Skip to main content

Defending World Champion Nakadai Fifth at 100 km World Championships

by Brett Larner

For the second-straight year, Shinji Nakadai (Harriers AC) was the top Japanese man at the IAU 100 km World Championships, held this year in Winschoten, Netherlands.  The defending individual men's world champion, Nakadai made no attempt to follow the reckless early pace set by eventual winner Giorgio Calcaterra, who averaged as fast as 3:42/km in the first stages of the race.  Neither did any of the other athletes in the field, as Calcaterra took the world title by a margin of over 15 minutes.  The strong American squad kept three men in the top pack throughout the race and ended up taking the individual silver and bronze medals as well as team gold led by veteran Michael Wardian.  Nakadai faded after 80 km, taking 5th in 6:48:32, but thanks in large part to a solid 10th-place run by teammate Yoshiki Takada Japan was able to nail down the team silver medal by just 1:51 over Calcaterra's Italy squad which went home with bronze.

The women's race saw a similarly dominating individual performance as Russia's Marine Bychkova won in 7:27:19 by nearly 14 minutes over British runner Joanna Zakrzewski.  South Africa's Lindsay Anne van Aswegen took the bronze medal less than a minute behind Zakrzewski.  Three Russian women finished in the top ten, giving the Russians the team gold to with Bychkova's individual medal.  The American women claimed silver with two women in the top ten.  The Japanese women's team were relatively weak individually, but thanks to a tight pack finish by top three members Naomi Ochiai, Yuko Ito and Shiho Katayama they managed to edge the South African and British squads for team bronze by a narrow margin.

2011 100 km World Championships
Winschoten, Netherlands, 9/10/11
click here for complete results

Men
1. Giorgio Calcaterra (Italy) - 6:27:32
2. Michael Wardian (U.S.A.) - 6:42:49
3. Andrew Henshaw (U.S.A.) - 6:44:35
4. Pieter Vermeesch (Belgium) - 6:47:01
5. Shinji Nakadai (Japan) - 6:48:32
6. Matt Wood (U.S.A.) - 6:50:23
7. Jonas Budd (Sweden) - 6:52:19
8. Yoshiki Takada (Japan) - 7:03:55
9. Andr Collet (Germany) - 7:04:35
10. Dominique Bordet (France) - 7:04:37
-----
18. Masakazu Takahashi (Japan) - 7:12:33
30. Kenichi Ito (Japan) - 7:32:19
39. Yoshikazu Hara (Japan) - 7:46:16
41. Shingo Inoue (Japan) - 7:47:35

Men's Teams
1. U.S.A. - 20:17:47
2. Japan - 21:05:00
3. Italy - 21:06:51

Women
1. Marine Bychkova (Russia) - 7:27:19
2. Joanna Zakrzewski (Great Britain) - 7:41:06
3. Lindsay Anne van Aswegen (South Africa) - 7:42:05
4. Irina Vishnevskaya (Russia) - 7:45:27
5. Meghan Arbogast (U.S.A.) - 7:51:10
6. Annette Bednosky (U.S.A.) - 7:54:59
7. Gloria Vinstedt (Sweden) - 7:55:09
8. Sabine Hofer (Austria) - 8:02:17
9. Kerry Jacqueline Koen (South Africa) - 8:06:29
10. Maria Aksenova (Russia) - 8:06:54
-----
12. Naomi Ochiai (Japan) - 8:10:14
13. Yuko Ito (Japan) - 8:11:13
14. Shiho Katayama (Japan) - 8:13:46
17. Mai Fujisawa (Japan) - 8:19:49
22. Akiko Oda (Japan) - 8:29:18
37. Wakako Oyagi (Japan) - 9:19:47

Women's Teams
1. Russia - 23:19:40
2. U.S.A. - 23:56:20
3. Japan - 24:35:13

(c) 2011 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Anonymous said…
5th place finisher in the Women's race is 50 years old. Congrats to all who competed this year.
Lonneke said…
It was a great day! We watched all the runners with deep deep respect!! During the 10 laps, you could see how everybody was doing. On www.paulmellens.nl you can view many pictures taken of the runners, including the young ones. Hope to see you all again next year at The RUN in Winschoten!

Most-Read This Week

Endo, Nishikawa and Yamakawa Announce Corporate Team Changes

The SG Holdings men's corporate team announced on Oct. 1 that long-distance athletes Hyuga Endo and Yuichiro Nishikawa have joined its roster after leaving the Sumitomo Denko team. Endo, 28, won the Junior Olympics 3000 m while at Koriyama Nishi J.H.S. before going on to Gakuho Ishikawa H.S. where he was the the top Japanese placer in the 5000 m at the National High School Championships 2 years in a row. After graduating from Gakuho Ishikawa he joined the Sumitomo Denko team, winning the National Championships 5000 m in 2021. He won gold at the 2023 Asian Championships and represented Japan at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships. "I will give everything I have as part of the team and work hard toward helping it win the New Year Ekiden," he said of his new environment. Of his personal goals he said, "I want to focus on the 5000 m and reach new levels to compete internationally." Nishikawa, 28, was a member of Tokai University 's winning teams at the H...

3 Athletes Provisionally Suspended After Positive Drug Tests at Asian Games (updated)

The International Testing Agency announced on Oct. 2 that provisional suspensions have been imposed on two athletes, Kazakhstan's Aiana Bolatbekkyzy in track and field, and Tajikistan's Issamjon Sharifov in tennis, after they tested positive for prohibited substances at the Asian Games in Nagoya, Aichi. Bolatbekkyzy, 19, tested positive for the steroid drostanolone in a sample collected during an in-competition test at the Games. A diuretic drug was found in the sample collected from Sharifov, 23. Update:  On Oct. 3 a third athlete, kurash wrestler Yash Kumar Chauhan  of India, was provisionally suspended after an in-competition test detected the steroid metandienone, the metabolic modulator GW1516, and the stimulant mephentermine in his system. source article: https://www.sanspo.com/article/20261002-X4FJLT5MMZKFND6WXPOESAKETQ/ translated by Brett Larner