Yamanouchi Leads Six Under Doha Standard in Deepest Women's 10000 m in World This Year

With the 31:50.00 standard for the 2019 Doha World Championships 10000 m announced earlier this week following the IAAF's about-face on its new world rankings system, Japan wasted no time in getting its people under the mark.

In cold conditions for the mid-afternoon Corporate Women's Time Trials meet at Yamaguchi's Ishin Me-Life Stadium the women's 10000 m A-heat went out strong and steady, 15:45 through halfway before the lead group began to splinter. Just two weeks after a season-worst performance at the National Corporate Women's Ekiden the Atsushi Sato-coached Minami Yamanouchi (Kyocera) roared back into form with a 31:16.48 meet record for the win, outkicking Kenyan Grace Kimanzi (Starts) to land at #2 in the world so far this year and #8 on the all-time Japanese list. Yamanouchi and Kimanzi were the only two to clear 31:20, but all told six women made it under the 31:50 Doha standard, making the race the year's deepest worldwide.

Having fully recovered from her blackout at the National Corporate Women's Ekiden qualifying race in October, Harumi Okamoto (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) just beat out Rina Nabeshima (Japan Post) 31:28.20 to 31:28.81, both making the all-time Japanese top 25 and coming in at #4 and #5 worldwide this year. Shiori Yano (Canon AC Kyushu) and Yuka Hori (Panasonic) rounded out the Doha qualifiers, with 7th-placer Natsuka Sekiya (Daito Bunka Univ.) missing out by an agonizing 0.17.

Half marathon national record holder Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal) was 14th in 32:26.32, just lapped by Yamanouchi in the home straight, while Nabeshima's marathoner teammate Hanami Sekine (Japan Post) was off her game at 21st in 33:18.37. Rio Olympian Miyuki Uehara (Daiichi Seimei), one of only two Japanese women to make an OLympic 5000 m final, dropped out mid-race. Two more chances remain this year for Japanese women to record qualifying marks for Doha, next week's Zatopek:10 featuring the resurgent Hitomi Niiya (Nike Tokyo TC) and the final Nittai University Time Trials meet later in the month.

Corporate Women's Time Trials

Ishin Me-Life Stadium, Yamaguchi, 12/8/18
complete results

Women's 10000 m Heat 2
1. Minami Yamanouchi (Kyocera) - 31:16.48 - MR
2. Grace Kimanzi (Starts) - 31:17.28
3. Harumi Okamoto (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 31:28.20
4. Rina Nabeshima (Japan Post) - 31:28.81
5. Shiori Yano (Canon AC Kyushu) - 31:44.13
6. Yuka Hori (Panasonic) - 31:48.93
7. Natsuki Sekiya (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 31:50.17
8. Kaori Morita (Panasonic) - 31:57.95
9. Keiko Nogami (Juhachi Ginko) - 32:14.86
10. Ai Hosoda (Daihatsu) - 32:21.11
11. Mai Shoji (Denso) - 32:22.82
12. Ayumi Hagiwara (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 32:25.90
13. Misaki Hayashida (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 32:26.65
14. Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal) - 32:36.32
15. Ayano Ikenuchi (Denso) - 32:50.25
-----
DNF - Miyuki Uehara (Daiichi Seimei)

photo © 2018 M.Kawaguchi, all rights reserved
text © 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Hakone Champ AGU Hits 50 km a Day in Spring Break Training Camp

Having scored its 3rd-straight Hakone Ekiden win this past January, Aoyama Gakuin University spent the Golden Week spring holidays training on the Myoko Plateau in Niigata from May 2-6. Along with the champion men's ekiden team, the first 2 members of AGU's new women's long distance team Nodoka Ashida and Kairi Ikeno , and AGU alumni and 2026 New Year Ekiden champion GMO team members Yuya Yoshida and Asahi Kuroda also took part in the training camp. Depending on the day's training schedule, mileage at the camp was over 50 km a day. AGU men's captain Kaito Nakamura confidently said, "This Golden Week training camp is where we lay the foundations for our 4th-straight Hakone title." A lot of people spend Golden Week on vacation, but the AGU ekiden team spent their time working hard on Myoko's rolling land amid the sprouting leaves of spring. On the 2nd day of the camp, May 3, team members woke up at 5:00 a.m. to do their warmup. The team assembled a...

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...

70th Yamagata-ken Judan Ekiden

The 70th running of the Yamagata-ken Judan Ekiden happened over the start of the Golden Week holidays, a 3-day, 29-leg race covering 306.9 km around the northern prefecture of Yamagata. There used to be a lot more of these races where people from the prefecture run for their hometown teams on a Tour de Whatever prefecture or area it happens to be held in, but Yamagata's is one of the few to have survived this long. And amazingly enough, local broadcaster YBC live streamed the entire thing on Youtube. There aren't many corporate teams in the mostly rural area, so runners from the ND Software corporate team played a heavy role, its 2 best runners Masato Arao and Ryoma Takeuchi winning their stages on Day 2 with Takeuchi doubling to anchor the Kita-Murayama team to an overall 5th-place finish, and Koichi Shoji breaking the 2nd leg CR on Day 1 and winning the 2nd-to-last stage on Day 3 to play a key role in the Yamagata city team taking the overall win in 16:06:51, 3:09/km ...

japan running news

Search This Blog