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Showing posts with the label Misuzu Nakahara

Rio Olympian Anju Takamizawa Leads Matsuyama University to First National Title

by Brett Larner

Rio de Janeiro Olympics 3000 m steeplechase runner Anju Takamizawa, the first Japanese university woman to ever make an Olympic team in a distance event, led Matsuyama University to take down five-time defending national champion Ritsumeikan University and become the first school from the Chugoku-Shikoku Region to ever win the National University Women's Ekiden Championships title Sunday in Sendai.

【杜の都駅伝】
松山大学初優勝です！ pic.twitter.com/ftXf43wke1 — 日本学生陸上競技連合 (@iuauj) October 30, 2016
3rd last year, Matsuyama lined up against Ritsumeikan, Kanto Region champ and 2015 runner-up Daito Bunka University and 23 other teams at the Morinomiyako Ekiden, as Nationals are popularly called.  Ritsumeikan got off to a rocky start, its lead runner Nanako Kanno eight seconds behind 1500 m national university champion Natsu Hashimoto (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.) in 6th, but for Matsuyama and Daito Bunka the First Stage was a disaster. Matsuyama senior Ayumi Uehara, one of its three best runn…
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Breaking the Ritsumeikan Dynasty - National University Women's Ekiden Preview

by Brett Larner



Ekiden season rolls on this Sunday with the Morinomiyako Ekiden, the 34th edition of the National University Women's Ekiden.  25 university teams and one regional select team will race over 38.0 km in six stages.  Kyoto's Ritsumeikan University has won the national title ten times in the last thirteen years and is in the middle of the longest streak in the championships' history, with five straight wins behind them and looking to add a sixth.  The last team to beat them, Kyoto rivals Bukkyo University, have completely disappeared since the departure of head coach Kenichi Morikawa to take over at the Yamada Denki women's corporate team, while the only other team to beat Ritsumeikan since 2003, 2005 champ Meijo University of Aichi, was 5th last year almost four minutes behind Ritsumeikan.

Ritsumeikan won September's Kansai Region University Women's Ekiden, but its margin over runner-up Kyoto Sangyo University was only 24 seconds over 30 km.  At th…
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Rio Olympians Kiryu and Takamizawa Break Meet Records at National University Championships

by Brett Larner
videos by Ekiden News and no1231y



Rio Olympics 4x100 m silver medalist Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.) was the hardest-working man in Japan this weekend, running nine races in three days and winning three of his four finals at the 85th National University Track and Field Championships in Kumagaya, Saitama.  Kiryu started off his haul with a meet record 10.08 (+1.1 m/s) to win the 100 m final, following up with a 20.60 (-0.1 m/s) in the 200 m.  Running anchor in the men's 4x100 m, Kiryu made a rare flub, blowing his exchange and dropping Toyo to last in 48.71, showing that the baton work that earned Japan worldwide praise in its silver medal run in Rio isn't always easy and takes hard work to get right.  Cbuo University made it four-straight National titles, winning in 38.92.



Coming back from the 4x100 m embarrassment, with his Rio teammate Julian Walsh, who won the National University 400 m final with ease in 45.93, running anchor, Kiryu made a rare 4x400 m appeara…
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World Junior Championships - Day One Japanese Results

Barcelona, 7/10/12
click here for complete results

Men's 10000 m
1. Yigrem Demelash (Ethiopia) - 28:16.07 - PB
2. Philemon Kipchilis Cheboi (Kenya) - 28:23.98 - PB
3. Geoffrey Kipkorir Kirui (Kenya) - 28:30.47
4. Kinde Atanaw (Ethiopia) - 28:53.02
5. Moses Martin Kurong (Uganda) - 29:06.87
6. Kenta Murayama (Japan) - 29:40.56
7. Ken Yokote (Japan) - 29:41.81

Women's 3000 m
1. Mercy Chebwogen (Kenya) - 9:08.88 - PB
2. Hiwot Gebrekidan (Ethiopia) - 9:09.27 - PB
3. Emelia Gorecka (Great Britain) - 9:09.43 - PB
4. Haftamnesh Tesfay (Ethiopia) - 9:10.02 - PB
5. Brillian Jepkorir Kipkoech (Kenya) - 9:14.32 - PB
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8. Miyuki Uehara (Japan) - 9:21.81
17. Misuzu Nakahara (Japan) - 9:49.84

Men's 1500 m Heat Three
1. Teklit Teweldebrhan (Eritrea) - 3:46.46 - Q
2. Hillary Cheruiyot Ngetich (Kenya) - 3:46.54 - Q
3. Abdelhadi Labali (Morocco) - 3:46.75 - Q
4. Charlie Grice (Great Britain) - 3:47.05
5. Yusuke Uchikoshi (Japan) - 3:49.06

Women's 800 m Heat Two
1. Halimah Nakaayi (Uganda…
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World Junior Championships Middle and Long Distance Entry List Highlights

by Brett Larner

The 2012 IAAF World Junior Championships kick off today in Barcelona, Spain.  Ethiopia and Kenya look set to dominate most of the middle and long distance events with competition from Morocco and Eritrea and athletes from a scattering of other countries including Japan.

Japan's best distance medal chance looks to be in the women's 3000 m, where Miyuki Uehara comes in as the #1 seed with a PB over three seconds better than her nearest competitor, Emelia Gorecka of Great Britain.  After Great Britain's Laura Muir Uehara's teammate Misuzu Nakahara is the #4 seed with a best of 9:15.04, giving Japan a decent chance of picking up at least one medal in the event.  But with the next four athletes holding bests within less than two seconds of Nakahara and all hailing from Ethiopia and Kenya it won't be easy.  #3 and #5-ranked Shiori Yano and Moe Kyuma likewise stand a chance of hardware in the women's 5000 m, with Ethiopia's Buze Diriba looking like…
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High School Girls' 3000 m Regional Results

by Brett Larner

This weekend's main track action came at regional high school championships across the country as Japan's best young distance athletes sought places at the July 29-Aug. 2 National High School Track & Field Championships in Niigata.  The most noteworthy results came in the girls' 3000 m, where three regions saw the top pair go under the meet record.  Miyuki Uehara (Kagoshima Joshi H.S.) made headlines with a prefectural record 9:06.91 MR at the Kagoshima regional meet, the fastest time of the weekend.  Uehara was so dominating that runner-up Misuzu Nakahara (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.), the only other woman to go under 9:20 this weekend, was also under the old meet record but nearly 10 seconds behind.

Uehara certainly looks like the favorite for this summer's national meet, despite the best efforts of rivals Sakiko Naito (Funabashi Shiritsu H.S.), who set a MR 9:21.60 at the Chiba regional meet, and Miki Hirai (Shiroishi H.S.), who got the Saga region r…
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Women's 5000 m World Leader for Chepyego at Kanaguri Memorial

by Brett Larner
The Japanese outdoor track season began in earnest Apr. 9 with the first of the season's major meets, the Kanaguri Memorial Track Meet in Kumamoto. Locally-based Kenyan Sally Chepyego (Team Kyudenko) had the biggest result of the day with a world-leading 15:18.70 to win the women's 5000 m after dueling with fellow Kenyan Ann Karindi (Team Toyota Jidoshoki). 10000 m junior national record holder Megumi Kinukawa (Team Mizuno) was 3rd in 15:51.33, holding off former Tamagawa University ace Tomomi Tanaka (Team Daiichi Seimei) in Tanaka's pro debut. Tanaka's teammate, the unknown Kaho Tanaka (Team Daiichi Seimei), was almost as strong in the 5000 m B-heat, running 15:56.03 for the win.
Titus Waroru, Takuya Ishikawa and Daniel Gitau in the men's 5000 m. Click here to enlarge photo.
In the men's 5000 m, Kenyans took the top five spots with Edward Waweru (Team NTN) coming in a step ahead of 10000 m Japanese all-comers' record holder Josephat Ndambi…
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Kenyans Karukuwa, Waroru Take Course Records at Tamana Half Marathon

by Brett Larner
 click here for photos of the race

 With ideal weather across most of the country, Kenyans Dishon Karukuwa (Team Aisan Kogyo) and Titus Waroru (Chinzei Gakuin H.S.) ran through light rain to take down the course records in the men's half marathon and high school boys' 10 km divisions at the 62nd running of the Kanaguri Hai Tamana Half Marathon Mar. 6 in Tamana, Kumamoto. Back on the roads after running January's Osaka International Women's Marathon, last year's runner-up Hiroko Miyauchi (Team Kyocera), one of the nine Japanese women training in Christchurch, New Zealand at the time of the recent major earthquake, took the women's 10 km by a wide margin.
The 19 year-old Karukuwa ran 1:02:20 to break the standing half marathon course record by 18 seconds. He was the first Kenyan winner in Tamana history and only the third non-Japanese to ever take the title. Runner-up Yukinobu Nakazaki (Team Toyota Kyushu) ran a strong 1:03:09, fast enough to have w…
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Watch the National Women's Ekiden Championships Live Online - Preview

by Brett Larner

The 2011 National Women's Interprefectural Ekiden Championships take place this Sunday, Jan. 16, in Kyoto. With each of Japan's 47 prefectures fielding a team made up of runners from the top pro, university, high school and junior high school teams the Interprefectural Ekiden is the de facto national distance running championship and offers an interesting cross-section of who is who at all domestic levels of the sport. The race is broadcast live nationwide and commercial-free on NHK beginning at 12:15 p.m. Japan time. Overseas viewers should be able to watch via Keyhole TV using the password NHK.

Host Kyoto has long been the dominant force at the Interprefectural Ekiden, winning every year from 2005-2009 and taking a total of 13 wins in the ekiden's 28-year history, more than any other prefecture. Last year Okayama dethroned Kyoto, taking its first-ever win. This year Kyoto and Okayama are again the clear-cut favorites. Okayama returns with a team made up o…
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