Skip to main content

Matsunaga and Nakatani Score Bronze - World University Games Day Two Japanese Results

by Brett Larner

 Daisuke Matsunaga (Toyo Univ.) became the first Japanese athletics medalist of the 2015 Gwangju World University Games on day two of competition, winning bronze in the men's 20 km in 1:22:06 after falling just over 30 seconds off a close race between eventual gold medalist Dane Bird-Smith (Australia) and Benjamin Thorne (Canada).

12 hours later, Keisuke Nakatani (Komazawa Univ.) repeated the feat in the final track final of the day, winning bronze in the men's 10000 m in 29:19.30 four seconds back from gold medalist Igor Maximov (Russia) and just losing out to Nicolae-Alexandru Soare (Romania) for silver.  After winning the 5000 m and 10000 m at May's Kanto Regional University Track and Field Championships and running a 28:31.84 best for 10000 m and winning the 3000 mSC national title in June, Hironori Tsuetaki (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) had a rare off day, finishing 9th in just 29:52.91.

Sprinter Anna Doi (Daito Bunka Univ.) made it to the women's 200 m semifinals before lining up for the 100 m final where she was 7th in 11.70.  Takamasa Kitagawa (Juntendo Univ.) made it though to the men's 400 m final, just, but teammate Kentaro Sato (Josai Univ.) was left behind in the semis.  Also making the finals in the women's 5000 m were Natsuki Omori (Ritsumeikan Univ.) and, doubling from the 10000 m a day earlier, Rina Koeda (Daito Bunka Univ.).  Kotaro Taniguchi (Chuo Univ.) and Takuya Nagata (Hosei Univ.) both qualified for the men's 200 m semifinals, Taniguchi winning his opening heat in 20.90 and Nagata taking his quarterfinal in 21.04.  In the men's 100 m Yuki Koike (Keio Univ.) was eliminated in the semifinals despite a 10.35 season best.

World University Games Day Two Japanese Results
Gwangju, South Korea, July 9, 2015
click here for complete results

Men's 10000 m Final
1. Igor Maximov (Russia) - 29:15.30
2. Nicolae-Alexandru Soare (Romania) - 29:18.71
3. Keisuke Nakatani (Japan) - 29:19.30
4. Vladimir Nikitin (Russia) - 29:20.20
5. Soufiane Bouchikhi (Belgium) - 29:24.21
-----
9. Hironori Tsuetaki (Japan) - 29:52.91
12. Kazuto Kawabata (Japan) - 30:06.42

Women's 5000 m Heat 1
1. Kristia Maki (Czech Republic) - 16:18.10 - Q
2. Daria Maslova (Kyrgyzstan) - 16:18.40 - Q
3. Jennifer Wenth (Austria) - 16:18.58 - Q
4. Natsuki Omori (Japan) - 16:18.99 - Q
5. Elif Karabulut (Turkey) - 16:21.94 - Q

Women's 5000 m Heat 2
1. Camille Buscomb (New Zealand) - 16:33.77 - Q
2. Rina Koeda (Japan) - 16:34.25 - Q
3. Sara Sutherland (U.S.A.) - 16:34.49 - Q
4. Rachel Cliff (Canada) - 16:36.87 - Q
5. Paulina Kaczynska (Poland) - 16:36.94 - Q

Men's 400 m Semifinal 1
1. Leaname Maotoanong (Botswana) - 45.77 - Q
2. Jan Tesar (Czech Republic) - 45.98 - Q
3. Takamasa Kitagawa (Japan) - 46.25 - q

Men's 400 m Semifinal 2
1. Luguelin Miguel Santos Aquino (Dominican Republic) - 46.01 - Q
2. Sakaria Kamberuka (Botswana) - 46.14 - Q
3. Kentaro Sato (Japan) - 46.36

Women's 200 m Heat 3 -0.8 m/s
1. Giulia Riva (Italy) - 23.99 - Q
2. Hanne Claes (Belgium) - 23.99 - Q
3. Omolara Grace Omotoso (Nigeria) - 24.45 - Q
4. Anna Doi (Japan) - 24.57 - q

Men's 200 m Heat 1 +1.6 m/s
1. Kotaro Taniguchi (Japan) - 20.90 - Q
2. David Gerson Semedo Neves Lima (Portugal) - 21.04 - Q
3. Leonel Bonon (Dominican Republic) - 21.82 - Q

Men's 200 m Heat 7 -0.1 m/s
1. Mobolade Abimbola Ajomale (Canada) - 21.13 - Q
2. Takuya Nagata (Japan) - 21.25 - Q
3. Andrew James McCabe (Australia) - 21.33 - Q

Men's 200 m Quarterfinal 2 -1.5 m/s
1. Viacheslav Kolesnichenko (Russia) - 21.01 - Q
2. Kotaro Taniguchi (Japan) - 21.09 - Q
3. Leon Powell (U.S.A.) - 21.20 - Q

Men's 200 m Quarterfinal 4 +0.4 m/s
1. Takuya Nagata (Japan) - 21.04 - Q
2. Mobolade Abimbola Ajomale (Canada) - 21.13 - Q
3. Chun-Han Yang (Taiwan) - 21.16 - Q

Women's 100 m Semifinal 3 +1.8 m/s
1. Viktoriya Zyabkina (Kazakhstan) - 11.27 - Q
2. Lina Grincikaite-Samuole (Lithuania) - 11.46 - Q
3. Alexandra Bezekova (Slovakia) - 11.56 - q
4. Anna Doi (Japan) - 11.61 - q

Women's 100 m Final +0.4 m/s
1. Viktoriya Zyabkina (Kazakhstan) - 11.23
2. Shimarya Crystal Williams (Jamaica) - 11.46
3. Elena Kozlova (Russia) - 11.47
-----
7. Anna Doi (Japan) - 11.70

Men's 100 m Semifinal 1 +1.8 m/s
1. Ronald Baker (U.S.A.) - 10.14 - Q
2. Kukyoung Kim (South Korea) - 10.16 - Q
3. Yang Yang (China) - 10.24 - Q
4. Jin Su Jung (Australia) - 10.28 - Q
5. Yuki Koike (Japan) - 10.35

Men's 20 km Race Walk Final
1. Dane Bird-Smith (Australia) - 1:21:30
2. Benjamin Thorne (Canada) - 1:21:33
3. Daisuke Matsunaga (Japan) - 1:22:06
-----
8. Tomohiro Noda (Japan) - 1:25:36

(c) 2015 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Tokyo Olympics Marathon Trials Winner Nakamura Enters Waseda Grad School

An Olympian in the marathon at the Tokyo Olympics, Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) announced on his social media that he has entered Waseda University 's Graduate School of Sport Science with the start of the new academic year this week. A graduate of Mie's Ueno Kogyo H.S. , Nakamura went to Komazawa University before joining Fujitsu in 2015. His senior year of high school he was 3rd overall and 2nd Japanese in the 5000 m at the National High School Track and Field Championships, and in the fall the same year he ran what was at the time the 7th-fastest high school mark ever, 13:50.38. At Komazawa he scored four individual stage wins across the three big university ekidens. In 2019 he won the MGC Race, Japan's marathon trials for the Tokyo Olympics, where he was 62nd in 2:22:23. Nakamura indicated that he would be studying "top sports management" under professor Takeo Hirata . "I'll be balancing competition and academics," Nakamura wrote. "I'm r...
Post a Comment
Read more

Weekend Road and Track Roundup

A roundup of the main road and track action on the last weekend of Japan's 2024-25 academic and fiscal year: Doubling off a 2:07:06 PB at the Tokyo Marathon 4 weeks ago, Tatsuya Maruyama took bronze at the Asian Marathon Championships in Jiaxing, China in 2:11:56. Gold went to North Korea's Il Ryong Han in a breakaway 2:11:18, with silver medalist Tianyu Chen of China just ahead of Maruyama in 2:11:50. Japan's Shungo Yokota was a distant 4th in 2:14:00, with Japan-based Mongolian NR holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir 6th in 2:15:14. Japanese women Kaede Kawamura and Natsumi Matsushita were 5th and 6th in 2:31:26 and 2:34:40, with medals going to China's Bing Wu , gold in 2:26:01, North Korea's Kwang-Ok Ri , silver right behind her in 2:26:07, and defending gold medalist Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh landing in bronze this time in 2:28:56, her third sub-2:29 performance so far in 2025. Back home, four men broke 2:20 at the Fukui Sakura Marathon . Ko Kobayashi from the Shi...
1 comment
Read more

Japan Names Marathon Teams for Tokyo World Championships

On Mar. 26 the JAAF named its women's and men's marathon teams for September's Tokyo World Championships. On the women's side the team has veterans Sayaka Sato and Yuka Ando off the strength of a runner-up finish for Sato in Nagoya this year and a win in Nagoya last year by Ando, and newcomer Kana Kobayashi , 23, who has risen quickly from being a fun runner at Waseda University last year to a 2nd-place finish in Osaka Women's this year. Paris Olympics 6th-placer Yuka Suzuki was named alternate after finishing 3rd behind Kobayashi in Osaka Women's. On the men's side the team is led by last year's Fukuoka International Marathon CR breaker Yuya Yoshida and this year's Osaka runner-up Ryota Kondo . The 3rd spot on the team is reserved for JMC Series winner Naoki Koyama , who hasn't cleared the 2:06:30 World Championships qualifying standard and has to wait for the May 4 qualifying deadline for confirmation that the 1184 points he has in the Roa...
1 comment
Read more