Skip to main content

Ryoko Kizaki 31:38 to Win Abashiri 10000 m; Baek Sets Apparent Korean National Record (updated)

by Brett Larner

After being named to this year's World Half Marathon team on the strength of her runner-up finish at last month's National Track and Field Championships, Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu) closed off this year's Hokuren Distance Challenge with a bang. Kizaki won the HDC's Abashiri meet 10000 m in 31:38.71, a PB by over 45 seconds and a time which missed putting her in the top 10 worldwide so far this year by only 1 second. Second place finisher Kayo Sugihara (Team Denso) was nearly a minute behind in 32:33.37. Sugihara was the only runner in the top 5 not to run a PB.

Kizaki is now ranked 3rd among Japanese women for 10000 m in 2010. Combined with her rankings of 6th for 5000 m, 7th for half marathon and 5th for marathon she is the frontrunner to be named Japanese women's distance runner of the year.

Kenyan ace Edward Waweru (Team NTN) took the men's 5000 m in a quick 13:18.54, while 5th-placer Seung-Ho Baek (S. Korea), a university student and this year's Korean 5000 m national champion, ran what is apparently a South Korean national record of 13:42.98. Masato Kihara (Team Kanebo) was the top Japanese finisher, 4th in 13:40.14.

In other events, first-year corporate runners Kazue Kojima (Team Toyota Jidoshoki) and Yuta Takahashi (Team S&B) won the women's and men's 3000 m. Other distances in the meet included 800 m, 1500 m and 10000 m race walk.

2010 Hokuren Distance Challenge Abashiri Meet - Top Finishers
click here for complete results
Women's 10000 m A-heat
1. Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu) - 31:38.71 - PB
2. Kayo Sugihara (Team Denso) - 32:33.37
3. Hiroko Shoi (Team Nihon ChemiCon) - 32:36.36 - PB
4. Yuko Machida (Team Nihon ChemiCon) - 32:43.04 - PB
5. Saori Nejo (Team Hokuren) - 32:45.54 - PB
6. Yoko Miyauchi (Team Wacoal) - 32:53.78
7. Shino Saito (Team Shimamura) - 33:04.33
8. Eri Sato (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 33:07.97
9. Noriko Higuchi (Team Wacoal) - 33:11.42
10. Yuka Takashima (Team Denso) - 33:12.28

Men's 5000 m A-heat
1. Edward Waweru (Kenya/Team NTN) - 13:18.54
2. Muwaka Muendo (Kenya/Team Aisan Kogyo) - 13:21.45
3. Titus Waroru (Kenya/Chinzai H.S.) - 13:39.45
4. Masato Kihara (Team Kanebo) - 13:40.14
5. Seung-Ho Baek (S. Korea) - 13:42.98 - NR
6. Shota Yamaguchi (Team Fujitsu) - 13:44.21
7. Shota Hiraga (Waseda Univ.) - 13:45.83
8. Daisuke Shimizu (Team Kanebo) - 13:46.87
9. Wataru Ueno (Komazawa Univ.) - 13:47.10
10. Kenta Sato (Team Tokyo Denryoku) - 13:47.23

Women's 3000 m A-heat
1. Kazue Kojima (Team Toyota Jidoshoki) - 9:08.85
2. Ayaka Mori (Team Toyota Jidoshoki) - 9:12.51
3. Saori Yamashita (Team Hokuren) - 9:13.10

Men's 3000 m
1. Yuta Takahashi (Team S&B) - 8:10.45
2. Noriaki Takahashi (Team S&B) - 8:11.76
3. Akira Kiniwa (Team S&B) - 8:43.97

(c) 2010 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Brett Larner said…
When I put up the quick report on Kizaki earlier today there were no men listed among the finishers, but now that I have had time to go through the results in more detail I see that Daihatsu, Wacoal, Hokuren and Panasonic each had a male assistant coach who ran part of the race but did not finish. I assume Daihatsu's coach Atsushi Sawayanagi paced Kizaki partway but do not know how far or whether he actually ran with her or another Daihatsu runner, of whichh there were three in the race.

Most-Read This Week

Heisei Mountaineering Stops Takigahara SDF Base From Scoring 10-Year Streak at Mount Fuji Ekiden

by Koichi Iwasa of DogsorCaravan On Aug. 2 the 51st Mount Fuji Ekiden took place, starting and finishing in Gotemba, Shizuoka and covering 11 stages up to the peak of Mount Fuji and back down. Teams of 6 runners tackle the tough course, each running handling one uphill and one downhill leg with the 6th runner reaching the peak before turning around to head back to the exchange zone where they started. The Heisei Mountaineering Club team took the overall win in 3:50:39, beating 9-time winner Takigahara SDF Base by 2:07 and stopping them from achieving a 10-year victory streak. The independent team division and SDF team division were separated in 2005, and this was the first time that the winning independent team outran the fastest SDF team to take the overall title. The roster that Heisei Mountaineering put together for this year's race raised eyebrows among everyone familiar with the Japanese trail running scene. Handling the 5th and 7th legs was Ruy Ueda , winner of the Fuji M...

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...

Komazawa University One Step Away From Perfect Season With Hakone Ekiden Day One Win

Already the course record-breaker at the Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden this season, 2021 Hakone Ekiden champion Komazawa University came one step away from its first-ever triple crown of single-season ekiden wins as it won a highly competitive 2023 Hakone Ekiden Day One over defending champ Aoyama Gakuin University and last year's 6th placer Chuo University . Things got off to an unexpected start when Select Team runner Hayate Nitta of non-qualifier Ikuei University decided to take his one and only Hakone shot and run it up to his ability on the 21.3 km 1st leg even though the rest of the field opted to jog. At one point Nitta had a lead of almost a minute and a half, but as beautiful as it would have been for him to pull it off, Meiji University 's Shunpei Tomita and Komazawa's Kensuke Tsubura still managed to run him down in the final kilometer. Tomita took the stage win in 1:02:44, 1:02:08 half marathon pace vs. his 1:02:10 PB despite the slow s...