Skip to main content

16-Year-Old Hyuga Endo Runs 13:58.93 Tenth-Grade Record at Nittai Time Trials (updated)



by Brett Larner
photo by Kazuyuki Sugimatsu 
video by kozai1802

It was an amazing weekend of racing that saw world records fall at the Kumamoto Kosa 10-miler, Patrick Makau return and Japan get its 9th and 10th sub-2:10 men of the year in Fukuoka and Yuki Kawauchi take almost ten minutes off the Naha Marathon course record, but it didn't stop there.

In the 41st and final 5000 m heat of the day well after dark at the last full Nittai University Time Trials meet of 2014, 16-year-old Hyuga Endo (Gakko Hojin Ishikawa H.S.) took 36 seconds off his PB to finish 5th in 13:58.93, the first Japanese 10th grader to ever break 14 minutes.  Post-race he tweeted:
The Nittai University Time Trials were today!  My time was 13:58!  I'm really happy to have run the #1 time ever by a 10th grader.  Thanks to everyone who cheered for me I kept my pace all the way to the end without slowing down!  Thank you all very, very much for cheering!
And he wasn't alone.  12th grader Ryuya Kajitani (Hakuo Prep Ashikaga H.S.) was 3rd in 13:57.81 and 11th grader Rei Hasegawa (Toyokawa H.S.) 6th in 13:59.03, a solid showing in the buildup to the National High School Ekiden Championships in two weeks.  With the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, when Endo will be a senior in university, on their horizons, Japan's young distance runners keep raising the bar for each other.

Nittai University Time Trials Men's 5000 m Heat 41
Yokohama, Kanagawa, 12/7/14
click here for complete results

1. Tatsuro Okazaki (Team Osaka Gas) - 13:53.88
2. Samuel Mwangi (Kenya/Team Konica Minolta) - 13:55.64
3. Ryuya Kajitani (Hakuo Prep Ashikaga H.S.) - 13:57.81
4. Ataru Otani (Nanyo City Hall) - 13:58.21
5. Hyuga Endo (Gakko Hojin Ishikawa H.S.) - 13:58.93
6. Rei Hasegawa (Toyokawa H.S.) - 13:59.03
7. Yuki Iwasaki (Team Sekino Reform) - 13:59.05
8. Shun Suzuki (Nanyo City Hall) - 13:59.65
9. Yasunari Kusu (Team Komori Corp.) - 14:00.60
10. Yoshihiro Wakamatsu (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 14:01.03

text (c) 2014 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
finish photo (c) 2014 Kazuyuki Sugimatsu, all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Saku Chosei H.S. Makes It 2 In a Row - National High School Ekiden Boys' Race

While the girls' race was a blowout by 2022 champ Nagano Higashi H.S. , the boys' race at Sunday's National High School Ekiden was a tense battle of turnover that saw all of the final top four teams take a stab at leading. 2023 3rd-placer Yachiyo Shoin H.S. handled the first 2 of the 7 stages in the 42.195 km race, with lead runner Rui Suzuki delivering a bold run on the 10.0 km First Stage that produced the fastest-ever time by a Japanese runner on the stage, 28:43, and put Yachiyo Shoin 29 seconds out front. Last year's Fifth Stage CR breaker Tetsu Suzuki ran Yachiyo Shoin down to put 2023 champ Saku Chosei H.S. into 1st on the 8.1075 km Third Stage, but Genta Sugano of last year's 8th-placer Sendai Ikuei H.S. had other plans and took the lead on the 8.0875 km Fourth Stage. Smiling and fist pumping to the crowd almost the entire way, Taketo Tsukada of last year's 6th-placer Omuta H.S. moved up from 3rd to 1st by 2 seconds over Saku Chosei on the 3.0 k...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nagano Higashi Girls Lead Start to Finish to Win National High School Ekiden

2022 National High School Ekiden girls' champion Nagano Higashi H.S. was back in force after a 5th-place finish last year, leading start to finish to win this year's national title Sunday in Kyoto. Lead runner Airi Mashiba kicked it off with a 19:30 stage win on the 6.0 km opening leg, something that head coach Fumio Yokouchi said later that he hadn't been expecting. That ended up being Nagano Higashi's only individual stage win in the 5-leg, 21.0975 km race, but the rest of its team ran well enough to hold a lead that was never less than 11 seconds but never more than 21. Last year's 4th-placer Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. spent most of the race in 2nd, but over the second half of the race Sendai Ikuei H.S. , 2nd last year by just 1 second, came from further back to run Kunei down on the anchor stage thanks in big part to a critical stage win on the 4th leg by Tsubomi Tezuka that put anchor Aoi Hosokawa in position to catch Kunei's Mizuki Oda . Nagano Higashi ...
1 comment
Read more

Japan Post Holds Off Sekisui Kagaku to Win Queens Ekiden National Title

  Japan Post  was back on top at the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championships Sunday in Sendai, holding off last year's winner Sekisui Kagaku  over the second half of a race that came as close as 1 second to take 1st with a final margin of victory of 27 seconds. Sekisui Kagaku was out fast with a win on the 7.0 km opening leg by Erika Tanoura  and a new CR for the 12:56 second leg by Yuma Yamamoto , 17 seconds better than her own CR from last year. Last year's 4th-placer Shiseido  briefly led on the 10.6 km third leg with an excellent 33:17 stage win from Rino Goshima , but behind her Japan Post's Ririka Hironaka  returned from her latest injury problems to pass Sekisui Kagaku's Sayaka Sato  and hand off 6 seconds ahead. New recruit Caroline Kariba  ran Shiseido down on the 3.6 km fourth leg and put Japan Post 22 seconds ahead of Sekisui Kagaku, but a duel of marathoners between JP's  Ayuko Suzuki  and Sekisui's Hitomi Niiy...
1 comment
Read more