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

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and
Post a Comment
Read more

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin
Post a Comment
Read more

Queens Ekiden Streaming and Preview

Sunday is the first big race of championship ekiden season, the Queens Ekiden in Sendai, the season-ending national championship for corporate women. 24 teams race 42.195 km in 6 legs, with the top 8 scoring places for 2025. TBS' live nationwide broadcast starts at 11:50, with multi-camera streaming on Youtube above. Last year Sekisui Kagaku won by almost a minute and a half, and with Paris Olympian Yuma Yamamoto , 2023 World Championships marathoner Sayaka Sato on its entry list and collegiate 1500 m record holder Mizuki Michishita having come on board this season it looks like a contender for another win. But last year's runner-up Japan Post got a big boost this season with the addition of its first non-Japanese member, two-time double 1500 m and 3000 m high school champion Caroline Kariba . The Queens Ekiden limits non-Japanese athletes to a 3.8 km leg, so it'd be tough for Kariba to bridge a 1:25 gap by herself with that little ground to work with. But what she can
1 comment
Read more