Skip to main content

Ndirangu, Wanjiru Dominate Chiba International XC Meet

by Brett Larner

The first of Japan's two selection races for its World Cross-Country Championships team took place under beautiful sunny skies Feb. 10 in Chiba.  Former Sera H.S. standout Charles Ndirangu (Kenya/Team JFE Steel) had no trouble taking the senior men's 12 km, winning by a margin of nearly 30 seconds over newcomer Miliyon Zewdie (Ethiopia/ Team Yachiyo Kogyo).  Close behind, Keigo Yano and Takumi Honda of 2013 Hakone Ekiden champions Nittai University went 4-5 to take the top two Japanese positions and all but assure themselves places on the Worlds team.  Last weekend's Marugame International Half Marathon winner Collis Birmingham (Australia) was only 7th in 36:07.

High schooler Rosemary Wanjiru (Kenya/Aomori Yamada H.S.) won the senior women's 8 km with the largest margin of victory of the day, running 26:08 to beat pros Susan Wairimu (Kenya/Team Denso), Hanae Tanaka (Team Daiichi Seimei) and Yukari Abe (Team Shimamura).  The top collegiate finisher was Ayuko Suzuki (Nagoya Univ.) in 5th overall.

Jeremiah Karemi of 2012 National High School Boys Ekiden champion Toyokawa H.S. added to the Kenyan domination of the day, winning the junior men's 8 km in 23:16 with another big margin of victory.  Another Nittai University runner, first-year Hideto Yamanaka, took 2nd in 23:49 to make it three of Nittai's ten-man Hakone lineup on the Worlds team so far.  Yuki Hirota (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) rounded out the top three in 24:03.

In the junior women's 5 km, Miyuki Uehara (Kagoshima Joshi H.S.), so impressive in winning the First Stage at last month's National Women's Ekiden, won again in 16:24 by 9 seconds over Nanami Aoki (Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.).  Maki Izumida (Hakoho Joshi H.S.) was next across the line to give herself a chance of making the perpetual World Cross-Country team medal-winning junior women's squad.

Although not part of the World team selection, the senior men's 4 km also saw a noteworthy result as Kazuki Miyake (Chuo Univ.) ran 11:33 to win by 20 seconds over 27:44 man Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Team Asahi Kasei) and steeplechase specialists Aoi Matsumoto (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) and Tsuyoshi Takeda (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC).  It was an unexpected breakthrough performance for Miyake, not even a member of Chuo's Hakone Ekiden lineup.

Winners of other minor races included Naoki Nakamura (Suma Gakuen H.S.) in the junior men's 4 km, Wakana Kabasawa (Fujimi J.H.S.) in the junior high school girls' 3 km, Tomoki Ota (Hamana J.H.S.) in the junior high school boys' 3 km and Shun Tomigahara (Kemigawa H.S.) in the Chiba Prefecture high school boys' 3 km.

48th Chiba International Cross-Country Meet
Chiba, 2/10/13
click here for complete results

Senior Men's 12 km
1. Charles Ndirangu (Kenya/Team JFE Steel) - 35:01
2. Miliyon Zewdie (Ethiopia/Team Yachiyo Kogyo) - 35:26
3. Hassan Yasin (Ethiopia/Team Chuo Hatsujo) - 35:38
4. Keigo Yano (Nittai Univ.) - 35:38
5. Takumi Honda (Nittai Univ.) - 35:41
6. John Maina (Kenya/Aomori Yamada H.S.) - 36:01
7. Collis Birmingham (Australia) - 36:07
8. Yuya Konishi (Team Toyota Kyushu) - 36:11
9. Hiroyuki Ono (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 36:15
10. Shota Hattori (Nittai Univ.) - 36:16
-----
12. Nikolay Chavkin (Russia) - 36:22
27. Youssef El Kalai (Portugal) - 37:02
46. Ihar Tsetserukou (Belarus) - 37:45

Senior Women's 8 km
1. Rosemary Wanjiru (Kenya/Aomori Yamada H.S.) - 26:08
2. Susan Wairimu (Kenya/Team Denso) - 26:50
3. Hanae Tanaka (Team Daiichi Seimei) - 26:53
4. Yukari Abe (Team Shimamura) - 26:54
5. Ayuko Suzuki (Nagoya Univ.) - 27:08
6. Miho Ihara (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 27:11
7. Yuki Hidaka (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 27:32
8. Haruka Kyuma (Tsukuba Univ.) - 27:33
9. Yasuko Ueno (Tsukuba Univ.) - 27:40
10. Korei Omata (Team Sekisui Kagaku) - 27:42

Senior Men's 4 km
1. Kazuki Miyake (Chuo Univ.) - 11:33
2. Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Team Asahi Kasei) - 11:52
3. Aoi Matsumoto (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 11:52
4. Tsuyoshi Takeda (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 11:55
5. Takahiko Onishi (Team NTN) - 12:00
6. Takeshi Fujimoto (SDF Academy) - 12:00
7. Fumiya Tanji (Tsukuba Univ.) - 12:01
8. Hiroaki Onishi (Team Yachiyo Kogyo) - 12:02
9. Toshihiro Kenmotsu (Asia Pacific Univ.) - 12:03
10. Teruaki Yuda (Toyokawa Kogyo H.S.) - 12:06

Junior Women's 5 km
1. Miyuki Uehara (Kagoshima Joshi H.S.) - 16:24
2. Nanami Aoki (Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.) - 16:33
3. Maki Izumida (Hakuho Joshi H.S.) - 16:40
4. Yui Fukuda (Suma Gakuen H.S.) - 16:43
5. Natsuki Omori (Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S.) - 16:44
6. Kaori Morita (Eda H.S.) - 16:45
7. Shoko Sonoda (Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S.) - 16:46
8. Mizuki Matsuda (Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S.) - 16:50
9. Kotona Ota (Suma Gakuen H.S.) - 16:53
10. Monami Ichimura (Narita H.S.) - 16:53

Junior Men's 8 km
1. Jeremiah Karemi (Kenya/Toyokawa H.S.) - 23:16
2. Hideto Yamanaka (Nittai Univ.) - 23:49
3. Yuki Hirota (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) - 24:03
4. Tatsuya Hayashi (Ishin H.S.) - 24:06
5. Yusuke Nishiyama (Iga Hakuho H.S.) - 24:08
6. Yuhi Akiyama (Suma Gakuen H.S.) - 24:08
7. Issei Takahashi (Tokyo Nogyo Prep #3 H.S.) - 24:09
8. Junya Uemura (Hakuoh Prep Ashikaga H.S.) - 24:10
9. Kazuma Taira (Toyokawa Kogyo H.S.) - 24:14
10. Kengo Takamori (Saku Chosei H.S.) - 24:22

Junior Men's 4 km
1. Naoki Nakamura (Suma Gakuen H.S.) - 12:20
2. Hiroki Otani (Saku Chosei H.S.) - 12:26
3. Yuki Nitta (Toyokawa H.S.) - 12:27
4. Takuma Sekiguchi (Chuetsu H.S.) - 12:28
5. Shun Yuzawa (Tokai Prep. #3 H.S.) - 12:31

Junior High School Girls' 3 km
1. Wakana Kabasawa (Fujimi J.H.S.) - 10:09
2. Kokoro Sawairi (Fujioka J.H.S.) - 10:13
3. Rika Sekigami (Haga Moka J.H.S.) - 10:15
4. Yumika Miura (Nakaizumi Kita J.H.S.) - 10:20
5. Yuna Karasawa (Nakanojo J.H.S.) - 10:22

Junior High School Boys' 3 km
1. Tomoki Ota (Hamana J.H.S.) - 9:10
2. Takuya Hanyu (Inzai J.H.S.) - 9:12
3. Shiki Shinsako (Shiwa J.H.S.) - 9:14
4. Junnosuke Matsuo (Taka J.H.S.) - 9:14
5. Koichiro Sasaki (Toyosato J.H.S.) - 9:17

Chiba Prefecture High School Boys' 3 km
1. Shun Tomigahara (Kemigawa H.S.) - 9:51
2. Tsubasa Takeda (Chiba Prefectural H.S.) - 9:52
3. Hiroaki Miwa (Kemigawa H.S.) - 10:17
4. Shinya Suzuki (Omigawa H.S.) - 10:22
4. Koki Munakata (Tokai Prep Boyo H.S.) - 10:25

(c) 2013 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Khishigsaikhan and Kuira Break Ageo City Half Marathon CRs (updated)

Stellar conditions and a solid fields meant times were going to be fast at the Ageo City Half Marathon , and in both the women's and men's races the front end took full advantage of the day. In the midst of the super-deep men's field Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh , the top Mongolian in this summer's Budapest World Championships marathon and in last month's Hangzhou Asian Games marathon, ran steady and strong, splitting 33:29 at 10 km, 1:10:38 pace, before pushing the 2nd half. Khishigsaikhan crossed the finish line 1:10:32, 1:22 under the old course record, 3:35 ahead of 2nd-place Kana Kobayashi , and a massive 4:16 off the Mongolian women's national record. Khishigsaikhan is currently training in Japan and ran Ageo in prep for next month's Taipei City Marathon, where she was 3rd last year. The men's race went out hard, with Kenyan Brian Kipyegon (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.), NR holder Yusuke Ogura (Yakult) and the ambitious Rei Matsunaga (Hosei) leading the ...
1 comment
Read more

A Few Words on Chicago

by Brett Larner photos by Dr. Helmut Winter Chicago comes at a tough time for Japan's corporate leagues, just before the start of the fall ekiden season's regional qualifiers.  Although just about every team has more than enough people to fill their lineups for these relatively minor events, head coaches will usually not let their better athletes do an October marathon, whether because of the limited recovery time in the event that they decide a big gun has to run in a qualifier, or because it would give them the hassle of explaining to the parent corporation why a star is off doing his or her own thing instead of being there for the team.  As a result you typically only see Japanese runners at Chicago when they are looking to drop something big, as with Yukiko Akaba  (Team Hokuren) and Yoshinori Oda  (Team Toyota) this year, or, like the block of  Japanese men at 2:12~2:13 , as part of a corporate federation junket for promising third-tier men to get the exp...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tanaka and Hashioka Win Gold - World U20 Championships Day Two Japanese Results

Working together to execute an aggressive frontrunning team strategy born from failure two years ago in Bydgoszcz , 2018 Asian U20 3000 m gold medalist Nozomi Tanaka and 2018 Asian Junior Cross Country gold medalist Yuna Wada opened a massive lead over the African Junior Cross Country medalist Ethiopian duo of Meselu Berhe and Tsige Gebreselama in the early going of the Tampere World U20 Championships women's 3000 m. Tanaka took the lead from the gun before Wada went out front at 200 m to set a fast pace. Through splits of 3:00 and 3:03 for the first 2000 m, Tanaka kicked hard from 300 m out to close with a 2:51 for Japan's first-ever gold medal in the event, winning in a PB of 8:54.01. Berhe and Gebreselama caught Wada on the back corner but weren't even close to matching Tanaka, taking 2nd and 3rd in PBs just under the 9-minute mark. Wada just held off Kenyan Jenali Jemutai Yego for 4th in 9:00.50, seeming happy in post-race interviews to have helped a teammate ...
Post a Comment
Read more