Skip to main content

Weekend Overseas Track Results

Two top international meets over the weekend featured some of Japan's best track athletes. Women's 10000 m year leader Yuka Takashima (Team Shiseido) ran in the Netherlands' FBK Games on Saturday. Far off the 31:33.33 PB she set last month at the Payton Jordan meet in California, Takashima managed only 33:08.76 for 12th of 13 finishers nearly two and a half minutes behind Ethiopian winner Gelete Burka's world-leading 30:40.87.

Racing for the first time since his debut at April's Boston Marathon, Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project) ran the 5000 m Sunday at the Portland Track Festival. Clearing 13:30 for the first time since his Japanese national record two years ago, Osako was 3rd in 13:25.56 just over two seconds behind Kirubel Erassa (U.S.A.) and Morgan McDonald (Australia).

Still three seconds shy of the 13:22.60 qualifying standard for August's London World Championships, Osako's performance means that at the time of writing the only Japanese man with a London qualifying mark at a distance between 200 m and the marathon is 10000 m national record holder Kota Murayama (Team Asahi Kasei) with a 27:44.39 last November at the Hachioji Long Distance meet.

FBK Games
Hengelo, Netherlands, 6/10/17
click here for complete results

Women's 10000 m
1. Gelete Burka (Ethiopia) - 30:40.87
2. Senbere Teferi (Ethiopia) - 30:41.68
3. Belaynesh Oljira (Ethiopia) - 30:44.57
4. Dera Dida (Ethiopia) - 30:56.48
5. Rahma Tusa (Ethiopia) - 31:05.14
-----
12. Yuka Takashima (Japan/Shiseido) - 33:08.76

Portland Track Festival
Portland, U.S.A., 6/11/17
click here for complete results

Men's 5000 m High Performance
1. Kirubel Erassa (U.S.A.) - 13:23.12
2. Morgan McDonald (Australia) - 13:23.28
3. Suguru Osako (Japan/Nike Oregon Project) - 13:25.56
4. Trevor Dunbar (U.S.A.) - 13:26.27
5. Tommy Curtin (U.S.A.) - 13:26.55

© 2017 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and