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by Brett Larner
On the first day of track and field competition at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore on Aug. 17, Japan's Moe Kyuma and Kazuto Nishiike easily advanced to the A-final in the girls' and boys' 3000 m races. In the opposite approach to most championships, all entrants in the Youth Olympics Games 3000 m competed in the qualifying round at the same time, with the results dividing the field into several different final rounds. Only those in the A-final are elligible to receive a medal.
Kyuma, holder of both the fastest personal and season bests in the girls' field, ran comfortably in the qualifying round to finish 2nd in 9:35.33. Qualifying round winner Gladys Chesir of Kenya ran a PB of 9:25.44 but was still over 15 seconds off Kyuma's best and nearly 10 seconds off her season best. In the boys' race, Nishiike was ranked only 4th coming into the qualifying round and, despite running a PB of 8:13.05, finished equal with his ranking. He nevertheless showed strong closing speed and just missed catching Moroccan Hicham Sigueni for 3rd. Fekru Jebesa of Ethiopia won the qualifying round in 8:12.65.
The finals of both the girls' and boys' 3000 m take place Aug. 22. Both races are scheduled to be broadcast through the excellent Youth Olympic Games website.
2010 Youth Olympic Games - top finishers
Girls' 3000 m - Qualifying Round
click here for complete results
1. Gladys Chesir (KEN) - 9:25.44 - PB
2. Moe Kyuma (JPN) - 9:35.33
3. Monica Florea (ROM) - 9:39.00 - PB
4. Samrawit Mengisteab (ERI) - 9:43.25
5. Aikaterini Berdousi (GRE) - 9:44.73 - PB
Boys' 3000 m - Qualifying Round
click here for complete results
1. Fekru Jebesa (ETH) - 8:12.65
2. Abrar Osman (ERI) - 8:12.80
3. Hicham Sigueni (MAR) - 8:12.95
4. Kazuto Nishiike (JPN) - 8:13.05 - PB
5. Josphat Kiprop Kiptis (KEN) - 8:14.08
(c) 2010 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Less than five months since the 2023 10000 m National Championships went down at the 2021 Olympic stadium in Tokyo, the 2024 edition happens Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium, with NHK broadcasting it live starting at 19:25 local time. Doubling up on Nationals like this lets Japanese athletes double dip on placing points to try to get into the Paris Olympics on rankings. But between the number of people who've hit the 30:40.00 women's standard and 27:00.00 men's standard and the lopsided eight spots given away to top placers at World XC, there are only four women's spots and three men's available via rankings. Of those, three of the four women's spots and two of the three men's spots are currently occupied by top placers at December's 2023 Nationals, Ririka Hironaka , Haruka Kokai and Rino Goshima for women and Ren Tazawa and Tomoki Ota for men. The 2023 Nationals did get close to the standards, with Hironaka leading the top four women under
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