Skip to main content

Tomoya Onishi Makes Surprise Comeback With Kitami 5000 m Win

by Brett Larner

click here for complete results

In his first serious race since winning the 2011 New Year Ekiden national championships First Stage, 2010's top Japanese 10000 m and half-marathon man Tomoya Onishi (Team Asahi Kasei) made a successful and surprising comeback after a year and a half of injury troubles as he won the July 4 Hokuren Distance Challenge Kitami Meet men's 5000 m in 13:46.06, just six seconds off his best.  Onishi ran up front much of the way with Korea ace Seungho Park and equally injury-hampered former Komazawa University standout Sota Hoshi (Team Fujitsu), taking the lead for good after Park dropped out.  Onishi's performance signaled hope for improvement on the promising 27:50.72 and 1:01:31 marks he recorded in 2010 and a not-too-distant marathon debut.  His twin brother, former Hakone Ekiden champion Toyo University captain Kazuki Onishi (Team Kanebo), ran the same heat but was far off form as he finished 19th of 20 in 14:28.13.

The Onishi twins' former Toyo teammate, Hakone star Ryuji Kashiwabara, now a teammate of Hoshi's at Fujitsu, was 3rd behind Team S&B's Yuichiro Ueno and Yuta Takahashi, Ueno taking the win in 8:05.63.  Showing the degree to which all things are interconnected, in the men's 1500 m Hoshi's former Komazawa teammate Yusuke Takabayashi (Team Toyota), ran a PB of 3:42.53 for 2nd behind Korean Sang Min Sin who clocked 3:42.41.

In the women's races 2011 national champion Team Daiichi Seimei's Eina Yokosawa continued her recent progression as she outran Kenyans Felista Wanjugu (Team Univ. Ent.) and Doricah Obare (Team Hitachi) for the 5000 m win in a PB 15:37.27, making the Japanese women's top ten so far this year.  Team Sysmex's Ai Igarashi likewise continued a strong year as she won the 3000 m in a PB of 9:07.21, her teammate Seika Nishikawa taking 2nd in 9:19.33.

The 2012 Hokuren Distance Challenge series wraps up Saturday in Abashiri.  The men's 5000 m looks like the hottest race of the day, with a field including Takabayashi, 2011 World University Games 10000 m gold medalist Suguru Osako, Kenyan high school sensation Charles Ndungu (Sapporo Yamanote H.S.) and many more.  Tomoya Onishi is set to run the 10000 m A-heat in a tough field including one of Japan's top young prospects, Chihiro Miyawaki (Team Toyota).

(c) 2012 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...
82 comments
Read more

Batt-Doyle and Strintzos Break Records at Launceston Half

Australians Isobel Batt-Doyle and Haftu Strintzos turned in record-breaking performances to win the McGrath Launceston Running Festival Peppers Silo Half Marathon in Tasmania. Running with a private male pacer, NR holder Batt-Doyle dusted the field with the fastest half marathon ever by an Australian woman on Australian soil, a 1:08:46 CR that put her 2 and a half minutes ahead of runner-up Genevieve Gregson . Last year's runner-up Yumi Yoshikawa was almost a minute back from Gregson in 3rd in 1:12:03, but was almost run down by club runner Ayaka Shimoyamada . Starting slow in her international debut, Shimoyamada moved up from 7th over the 2nd half of the race to finish 4th in 1:12:06, kicking hard in the home straight to try to catch Yoshikawa and momentarily blacking out after finishing. Kaho Onishi was 7th in 1:12:45 in her own international debut. The men's half had pacing set at 2:53/km to try to deliver the first-ever sub-61 half marathon on Australian soil. CR holde...
Post a Comment
Read more

CHN and JPN National Records Go Down - Weekend Track Update

There weren't any Japanese athletes in action at the Rabat Diamond League meet Sunday, but 2 lower-tier domestic meets produced new national records. At the Nittai University Time Trials meet in Yokohama, Samuel Kibathi (Toyota) led the top 5 in the men's 10000 m under 28 minutes in 27:39.97. In 3rd, China's Wenjie Wang took just over a second off his own NR from the same meet last year, setting a new record of 27:47.53. His teammate Haoran Tang was 6th in a 28:27.44 PB, with the top Japanese time in the race being a 28:33.39 for 8th from Jin Yuasa (Toyota). Amazingly, Wang and Tang were back the next day on day 2 of the Nittai meet, Wang running a PB of 13:35.58 for 4th in the A-heat and Tang winning the B-heat in a PB of 13:38.80. Isaac Ndiema took the A-heat in 13:26.49, with the fastest Japanese time going to Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu) with a 13:35.94 for 5th behind Wang. Other Nittai highlights: Deborah Chemutai (Univ. Ent.) won a photo finish against Yua Nagamori ...
1 comment
Read more