London World Championships - Day One Japanese Results

All three Japanese athletes in the men's 100 m made it through to the semifinals on the opening day of the 2017 London World Championships. 18-year-old Abdul Hakim Sani Brown turned heads by tying his 10.05 PB to win Heat Two despite a -0.6 m/s headwind. Rio Olympics 4x100 m silver medalist Aska Cambridge, who suffered a minor injury at June's National Championships, was clearly not back to peak form, running only 10.21 for 4th in Heat Four to squeeze through to the finals on time.

Unluckily drawing a starting position next to Usain Bolt (Jamaica) in Heat Six, Shuhei Tada held up to the pressure of his World Championships debut as delivered his usual quick start to lead almost the entire way. Bolt ran him down but it took almost until the line for James Dasolu (Great Britain) and Jimmy Vicaut (France) to catch up, but despite taking 4th Tada made it through on time in 10.19. His result showed why track and field is a great sport. Three months ago he was almost unknown college student. Today he lined up next to the best in the world and represented.

Although Cambridge lucked through to the semifinals, he was so far off peak that he looks like a question mark for the 4x100 m. There's a very good chance he'll be replaced by his Rio teammate, alternate Yoshihide Kiryu, who ran 10.05 two weeks ago at a low-key meet in Tokyo after performing poorly at the National Championships in June. With 200 m man Shota Iizuka also not looking 100% there's even a chance that Kiryu could be the only member of the Rio silver medal squad to start the relay in London.

But before that comes Saturday's 100 m semifinals and final. No Japanese man has ever made it to the final, and to get there Sani Brown or one of the others will probably have to deliver the country's first-ever sub-10 clocking. Safe to say TV viewership ratings in Japan will be on the high end for the semis.

London World Championships Day One Japanese Results

London, England, 8/4/17
click here for complete results

Men's 100 m Heat 2 (-0.6 m/s)
1. Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Japan) - 10.05 (PB) - Q
2. Yohan Blake (Jamaica) - 10.13 - Q
3. Zhenye Xie (China) - 10.13 - Q
4. Emre Zafer Barnes (Turkey) - 10.22 - q
5. Emmanuel Callender (Trinidad and Tobago) - 10.25
6. Jan Volko (Slovakia) - 10.25
7. David Lima (Portugal) - 10.41
8. Ambdoul Karim Riffayn (Comoros) - 10.72

Men's 100 m Heat 4 (-0.2 m/s)
1. Bingtian Su (China) - 10.03 - Q
2. Chijindu Ujah (Great Britain) - 10.07 - Q
3. Christopher Belcher (U.S.A.) - 10.13 - Q
4. Aska Cambridge (Japan) - 10.21 - q
5. Joseph Millar (New Zealand) - 10.31
6. Mark Otieno Odhambo (Kenya) - 10.37
7. Jeremy Dodson (Samoa) - 10.52
DQ - Mosito Lehata (Lesotho)

Men's 100 m Heat 6 (+0.3 m/s)
1. Usain Bolt (Jamaica) - 10.07 - Q
2. James Dasaolu (Great Britain) - 10.13 - Q
3. Jimmy Vicaut (France) - 10.15 - Q
4. Shuhei Tada (Japan) - 10.19 - q
5. Hassan Taftian (Iran) - 10.34
6. Brendon Rodney (Canada) - 10.36
7. Warren Fraser (Bahamas) - 10.42
8. Diego Palomeque (Colombia) - 10.51

text © 2017 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
photo c/o Ekiden Mania, © 2017 Kazuyuki Sugimatsu, all rights reserved

Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...

Kipyegon Repeats, Toyo Wins Hakone Ekiden Qualifier in First Appearance in 21 Years

Back for the first time in 21 years after a disastrous 14th-place finish at the 102nd Hakone Ekiden this past January, Toyo University hit one out of western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park with a solid win at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, the half marathon that serves as the official qualifying race for the 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The top 10 teams in the Hakone auto-qualify for the following year, with the rest having to run the Yosenkai in October with a squad of 10 to 16 runners out of which the top 10 score on aggregate time, with the 10 fastest schools joining the Hakone field and top individuals from non-qualifying teams names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team to make up the complete Hakone field of 21. Driven in large part by an aggressive run from 3rd-year Yu Miyazaki , one of only 2 Japanese athletes to go with the big African contingent up front, Toyo won in 10:31:30, 1:03:09 or 2:59.6/km per athlete. As the first team to have broken the 3:00/km average pace barrie...

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...

japan running news

Search This Blog