Skip to main content

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

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

CHN and JPN National Records Go Down - Weekend Track Update

There weren't any Japanese athletes in action at the Rabat Diamond League meet Sunday, but 2 lower-tier domestic meets produced new national records. At the Nittai University Time Trials meet in Yokohama, Samuel Kibathi (Toyota) led the top 5 in the men's 10000 m under 28 minutes in 27:39.97. In 3rd, China's Wenjie Wang took just over a second off his own NR from the same meet last year, setting a new record of 27:47.53. His teammate Haoran Tang was 6th in a 28:27.44 PB, with the top Japanese time in the race being a 28:33.39 for 8th from Jin Yuasa (Toyota). Amazingly, Wang and Tang were back the next day on day 2 of the Nittai meet, Wang running a PB of 13:35.58 for 4th in the A-heat and Tang winning the B-heat in a PB of 13:38.80. Isaac Ndiema took the A-heat in 13:26.49, with the fastest Japanese time going to Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu) with a 13:35.94 for 5th behind Wang. Other Nittai highlights: Deborah Chemutai (Univ. Ent.) won a photo finish against Yua Nagamori ...
1 comment
Read more

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."...
82 comments
Read more

Ngetich Breaks CR, Murayama and Sasaki Make U.S. Debut at New York Mini 10k

WR holder Agnes Ngetich  soloed a fast one at the 54th edition of the Mastercard New York Mini 10k, leading inside the first mile and pulling away the rest of the race to run a 30:07 CR for the win, the fastest time ever on U.S. soil albeit on a slightly net downhill course. On a warm day that saw over 10,000 women finish  Tsigie Gebreselama  was on her own most of the way too, a distant 2nd in 30:53 and 17 seconds up on past champ Hellen Obiri . Further back, 2026 World University Cross Country bronze medalist Amisa Murayama  and 2025 Morinomiyako Ekiden 3rd leg CR breaker Nazuki Sasaki  from 2025 National University Women's Ekiden runner-up Tohoku Fukushi University  made their U.S. debuts. Murayama was targeting the fastest-ever Japanese time at the Mini, 32:37, but struggled on the hills just before 5 km and late in the race, fading to finish 23rd in 34:08. Sasaki, recovering from a stress reaction in her upper back a few months ago, ran a conservative ...
Post a Comment
Read more