Weekend Track and Road Roundup

This was a relatively quiet weekend as people make their final preparations for the five major championship ekidens over the next three weeks. The main action came Saturday in Kyoto at the Edion Distance Challenge.

19-year-old Judy Jepngetich (Shiseido) had the biggest result of the meet, winning the women's 5000 m A-heat in a PB 14:50.20. 2nd-placer Agnes Mwikali (Kyocera) and 3rd-place Pauline Kamulu (Route Inn Hotels) both ran PBs too, the 19-year-old Mwikali running 14:51.35 and Kamulu 14:54.19. After having run 14:44.83 in November pacer Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) jogged it in to a 4th-place finish, just missing out on another sub-15 clocking at 15:02.15. Across three heats a total of 35 women were under 16 minutes.

Results in the women's 10000 m fast heat were good too. Rino Goshima made it a double for the national champion Shiseido team with a 31:22.38 win. Momoka Kawaguchi (Toyota Jidoshokki) and Wakana Itsuki (Kyudenko) were 2nd and 3rd in 31:57.81 and 31:58.59, with Goshima's Shiseido teammate Yuka Takashima 4th in 31:59.60.

Yuta Bando (Fujitsu) took the men's 5000 m fast heat in 13:25.16, with teammate Yuhei Urano, Samwel Masai (Kao) and Waweru Nganga (Chugoku Denryoku) all just sneaking under 13:30. Keita Yoshida (Sumitomo Denko) won the men's 10000 m in 28:13.34, the only one to go under 28:40.

Sunday saw two marathons around the 8000-finisher level. At Miyazaki's Aoshima Taiheiyo Marathon, both the women's and men's course records fell. Reia Iwade (Denso) took over six minutes off the women's record as she won in 2:35:26, with local Ryuji Kawakita (Asahi Kasei Nobeoka) getting under the men's CR by three seconds to win in 2:19:51.

At the Nara Marathon, women's course record holder Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita) made it four in a row with a solo 2:37:17 for the win. Chuo Hatsujo corporate team coach Yoshihiro Yamamoto won the men's race for the third time in a row, beating college student Yumeto Tanaka (Biwako Gakuin Univ.) by 54 seconds to win in 2:23:05.

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