Skip to main content

Japan Dominates IAU 100 km World Championships

The Japanese men and women dominated the 2018 IAU 100 km World Championships in Sveti Martin na Muri, Crotia on Saturday, winning both team gold medals and the individual men's gold and silver and women's bronze medals.

Finishing in the inverse order they did at June's historic Lake Saroma 100 km, the men went 1-2-4-6, Lake Saroma 4th placer and defending world champion Hideaki Yamauchi winning the race outright in 6:28:05 and Lake Saroma 3rd-placer Takehiro Gyoba taking silver in 6:32:51. Two-time Comrades Marathon champ Bongmusa Mthembu of South Africa, 2nd to Yamauchi last time out, was the only non-Japanese athlete to make the men's podium, beating Lake Saroma runner-up Koji Hayasaka by just over two minutes to take bronze in 6:33:47 to Hayasaka's 6:36:05. All three scoring Japanese men broke 4:00/km to give the men's an incredible score of 19:37:01, nearly an hour faster than the silver-earning South Africa team. Germany had the distinction of taking the team bronze medal without putting a single man in the top ten overall.

The only Japanese man not to win a medal or score for the team was world record-setting Lake Saroma winner Nao Kazami. In what has to be a first, Kazami was involved in a three-way sprint finish for 5th, getting the better of 3-time world champion Giorgio Calcaterra of Italy by 5 seconds but clocking the same time as American Geoff Burns. Both Kazami and Burns were timed at 6:42:30, but Burns took the 5th spot as Kazami fell to the ground in 6th. The American men were shut out of the medals, 3 and 1/2 minutes behind Germany in 4th.


Like the men the Japanese women put all four team members into the top six to win the team gold medal. Home soil champ Nikolina Sustic and German Nele Alder-Baerens were in a different league, running 7:20:34 and 7:22:41 to take the individual gold and silver medals. Lake Saroma winner Mai Fujisawa was far back in 7:39:07 for bronze, spearheading the tight team finish that saw Japan's next two, Mikiko Ota and Aiko Kanematsu, finish within 6 minutes of her in 4th and 5th. Yuko Kusunose was another 4 and 1/2 minutes back in 6th. As in the men's race the Japanese women's winning team time of 23:03:50 was nearly an hour faster than runner-up South Africa, with the Croatian women doing their country proud with team bronze.


2018 IAU 100 km World Championships

Sveti Martin na Muri, Croatia, 9/8/18
complete results
Men
1. Hideaki Yamauchi (Japan) - 6:28:05
2. Takehiro Gyoba (Japan) - 6:32:51
3. Bongmusa Mthembu (South Africa) - 6:33:47
4. Koji Hayasaka (Japan) - 6:36:05
5. Geoff Burns (U.S.A.) - 6:42:30
6. Nao Kazami (Japan) - 6:42:30
7. Giorgio Calcaterra (Italy) - 6:42:35
8. Anthony Clark (Great Britain) - 6:43:22
9. Fritjof Fagerlund (Sweden) - 6:44:53
10. Elow Olsson (Sweden) - 6:46:03

Team Results
1. Japan - 19:37:01
2. South Africa - 20:33:49
3. Germany - 21:02:12
4. U.S.A. - 21:05:41
5. Spain - 21:06:49

Women
1. Nikolina Sustic (Croatia) - 7:20:34
2. Nele Alder-Baerens (Germany) - 7:22:41
3. Mai Fujisawa (Japan) - 7:39:07
4. Mikiko Ota (Japan) - 7:39:45
5. Aiko Kanematsu (Japan) - 7:44:58
6. Yuko Kusunose (Japan) - 7:49:33
7. Salome Cooper (South Africa) - 7:51:13
8. Noora Honkala (Finland) - 7:52:04
9. Kajsa Berg (Sweden) - 7:52:39
10. Leonie Ton (Netherlands) - 7:54:44

Team Results
1. Japan - 23:03:50
2. South Africa - 23:56:44
3. Croatia - 24:13:57

© 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

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
Post a Comment
Read more

Queens Ekiden Streaming and Preview

Sunday is the first big race of championship ekiden season, the Queens Ekiden in Sendai, the season-ending national championship for corporate women. 24 teams race 42.195 km in 6 legs, with the top 8 scoring places for 2025. TBS' live nationwide broadcast starts at 11:50, with multi-camera streaming on Youtube above. Last year Sekisui Kagaku won by almost a minute and a half, and with Paris Olympian Yuma Yamamoto , 2023 World Championships marathoner Sayaka Sato on its entry list and collegiate 1500 m record holder Mizuki Michishita having come on board this season it looks like a contender for another win. But last year's runner-up Japan Post got a big boost this season with the addition of its first non-Japanese member, two-time double 1500 m and 3000 m high school champion Caroline Kariba . The Queens Ekiden limits non-Japanese athletes to a 3.8 km leg, so it'd be tough for Kariba to bridge a 1:25 gap by herself with that little ground to work with. But what she can
1 comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more