikyo Univ.) took the men's 3000 mSC in 8:41.45 thanks in part to NR holder Ryuji Miura (Juntendo Univ.) having opted for the Diamond League final instead.

On the field, the biggest news was in the women's long jump, where U20 NR holder Ayaka Kora (Tsukuba Univ.) jumped 6.50 m +0.7 for the win, breaking the 6.46 m meet record set in 1987 by Minako Isogai. The meet record also went in the women's hammer throw, where first-year Raika Murakami (Kyushu Kyoritsu) cleared the old record by 2 cm to win in 62.72 m. Eri Furubayashi (Sonoda Gakuen Joshi Univ.) won the women's pole vault, at 4.10 m the only athlete to go over 4 m.

Tatsuto Nakagawa (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) came tantalizingly close to men's hammer throw NR holder Koji Murofushi's 71.84 m meet record from 1996, throwing 71.39 m on his fifth attempt. Nakagawa was over 71 m on his last attempt too, but his fifth throw ended up the one that got him the win. His teammate Rin Suzuki won the men's javelin throw in 72.15 m by just 8 cm over Suguru Fukuoka (Juntendo Univ.). Sota Ishimaru (Juntendo Univ.) won the men's pole vault, clearing 5.40 m on his third attempt. Yuto Adachi (Fukuoka Univ.) took the men's long jump with a second jump of 7.68 m +0.3.

Complete results are here. The National University Track and Field Championships continue through Sunday in Kyoto.

© 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Stefan said…
Great to see Seira Fuwa back on the track and winning, albeit in a relatively slow time by her standards. At 40% fitness, there is a lot of upside! Viewership on the Youtube livestream at least doubled when her race came up so she has certainly captured the public interest. And probably a smart and prudent move by the coach to rest her from the 5000m race on Sunday. Now I am looking forward to the National Corporate Track and Field Championships in 2 weeks where I hope to see Ririka Hironaka race in the 10000m event. I'm curious to see what sort of time she posts. The rivalry between these 2 athletes is going to be interesting to follow in the coming years and hopefully will elevate the performances of both athletes.
September 11, 2022 at 10:46 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Rui Aoki and Shunsuke Kuwata Making U.S. Debut at United Airlines NYC Half

When the National University Half Marathon was canceled in 2011 after the massive earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan 2 days before the race, JRN talked to the New York Road Runners about bringing 2 collegiate runners to the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon the next weekend as a show of support. It wasn't possible to pull it together in the immediate aftermath of the disasters, but a year later we brought 2 young 2nd-years from Hakone Ekiden CR breaker Toyo University , Kento Otsu and Yuta Shitara , who had been the top 2 Japanese collegiate finishers at the Ageo City Half Marathon in November before Hakone. Shitara ran 1:01:48, at the time the fastest-ever by a Japanese man on U.S. soil, with Otsu running a solid 1:03:15. Thanks to that great start the Ageo-NYC partnership became a regular thing, and except for the pandemic it's continued every year since, expanding this year to June's New York Mini 10 km when 2 runners from Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden runne...
2 comments
Read more

Kuwata Runs Fastest-Ever Half Marathon by Japanese Man Outside Japan at United Airlines NYC Half

When the NYRR changed the United Airlines NYC Half course back in 2018 to more or less its current Boston-style hilly one-way version it seemed like it had been repurposed from a fast course to something more tactical. That went out the window last year with new course records of 59:09 and 1:07:04 from Abel Kipchumba and Sharon Lokedi , and this year's results backed that up. Hellen Obiri ground Lokedi down and took over 30 seconds off her CR, winning in 1:06:33 with Lokedi only 6 seconds off what she ran in 2025 but a distant 2nd in 1:07:10. British road 10 km NR holder Megan Keith rolled up hard late in the race to finish 3rd in 1:07:13 less than 10 seconds off old CR too. The men's race saw a big group of 18 attack the hilly first half on sub-59 pace, American Joe Klecker leading through 5 km in 13:57 and Houston Marathon winner Zouhair Talbi through 10 km in 27:56. Right up in it was Shunsuke Kuwata , a 20-year-old 2nd-year at 2025 National University Ekiden champ Koma...
Post a Comment
Read more

16 Women and 26 Men on the Current Olympic Trials Qualifier List

Last weekend's Nagoya Women's Marathon and the Tokyo Marathon the weekend before brought the main part of the first year of qualification for the Marathon Grand Championship Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials to be held in Nagoya in October, 2027, to an end. There are still a few races like the Nagano Marathon and overseas World Athletics platinum label races this season where people might qualify, but for the most part we're not likely to see many new additions until August's Hokkaido Marathon, where the qualifying period opened last year. As of right now 16 women and 26 men have qualified, although the first woman to make the cut, Ai Hosoda , announced that she was retiring after Tokyo earlier this month. Out of the 16 women to have qualified so far, Mikuni Yada is the fastest with her 2:19:57 debut at Osaka Women's in January. Including Hosoda that makes 2 qualifiers for the Edion corporate team, but Daihatsu has the biggest share of the field so ...
1 comment
Read more