Skip to main content

Japan Scores Five Half Marathon Medals to Cap World University Games

by Brett Larner

Five days after winning bronze in the women's 10000 m behind gold medalist Ayuko Suzuki (Nagoya Univ.) Mai Tsuda (Ritsumeikan Univ.) bookended Japan's 2013 World University Games with another gold as she outkicked 10000 m silver medalist Alina Prokopyeva (Russia) by five seconds over the final kilometer to win the women's half marathon in 1:13:12 on the final day of athletics competition.  Tsuda and Prokopyeva sat in a pack of nine made up entirely of Japanese and Russian athletes through 15 km before pulling away as a pair, crossing 20 km in 1:09:42 with Yukiko Okuno (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.) alone four seconds back in 3rd.  Prokopyeva was outclassed in the final stage of the race and could only watch Tsuda surge away for the gold medal as she took silver in 1:13:18. Okuno held on to the bronze medal position in 1:13:24, nine seconds ahead of Russian Lyudmila Lebedeva.  Although the Russians' third runner came through ahead of Japan's, on aggregate time Japan took the team gold medal by just eight seconds over Russia, China a distant 3rd.

Tsuda's 10000 m teammates Suzuki and Mai Shoji (Chukyo Univ.) also doubled, both running the 5000 m.  Behind Romanian Roxana Elisabeta Birca and Russian Olga Golovkina Suzuki won bronze in 15:51.47.  In a replay of the 10000 m Shoji was shut out of the medals as she placed 4th.

In the men's half marathon national collegiate champion Shogo Nakamura (Komazawa Univ.) was the only runner to go with the three-member South African team from the gun. Outlasting Xolisane Zamkele, Nakamura lost touch with eventual winner Sibabalwe Gladwin Mzazi and 10000 m gold medalist Stephen Mokoka with 5 km to go.  Mzazi took the sprint finish over Mokoka for gold in 1:03:37, Mokoka clocking the same time to add a silver to his 10000 m gold, Nakamura fading to 1:04:21 for bronze.  Hiroki Yamagishi (Jobu Univ.) led the main chase pack for much of the race and was rewarded with a 4th-place finish in 1:04:41.  2013 Hakone Ekiden champion Nittai University captain Shota Hattori took 5th in 1:05:00 to round out Japan's team scoring, but despite Zamkele dropping to 7th in 1:05:38 South Africa came out ahead on aggregate time to win the team gold in 3:12:52.  Japan won silver in 3:14:02, hosts Russia picking up bronze in 3:16:38.

Japan's other medals all came courtesy of student members of the 2012 London Olympics team.  Two-time national champion Seito Yamamoto (Chukyo Univ.) took silver in the men's pole vault, while on the track men's 100 m national champion Ryota Yamagata (Keio Univ.) earned silver and 200 m national champion Shota Iizuka (Chuo Univ.) bronze.  Yamagata and Iizuka also formed half of the men's 4x100 m squad which took silver behind a surprisingly strong Ukraine.  All three medalists are due to compete again in Russia next month at the Moscow World Championships. 

2013 Summer Universiade Summary of Japanese Medalists in Athletics
Kazan, Russia, July 7-12, 2013
click here for complete results

Overall Medal Count:   gold: 3   silver: 4   bronze: 5
Men:   gold: 0   silver: 4   bronze: 2
Women:   gold: 3   silver: 0   bronze: 3

Women's Half Marathon - Individual - July 12
1. Mai Tsuda (Japan) - 1:13:12
2. Alina Prokopyeva (Russia) - 1:13:18
3. Yukiko Okuno (Japan) - 1:13:24
4. Lyudmila Lebedeva (Russia) - 1:13:33
5. Elena Sedova (Russia) - 1:13:58
6. Hitomi Suzuki (Japan) - 1:14:05
7. Ayako Mitsui (Japan) - 1:14:10
8. Natalia Novichkova (Russia) - 1:14:31
9. Yasuka Ueno (Japan) - 1:14:50
10. Olga Skrypak (Ukraine) - 1:15:25

Women's Half Marathon - Team
1. Japan - 3:40:41
2. Russia - 3:40:49
3. China - 3:57:30

Men's Half Marathon - Individual - July 12
1. Sibabalwe Gladwin Mzazi (South Africa) - 1:03:37
2. Stephen Mokoka (South Africa) - 1:03:37
3. Shogo Nakamura (Japan) - 1:04:21
4. Hiroki Yamagishi (Japan) - 1:04:41
5. Shota Hattori (Japan) - 1:05:00
6. Andrey Leyman (Russia) - 1:05:08
7. Xolisane Zamkele (South Africa) - 1:05:38
8. Toshikatsu Ebina (Japan) - 1:05:39
9. Anatoly Rybakov (Russia) - 1:05:41
10. Artem Aplachkin (Russia) - 1:05:49
-----
20. Yuta Shitara (Japan) - 1:08:25

Men's Half Marathon - Team
1. South Africa - 3:12:52
2. Japan - 3:14:02
3. Russia - 3:16:38

Women's 10000 m - July 7
1. Ayuko Suzuki (Japan) - 32:54.17
2. Alina Prokopyeva (Russia) - 33:00.93
3. Mai Tsuda (Japan) - 33:14.59
4. Mai Shoji (Japan) - 33:22.83
5. Natalia Puchkova (Russia) - 33:27.52

Women's 5000 m - July 11
1. Roxana Elisabeta Birca (Romania) - 15:39.76
2. Olga Golovkina (Russia) - 15:43.77
3. Ayuko Suzuki (Japan) - 15:51.47
4. Mai Shoji (Japan) - 16:11.90
5. Dudu Karakaya (Turkey) - 16:12.77

Men's 200 m - Final - July 10
1. Anaso Jobodwana (South Africa) - 20.00
2. Rasheed Dwyer (Jamaica) - 20.23
3. Shota Iizuka (Japan) - 20.33

Men's 100 m - Final - July 8 - +0.5 m/s
1. Anaso Jobodwana (South Africa) - 10.10 - PB
2. Ryota Yamagata (Japan) - 10.21
3. Hua Wilfried Serge Koffi (Cote d'Ivoire) - 10.21 - PB

Men's 4x100 m Relay - Final - July 12
1. Ukraine - 38.56
2. Japan - 39.12
3. Poland - 39.29

Men's Pole Vault - July 11
1. Gavin Kendricks (U.S.A.) - 5.60 m
2. Seito Yamamoto (Japan) - 5.60 m
3. Nikita Filippov (Kazakhstan) - 5.50 m

(c) 2013 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

CR Holder Teruki Shimada Returns to Launceston Half - Preview and Streaming

Last year's McGrath Launceston Running Festival Peppers Silo Half Marathon in Tasmania, Australia shaped out into a great Australia vs. Japan dual meet , with Jessica Stenson outrunning Yumi Yoshikawa to take the women's title in a 1:09:51 CR, and Teikyo University school record holder Teruki Shimada executing a tactically brilliant race to drop Isaac Heyne , then-NR holder Brett Robinson , and Teikyo teammate Jinya Ozaki for the win in 1:01:12, just a second off the Australian all-comers record. Marathon NR holder Andy Buchanan took that record down to 1:01:08 at the Gold Coast Half a month later, but its chances of surviving this weekend aren't looking good. Shimada leads last year's top 4 back to Launceston this year, and there's a lot of tough new competition. 2025 National Corporate Half winner Tsubasa Ichiyama , Australia's Haftu Strintzos , new Teikyo record holder Yuta Asakawa and American Ethan Shuley have all run faster that Buchanan's rec...
Post a Comment
Read more

Murayama and Sasaki Making U.S. Debut at New York Mini 10 km

Every year since 2012 that there's been a United Airlines NYC Half , JRN has partnered with the NYRR and November's Ageo City Half Marathon to bring two top-tier collegiate Japanese men to the NYC Half for what's usually been their international debuts. For years we've wanted to extend that program to include top collegiate women, but that has always faced 2 problems. For one, while the half marathon distance is the main focus for Japanese collegiate men due to the stage lengths at the Hakone Ekiden, few collegiate women run it. Those that do run the National University Women's Half Marathon in Matsue, held the same day as the NYC Half. This year, though, we're finally making it happen in a slightly different way. Amisa Murayama and Nazuki Sasaki of 2025 Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden national collegiate championship runner-up Tohoku Fukushi University are joining the field for the NYRR's Mastercard New York Mini 10 km on June 6. After running an 18:14 CR ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Some Reflections on the Ekiden

by Brett Larner This ekiden season I've had a few thoughts kicking around, and watching this week's Hakone Ekiden a few of them became clearer.  These are still in progress, but at the moment this is what I'm thinking in terms of running as a spectator sport and about the quality of Japanese men's distance running right now. Quality: Japanese men's running is coming up very, very quickly.  I was in the lead car at November's Ageo City Half Marathon , where 18 men, 17 of them university runners, broke 63 minutes.  As it was going on we all thought it was a slow race because there were so many people running that pace all the way, no separation at all in the mass of the pack. See the JRN header photo above, taken just past halfway.  That's pretty unusual in Japan, especially at the university level; generally you'll get a handful of guys who run an aggressive pace and a mass running dead on a safe pace, 3:00/km in a half marathon, for example. Th...
18 comments
Read more