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Another Amateur Goes Sub-14 - Pre-Typhoon Saturday Night Track Action



A wet and windy Saturday night featured high-level track time trial action all across the country. With the approach of the powerful Typhoon #24 the Saga Long Distance Time Trials meet was canceled, leaving Kyushu's runners home to wait the storm out. To the northeast, Hiroshima's Chugoku Jitsugyodan Long Distance Time Trials meet was far enough away to still be ahead of the worst of the wind and rain. Takuya Fujikawa (Chugoku Denryoku) ran the fastest 5000 m time their in 13:55.73, with up-and-coming marathoner Kohei Futaoka (Kyudenko) leading the 10000 m results in 29:12.00.

Further to the northwest, Yuma Hattori (Toyota) returned from a solid 1:01:40 PB at the Czech Republic's Usti nad Labem Half Marathon two weeks ago to win the Tokamachi Distance Carnival's 10000 m. Hattori outkicked Kenyan teammate David Muhuhu (Toyota) to win in 28:39.57, the fastest time by a Japanese runner in Tokamachi's 30-year history. His alma mater Toyo University was a major presence, with a large share of its roster tuning up for next weekend's season-opening Izumo Ekiden with a controlled effort group run that saw seven of its runners go in the 29-minute range.

One of Toyo's biggest competitors at Izumo, four-time Hakone Ekiden winner Aoyama Gakuin University stayed on familiar ground to tune up, running a hand-timed intramural 5000 m time trial on its campus track. 18 team members cleared 14:10, 8 of them beating their official PBs and third-year Takato Suzuki led the way in 13:58.3.

 The weekend's fastest results came at Tokyo's Setagaya Time Trials meet. Newcomer Samuel Masai (Kanebo) led the men's 5000 m A-heat in 13:29.84, with half marathon and marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara (Honda) making a comeback to racing in the top Japanese finishing spot in 13:51.79 after missing the Berlin Marathon earlier this month. Shitara plans to return to the roads at November's Ageo City Half Marathon.

Full-time working amateur Daisuke Momozawa generated some news when he finished 9th behind Mutai and Shitara in a PB 13:55.84. A 2015 graduate of Yamanashi Gakuin University, Momozawa took a job with the Sun Kogyo manufacturing company in Nagano and continued to train outside his working hours. Now 25, this was his first time breaking 14 minutes. Like another good full-time working amateur who broke 14 post-graduation, Momozawa ran the Hakone Ekiden's downhill Sixth Stage during his university days.

Farthest from the typhoon's influence, the Premium Games in Sakata meet saw a little piece of history as third-year Ren Tazawa (Aomori Yamada H.S.) run 8:07.04 to win the men's 3000 m, the 5th-fastest mark ever by a Japanese high schooler. Luka Musembi (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) won the 5000 m in 14:02.10.

© 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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