Skip to main content

Kanto Regionals Day Three Streaming and Preview

 

Saturday is a light day for long distance at the 102nd Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, with the D1 and D2/D3 men's 3000 m steeplechase heats the only event on the program. That means Sunday is going to be packed, but for today everything will happen between 13:55 and 15:00.

D2/D3 has three heats starting at 13:55. At the top tier, three men are in range of the 8:42.57 D2 meet record. In Heat One, Kento Uchida (4th yr., Rikkyo Univ.) has run 8:37.24. In Heat Two, Asahi Kuroda (2nd yr., Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) has run 8:38.55. In Heat Three, Hibiki Obara (4th yr., Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) has a best of 8:41.93. Also in Heat Three, Yuki Morita (2nd yr., Tokyo Univ. Grad School) has a shot at the 8:56.84 D3 MR. New records probably won't happen today, but Uchida, Kuroda and Obara all making the final will set up a great race tomorrow.

The D1 heats start at 14:40. National record holder Ryuji Miura (4th yr., Juntendo Univ.) is giving the steeple a miss to run the 5000 m tomorrow instead, leaving it wide open for everyone else. The D1 meet record of 8:35.2 dates back to around when a lot of the athletes' parents were probably born, but there are a few people who could give it a serious swing. In Heat One Atsushi Shobu (4th yr., Waseda Univ.) has a best of 8:38.94, and Yuki Murao (2nd yr., Juntendo Univ.) has run 8:41.64. In Heat Two, Yuki Satake (4th yr., Daito Bunka Univ.) has run 8:39.22, and Sora Nakagomi (4th yr., Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) is almost even at 8:39.45.


© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Goshima and Kasai Win 10000 m National Titles, Maeda Breaks U20 Asian Record

Rino Goshima and Jun Kasai stepped up with PBs to win the 2024 National Championships 10000 m titles Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium. In the women's race, Goshima, 4th in last December's 2023 National Championships 10000 m, went out front from the start with Kenyan teammate Judy Jepngetich pacing and 2023 3rd-placer Haruka Kokai in tow. Things were never on track to hit the 30:40.00 Paris Olympics standard, but except for a brief dip to 3:08 at 7000 m Goshima held steady at 3:05 to 3:06/km even as Kokai and Jepngetich fell off. With blood dripping from her left knee after getting spiked by Jepngetich, Goshima closed in 3:03 to take 5 seconds off her best from December's Nationals and win in 30:53.31, moving up to all-time Japanese #6. Jepngetich also PBd at 31:09.42 without counting in the standings, with Kokai 2nd in 31:10.53 and Kazuna Kanetomo 3rd in a PB 31:59.29. The runner-up last time, Yuka Takashima was last in 33:33.27. The men's race went out in a

10000 m National Championships Preview

  Less than five months since the 2023 10000 m National Championships went down at the 2021 Olympic stadium in Tokyo, the 2024 edition happens Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium, with NHK broadcasting it live starting at 19:25 local time. Doubling up on Nationals like this lets Japanese athletes double dip on placing points to try to get into the Paris Olympics on rankings. But between the number of people who've hit the 30:40.00 women's standard and 27:00.00 men's standard and the lopsided eight spots given away to top placers at World XC, there are only four women's spots and three men's available via rankings. Of those, three of the four women's spots and two of the three men's spots are currently occupied by top placers at December's 2023 Nationals, Ririka Hironaka , Haruka Kokai and Rino Goshima for women and Ren Tazawa and Tomoki Ota for men. The 2023 Nationals did get close to the standards, with Hironaka leading the top four women under

Golden Games in Nobeoka Top Results

  For everyone not running yesterday's 10000 m National Championships , where the Asahi Kasei corporate team dominated the men's race with four out of four men sub-28 including winner Jun Kasai , 27:17.46, the grand dame of Japan's long distance time trial circuit was happening on AK's home ground in Miyazaki at the Golden Games in Nobeoka . Not including kids' races, a total of 74 women and 227 men ran in 14 heats of 5000 m, with a packed-in crowd of fans lining the track beating on metal sponsor boards with batons. It's a pretty awesome meet, and memorable performances included: National champion Kamimura Gakuen H.S. standout Caroline Kariba continued to kill it in the second month of her corporate league career, winning the 5000 m A-heat in 15:00.95 in a race where 3 out of the top 4 including her ran PBs. National champion Meijo University seemed flat at this point in the season, with none of its people under 16 minutes and star Nanase Tanimoto leading