by Brett Larner
After two days of snow and rain the day dawned with perfect weather conditions for the 2011 Chiba International XC Meet, Feb. 13 in Chiba. For domestic Japanese runner spots on the Japanese national team for next month's World XC Championships in Spain were at stake. The times were accordingly fast on the hilly and muddier than optimal Chiba course.
One of the two big runs of the day came from 2007 Tokyo Marathon women's winner Hitomi Niiya (Team Toyota Jidoshoki). In Chiba's first edition since 2003 as an 8000 m race for senior women rather than 6000 m Niiya blew the field apart, running 25:53 to win by a margin of 40 seconds over Hanae Tanaka (Ritsumeikan Univ.), who won the first stage at last month's National Women's Interprefectural Ekiden. Nanae Kuwashiro (Team Sysmex), a teammate of marathon national record holder Mizuki Noguchi, was 3rd in 26:41. Niiya's time was the second-best ever run at Chiba, just 10 seconds off Australian Benita John…
After two days of snow and rain the day dawned with perfect weather conditions for the 2011 Chiba International XC Meet, Feb. 13 in Chiba. For domestic Japanese runner spots on the Japanese national team for next month's World XC Championships in Spain were at stake. The times were accordingly fast on the hilly and muddier than optimal Chiba course.
One of the two big runs of the day came from 2007 Tokyo Marathon women's winner Hitomi Niiya (Team Toyota Jidoshoki). In Chiba's first edition since 2003 as an 8000 m race for senior women rather than 6000 m Niiya blew the field apart, running 25:53 to win by a margin of 40 seconds over Hanae Tanaka (Ritsumeikan Univ.), who won the first stage at last month's National Women's Interprefectural Ekiden. Nanae Kuwashiro (Team Sysmex), a teammate of marathon national record holder Mizuki Noguchi, was 3rd in 26:41. Niiya's time was the second-best ever run at Chiba, just 10 seconds off Australian Benita John…