Skip to main content

28:45 High Schoolers and More - Weekend Track Roundup

The IAAF has unilaterally declared track season over. But in Japan fall track is an integral part of ekiden season training, and it's not unusual to see many athletes drop their best 3000 m, 5000 m and 10000 m times of the year between October and December. Case in point, this weekend.

The biggest news came at Saturday's Nighter Time Trials in Nagasaki, where Keiho H.S. 11th-grader Hiroto Hayashida ran 28:45.75 for 6th in the 10000 m, all-time #8 among Japanese high school boys and #2 among 11th-graders. "Thank you to everyone who supported me!" Hayashida said on Twitter post-race. "I want to take this and apply to it ekiden season now." Geoffrey Gichia (Daiichi Kogyo Univ.) won in 28:36.36, with Jakarta Asian Games marathon gold medalist Hiroto Inoue (MHPS) 2nd in 28:37.27.


At Niigata's Autumn Time Trials a unique women's 5000 m delivered for the two women to finish it. 2018 World U20 3000 m gold medalist Nozomi Tanaka (ND28 AC) went head-to-head with Moscow World Championships 10000 m 5th placer Hitomi Niiya (Nike Tokyo TC), on the return at age 30 from a five-year retirement. With pacing from Niiya's teammate Ran Urabe the pair were together until the final lap, when Tanaka unleashed a 65-second final lap to win in a PB 15:15.80 that put her at all-time #2 on the junior list and #18 on the all-time Japanese list. Aiming for a time in 15:20 to 15:25 range as the next step in her comeback, Niiya was right on-target in 15:24.01.

Fast 10000 m times also came at the Chubu Corporate Autumn Track and Field Championships, where Rodgers Chumo Kemoi (Aisan Kogyo) ran a quality 27:32.65 to lead the top four under 28 minutes. Tatsuya Oike (Toyota Boshoku) took the top Japanese spot at 7th overall in 28:24.25, with Shinobu Kubota (Toyota) and Masato Terauchi (AIchi Seiko) joining him under the 28:30 mark.

Less fast was the Saga Time Trials 10000 m, where multi-Olympic and World Championships medalist Paul Tanui (Kyudenko) lapped the entire field to take the top spot in 28:11.41. Duncan Kisaisa (Oita Tomei H.S.) won the 5000 m in 13:58.85, with 2:07 marathoner Masato Imai 2nd in 13:59.37. 2018 Boston Marathon 10th-placer Hiroko Yoshitomi (Memolead) doubled in the women's 3000 m and 5000 m, winning each in 9:31.63 and 16:13.26.

Elsewhere Sunday, at the Miyazaki Long Distance Time Trials two-time New Year Ekiden winner Asahi Kasei ran almost its entire team in the 10000 m ahead of next month's Kyushu Corporate Ekiden, the qualifier for the 2019 New Year Ekiden. Ten Asahi Kasei men went under 29 minutes led by Abraham Kapsis Kapyatich in 28:34.40. Takashi Ichida was almost even with Kapyatich, finishing as the top Japanese man in 28:34.47. Rio Olympics marathoner Satoru Sasaki, arguably Asahi Kasei's best shot at actually qualifying someone for the 2020 Olympic marathon trials, was 11th in 29:08.01.

© 2018 Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Andrew Armiger said…
Stellar result for Hiroto Hayashida! Were the Nighter Time Trials held at Transcosmos Stadium?
October 15, 2018 at 7:55 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Saku Chosei H.S. Makes It 2 In a Row - National High School Ekiden Boys' Race

While the girls' race was a blowout by 2022 champ Nagano Higashi H.S. , the boys' race at Sunday's National High School Ekiden was a tense battle of turnover that saw all of the final top four teams take a stab at leading. 2023 3rd-placer Yachiyo Shoin H.S. handled the first 2 of the 7 stages in the 42.195 km race, with lead runner Rui Suzuki delivering a bold run on the 10.0 km First Stage that produced the fastest-ever time by a Japanese runner on the stage, 28:43, and put Yachiyo Shoin 29 seconds out front. Last year's Fifth Stage CR breaker Tetsu Suzuki ran Yachiyo Shoin down to put 2023 champ Saku Chosei H.S. into 1st on the 8.1075 km Third Stage, but Genta Sugano of last year's 8th-placer Sendai Ikuei H.S. had other plans and took the lead on the 8.0875 km Fourth Stage. Smiling and fist pumping to the crowd almost the entire way, Taketo Tsukada of last year's 6th-placer Omuta H.S. moved up from 3rd to 1st by 2 seconds over Saku Chosei on the 3.0 k...
Post a Comment
Read more

Japan Post Holds Off Sekisui Kagaku to Win Queens Ekiden National Title

  Japan Post  was back on top at the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championships Sunday in Sendai, holding off last year's winner Sekisui Kagaku  over the second half of a race that came as close as 1 second to take 1st with a final margin of victory of 27 seconds. Sekisui Kagaku was out fast with a win on the 7.0 km opening leg by Erika Tanoura  and a new CR for the 12:56 second leg by Yuma Yamamoto , 17 seconds better than her own CR from last year. Last year's 4th-placer Shiseido  briefly led on the 10.6 km third leg with an excellent 33:17 stage win from Rino Goshima , but behind her Japan Post's Ririka Hironaka  returned from her latest injury problems to pass Sekisui Kagaku's Sayaka Sato  and hand off 6 seconds ahead. New recruit Caroline Kariba  ran Shiseido down on the 3.6 km fourth leg and put Japan Post 22 seconds ahead of Sekisui Kagaku, but a duel of marathoners between JP's  Ayuko Suzuki  and Sekisui's Hitomi Niiy...
1 comment
Read more

Nagano Higashi Girls Lead Start to Finish to Win National High School Ekiden

2022 National High School Ekiden girls' champion Nagano Higashi H.S. was back in force after a 5th-place finish last year, leading start to finish to win this year's national title Sunday in Kyoto. Lead runner Airi Mashiba kicked it off with a 19:30 stage win on the 6.0 km opening leg, something that head coach Fumio Yokouchi said later that he hadn't been expecting. That ended up being Nagano Higashi's only individual stage win in the 5-leg, 21.0975 km race, but the rest of its team ran well enough to hold a lead that was never less than 11 seconds but never more than 21. Last year's 4th-placer Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. spent most of the race in 2nd, but over the second half of the race Sendai Ikuei H.S. , 2nd last year by just 1 second, came from further back to run Kunei down on the anchor stage thanks in big part to a critical stage win on the 4th leg by Tsubomi Tezuka that put anchor Aoi Hosokawa in position to catch Kunei's Mizuki Oda . Nagano Higashi ...
Post a Comment
Read more