Skip to main content

Kimunyan Runs World-Leading 10000 m at Nittai - Weekend Track Roundup

The IAAF may have unilaterally declared the long distance track season over last week, but in Japan autumn track is in full swing as athletes at all levels prepare for championship ekiden season.

The biggest race of the weekend was the men's 10000 m A-heat at Yokohama's Nittai University Time Trials. Richard Kimunyan (Hitachi Butsuryu) led a small group including 2014 Commonwealth Games 5000 m gold medalist Jonathan Ndiku (Hitachi Butsuryu) out at a steady pace around 27:10. By halfway Kimunyan was alone but still rock steady with a 13:35 split.

From 7000 m on he slowed gradually toward the 27:19.62 world-leading time run by Joshua Cheptegei (Uganda) at this year's Commonwealth Games, but with a hard kick over the last lap Kimunyan crossed the line 5 seconds up on Cheptegei's mark in 27:14.70, a PB by 38 seconds. Ndiku also got under 28 minutes in 27:50.38. Half marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara (Honda) was the top Japanese man in 28:11.25, continuing to round back into good shape ahead of next month's Ageo City Half Marathon.

Yuki Ishii (Kwansei Gakuin Univ.) won the B-heat in 28:50.48, a rare sub-29 by a collegiate runner from outside the Kanto Region. 1500 m world junior record holder Ronald Kwemoi (Komori Corp.) won the 5000 m A-heat in 13:19.86. Kenyans took the top 14 spots, with 10000 m national record holder Kota Murayama (Asahi Kasei) the fastest Japanese man at 13:45.10 for 15th.

 Toyota Jidoshokki teammates Helen Ekarare and Ann Karindi went 1-2 in the Nittai women's 5000 m A-heat in 15:19.59 and 15:40.42, Sakiho Tsutsui (Yamada Denki) 3rd in 15:40.56 to squeeze into the year's top 25 Japanese women's list. Kaede Hagitani (Nagano Higashi H.S.) won the women's 3000 m A-heat in 9:17.33 with teammates Narumi Kobayashi and Izumi Takamatsu running 9:18.59 and 9:18.64.

Even faster women's 5000 m times came at the Challenge Games in Oita Dome meet far to the south in Oita. In a regional showdown of Kenyan high schoolers, first-years Teresa Musso (Sera H.S.) and Cynthia Baire (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.) outran third-years Martha Mokaya (Oita Tomei H.S.), Tabitha Kamau (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.) and Naomi Musso (Sera H.S.) to take the top two spots in 15:13.89 and 15:15.35. Mokaya and Kamau were 3rd and 4th in 15:15.89 and 15:20.52, all four of them breaking the meet record. No Japanese women cleared 16 minutes, Ayari Harada (Daiichi Seimei) finishing 6th in 16:00.53. Olympic medalist Paul Tanui (Kyudenko) won the men's 5000 m A-heat over junior teammate Bernard Koech 13:36.97 to 13:37.39, with Hazuma Hattori (Toenec) the first Japanese man at 4th in 13:54.13.

Another regional showdown happened just to the northwest in Fukuoka, where Ethiopian Tulu Merga (Yasukawa Denki) outran teammate Abayneh Degu and Kenyan Joel Mwaura (Kurosaki Harima) to win the Soshigaya Time Trials 5000 m A-heat in 13:24.65. All three cleared 13:30, Mwaura 2nd in 13:26.38 and Degu next in 13:29.65. Naoya Takahashi (Yasukawa Denki) was the top Japanese man at 4th in 13:54.44, while Jakarta Asian Games marathon 4th-placer Hayato Sonoda (Kurosaki Harima) struggled, placing 20th in 14:22.47.

The fastest women's 3000 m of the weekend came at Saitama's Heisei Kokusai University Time Trials, where Veronica Marsha (Niigata Sangyo Prep H.S.) won in 9:13.98. The locally-based GMO and Subaru corporate men's teams and Toyo University all ran Heisei Kokusai, with Kyoto's Ritsumeikan University opting for whatever reason to join them instead of running the closer Nittai. Hiroki Yamagishi (GMO) won the 10000 m A-heat in 29:04.60, with three Ritsumeikan runners going under 29:30. Shohei Kurata (GMO) took the 5000 m A-heat in 14:03.79, beating Ethiopian newcomer Dejene Tesfarem Weldo (Seisa Kokusai H.S.) by 0.02.

Japan's fall track season continues on through December. Look for late November's Hachioji Long Distance meet to produce more of the year's top 10000 m times. Entries are still open.

© 2018 Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Brett Larner said…
Honda's William Malel was initially listed as having finished 2nd in the Nittai 10000m A-heat, but it appears that in reality he was pacing Honda's B-group at around 28:40 with the intent of dropping out at 9600 m. He was lapped by Kimunyan, then when he stopped officials thought he was the 2nd placer and recorded him as such. He was removed from the results today.
October 22, 2018 at 5:43 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Measuring Marathon Courses by Bicycle

http://news.searchina.ne.jp/disp.cgi?y=2013&d=0110&f=column_0110_034.shtml translated by Brett Larner The full marathon is a sport where you compete over 42.195 km, but how do they go about measuring that distance?  Today we're going to look a little bit at how they go about certifying the distance of a marathon. The reality is that major international marathons use a bicycle to measure the distance.  This rule is an international standard, and the same method of measurement is used everywhere.  It was put into place in 1986.  In order to ensure that the same method is used everywhere, a bicycle that meets IAAF specifications must be used for measurement. In the case of Japan's major marathons, to be certain that the distance is correct a provisional measurement is first made.  Before the course is certified using a bicycle the course is measured using a 50 m-long length of wire to determine that it is in fact 42.195 km.  When a bicycle is u...
2 comments
Read more

Ai Hosoda Announces Retirement

photo © 2025 Victah Sailer/Photo Run, all rights reserved On Jan. 8 the Edion women's corporate team announced that Ai Hosoda , 30, will retire at the end of March this year. The Tokyo Marathon will be her last race. At Nagano Higashi H.S. Hosoda ran in the National High School Ekiden her 2nd and 3rd years. During her 3rd year at Nittai University she won both the 5000 m and 10000 m at the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, going on to win the bronze medal in the 10000 m at the World University Games in her 4th year at Nittai. After graduating she joined the Daihatsu corporate team, debuting at the 2019 Nagoya Women's Marathon in 2:29:27. 2 years later she transferred to Edion. She qualified for the Paris Olympics marathon trials at the 2022 Nagoya Women's Marathon and finished 3rd in the trials in the fall of 2023, but was later bumped down to Olympic alternate after another athlete ran a faster time. Instead of the Olympics, Hosoda ran the 2024 Ber...
2 comments
Read more

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .
77 comments
Read more