Skip to main content

Karemi Repeats at Record-Setting Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler

by Brett Larner
photos by @t_tsuki

Less than 24 hours after world record-setting 10000 m depth in Hachioji, another record fell at the 40th anniversary Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler.  Expectations were high that the talented Kenta Murayama (Team Asahi Kasei) would follow up on his twin brother Kota's 10000 m national record in Hachioji by breaking the 45:40 Japanese 10 mile national record set back in 1984, almost a decade before the Murayamas were born.

Murayama came out swinging, running side-by-side with defending champion Jeremiah Thuku Karemi (Team Toyota Kyushu) through a 2:47 opening km, 44:47 pace.  Karemi pushed on but Murayama soon let go and dropped back behind another Kenyan, Charles Ndungu (Team Komori Corp.), picking up company from teammate Kenjiro Mogi.

Running alone Karemi couldn't sustain his course record pace but had no trouble taking a second-straight win.  His time of 45:19 was 32 seconds better than last year and the seventh-best winning time in Kosa history behind only Martin Mathathi (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC), Samuel Wanjiru (Team Toyota Kyushu) and Gideon Ngatuny (Team Nissin Shokuhin).  Not bad company to be in.

Pursuing Ndungu, Murayama and Mogi fell off Japanese NR pace, and with 1 km to go they found themselves mirroring yesterday's 10000 m, where Kota Murayama and his Asahi Kasei teammate Tetsuya Yoroizaka were side-by-side all the way to a photo finish separated by only 0.05 seconds.  This time it was Mogi's turn, though, as he got Kenta Murayama on the line for 3rd, both men clocking 46:08 to come in at #9 on the all-time Japanese list.

Next across the line was this year's top Japanese marathoner Masato Imai (Team Toyota Kyushu) in 46:36, just 1 second off his PB in his first race back since meningitis knocked him out of the summer's Beijing World Championships marathon where he had been a solid medal contender.  Toyota Kyushu runners took the next three places behind Imai, putting the Koichi Morishita-coached team into good position for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships.  Although not quite as good as Asahi Kasei's position with three men sub-28 yesterday and the top two Japanese men today.

The fast times continued far down the field, with a total of 107 men breaking the 50 minute mark to eclipse the previous record set in Kosa in 1998.  Like at yesterday's historic Hachioji Long Distance meet, the majority of them were using Kosa as a tuneup for the New Year Ekiden, which will be celebrating its 60th anniversary running.  With stellar quality and depth at both races look for something special indeed to happen come January 1.


40th Kumamoto Kosa Road Race
Kosa, Kumamoto, 11/29/15
click here for complete results

Men's 10 Miles
1. Jeremiah Thuku Karemi (Kenya/Toyota Kyushu) - 45:19
2. Charles Ndungu (Kenya/Komori Corp.) - 46:07
3. Kenjiro Mogi (Asahi Kasei) - 46:08
4. Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei) - 46:08
5. Masato Imai (Toyota Kyushu) - 46:36
6. Yuki Oshikawa (Toyota Kyushu) - 46:37
7. Ryuji Watanabe (Toyota Kyushu) - 46:38
8. Kaoru Hirosue (Toyota Kyushu) - 46:39
9. Kohei Matsumura (Mitsubishi HPS Nagasaki) - 46:41
10. Daiki Kubota (Yasukawa Denki) - 46:46
-----
25. Ryoya Nishikawa (Toenec) - 47:13
50. Tsukasa Koyama (Subaru) - 47:53
75. Tatsunari Hirayama (Yasukawa Denki) - 48:19
100. Fumito Imazaki (Osaka Police Dep't) - 49:29
107. Masaki Hori (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 49:52

High School Boys' 10 km
1. Naoki Soh (Tosu Kogyo H.S.) - 30:15
2. Yuma Yoshitake (Tosu Kogyo H.S.) - 30:20
3. Koichi Ide (Tosu Kogyo H.S.) - 30:23

Junior High School Boys' 5 km
1. Tatsunori Okumura (Shiranui J.H.S.) - 15:42
2. Ryuta Ikawa (Sashiki J.H.S.) - 16:01
3. Eito Sato (Minami Oguni J.H.S.) - 16:02

Women's 5 km
1. Miyu Otani (Wacoal) - 16:15
2. Yuka Hakoyama (Wacoal) - 16:16
3. Kumi Ogura (Toenec) - 16:17
4. Mao Ichiyama (Izumi Chuo H.S.) - 16:18
5. Erika Ikeda (Higo Ginko) - 16:20

text (c) 2015 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
photos (c) 2015 t_tsuki, all rights reserved

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Japan Dominates Half Marathon - World University Games Day 6 Japanese Results

Japan didn't quite pull off a sweep of the men's and women's half marathon at the 2025 FISU World University Games , but it was pretty close. In the men's race Waseda University 's Shinsaku Kudo , the fastest man in the race with a best of 1:00:06 from Marugame this past February, led start to finish, keeping it around 62-flat pace before finishing in a WUG record 1:02:29. Turkey's Ramazan Bastug spent most of the race in a small chase pack with Ryuto Uehara (Koku Gakuin Univ.) and Kento Baba (Rikkyo Univ.) before dropping them both for silver in 1:02:35. Uehara was just behind in 1:02:39 for bronze, with Baba missing out on the medals in 1:02:44 for 4th. In the women's race China's Xiuzhen Ma had to deal with the Japanese trio of Makoto Tsuchiya (Ritsumeikan Univ.), Mariya Noda (Daito Bunka Univ.) and Ayaka Maeda (Kansai Univ.). And she did, running a PB 1:12:48 for gold over Tsuchiya by 10 seconds. Noda scored the bronze medal in 1:13:16, with M...
1 comment
Read more

Identical Triplets Run Final Prefectural High School Champs 5000 m Together

A set of identical triplets made the final in the Niigata Prefecture High School Championships 5000 m, their last big showdown with each other. All three talked about the way they were looking at the big race at Niigata's Denka Big Swan Stadium. The Sato triplets all ran track and field in elementary school in Nagaoka, but when they went to junior high school they all opted to play basketball instead. Their sister, also a twin, was the manager of the track and field team at Chuetsu H.S. and gave them tips on training like hill repeats and running on undulating roads in their neighborhood, and while focusing on basketball they coached themselves to become better runners. Five years later they are now in their final year of high school. Yuto Sato runs for Chuetsu H.S., while Hiroto Sato and Oto Sato opted for Nippon Bunri H.S. . It was the first, and last, time for them to all face each other in the same race at the prefectural level. All three live in school dorms, their family...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wanjiru Silver, Yanagita Bronze - World University Games Day 1-2 Japanese Results

The 2025 FISU World University Games started Monday in Rhine-Ruhr, Germany. In the Games' first final, the women's 10000 m, Daito Bunka University 's Sarah Wanjiru of Kenya shaved just over 6 seconds off her PB with a 31:41.80, but it wasn't enough for gold as Slovenian 5000 m and road 5 km and 10 km NR holder Klara Lukan dropped a 31:25.84 Games record and PB for the win. In the race for bronze Spain's Alicia Berzosa Martin outran Meijo University 1st-year Mei Hosomi by a second, 32:00.72 to 32:01.91. Ayaka Maeda (Kansai Univ.) and Wakana Hashimoto (Meijo Univ.) were far back in the field, Maeda running 33:13.83 for 15th and Hashimoto 33:49.84 for 19th. The 18-year-old Hosomi's time was good enough to crack the all-time Japanese U20 top 10 and put her 2nd in the world this year on the U20 lists. In qualifying rounds on the opening day, Shota Fuchigami (Waseda Univ.) and Ryosuke Takahashi (Hosei Univ.) took the top 2 spots in the men's 400 mH heats...
2 comments
Read more