Another Fast U20 10000 m at Nittai

Another Fast U20 10000 m at Nittai - Weekend Results

Fukuoka and Hofu were the big races of the weekend in Japan, but there was a lot of other action going on across the country. Saturday at a special one-day edition of the rebranded Nittai University Time Trials series in Yokohama, 19-year-old Sonata Nagashima (Asahi Kasei) followed up Keita Sato's 27:28.50 U20 10000 m national record last weekend with the second-fastest time ever by a Japanese U20 man, winning the fast heat in 27:44.86. 21-year-old Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) was just back in 27:47.01 for 2nd, with 3rd through 5th all getting under 28 minutes. The 10000 m National Championships are still coming Dec. 10, but as of this race Japan has 30 men sub-28 this year. By comparison, Kenya has 58, 49 of them done in Japan, Ethiopia has 11, and the U.S.A. has 8.

The winner at last month's Fst in Fukuoka road 5 km, Edwin Kisalsak (Fujisan no Meisui) took the men's 5000 m fast heat at Nittai in 13:19.97. Yusuke Tamura (Kurosaki Harima) was the top Japanese man at 13:32.99 for 4th. First-year corporate leaguer Susan Kamotho (Yamada Holdings) went under 15 minutes for the first time to win the women's 5000 m fast heat in 14:59.63, beating current and former 5000 m NR holders Nozomi Tanaka (New Balance) and Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) in the process. Lucy Nduta (Aomori Yamada H.S.) won the 3000 m fast heat in an easy 9:13.51. Results from all the fast heats here.

The world's premier 10 miler happened Sunday at the Kumamoto Kosa 10-Mile Road Race, where Benard Koech (Kyudenko) set a world best 44:04 last year. This time Patrick Kamau (Jobu University) took the top spot, winning a close finish in 45:46 by 1 second over Cleophas Kandie (Mitsubishi Juko). Koki Asai (Juntendo University) was 3rd in 46:05 for top Japanese honors, a solid performance on the all-time Japanese lists that saw him outback Kiyoshi Koga (Yasukawa Denki) by 3 seconds in the home straight. Local Isshin Masunaga (Kaishin H.S.) won the high school boys' 10 km in 30:08, and Shiori Nagumo (Higo Ginko) took the women's 5 km in 16:24. Complete results here.

In western Tokyo, the Comodi Iida corporate team tuned up for the New Year Ekiden national championships with a win at one of the oldest ekidens in Japan, the 85th Okutama Keikoku Ekiden. Comodi Iida covered the tough 6-stage, 44.8 km course along the same route as the Ome 30 km Road Race in 2:13:06 for the win, beating top collegiate team Tokyo University by 1:36. Collegiate division runner-up Chuo University's Sota Yamasaki broke the stage record for the mostly uphill 3rd leg. Tokyo Jitsugyo H.S. was the top team in the high school boys' division in 2:24:44.

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

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