Ichiyama, Maeda and Yamanouchi Return

Ichiyama, Maeda and Yamanouchi Return - Weekend Track Roundup

Track season in Japan goes almost year-round, with the fall time trial meets acting mostly as tune-ups for ekiden season. Both of the big meets this weekend played that role. At the Chugoku Corporate Time Trials meet Saturday in Hiroshima, the top five men, all Kenyan, broke the old 5000 m meet record of 13:36.36 thanks in part to the presence of a large number of teams from the Kyushu region. Emmanuel Kiplagat (Mitsubishi Juko) got the win in 13:19.05. Africans took the top seven spots, Shunya Kikuchi (Chugoku Denryoku) the first Japanese man at 8th in 13:53.33. Kenyans went 1-3 in the women's 3000 m, Teresiah Muthoni (Daiso) taking 1st in 9:03.11 over teammate Rebecca Mwangi, 2nd in 9:03.47, and Rose Wangui (Sera H.S.), 3rd in 9:04.40. Honoka Tanaike (Otsuka Seiyaku) was the top Japanese woman at 4th in 9:30.52.

The 298th Nittai University Time Trials meet in Yokohama was smaller than usual, with only twelve heats of men's 5000 m on Sunday. Saturday saw newcomer Nelson Mandela Mubiti (Obirin Univ.) make his Japanese debut, running a PB of 28:41.53 to win the men's 10000 m A-heat over a group of other 1st-year Kenyans at minor Kanto Region universities. 2017 World University Games half marathon gold medalist Kei Katanishi (JR Higashi Nihon) was the first Japanese man across the line, 5th in 29:22.76.

Women's 5000 m NR holder Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) doubled in the 1500 m and 3000 m, winning both in 4:21.42 and 8:56.20. Minami Yamanouchi was a surprise in 2nd, making her debut with the Shimamura team, if not in its uniform, with a solid 8:57.15, just 0.13 off her PB. That PB came in 2018, the same season she set her 5000 m and 10000 m bests of 15:21.31 and 31:16.48, and almost equalling it here was the first good result she's had since losing Atsushi Sato as a coach when he left his position at the Kyocera team. Two high schoolers went under 9:06, Haruka Ogawa (Junten H.S.) 5th in 9:05.46 and Mariya Noda (Kitakyushu Shiritsu H.S.) 6th in 9:05.85.

Pauline Kamulu (Route Inn Hotels) soloed a 15:10.97 for the win in the women's 5000 m A-heat. Erika Tanoura (Sekisui Kagaku) outkicked Hokkaido Marathon winner Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita) for 2nd, 15:43.75 to 15:48.67, with another lost veteran, marathon collegiate record holder Sairi Maeda (Daihatsu), dropping a surprise comeback with a 15:58.43 for 5th. Women-only marathon NR holder Mao Ichiyama (Shiseido) was 6th in 16:06.61 in her first race since a last-second positive COVID test kept her out of this summer's Oregon World Championships marathon.

When Sunday rolled around the men's 5000 m wasn't quite as fast as what had happened in Hiroshima the night before, but it wasn't far off. James Muoki (Konica Minolta) ran 13:23.36 for 1st in the A-heat, with Hakone Ekiden star Vincent Yegon (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) 2nd in 13:25.68 and Muoki's KM teammate Dominic Langat 3rd in 13:31.33. The top Japanese man was Nagiya Mori (Honda), 6th in 13:56.51.

Hakone Champ AGU Hits 50 km a Day in Spring Break Training Camp

Having scored its 3rd-straight Hakone Ekiden win this past January, Aoyama Gakuin University spent the Golden Week spring holidays training on the Myoko Plateau in Niigata from May 2-6. Along with the champion men's ekiden team, the first 2 members of AGU's new women's long distance team Nodoka Ashida and Kairi Ikeno , and AGU alumni and 2026 New Year Ekiden champion GMO team members Yuya Yoshida and Asahi Kuroda also took part in the training camp. Depending on the day's training schedule, mileage at the camp was over 50 km a day. AGU men's captain Kaito Nakamura confidently said, "This Golden Week training camp is where we lay the foundations for our 4th-straight Hakone title." A lot of people spend Golden Week on vacation, but the AGU ekiden team spent their time working hard on Myoko's rolling land amid the sprouting leaves of spring. On the 2nd day of the camp, May 3, team members woke up at 5:00 a.m. to do their warmup. The team assembled a...

70th Yamagata-ken Judan Ekiden

The 70th running of the Yamagata-ken Judan Ekiden happened over the start of the Golden Week holidays, a 3-day, 29-leg race covering 306.9 km around the northern prefecture of Yamagata. There used to be a lot more of these races where people from the prefecture run for their hometown teams on a Tour de Whatever prefecture or area it happens to be held in, but Yamagata's is one of the few to have survived this long. And amazingly enough, local broadcaster YBC live streamed the entire thing on Youtube. There aren't many corporate teams in the mostly rural area, so runners from the ND Software corporate team played a heavy role, its 2 best runners Masato Arao and Ryoma Takeuchi winning their stages on Day 2 with Takeuchi doubling to anchor the Kita-Murayama team to an overall 5th-place finish, and Koichi Shoji breaking the 2nd leg CR on Day 1 and winning the 2nd-to-last stage on Day 3 to play a key role in the Yamagata city team taking the overall win in 16:06:51, 3:09/km ...

Ochiai, Kawamura, Usuki and Mishima Set NR - Golden Week Track Roundup

There was a lot of action on the track over Japan's Golden Week holidays. Highlights: Shizuoka International Meet - Fukuroi, 3 May Men's 800 m NR holder Ko Ochiai (Komazawa Univ.) broke his own record with a 1:43.90 win. Daigo Usuki (18 Ginko) and Gakuto Mishima (Nippatsu) both broke the NR in the T20 men's 400 m, Usuki getting the win in 49.08 and Mishima 2nd in 49.15. Lauren Bruce (New Zealand) threw a meet record 67.44 m on her final attempt in the women's hammer throw, but even her shortest throw of 64.31 m was over 3 m better than the rest of the field. Kazuki Kurokawa (Sumitomo Denko) got the men's 400 mH meet record with a 48.50 for the win. Women's 3000 mSC NR holder Miu Saito (Panasonic) won the steeple in 9:31.83, the 2nd-best time in her career so far, despite falling. 2nd through 4th all broke 10 minutes. National University Men's Ekiden Kanto Region Qualifier - Hiratsuka, 4 May The top 8 teams at November's National University Men...

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