Skip to main content

Nineteen Collegiates Go Sub-29 at Kanto Region University 10000 m Time Trials

by Brett Larner
video courtesy of Ekiden News



Just a week after record-setting depth at the Ageo City Half Marathon, where seventeen men from Kanto-region universities broke 1:03, most for the first time, more records fell at the Kanto Region University 10000 m Time Trials meet at Tokyo's National Stadium, site of the future 2020 Olympic Stadium.  Like Ageo, the Kanto meet serves to build toward final team selection for the biggest event in Japanese sports, the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden. Spurred on by the drive to make their schools' Hakone teams and by scholarships on offer to any university man who ran a sub-29 PB at the meet, last year fifteen collegiate men broke 29 in the A-heat.  This year the number was up to a stunning eighteen, led by Takuya Fujikawa of 2012 Izumo Ekiden winner Aoyama Gakuin University in 28:35.72.

Fujikawa and Kenyan Duncan Muthee (Takushoku Univ.) who ran in the lead group most of the way in Ageo last weekend, ran together at an ambitious pace up front while a large pack stayed on a steady 28:40 pace.  In the final 1000 m the pack moved to try to catch Fujikawa and Muthee, Kazuma Tashiro (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) nearly closing the gap to Muthee but Fujikawa getting away on a strong last kick.  Fujikawa's time of 28:35.72 was a PB by over 45 seconds and led four Aoyama Gakuin men under 29, all in PBs.  A nineteenth man joined the sub-29 ranks in Heat 14, where Shintaro Miwa (Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) unexpectedly ran 28:59.67 for the win, his first time under 29.

Again this year Kanto organizers added a university women's 10000 m to the timetable. Largely a dual race between 2013 National University Women's Ekiden Championships 2nd and 3rd placers Daito Bunka University and Matsuyama University, Daito Bunka athletes swept the top three spots led by Yuko Iwata in 33:14.88.  The top runner from a school other than the above two was Kana Kurosawa of Ibaraki University, 7th in 33:35.75.

All told the meet was another sign of the rapid rate of growth both depth and quality in Kanto Region university men's athletics that is transforming Japanese men's distance running.  With this generation of university athletes set to reach their peak at the time of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics the next seven years should be very interesting to say the least.

2013 Kanto Region University 10000 m Time Trials
National Stadium, Tokyo, 11/23/13
click here for complete results

Men's 10000 m Heat 16
1. Takuya Fujikawa (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 28:35.72 - PB
2. Duncan Muthee (Kenya/Takushoku Univ.) - 28:37.53
3. Kazuma Tashiro (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 28:38.81 - PB
4. Taketo Kumazaki (Teikyo Univ.) - 28:40.20 - PB
5. Daichi Kamino (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 28:41.48 - PB
6. Kenshi Sawano (Senshu Univ.) - 28:41.85 - PB
7. Ikki Takeuchi (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 28:42.71 - PB
8. Ryu Takaku (Toyo Univ.) - 28:42.78 - PB
9. Kengo Namioka (Kokushikan Univ.) - 28:43.44 - PB
10. Yuki Matsumura (Juntendo Univ.) - 28:44.29 - PB
11. Kazuki Uemura (Toyo Univ.) - 28:44.81 - PB
12. Tsukasa Koyama (Teikyo Univ.) - 28:45.24 - PB
13. Takaya Sato (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 28:46.02 - PB
14. Mizuho Tanaka (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 28:48.24 - PB
15. Shunsuke Ishida (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 28:48.62 - PB
16. Taiki Yoshimura (Ryutsu Keizai Univ.) - 28:50.23 - PB
17. Takahiro Yagihara (Teikyo Univ.) - 28:50.33 - PB
18. Takafumi Kikuchi (Kokushikan Univ.) - 28:54.17 - PB
19. Kenta Muto (Kokushikan Univ.) - 29:00.67 - PB
20. Shuji Matsuo (Senshu Univ.) - 29:01.99 - PB

Men's 10000 m Heat 14
1. Shintaro Miwa (Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) - 28:59.67 - PB
2. Daiji Kawai (Reitaku Univ.) - 29:17.68
3. Kenta Nakayama (Senshu Univ.) - 29:19.44 - PB
4. Yusuke Nakayama (Kokushikan Univ.) - 29:20.01 - PB
5. Keita Nagura (Toyo Univ.) - 29:20.64 - PB

 Women's 10000 m
1. Yuko Iwata (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 33:14.88
2. Fueka Kimura (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 33:16.45
3. Eri Tayama (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 33:16.76
4. Anna Matsuda (Matsuyama Univ.) - 33:20.38
5. Natsumi Fujiwara (Matsuyama Univ.) - 33:25.57
6. Mari Tayama (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 33:33.85
7. Kana Kurosawa (Ibaraki Univ.) - 33:35.75
8. Hiromi Hikida (Nittai Univ.) - 33:39.55
9. Marie Yamakami (Matsuyama Univ.) - 33:44.06
10. Eri Utsunomiya (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 33:57.97

(c) 2013 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Heisei Mountaineering Stops Takigahara SDF Base From Scoring 10-Year Streak at Mount Fuji Ekiden

by Koichi Iwasa of DogsorCaravan On Aug. 2 the 51st Mount Fuji Ekiden took place, starting and finishing in Gotemba, Shizuoka and covering 11 stages up to the peak of Mount Fuji and back down. Teams of 6 runners tackle the tough course, each running handling one uphill and one downhill leg with the 6th runner reaching the peak before turning around to head back to the exchange zone where they started. The Heisei Mountaineering Club team took the overall win in 3:50:39, beating 9-time winner Takigahara SDF Base by 2:07 and stopping them from achieving a 10-year victory streak. The independent team division and SDF team division were separated in 2005, and this was the first time that the winning independent team outran the fastest SDF team to take the overall title. The roster that Heisei Mountaineering put together for this year's race raised eyebrows among everyone familiar with the Japanese trail running scene. Handling the 5th and 7th legs was Ruy Ueda , winner of the Fuji M...
Post a Comment
Read more

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...
54 comments
Read more

Komazawa University One Step Away From Perfect Season With Hakone Ekiden Day One Win

Already the course record-breaker at the Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden this season, 2021 Hakone Ekiden champion Komazawa University came one step away from its first-ever triple crown of single-season ekiden wins as it won a highly competitive 2023 Hakone Ekiden Day One over defending champ Aoyama Gakuin University and last year's 6th placer Chuo University . Things got off to an unexpected start when Select Team runner Hayate Nitta of non-qualifier Ikuei University decided to take his one and only Hakone shot and run it up to his ability on the 21.3 km 1st leg even though the rest of the field opted to jog. At one point Nitta had a lead of almost a minute and a half, but as beautiful as it would have been for him to pull it off, Meiji University 's Shunpei Tomita and Komazawa's Kensuke Tsubura still managed to run him down in the final kilometer. Tomita took the stage win in 1:02:44, 1:02:08 half marathon pace vs. his 1:02:10 PB despite the slow s...
4 comments
Read more