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.
© 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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