Skip to main content

World Leads at Hyogo Relay Carnival and Nittai Time Trials - Day One Report

by Brett Larner

Two big two-day meets got started Saturday, turning out two world-leading times.  At the Hyogo Relay Carnival the Asics Challenge events serve as the B-heats ahead of Sunday's Olympic selection Grand Prix races, but there was nothing second-tier in the men's 10000 m as James Mwangi (Team NTN) ran a world-leading 27:23.04 to lead six men, all Kenya, under 28 minutes.  Mwangi's time took more than 9 seconds off the meet record set in way back in 2005 by the late great Samuel WanjiruFabiano Sulle (Tanzania) was the top non-Kenyan at 7th in 28:01.76.

Second-year Dominic Nyairo (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) led the collegiate results in 3rd in 27:56.47.  Tokai University dominated Heat Two of the 10000 m with three runners, two of them first-years, going sub-29 led by first-year Hayato Seki with the win in 28:48.63.  Toyo University first-year Sota Watanabe also cleared 29, just, running 28:59.77 for 10th.  Many more university men broke 29 at the Nittai Time Trials meet, led by Stanley Siteki (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) in 28:39.29, pointing to an exciting hear ahead on the university ekiden circuit.

The other world-leading run came at Nittai as Kenyan Helen Ekarare (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) ran 8:56.92 to win the women's 3000 m A-heat, followed closely by rival Monica Margaret (Aomori Yamada H.S.) in 8:58.93.  Natsumi Yoshida (Route Inn Hotels) topped the Nittai women's 5000 m A-heat in 15:51.55, but back in Hyogo Hisami Ishii (Yamada Denki) turned in a bigger run, delivering the fastest Japanese women's 5000 m so far this year with a 15:39.92 in the Asics Challenge Women's 5000 m, the only runner there to break 16.  Both Hyogo and Nittai continue tomorrow.

64th Hyogo Relay Carnival - Day One Highlights
Universiade Memorial Stadium, Kobe, Hyogo, 4/23/16
click here for complete results

Asics Challenge Men's 10000 m Heat One
1. James Mwangi (Kenya/NTN) - 27:23.04 - WL, MR
2. Alexander Mutiso (Kenya/ND Software) - 27:47.20
3. Dominic Nyairo (Kenya/Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 27:56.47
4. Patrick Muendo Muwaka (Kenya/Aisan Kogyo) - 27:56.97
5. Charles Ndungu (Kenya/Komori Corp.) - 27:57.36
6. Macharia Ndirangu (Kenya/Aichi Seiko) - 27:57.57
7. Fabiano Sulle (Tanzania) - 28:01.53
8. Silas Kingori (Kenya/SGH Group) - 28:01.76
9. Hiram Ngatia (Kenya/Toyota) - 28:05.56
10. Alex Mwangi (Kenya/YKK) - 28:26.11

Asics Challenge Men's 10000 m Heat 2
1. Hayato Seki (Tokai Univ.) - 28:48.63
2. Hiroyuki Ishikawa (Aisan Kogyo) - 28:49.11
3. Junji Katakawa (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 28:52.21
4. Kento Otsu (Toyota Kyushu) - 28:53.66
5. Ryutaro Ichitani (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 28:55.14
6. Kazuto Kawabata (Tokai Univ.) - 28:55.26
7. Shota Onizuka (Tokai Univ.) - 28:55.26
8. Kazuki Muramoto (Sumitomo Denko) - 28:55.45
9. Daisuke Koyama (Chudenko) - 28:56.71
10. Sota Watanabe (Toyo Univ.) - 28:59.77

Asics Challenge Women's 5000 m
1. Hisami Ishii (Yamada Denki) - 15:39.92
2. Sakie Arai (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) - 16:00.59
3. Kasumi Nishihara (Yamada Denki) - 16:00.66
4. Nami Hashimoto (Denso) - 16:02.63
5. Ayano Ikemitsu (Kagoshima Ginko) - 16:04.29

249th Nittai University Time Trials - Day One Highlights
Nittai University, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 4/23/16
click here for complete results

Women's 3000 m Heat 5
1. Helen Ekarare (Kenya/Sendai Ikuei H.S.) - 8:56.92 - WL
2. Monica Margaret (Kenya/Aomori Yamada H.S.) - 8:58.93
3. Tomoka Kimura (Universal Entertainment) - 9:10.12
4. Wakana Kabasawa (Tokiwa H.S.) - 9:11.32
5. Yumika Nagahama (Miura Gakuen H.S.) - 9:22.23

Women's 5000 m Heat 4
1. Natsumi Yoshida (Route Inn Hotels) - 15:51.55
2. Yuma Adachi (Kyocera) - 15:51.56
3. Satomi Ueta (Kyocera) - 15:52.08
4. Yuri Nozoe (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 15:59.69
5. Harumi Okamoto (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 16:01.57

Men's 10000 m Heat 8
1. John Maina (Kenya/Fujitsu) - 27:43.70
2. Daniel Muiva Kitonyi (Kenya/Kanebo) - 28:04.22
3. Johana Maina (Kenya/Fujitsu) - 28:18.45
4. Yuta Shitara (Honda) - 28:19.43
5. Stanley Siteki (Kenya/Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) - 28:39.29
6. Titus Mogusu (Kenya/Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) - 28:39.68
7. Naoki Kudo (Komazawa Univ.) - 28:40.31
8. Simon Kariuki (Kenya/Nihon Yakka Univ.) - 28:40.86
9. Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) - 28:44.44
10. Yuki Matsumura (Honda) - 28:44.83

© 2016 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

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...

Australian Male Arrested on Drug Smuggling Charges After Entering Japan for Osaka Marathon

On Apr. 9 the Kinki Region Bureau of Health, Labor and Welfare's Drug Control Division arrested Matthew Inglis Fox , 38, an Australian business owner of no known fixed address, on charges of violating the importation regulations of the Narcotics Control Act by smuggling tablets containing marijuana elements from the United States. The suspect had entered Japan in February to run in the Osaka Marathon . The suspect was arrested on suspicion of smuggling approximately 12 pills containing marijuana by sending them from a U.S. airport to Osaka's Kansai Airport using an international courier service on Feb. 19. The Osaka branch of the Customs Service discovered the tablets in arriving cargo and suspected them to be narcotics. Customs contacted the Narcotics Control Division, which then began its investigation of the case. According to the Narcotics Control Division, the suspect denies the charges.  Translator's note: Fox, who received a lifetime ban from the Ageo City Half Mara...