Skip to main content

Moscow World Championships - Day Two Japanese Results

by Brett Larner

National champion Hitomi Niiya (Team Universal Entertainment) ran exactly the race prefigured by her win at June's National Championships and in last year's London Olympics, going out right behind early rabbit Shalane Flanagan (U.S.A.) in the Moscow World Championships 10000 m, taking the lead after 3000 m and setting the pace all the way to the last lap before finishing 5th in a PB 30:56.70.  In a tearful post-race interview she said, "There's no reason to be at Worlds if you can't medal," but her fearlessness in setting her own pace and her improvement of her standing as all-time third-fastest Japanese for the second time at a major international championships did credit to both her and her coach Yoshio Koide.  Kyushu-based Sally Chepyego (Kenya/Team Kyudenko) also turned in a PB performance, taking 7th in 31:22.11.

In other events, 400 m national champion Yuzo Kanemaru (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) finished last in his qualifying heat but still slipped through to the semi-finals on time in 46.18.  Race walker Takumi Saito  (Toyo University) took 6th in the men's 20 km in 1:22:09, with his teammate Yusuke Suzuki (Team Fujitsu) not far back in 12th in 1:23:20. Decathlon national champion Keisuke Ushiro (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) improved on his standing from the first day of competition, ending up in 22nd overall.

Moscow World Championships - Day Two
Moscow, 8/11/13
click here for complete results

Women's 10000 m
1. Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia) - 30:43.35
2. Gladys Cherono (Kenya) - 30:45.17
3. Belaynesh Oljira (Ethiopia) - 30:46.98
4. Emily Chebet (Kenya) - 30:47.02 - PB
5. Hitomi Niiya (Japan) - 30:56.70 - PB
6. Shitaye Eshete (Bahrain) - 31:13.79
7. Sally Chepyego (Kenya) - 31:22.11 - PB
8. Shalane Flanagan (U.S.A.) - 31:34.83
9. Ababel Yeshaneh (Ethiopia) - 32:02.09
10. Christele Daunay (France) - 32:04.44

1. Luguelin Santos (Dominican Republic) - 45.23 - Q
2. Kevin Borlee (Belgium) - 45.32 - Q
3. Chris Brown (Bahamas) - 45.39 - Q
4. Nigel Levine (Great Britain) - 45.41 - Q
5. Omar Johnson (Jamaica) - 45.97 - q
6. Yuzo Kanemaru (Japan) - 46.18 - q
DNF - Daniel Aleman (Nicaragua)

Men's 20 km Race Walk
1. Aleksandr Ivanov (Russia) - 1:20:58 - PB
2. Ding Chen (China) - 1:21:09
3. Miguel Angel Lopez (Spain) - 1:21:21
4. Joao Vieira (Portugal) - 1:22:05
5. Denis Strelkov (Russia) - 1:22:06
6. Takumi Saito (Japan) - 1:22:09
7. Ruslan Dmytrenko (Ukraine) - 1:22:14
8. Inaki Gomez (Canada) - 1:22:21
9. Christopher Linke (Germany) - 1:22:36
10. Hyunsub Kim (South Korea) - 1:22:50
-----
12. Yusuke Suzuki (Japan) - 1:23:20

Men's Decathlon
1. Ashton Eaton (U.S.A.) - 8809
2. Michael Schrader (Germany) - 8670 - PB
3. Damian Warner (Canada) - 8512 - PB
4. Kevin Mayer (France) - 8446 - PB
5. Eelco Sintnicolaas (Netherlands) - 8391
6. Carlos Chinin (Brazil) - 8388
7. Rico Freimuth (Germany) - 8382 - PB
8. Ilya Shkurenev (Russia) - 8370 - PB
9. Willem Coertzen (South Africa) - 8343 - AR
10. Leonel Suarez (Cuba) - 8317
-----
22. Keisuke Ushiro (Japan) - 7751

(c) 2013 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

TokyoRacer said…
I think Niiya won a lot of fans for Japanese running. Especially since everyone in the world, including herself I suppose, knew that those four were going to blast past her on the last lap.
Brett Larner said…
Agreed.

She also did the same thing in the Olympics last year, which nobody seems to remember, but lasted longer up front, was faster and placed higher this time. Maybe in two years she'll have progressed far enough.

It was interesting too that she ran it exactly like she did at Nationals, just with a faster first 3000 m.

Most-Read This Week

Chesang and Kipkoech Win Hot Gifu Half

Hot conditions held back fast times at the Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon Sunday, where Ugandan Stella Chesang and Kenya Hillary Kipkoech took the top spots over last year's winners Dolphine Nyaboke Omare and Amos Kurgat . In the women's race Chesang, Omare and Kenyan-born Bahraini Eunice Chebichii Chumba went out as a trio, Japan-based Hellen Ekarare with them initially but eventually dropping out. After a 15:39 opening 5 km Chumba started to slip off, and by 15 km Chesang was on her own. Chesang won in 1:07:59, solid given the conditions, with Omare 2nd in 1:08:31 and Chumba 3rd in 1:09:10. Rinka Hida was the first Japanese woman, 5th overall in 1:12:06 behind Australian Genevieve Gregson . A lead men's pack of 11 went through 5 km in 14:31, but by 10 km it was down to Kipkoech, Kurgat, , Timothy Kiplagat , Ugandan Stephen Kissa and Japan-based Kenyans Patrick Mathenge Wambui and Anthony Maina . At 15 km in 43:40 only Kurgat and Kipkoech were left, and over the last 5

10000 m National Championships Preview

  Less than five months since the 2023 10000 m National Championships went down at the 2021 Olympic stadium in Tokyo, the 2024 edition happens Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium, with NHK broadcasting it live starting at 19:25 local time. Doubling up on Nationals like this lets Japanese athletes double dip on placing points to try to get into the Paris Olympics on rankings. But between the number of people who've hit the 30:40.00 women's standard and 27:00.00 men's standard and the lopsided eight spots given away to top placers at World XC, there are only four women's spots and three men's available via rankings. Of those, three of the four women's spots and two of the three men's spots are currently occupied by top placers at December's 2023 Nationals, Ririka Hironaka , Haruka Kokai and Rino Goshima for women and Ren Tazawa and Tomoki Ota for men. The 2023 Nationals did get close to the standards, with Hironaka leading the top four women under

Drury and Mashiko Lead Four Japanese Golds - U20 Asian Championships Day 4

The closing day of the Dubai U20 Asian Athletics Championships saw Japan go out big, with four gold medals led by dominant runs by Sherry Drury (Tsuyama H.S.) and Yota Mashiko (Gakuho Ishikawa H.S.). Making her international debut, the 16-year-old Drury led start to finish in the women's 1500 m final, grinding down the rest of the field and putting over 4 seconds on runner-up Sandilea Vinod of India over the last 300 m to win in 4:21.41. Drury's splits: 1:11-2:24-(3:19)-3:35-4:21. There's still a long way for Drury to go, but in terms of form and confidence this was the best she has looked since her legendary breakthrough CR at last year's National Women's Ekiden, and you could see more than a glimmer of what everyone is hoping is really there. Mashiko was even more dominant in the men's 3000 m. Coming out on the front end of some pushing and shoving in the first 50 m, Mashiko led the entire way. By 300 m he had a measurable gap that never got smaller, and af