Weekend Track and Road Roundup

by Brett Larner
video by akuy125

Domestic Japanese action this weekend focused on the annual National Sports Festival and on three competitive half marathons. Women's 5000 m Japanese year leader Misaki Onishi (Team Sekisui Kagaku) started the weekend off with a win in 15:43.03 in a close pack race at the National Sports Festival 5000 m. 2013 World University Games 10000 m gold medalist Ayuko Suzuki (Nagoya Univ.) was next across the line in 15:46.30, with 3rd through 9th all finishing within less than two seconds of her. Kenyan Charles Ndungu (Sapporo Yamanote H.S.) had an easier time in the junior men's 5000 m, winning by nearly 20 seconds in 13:56.27 over Suguru Hirosue (Kobayashi H.S.).

Course record holder Mekubo Mogusu (Kenya/Team Nissin Shokuhin) enjoyed an even greater level of domination in winning his third Ichinoseki International Half Marathon, improving on his time last year in clocking 1:02:11. Runner-up Yuta Koyama (Komazawa University) was more than four minutes back in 1:06:30. Another Kenyan, John Maina (Toho Refine) took the men's 10 km division in 29:55.

Koyama's teammate Shota Baba (Komazawa University) had more success at the Sapporo Half Marathon, the only runner under 65 as he won in 1:04:48 over independent Sho Matsumoto (Nikkei Business), 2nd in 1:05:04, and a field of corporate and collegiate rivals. A more impressive result came in the women's race, where 2011 World University Games half marathon bronze medalist Sayo Nomura (Team Daiichi Seimei) ran a strong 1:10:27, one second outside the Japanese top ten for the year), to win over teammate Sakiko Matsumi. Daiichi Seimei head coach Sachiko Yamashita has been putting a heavy emphasis on the half marathon this year as the 2011 National Corporate Women's Ekiden champion team seeks to return to the top this December after losing to rival Universal Entertainment in 2012.

Elsewhere, perpetual racing machine Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) ran a practice-level effort at the Hirosaki Shirahama Apple Half Marathon, winning in 1:04:42 with a margin of almost five minutes over runner-up Takahiro Yamauchi. "I felt good today," he told reporters post-race. "This was the kind of weather I like." Kawauchi next races the Oct. 13 Melbourne Marathon in a tune-up for the Nov. 3 ING New York City Marathon.

National Sports Festival
Ajinomoto Stadium, Chofu, Tokyo, 10/4~8/13
click here for complete results

Senior Women's 5000 m
1. Misaki Onishi (Team Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:43.03
2. Ayuko Suzuki (Nagoya Univ.) - 15:46.30
3. Yuka Ando (Mizuno) - 15:46.53
4. Shiho Takechi (Team Yamada Denki) - 15:47.02
5. Yuika Mori (Team Yamada Denki) - 15:47.21
6. Yuki Mitsunobu (Team Kyocera) - 15:47.79
7. Yukari Abe (Team Shimamura) - 15:47.87
8. Risa Takenaka (Team Shiseido) - 15:47.94
9. Keiko Nogami (Team Juhachi Ginko) - 15:48.04
10. Sairi Maeda (Bukkyo Univ.) - 15:51.24

Junior Men's 5000 m
1. Charles Ndungu (Kenya/Sapporo Yamanote H.S.) - 13:56.27
2. Suguru Hirosue (Kobayashi H.S.) - 14:15.06
3. Kazuto Kawabata (Ayabe H.S.) - 14:15.52

38th Sapporo Half Marathon
Sapporo, Hokkaido, 10/6/13
click here for complete results

Men
1. Shota Baba (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:04:48
2. Sho Matsumoto (Nikkei Business) - 1:05:04
3. Tomohiko Takenaka (Team NTT Nishi Nihon) - 1:05:17
4. Kazuhito Sato (Hosei Univ.) - 1:05:28
5. Koki Tanaka (Juntendo Univ.) - 1:05:52

Women
1. Sayo Nomura (Team Daiichi Seimei) - 1:10:27
2. Sakiko Matsumi (Team Daiichi Seimei) - 1:13:34
3. Misaki Sakamoto (Bukkyo Univ.) - 1:18:01

32nd Ichinoseki International Half Marathon
Ichinoseki, Iwate, 10/6/13
click here for complete results

Men
1. Mekubo Mogusu (Kenya/Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 1:02:11
2. Yuta Koyama (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:06:30
3. Toshiyuki Fujimatsu (Crest AC) - 1:06:51

Women
1. Yukie Tamura - 1:22:05
2. Mina Ogawa - 1:22:44
3. Yumi Sato - 1:23:41

Men's 10 km
1. John Maina (Kenya/Toho Refine) - 29:55
2. Tomoya Mori - 30:47
3. Shohei Ogata - 31:25

11th Hirosaki Shirahama Apple Half Marathon
Hirosaki, Aomori, 10/6/13
click here for complete results

Men
1. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) - 1:04:42
2. Takahiro Yamauchi - 1:09:24
3. Hiroki Komatsu - 1:12:24

Women
1. Eri Suzuki - 1:19:25
2. Futaba Aoki - 1:25:54
3. Kazuko Nakamura - 1:26:11

(c) 2013 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

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 ...

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...

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 ...

japan running news

Search This Blog