Skip to main content

Five Meet Records at Twilight Games - Weekend Roundup

by Brett Larner

The threat of heavy rain held off for Sunday's 10th edition of the Twilight Games meet at Tokyo's Oda Field, allowing meet records in five of the meet's twenty-three events.  Both the men's and women's 1500 m saw new records, the men's by Kanto Regionals 1500 m champion Enock Omwamba (Kenya/Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) just off his PB in 3:40.84 and the women's via Daito Bunka University ace Chikako Mori, who just held off Maya Iino (Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) in the last 100 m for the record in 4:20.24 with Iino 0.23 seconds behind and also under the old record.

The men's 4x100 m and women's 4x400 m relays both saw multiple teams break the record, Chuo University winning the 4x100 m in 39.18 without its star member, 200 m national champion Shota Iizuka, and Nittai University leading four women's 4x400 m teams under the old record in 3:43.75 thanks in large part to a spectacular anchor run from senior Misaki Ishibashi.  The men's high jump saw the other record of the day, with pro Taira Omata (Mizuno AC) jumping 2.22 m to defeat a mostly-collegiate crowd.

The big draw of the meet was the men' 100 m, where national champion Ryota Yamagata (Keio Univ.) made an appearance in preparation for the Moscow World Championships.  Yamgata lived up to pre-race words that he was not focusing on time after just completing a period of intensive training, easily winning in 10.23 +0.1 m/s as he concentrated on the technical aspects of his race.  The meet's other main event, the men's javelin, suffered due to the withdrawal of 2012 national champion and London Olympian Roderick Genki Dean (Waseda Univ.).

Overseas, a large contingent of Japanese men continued their stay on the European summer circuit at Belgium's Memorial Rasschaert meet.  2010 World Half Marathon 9th-placer and former Toyo University star Tomoya Onishi (Team Asahi Kasei) continued his comeback from almost two flat years, taking the top Japanese position in the men's 5000 m in 13:40.46 for 6th.  This year's 5000 m national champion Sota Hoshi (Team Fujitsu) ran 13:46.85 for 8th, just beating Nationals runner-up Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Team Asahi Kasei) and Hoshi's former Komazawa University teammate Takuya Fukatsu (Team Asahi Kasei) who rounded out the top ten.

In the U.S., two members of the Panasonic women' team made a relatively undistinguished appearance at the Bix 7 road race, Rina Yamazaki taking 8th in 38:16 and steepler Hitomi Nakamura 12th in a weak 40:00.  Yamazaki's most noteworthy achievement was beating 2011 Boston Marathon runner-up Desi Davila (U.S.A.), 10th in 38:34 as she returns from a long injury cycle.

10th Twilight Games - Highlights
Oda Field, Tokyo, 7/28/13
click here for complete results

Men's 1500 m
1. Enock Omwamba (Kenya/Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 3:40.84 - MR
2. Tsukasa Anzai (Juntendo Univ.) - 3:44.98
3. Shogo Hata (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 3:46.14
4. Yasunori Kusu (Team Komori Corp.) - 3:47.09
5. Hiroki Matsueda (Juntendo Univ.) - 3:47.26

Women's 1500 m
1. Chikako Mori (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 4:20.24 - MR
2. Maya Iino (Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) - 4:20.47 (MR)
3. Sakurako Fukuuchi (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 4:21.79
4. Rina Koeda (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 4:28.35
5. Natsuno Furuya (Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) - 4:28.70

Men's 100 m +0.1 m/s
1. Ryota Yamagata (Keio Univ.) - 10.23
2. Asuka Cambridge (Nihon Univ.) - 10.33
3. Ryo Onabuta (Chuo Univ.) - 10.34
4. Kazuma Oseto (Hosei Univ.) - 10.44
5. Takumi Kuki (Waseda Univ.) - 10.50

Women's 4x400 m Relay
1. Nittai Univ. (Nakada/Shiranaga/Watanabe/Ishibashi) - 3:43.75 - MR
2. Chuo Univ. (Shintaku/Sugawara/Hatori/Kira) - 3:44.17 (MR)
3. Tsuru Bunka Univ. (Yamaguchi/Okita/Nishida/Ikejima) - 3:44.50 (MR)
4. Aoyama Gakuin Univ. (Omori/Umemoto/Toki/Nakamura) - 3:44.59 (MR)
5. Tokyo Joshi Taiiku Univ.) (Otomo/Muramoto/Tokizawa/Kojima) - 3:48.31

Men's 4x100 m Relay
1. Chuo Univ. (Onabuta/Taniguchi/Naoki/Matsumra) - 39.18 - MR
2. Hosei Univ. (Nishigaki/Oseto/Kobayashi/Ishikawa) - 39.48 (MR)
3. Waseda Univ. (Takei/Naganuma/Kakehata/Tamai) - 40.26
4. Josai Univ. (Suzuki/Honma/Koji/Nakazawa) - 40.32
5. Toyo Univ. (Kozasa/Kobayashi/Arai/Watanabe) - 40.62

Men's High Jump
1. Taira Omata (Mizuno AC) - 2.22 m - MR
2. Naoto Tobe (Tsukuba Univ.) - 2.19 m
3. Ryo Sato (Tokai Univ.) - 2.19 m
4. Takaya Sugawara (Ryutsu Keizai Univ.) - 2.10 m
5. Hiroaki Akai (Aichi Meiya Club) - 2.10 m

23rd Memorial Rasschaert Meet
Ninove, Belgium, 7/27/13

Men's 5000 m
1. Juan Luis Barrios (Mexico) - 13:27.32
2. Bachir Youssouf Hiss (Djibouti) - 13:28.20
3. Bobby Curtis (U.S.A.) - 13:29.79
4. Koen Naert (Belgium) - 13:34.31
5. Olle Wallerang (Sweden) - 13:34.74
6. Tomoya Onishi (Japan/Team Asahi Kasei) - 13:40.46
7. Soufiane Bouchikhi (Belgium) - 13:43.55
8. Sota Hoshi (Japan/Team Fujitsu) - 13:46.85
9. Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Japan/Team Asahi Kasei) - 13:48.05
10. Takuya Fukatsu (Japan/Team Asahi Kasei) - 13:49.41
-----
13. Hiromitsu Kakuage (Japan/Team Konica Minolta) - 13:53.78
16. Minato Oishi (Japan/Team Toyota) - 14:03.14
17. Ryo Kiname Japan/Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) - 14:09.37
19. Yohei Nishiyama (Japan/Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 14:12.23

39th Quad City Times Bix 7
Davenport, Iowa, 7/27/13

Women
1. Sule Utura (Ethiopia) - 36:34
2. Buzunesh Deba (Ethiopia) - 36:39
3. Caroline Rotich (Kenya) - 37:02
4. Adrienne Herzog (Netherlands) - 37:06
5. Jane Murage (Kenya) - 37:20
6. Betsy Saina (Kenya) - 37:25
7. Diane Nukuri-Johnson (Burundi) - 37:31
8. Rina Yamazaki (Japan/Team Panasonic) - 38:16
9. Makida Abdela (Kenya) - 38:33
10. Desi Davila (U.S.A.) - 38:34
-----
12. Hitomi Nakamura (Japan/Team Panasonic) - 40:00

(c) 2013 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Australian Male Arrested on Drug Smuggling Charges After Entering Japan for Osaka Marathon

On Apr. 9 the Kinki Region Bureau of Health, Labor and Welfare's Drug Control Division arrested Matthew Inglis Fox , 38, an Australian business owner of no known fixed address, on charges of violating the importation regulations of the Narcotics Control Act by smuggling tablets containing marijuana elements from the United States. The suspect had entered Japan in February to run in the Osaka Marathon . The suspect was arrested on suspicion of smuggling approximately 12 pills containing marijuana by sending them from a U.S. airport to Osaka's Kansai Airport using an international courier service on Feb. 19. The Osaka branch of the Customs Service discovered the tablets in arriving cargo and suspected them to be narcotics. Customs contacted the Narcotics Control Division, which then began its investigation of the case. According to the Narcotics Control Division, the suspect denies the charges.  Translator's note: Fox, who received a lifetime ban from the Ageo City Half Mara...
1 comment
Read more

10 Meet Records and a National Record at Hyogo Relay Carnival

The grand prix distance events were absent from the program this year at the 73rd Hyogo Relay Carnival , with the top performances in the women's 5000 m and men's 10000 m Asics Challenge races going to steepler Yuzu Nishide (Daihatsu) in 15:49.48 and Japan-based Kenyan Emmanuel Kiplagat (Mitsubishi Juko) in 28:12.42. But there were a lot of new meet records, and one national record. Ryosuke Kusumi (Shiga) set a T37-class NR of 58.35 m in the para men's 400 m. Kairi Ikeno (Suma Gakuen H.S.) came less than 2 seconds short of a new high school record in the women's 2000 m , beating her own MR from last year by over 3 seconds in 5:55.36, almost 17 seconds ahead of 2nd place. The top 5 all broke or tied the men's high jump meet record, with both Yuto Seko (FAAS) and Tomohiro Shinno (Kyudenko) clearing 2.25 m and Takashi Eto (Kobe Digital Labo), Chao-Hsuan Fu (Taiwan) and Naoto Hasegawa (Niigata Albirex RC) clearing 2.20 m. Yuki Hashioka (Fujitsu) won the men...
Post a Comment
Read more

Matsumoto Marathon Canceled After Fraudulently Hiding Past Financial Losses

On Apr. 23 the city government of Matsumoto, Nagano announced that it was canceling this fall's Matsumoto Marathon after discovering accounting fraud in the event's operation. "We are going to conduct a review of how the race has been conducted up to now," a statement from the city read. Mayor Yoshinao Gaun apologized at a press conference, saying, "We sincerely apologize for letting down everyone involved in putting the event together." The Matsumoto Marathon is run by an executive committee made up of representatives from the city, the Matsumoto Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Shinano Mainichi Newspaper, and the relevant track and field associations. According to city officials, financial records for the November, 2023 edition of the race were fraudulently manipulated. Income from participants' entry fees was lower than expected, and although the city managed to get the Shinano Mainichi, to which it had outsourced overall event management, to r...
Post a Comment
Read more