18 Under 28 Minutes for 10000 m, 115 Under 29

18 Under 28 Minutes for 10000 m, 115 Under 29 - Weekend Track Roundup

Friday and Saturday were one of the busiest weekends of the year on the track, with high-level time trial meets going on across the country as Japan's best runners tuned up for championship ekiden season. All told 18 men broke 28 minutes and 115 went under 29 minutes for 10000 m.

This year Jakarta Asian Games steeplechase bronze medalist Kazuya Shiojiri (Juntendo Univ.) took a more conservative approach to prepping for the Hakone Ekiden than his 27:47.87 at last year's Hachioji Long Distance meet, opting to run his home ground Juntendo University Time Trials meet on Friday instead. Shiojiri won the 10000 m A-heat in 28:58.16, notably closing with a 58-second final lap.

Rio Olympics 10000 m silver medalist Paul Tanui (Kyudenko) also gave Hachioji a miss in favor of staying close to home, winning Friday's Time Trial in Nagasaki 10000 m A-heat in 28:20.03 by a margin of over two and a half minutes. Jakarta Asian Games marathon silver medalist Keiko Nogami (Juhachi Ginko) won the women's 5000 m A-heat in 15:48.76.

The Hachioji Long Distance meet was the place to be on Saturday, seven heats of 10000 m at Hosei University in Tokyo's western suburbs. The A-heat was the biggest 10000 m in the world this year, with 19-year-old Ethiopian Dadi Tulu Merga (Yasukawa Denki) outkicking Kenyan Bernard Kimeli (Fujitsu) to lead 14 Japan-based Africans under 28 minutes in 27:25.86. National record holder Kota Murayama (Asahi Kasei) was the only Japanese man to finish the A-heat, targeting a sub-27:45 time but ending up 17th in 28:10.39. 5000 m national record holder Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project) dropped out halfway through after having finished 4th in the D-heat in 28:33.92 in his first race since setting the marathon national record last month in Chicago.

The Japanese men in the B-heat had better luck, with the top four breaking 28 minutes. All-time Japanese #2 Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Asahi Kasei) won in 27:55.85, narrowly edging out 2:06:54 marathoner Hiroto Inoue (MHPS) who cleared 28 minutes for the first time in 27:56.27. 3rd and 4th--placers Hiroki Abe (Meiji Univ.) and Takuya Fujikawa (Chugoku Denryoku) also went under 28 for the first time, Abe's 27:56.45 making him the fastest university man this year. 2:07:57 in Chicago behind Osako, Taku Fujimoto (Toyota) ran a PB 28:08.30 for 8th. A-heat finisher Kota Murayama's twin brother Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei) won the C-heat in 28:12.53.

Abe and a few of the other top university men went for faster times in Hachioji, but most collegiate men and some of the best women were at Yokohama's Keio University for the Kanto Region University Men's Time Trials meet, 12 heats of men's 10000 m and two for women. Teammates Keita Yoshida and Taisei Hashizume of four-time Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University led the A-heat in PBs of 28:27.40 and 28:28.08, with Ichitaka Yamashita leading rival Komazawa University's contingent with a PB of 28:31.89 for 5th. 25 of the top 28 finishers in the A-heat ran PBs, the top 25 all breaking 29 minutes. Yuka Suzuki (Daito Bunka University) took 1st in the women's A-heat in 32:37.54 to lead the top five under 33 minutes.

Six days after setting a Swedish national record of 1:02:09 at the Ageo City Half Marathon, David Nilsson ran Saitama's Heisei Kokusai University Time Trials 10000 m A-heat as a recovery run and tuneup for next weekend's Kumamoto Kosa 10-miler. Alternating the lead with runners from Chuo Gakuin University and the Raffine corporate men's team, Nilsson dropped a 2:46 final 1000 m, kicking away from Rafine's Kenta Fukumura to win in a season best 29:33.54. In Kosa Nilsson will face Shiojiri, Kenta Murayama and other stars of this weekend's action. Also at Heisei Kokusai, 47-year-old Hiro Tonegawa ran 14:56.65 in the 5000 m, a mark believed to make him the oldest Japanese man ever to break 15 minutes.

Chepkirui Wins Nagoya Women's Marathon

Heavy-duty favorite Sheila Chepkirui took the win at Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon , pulling away after 30 km to cruise in for 1st in 2:20:40. Erratic pacing early saw the first and second groups only seconds apart for much of the first half of the race, the top group slower than planned and the 2nd group a bit ahead of schedule. At halfway in 1:10:37 the front group included Chepkirui, #2-ranked Ruti Aga and last year's runner-up Eunice Chumba , and Japanese contingent Sayaka Sato , Rika Kaseda , Natsuki Omori and Mao Uesugi . Omori was the first to drop, then Uesugi, then Aga, who ultimately dropped out before 30 km. When the pacers stopped at 30 km Chepkirui made a move that dropped Kaseda and strung out Chumba and Sato behind her, but all four came back together once before another surge put Kaseda away for good. As Chepkirui inched away Sato and Chumba passed each other repeatedly, and Chumba could only watch as the top Japanese runner got away from her again thi...

Nagoya Women's Marathon Preview

The Nagoya Women's Marathon , the world's largest women-only marathon and the last race in the selection cycle for September's Tokyo World Championships, happens Sunday. Weather conditions are looking better than what they had in Tokyo and Osaka the last two weekends, 7˚ at the start and rising to 12˚ with sunny skies. The wind looks a bit stronger than ideal, but it could be worse. Fuji TV has the live broadcast starting at 9:00 a.m. Sunday local time, and if you've got a VPN you should be able to watch the TVer streaming . One option for a leaderboard is here , and another here . We'll have some coverage on @JRNLive . Just like last time around there are three Ethiopian and Kenyan-born athletes at the top list, this time it being sub-2:20 women Sheila Chepkirui , winner in NYC last year, and Ruti Aga , winner in Xiamen in January, and last year's Nagoya runner-up Eunice Chebichii Chumba . But last year Yuka Ando still pulled off the win, so there's a c...

Who's Running Tokyo Worlds?

The Japanese marathon teams will be the most prestigious ones to be on for September's Tokyo World Championships, and with Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon the window for Japanese athletes to get onto the JAAF's shortlist closed. Who's on it? The final decision won't be made until Mar. 26, but let's look through the selection criteria and see who's guaranteed, who's pretty likely, and who has a chance. 1. Marathon medalists at the Paris Olympics - There weren't any, so nobody makes the team this way. Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) were the top placers, both of them running PBs in the Olympics to finish 6th. You'd think that would count for something a year later, but you'd think wrong. 2. JMC Series IV Champions - The top point scorers in the Japan Marathon Championship Series IV, which ran from April, 2023 to March, 2025, earn places on the marathon teams along with cash prizes. For women that's Yuka ...

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