Like the National University Track and Field Championships two weeks ago, this long weekend's National Corporate Track and Field Championships come at a funny point in the season, after two months of road season base training in Hokkaido and right at the start of ekiden and overseas marathon season. Half the country is in Berlin this weekend and another chunk is at the new Okukuma Ekiden, a raced backed by Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University head coach Susumu Hara that brings together top high school, university and corporate league men's teams. But a lot of corporate leaguers will be lining up in Gifu for Corporate Nationals.
Day 1 is being streamed live above starting at 15:25 Friday local time. The main events start at 15:30 with the first-round heats of the men's 100 m, featuring past 4x100 m national relay team members Shuhei Tada (Sumitomo Denko), Ryuichiro Sakai (Osaka Gas) and Shota Iizuka (Mizuno). The junior women's 3000 m at 16:30 has a pretty good matchup between Esther Wangui (Starts), 8:53.21, and Judy Jepngetich (Shiseido), 8:59.34, with 3rd place looking like an even split between Ramu Shibata (Wacoal) and Chika Kosakai (Japan Post), both 9:10.
The women's 10000 m is split into two sections, with the fast heat starting at 19:10. Pauline Kamulu (Route Inn Hotels) is the class of the fast heat field at 30:20.97, with a chase group lined up of Yuka Ando (Wacoal), Helen Ekarare (Toyota Jidoshokki), Tabitha Njeri (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) and Kaede Hagitani (Edion) all in the 31:18~31:35 range. Hopefuls for getting under 32 minutes include Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei), Wakana Itsuki (Kyudenko) and Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita), all with recent sub-32:10 times.
Live results from these and other events will be posted here. Streaming for Saturday and Sunday will be posted on JRN the night before.
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