Skip to main content

Japan's Bolt? Frosh Leads Chuo to 4x100m National University Record 38.54 at Kanto Regionals

by Brett Larner

Watch this video and say that you are not impressed:


Chuo Univ., lane 5, wins the men's 4x100m over Waseda Univ., lane 4.

Japanese sprinting keeps moving forward. On the second to last day of the 2010 Kanto Regional University Track and Field Championships, May 22 in Tokyo's National Stadium, Chuo University's men's 4x100 m pulled off the biggest upset of the meet so far with a 38.54 national university record win over titan Waseda University thanks to a stunning performance by freshman anchor Shota Iizuka. The unheralded Chuo team's time was not only a record and not only beat Waseda, which features 2009 national champion and World Championships team member Masashi Eriguchi, by exactly one second but would have won last year's American NCAA Div. I National Championships, placed the team 5th in the Beijing Olympics final and 6th in the final of last summer's World Championships.

With Eriguchi on 2nd Waseda had a strong first half, but a great run from Chuo's 3rd runner, junior Hiroyuki Kubota, brought frosh anchor Iizuka into position for the record. The surprisingly tall Iizuka started the anchor leg just a step ahead of Waseda but blazed away to open Chuo's one second margin almost singlehandly. Official splits are unavailable, but in the video above Iizuka appears to clock 9.25 from handoff to crossing the finish line. For a frosh it was a sensational performance and one which makes the first sub-10 by a Japanese runner a strong possibility this season. For complete results click here.

Iizuka finished 2nd to Eriguchi in the 100 m, 10.58 to 10.38, but returned on May 23 to win the 200 m with an impressive final 50 m in which he pulled away with ease to finish in 20.76 to Eriguchi's 21.06.

(c) 2010 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

TokyoRacer said…
Wow! Let me be the first to say it: Japan's Usain Bolt.
May 23, 2010 at 2:05 PM
Brett Larner said…
Thanks, I'm going to borrow that for the title. Yes, fantastic stuff. He won the 200 m today as well, outkicking Eriguchi over the last 50 m. I'll post a video later.

I'm not an expert on timing 4x100 legs. If anyone can give me a better estimate of Iizuka's split please do so. 9.25 was the average of multiple hand-timings from the point at which he recieves the baton to crossing the finish.
May 23, 2010 at 3:24 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...
Post a Comment
Read more

Restaurant Owner Selected as Olympic Torchbearer Dies in Fire After Becoming Despondent Over Impact of Coronavirus Crisis (updated)

On the evening of Apr. 30, the 54-year-old male owner of a restaurant in Tokyo's Nerima ward specializing in tonkatsu deep fried pork cutlets died from full-body burns in a fire at the restaurant. The man had been one of the people chosen as a torchbearer for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics torch relay. With the coronavirus crisis causing both the postponement of the Olympics and a loss of business at the restaurant, the man had recently started talking pessimistically about the future to those around him. With evidence of the man's body having been doused in tonkatsu cooking oil, metropolitan police from the Hikarigaoka Police Station are carefully examining the cause of the fire. At around 10:00 p.m. on the 30th, the fire broke out in the tonkatsu restaurant on the first floor of a three-story building. A neighborhood resident who noticed smoke called the fire department. Firefighters found the floor and part of a wall burning, with the man lying on the floor in the customer seat...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kawauchi Wins Inaugural Kawauchi Half Marathon

http://www.minyu-net.com/sports/running/FM20160501-070419.php translated by Brett Larner 川内優輝ロード pic.twitter.com/rEJk7CQPFV — みとっぽ (黒) (@mitoppo_tmyk) April 30, 2016 Yuki Kawauchi Road in Kawauchi, Fukushima Held to inspire former residents to return to the area after the nearby TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident five years ago, the village of Kawauchi held the first " Kawauchi no Sato Kaeru Half Marathon - From Reconstruction to Creation " on April 30.  The course started and finished at the village heliport.  1188 runners from across the country gathered to celebrate the village's revival as they ran through its springtime streets. The event's organizing committee was made up of local government and board of education members with support from the Fukushima Minyu Newspaper and other sponsors.  The race's purpose was to transmit the vitality and charm of the reconstructing Kawauchi village to the rest of the nation in hopes of helpin...
Post a Comment
Read more