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 Over Sato Again to Win 2nd-Straight Nagoya Women's Marathon, Chen Breaks Malaysian NR (updated)

This year's Nagoya Women's Marathon felt like a changing of the guard, with some the bigger domestic names over the last few years fading early and a lot of newer faces stepping up with quality debuts or second marathons. The front group was set to be paced for 2:20 flat with the 2nd group at 2:23:30 to hit the auto-qualifying time for the 2027 MGC Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials race in Nagoya. Up front things went out OK, but after a 33:10 split at 10 km Ayuko Suzuki , 2:21:22 here 2 years ago, lost touch, ultimately finishing 23rd in 2:33:28. Windy conditions started to play with pacers' ability to keep things steady and the pace slowed majorly over the next 10 km, but even with a 34:05 second 10 km there were big-name casualties. 2024 Nagoya winner Yuka Ando was next to drop, ending up 17th in 2:30:32. NR holder Honami Maeda was next, followed quickly by Bahraini Kenyan Eunice Chumba and debuting Wakana Kabasawa . Maeda faded to 21st in 2:31:21, whil...

Nagoya Women's Marathon Preview and Streaming (updated)

Japan's winter marathon season of 6 major races in 7-straight weekends wraps up Sunday with the world's largest women-only marathon, the Nagoya Women's Marathon . The weather is looking pretty good, 6˚ at the start rising to 10˚ by the finish and sunny skies, but a moderate 7 m/s NW wind means a headwind finish that might impact the potential for some fast times. Official streaming kicks off at 9:00 a.m. local time. Live results will be here . Sheila Chepkirui won last year in 2:20:40, breaking away from Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba at 30 km and hanging on for the win. Sato negative split a 2:20:59 PB for 2nd, Chumba fading to 3rd in 2:21:36. All 3 are back this time, but they have pretty serious competition from Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Selly Chepyego Kaptich , 2:20:03 in Barcelona 2023. And of course, Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda . Maeda ran 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024 to make the Paris Oly...

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

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