Weekend Track Roundup

by Brett Larner

It was a relatively quiet long weekend across Japan, with a smattering of prefectural track championships across the country in the hot sun ahead of an approaching typhoon. At the Kyoto Prefecture Championships, Bukkyo University-related runners cleaned up, taking the top five spots in the women's 5000 m led by recent graduate Kasumi Nishihara's meet record 15:39.28. An impressive mark considering that it was run in temperatures in the mid-30's with high humidity. Fresh from being named to the Japanese 10000 m squad for next month's World Championships, Bukkyo's top current runner Hikari Yoshimoto won the women's 3000 m in 9:14.75, her first win after a few relatively flat months.

Bukkyo's major rival Ritsumeikan University mostly gave the Kyoto meet a miss, opting instead for the West Japan University Championships in Gifu. There team leader Risa Takenaka also set a meet record in the 5000 m, running 15:59.07 in even hotter, wetter conditions than Nishihara had in Kyoto.

The most major domestic action actually took place overseas at the Kenyan Championships, where a raft of the best Japan-based Kenyans lined up in the 10000 m to shoot for one of the two guaranteed places on Kenya's World Championships team. After an evenly-paced first 6000 in 16:36 on track for 27:40 at altitude, 20-year-old Bitan Karoki (Team S&B) used the same strategy he employed to win Stanford University's Cardinal Invitational 10000 m earlier this season, abruptly blasting away from the field as he ran the next 2000 m at 26:30 pace. Karoki opened a lead of nearly 100 m over the world-class field and seemed to have the race sewn up, but with just a few hundred meters to go he suddenly began to look shaky before collapsing to the track, a victim perhaps of the effects of altitude. Peter Kirui just outkicked Wilson Kiprop for the win in 27:32.1, both men earning assured World Championships. 2007 bronze medalist Martin Mathathi (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) was 3rd in 27:38.6 for a provisional placing on the team, just clipping Boston Marathon winner Geoffrey Mutai. 2011 World Cross Country Championships silver medalist Paul Tanui (Team Kyudenko), the second-fastest Kenyan so far this season, was 5th a short way back in 27:44.

2011 Kyoto Prefecture T&F Championships
July 15-17, Kyoto
Women's 5000 m Heat 2
1. Kasumi Nishihara (Team Yamada Denki) - 15:39.28 - MR
2. Sairi Maeda (Bukkyo Univ.) 15:55.26
3. Chinami Mori (Bukkyo Univ.) - 15:58.20
4. Shiho Takechi (Bukkyo Univ.) - 16:03.04
5. Mai Ishibashi (Bukkyo Univ.) - 16:04.45
6. Eriko Kushima (Kyoto Sango Univ.) - 16:11.99
7. Tomoka Inadomi (Team Wacoal) - 16:17.55
8. Aya Goto (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 16:19.15

Women's 3000 m Heat 3
1. Hikari Yoshimoto (Bukkyo Univ.) - 9:14.75
2. Mai Hirota (Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.) - 9:18.20
3. Nanako Kanno (Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.) - 9:19.67
4. Ayano Ikegami (Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.) - 9:21.62
5. Chinami Mori (Bukkyo Univ.) - 9:25.55
6. Mai Ishibashi (Bukkyo Univ.) - 9:27.65
7. Shiho Takechi (Bukkyo Univ.) - 9:30.57

2011 West Japan University T&F Championships
July 15-17, Gifu
Women's 5000 m
1. Risa Takenaka (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 15:59.07 - MR
2. Sayuri Oka (Osaka Taiku Univ.) - 16:22.61
3. Michi Numata (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 16:27.88

Kenyan National Championships
July 15-17, Nairobi
Men's 10000 m
1. Peter Kirui (Administration Police) - 27:32.1
2. Wilson Kiprop - 27:32.9
3. Martin Mathathi (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 27:38.6
4. Geoffrey Mutai (Police) - 27:38.9
5. Paul Tanui (Team Kyudenko) - 27:44
DNF - Bitan Karoki (Team S&B)

(c) 2011 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

World Marathon Majors Japanese Entries

We're back from a short summer break. A week and a half out from the first race of the season's four World Marathon Majors races, here's a look at Japanese athletes scheduled to run. Everything right now is about qualifying for the MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to be held in the fall of 2027 in Nagoya. The JAAF makes no mistake about wanting to keep its top people racing domestically where it can get a share of revenue from the TV broadcast and race operations, so anyone who decides to race overseas has to do it in a WA platinum label race and hit either 2:06:30 or 2:23:30, regardless of place, course or weather if they want to make the trials. At the same time concessions are make for domestic races, like for example the late-August Hokkaido Marathon where up to 3 men and 3 women can qualify if they go 2:12:00 or 2:32:00. As a result, you get things like last year where amateur runner Yudai Fukuda made the trials by finishing 3rd Jap...

Nakajima Breaks 100 mH NR Twice, Kitaguchi Returns - August Track Roundup

Catching up on what's been happening in track and field this month during our summer break: Men's 3000 m NR holder Nagiya Mori was just off his 5000 m PB at the IFAM Oordegem meet in Belgium on Aug. 1, taking 16th in 13:15.01. Shota Nakano was 26th of 28 in 13:35.02. This year's national champion Ryoma Aoki ran the 3000 mSC but didn't finish. Naoto Hasegawa was the only Japanese athlete at Mutaz Essa Barshim 's What Gravity Tour stop at the Monaco Athletics Festival meet on Aug. 5. Having cleared 2.30 m for the first time earlier this year Hasegawa only managed 2.18 m in Monaco, taking 7th of 10. There were a lot of good performances at the Fuji Hokuriku World Trial meet in Fujiyoshida on Aug. 9, but the one that got the headlines was a 12.62 (-0.2) NR in the women's 100 mH by Hitomi Nakajima . Nakajima actually did it twice, running 12.62 (+2.0) in the heats before repeating in the final. Masumi Aoki also ran big in the heats, with a 12.68 (+2.0) for al...

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...

japan running news

Search This Blog