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Two Takushoku University First-Years Sub-28 at Kanto Time Trials

by Brett Larner

Takushoku University's fortunes under its new coach Okada continue to improve. A month after Takushoku won both the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai 20 km qualifier team and individual titles Takushoku first-years Duncan Mozay and John Maina worked together to crack 28 minutes at the Kanto Regional University Time Trials in Tokyo's National Stadium on Nov. 27. Both runners clocked 27:53, meaning they are now the fastest university runners in the Kanto region ahead of Jobu University senior Yusuke Hasegawa and Nihon University junior Benjamin Gando. Only one of the pair will be allowed to run January's Hakone Ekiden, but with two aces to choose from Takushoku is in an excellent position to make the Hakone seeded bracket.

2010 Kanto Regional 5000 m champion Taku Fujimoto (Kokushikan Univ.), fresh from a 3rd-place finish on the competitive 1st Stage of Tuesday's International Chiba Ekiden, won another of the meet's ten heats of 10000 m, pushed to a 28:41.40 by Meiji University sophomore Masato Kikuchi.

2010 Kanto Regional University Time Trials
National Stadium, Tokyo, 11/27/10
click here for complete results
Men's 10000 m - Heat 8
1. Duncan Mozay (1st yr., Takushoku Univ.) - 27:53.00
2. John Maina (1st yr., Takushoku Univ.) - 27:53.50
3. Yuki Munakata (3rd yr., Chuo Univ.) - 28:55.65
4. Kenta Matsubara (3rd yr., Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) - 29:03.77
5. Junya Kinoshita (3rd yr., Tokyo Nogyuo Univ.) - 29:08.85

Men's 10000 m - Heat 6
1. Taku Fujimoto (3rd yr., Kokushikan Univ.) - 28:41.40
2. Masato Kikuchi (2nd yr., Meiji Univ.) - 28:43.61
3. Tatsuya Sato (1st yr., Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) - 29:33.04

Women's 5000 m
1. Eri Yagi (2nd yr., Meijo Univ.) - 15:54.52
2. Nanaka Izawa (1st yr., Juntendo Univ.) - 15:57.91
3. Erika Ikeda (1st yr., Meijo Univ.) - 16:11.96

(c) 2010 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
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Matt said…
Impressive times by these university students.
November 30, 2010 at 5:52 AM
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