Skip to main content

Osako and Yoroizaka Break 5000 m National Record at KBC Nacht

by Brett Larner

Eight years after it was set at on the same track, Suguru Osako (Oregon Project) and Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Team Asahi Kasei) made history at the KBC Nacht in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium, both breaking Takayuki Matsumiya's 13:13.20 Japanese men's 5000 m national record.  For Osako it was do or die, his last chance to clear the Beijing World Championships qualifying standard of 13:23.00 after his official debut season with the Oregon Project was repeatedly hit by setbacks, not least of all the series of doping allegations against his coach Alberto Salazar.  Osako came through in a big way, running 13:08.40 for 6th, easily breaking both the NR and the Beijing standard.  10000 m national champion Yoroizaka, already on the Beijing team in the 10000 m, unexpectedly hung on to the pace and likewise cleared the record and standard in 13:12.63.

After countless all-time top performances over 5000 m, 10000 m, half marathon and marathon have sent things bubbling in the right direction in the last few years, it was the first new Japanese men's national record at one of the major distances since Matsumiya set foot in Heusden.  With the gates now open more are bound to come.  At the very least Heusden remains a magical track for Japanese men, with 7 of the 10 fastest Japanese 5000 m times now having been run there.

Kota Murayama (Team Asahi Kasei), who outkicked Osako to win last month's National Championships 5000 m after running 13:19.62 in May, had an off day, running just 13:58.56 for 19th.  Another raft of Japanese corporate runners ran in the B-heat, Yoroizaka and Murayama's teammate Shuho Dairokuno (Team Asahi Kasei) leading the way with a PB 13:28.61 for 2nd.  In the women's 5000 m, 10000 m national champion Kasumi Nishihara (Team Yamada Denki) likewise turned in a PB performance but came up painfully shy of clearing the 15:20.00 Beijing standard, running 15:20.20 for 6th.  Teammates Yuika Mori and Shiho Takechi were 10th and 14th in 15:34.13 and 15:37.41.

KBC Nacht
Heusden-Zolder, Belgium, 7/18/15
click here for complete results

Men's 5000 m
1. Dejen Gebremeskel (Ethiopia) - 13:05.38
2. Bashir Abdi (Belgium) - 13:06.10
3. Ben True (U.S.A.) - 13:06.15
4. Albert Rop (Kenya) - 13:06.74
5. Eric Jenkins (U.S.A.) - 13:07.33
6. Suguru Osako (Japan/Nike Oregon Project) - 13:08.40 - NR
7. Thomas Farrell (Great Britain) - 13:10.48
8. Philip Kipyego (Kenya) - 13:10.69
9. Bernard Kimani (Kenya) - 13:10.83
10. Richard Ringer (Germany) - 13:10.94
11. Sindre Buraas (Norway) - 13:11.96
12. Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Japan/Asahi Kasei) - 13:12.63 (NR)
-----
19. Kota Murayama (Japan/Asahi Kasei) - 13:58.56
20. Naohiro Domoto (Japan/JR Higashi Nihon) - 14:17.23

Women's 5000 m
1. Mimi Belete (Ethiopia) - 14:54.71
2. Goytom Gebrselase (Ethiopia) - 14:57.33
3. Abbey D'Agostino (U.S.A.) - 15:03.85
4. Stephanie Twell (Great Britain) - 15:14.39
5. Jennifer Wenth (Austria) - 15:16.12
6. Kasumi Nishihara (Japan/Yamada Denki) - 15:20.20
7. Laura Whittle (Great Britain) - 15:22.00
8. Louise Carton (Belgium) - 15:23.82
9. Lidia Rodriguez (Spain) - 15:24.25
10. Yuika Mori (Japan/Yamada Denki) - 15:34.13
-----
14. Shiho Takechi (Japan/Yamada Denki) - 15:37.41

Men's 5000 m B-Heat
1. Frederick KIpkosgei (Kenya) - 13:28.32
2. Shuho Dairokuno (Japan/Asahi Kasei) - 13:28.61
3. Ross Proudfoot (Canada) - 13:29.32
4. Brian Shrader (U.S.A.) - 13:30.09
5. Roy Hoornweg (Netherlands) - 13:31.41
-----
11. Yuta Shitara (Japan/Honda) - 13:37.76
14. Kaido Kita (Japan/Chugoku Denryoku) - 13:43.91
15. Hiroto Inoue (Japan/Mitsubishi HPS) - 13:45.92
16. Masato Kikuchi (Japan/Konica Minolta) - 13:48.07

(c) 2015 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Brett Larner said…
This is the first real Japanese men's NR at a major distance since we started doing JRN full-time. Raising a glass of bubbly in toast tonight.
Eryn said…
7 out of 10 best times for 5000 m on one track in Belgium ! Wow. This is amazing. I can't help thinking the track may be a bit short ;-)

Most-Read This Week

Goto Drops 2nd-Straight WR - National Championships Day Three Highlights

Just over a month since his 17th birthday, Taiju Goto proved his 48.31 U18 WR in the men's 400 mH heats yesterday wasn't a fluke as he bettered that in the final on the last day of the 110th National Track and Field Championships in Nagoya. Slow in the start, Goto picked up momentum coming up to 200 m before really getting into gear, pulling away from the rest of the field in the last 100 m to win in 48.09, another U18 WR, a new U20 NR, and a run that made him the first high schooler ever to with the Nationals 400 mH. Now only 0.20 off the senior NR, Goto joins the list of Rakunan H.S. talent to be re-writing the record books that includes Yoshihide Kiryu , Ryuji Miura , Keita Sato and Toshinari Takaoka . Another Nationals MR went down, this one in the women's 3000 mSC thanks to NR holder Miu Saito . Having taken 3rd in the 5000 m 2 days ago, Saito started out a little on the conservative side with company from last year's winner Manami Nishiyama in the first 1000 ...

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...

Nagoya Asian Games Team Announced

Following this past weekend's National Championships, the JAAF has announced the complete lineup of 41 women and 45 men for September's Nagoya Asian Games national team. Times listed are athletes' 2025-26 best. Women 100 m Midori Mikase (Sumitomo Denko) - 11.33 Abigail Fuka Ido (Toho Ginko) - 11.35 200 m Abigail Fuka Ido (Toho Ginko) - 22.79 Aiko Iki (Osaka Gas) - 23.41 400 m Nanako Matsumoto (Toho Ginko) - 52.14 800 m Rin Kubo (Sekisui Kagaku) - 1:59.52 Ayano Shiomi (Iwatani Sangyo) - 2:01.01 1500 m Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 4:04.16 Mizuki Michishita (Sekisui Kagaku) - 4:10.48 5000 m Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 14:34.10 Yuma Yamamoto (Sekisui Kagaku) - 14;59.89 10000 m Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 30:54.40 Ririka Hironaka (Uniqlo) - 30:56.32 100 mH Hitomi Nakajima (Hasegawa) - 12.71 Mako Fukube (NKK) - 12.72 400 mH Honoka Aoki (Zenrin) - 55.92 Satsuki Umehara (Sumitomo Denko) - 56.22 3000 mSC Miu Saito (Panasonic) - 9:24.72 Manami Nishiyama (Mitsui...