Sato Runs All-Time Japanese #3 5000 m in Heusden

by Brett Larner

A large Japanese men's contingent returned this year to Heusden, the site of Takayuki Matsumiya's 13:13.20 national record for 5000 m, for the July 13 KBC Nacht meet. Moscow World Championships 10000 m team members and Saku Chosei H.S. graduates Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) and Suguru Osako (Waseda Univ.) ran the 5000 m A-heat in pursuit of A or B-standard times that would allow them the option of doubling in Moscow. Sato, already all-time Japanese #2 over 3000 m and #3 over 10000 m, surprised by chopping ten seconds off his best to finish 8th just off the national record in 13:13.60 for another all-time Japanese #3 ranking. Osako, who recently turned 22, came up short of the B-standard but went under 13:30 for the first time, finishing 17th in a new PB of 13:27.54. Having cleared the World Championships A-standard, Sato is now the only Japanese man with the 5000 m A or B and could line up in both the 5 and 10, something that would have been hard to imagine just six months ago when he ran a halfhearted 2:16:31 marathon debut in Tokyo.

2012 national champion Komazawa University-related athletes featured heavily in the 5000 m B-heat. 2013 graduate Hiromitsu Kakuage (Team Konica Minolta) ran a PB of 13:32.22 for 4th with fellow alum Takuya Fukatsu (Team Asahi Kasei) 9th in 13:42.54. Current Komazawa ace Shinobu Kubota scored a new PB of 13:45.50 in his first solid performance since a failed marathon debut at Lake Biwa in March, while 2013 5000 m national champion Sota Hoshi (Team Fujitsu) was far off peak form in 14:28.99. Among non-Komazawa men in the field, former Toyo University star Tomoya Onishi (Team Asahi Kasei) was just short of his best in 13:43.73, while Minato Oishi (Team Toyota) was just behind him in a new best of 13:45.10 and the three other Japanese athletes in the B-heat all cleared 14 minutes. After the midsummer track tour Oishi will be back in Europe for the Aug. 31 Lille Half Marathon in France.

2013 KBC Nacht
Heusden-Zolder, Belgium, 7/13/13
click here for complete results

Men's 5000 m A-Heat
1. Albert Rop (Bahrain) - 12:59.43 - PB
2. Ben St. Lawrence (Australia) - 13:10.83
3. Ben True (U.S.A.) - 13:11.59 - PB
4. Hassan Mead (U.S.A.) - 13:11.80 - PB
5. Andrew Bumbalough (U.S.A.) - 13:12.01 - PB
6. Arne Gabius (Germany) - 13:12.50 - PB
7. Dame Tasama (Ethiopia) - 13:12.64 - PB
8. Yuki Sato (Japan/Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 13:13.60 - PB
9. Zane Robertson (New Zealand) - 13:13.83 - PB
10. Ryan Hill (U.S.A.) - 13:14.22 - PB
-----
17. Suguru Osako (Japan/Waseda Univ.) - 13:27.54 - PB

Men's 5000 m B-Heat
1. Meshack Letim (Kenya) - 13:27.33 - PB
2. Elliott Heath (U.S.A.) - 13:27.60
3. Maverick Darling (U.S.A.) - 13:27.93 - PB
4. Hiromitsu Kakuage (Japan/Team Konica Minolta) - 13:32.22 - PB
5. Joe Stilin (U.S.A.) - 13:34.19
6. Philipp Pflieger (Germany) - 13:34.54
7. Brenton Rower (Austria) - 13:38.18
8. Morten Munkholm (Denmark) - 13:41.81 - PB
9. Takuya Fukatsu (Japan/Team Asahi Kasei) - 13:42.54
10. Ababa Lama (Ethiopia) - 13:43.25
-----
12. Tomoya Onishi (Japan/Team Asahi Kasei) - 13:43.73
14. Minato Oishi (Japan/Team Toyota) - 13:45.10 - PB
15. Shinobu Kubota (Japan/Komazawa Univ.) - 13:45.50 - PB
16. Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Japan/Team Asahi Kasei) - 13:50.27
17. Ryo Kiname (Japan/Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) - 13:50.72
18. Yohei Nishiyama (Japan/Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 13:55.18
20. Sota Hoshi (Japan/Team Fujitsu) - 14:28.99

(c) 2013 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Tokyo Marathon Preview (updated)

It’s Tokyo Marathon weekend, and the main question right now is about the weather. Monday’s Osaka Marathon had freezing cold temperatures and snow over the last quarter of the race, which still had record-breaking performances. Right now Tokyo looks to be in the mid-teens most of the race and could hit 20˚ by the end. Cloud cover will be critical, and what’s in the forecast right now looks like it will burn off by the last hour of the race. It could get a bit rough out there. Nippon TV, the world’s premiere road race broadcaster, is doing the live TV broadcast from 9:00 to 11:50 a.m. local time, with an international TV feed hosted by JRN’s Brett Larner to be shown in 159 countries worldwide. The leaderboard with live splits and results will be here , with Japanese-language tracking here . Both the women’s and men’s races have great fields lined up. On the women’s side is last year’s winner and CR-breaker Sutume Asefa Kebede , facing 2024 Dubai and Berlin winner Tigist Ketema , 2023...

Putting It All On the Line - Tokyo Marathon 2025

If there was one consistent theme through all 4 races at the Tokyo Marathon this year it was risk. With temperatures nearing 20˚ and sunny conditions in the forecast pacing plans audaciously called for 2:01 for the lead men and 2:12 for the lead women, with the next 3 groups on both sides all slated for very ambitious times. The men's wheelchair race kicked things off, 2024 Tokyo winner and NR holder Tomoki Suzuki going after his own NR completely solo and coming up with a 1:19:14 CR that saw him beat 2nd place by over 11 minutes. The women's race was a CR-pace showdown between Paris Paralympics gold and bronze medalists Catherine Debrunner of Switzerland and Susannah Scaroni of the U.S.A. that saw them locked together until 40 km. Debrunner had that something else that makes her the world record holder, throwing down to open 32 seconds on Scaroni over the last 2 km, both breaking the CR but Debrunner getting the win in a stellar 1:35:56. The women's marathon was a comp...

Tokyo Marathon Elite Field (updated)

The Tokyo Marathon elite field is out, and it's a pretty good one. On the women's side are the last 3 winners, Sutume Asefa Kebede , Rosemary Wanjiru and Brigid Kosgei , 2022 world champion Gotytom Gebreslase , last year's Dubai winner Tigist Ketema and another 6 women in the 2:17-2:19 range. Top Japanese draw Ai Hosoda hopes to get into the sub-2:20 club after a 2:20:31 PB in Berlin last fall. The men's field has 2024 CR breaker Benson Kipruto and 3rd-placer Vincent Ngetich , 2:02:38 man Derese Geleta , Joshua Cheptegei taking another stab at the distance, and another 8 at the 2:03-2:04 level. 2:05-class Japanese men Yohei Ikeda , Ichitaka Yamashita and Kenya Sonota and Paris Olympics 6th-placer Akira Akasaki will be gunning for the 2:04:56 NR, and there are interesting debuts from 10-mile world best holder Benard Koech and Hakone Ekiden star Aoi Ota from 2024-2025 champ Aoyama Gakuin University . The wheelchair race includes WR holder Catherine Debrunner , ...

japan running news

Search This Blog