Japanese U20 Women Win Team Bronze at World Cross Country Championships

The almost always reliable junior women scored Japan's only medal of the 2019 World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, beating Uganda by one point to make the podium. Uganda's Sarah Chelangat was part of the mad sprint finish for the individual medals, coming up just short at 4th but giving Uganda an edge for bronze behind Ethiopia and Kenya.

It took solid pair runs from Japan's Ayuka Kazama and Ririka Hironaka, 14th and 15th ahead of Uganda's second runner Esther Chekwemoi, and Chika Kosakai and Hazuki Doi, 21st and 22nd just seconds ahead of Uganda's last two scorers, to make it happen. The bronze medal placing was the junior women's 16th in World Cross Country Championships history.

Kazama's 14th-place finish as the first runner not from Ethiopia, Kenya or Uganda was also the best individual placing of the day by a Japanese athlete, as it turned out. But Issei Sato's 20th-place finish in the U20 men's 8 km was also quality, advancing through the field each lap to finish as the only runner in the top 20 other than Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen not from Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda or Eritrea. The junior men took 7th, tying the U.S.A. on points as each team's fourth scorer, Charlie Perry and Ryuto Igawa, finished side-by-side.

The senior women were the only squad without a full complement of six, Japan opting to send only the four needed for scoring as most of the top placers at last month's National Cross Country Championships passed World XC over in favor of next month's Asian Athletics Championships. In her senior debut and first time racing over longer than 8 km, national champion Nozomi Tanaka was the first Japanese woman to finish, coming in 39th. The senior women took 12th in team scoring.

The senior men were the weakest link, national champion Yuta Bando landing only 65th to lead the team to a disappointing 14th-place finish. After leading part of the first lap, Yohei Komatsu of 2019 Hakone Ekiden champion Tokai University ended up as the team's fifth man in 92nd place. No Japanese athletes took part in the mixed relay.

World Cross Country Championships

Aarhus, Denmark, 3/30/19
complete results

Junior Women's 6 km
Individual
1. Beatrice Chebet (Kenya) - 20:50
2. Alemitu Tariku (Ethiopia) - 20:50
3. Tsigie Gebreselama (Ethiopia) - 20:50
-----
14. Ayuko Kazama (Japan) - 21:58
15. Ririka Hironaka (Japan) - 22:00
21. Chika Kosakai (Japan) - 22:18
22. Hazuki Doi (Japan) - 22:21
29. Miku Sakai (Japan) - 22:45
33. Hikari Onishi (Japan) - 22:54

Team
1. Ethiopia - 17
2. Kenya - 26
3. Japan - 72
-----
4. Uganda - 73

Junior Men's 8 km
Individual
1. Milkesa Mengesha (Ethiopia) - 23:52
2. Tadese Worku (Ethiopia) - 23:54
3. Oscar Chelimo (Uganda) - 23:55
-----
20. Issei Sato (Japan) - 25:51
33. Jun Kasai (Japan) - 26:29
45. Taiga Nakanishi (Japan) - 26:44
56. Ryuto Igawa (Japan) - 27:07
70. Tetta Shiratori (Japan) - 27:32

Team
1. Ethiopia - 18
2. Uganda - 32
3. Kenya - 34
-----
7. Japan - 154

Senior Women's 10 km
Individual
1. Hellen Obiri (Kenya) - 36:14
2. Dera Dida (Ethiopia) - 36:16
3. Letesenbet Gidey (Ethiopia) - 36:24
-----
39. Nozomi Tanaka (Japan) - 39:27
46. Rika Kaseda (Japan) - 39:48
47. Yukina Ueda (Japan) - 39:48
95. Yui Yabuta (Japan) - 43:25

Team
1. Ethiopia - 21
2. Kenya - 25
3. Uganda - 36
-----
12. Japan - 227

Senior Men's 10 km
Individual
1. Joshua Cheptegei (Uganda) - 31:40
2. Jacob Kiplimo (Uganda) - 31:44
3. Geoffrey Kamworor (Kenya) - 31:55
-----
65. Yuta Bando (Japan) - 34:35
74. Yusuke Tamura (Japan) - 34:54
78. Yuhi Nakaya (Japan) - 35:01
80. Kosei Yamaguchi (Japan) - 35:04
92. Yohei Komatsu (Japan) - 35:24
99. Yusuke Nishiyama (Japan) - 35:42

Team
1. Uganda - 20
2. Kenya - 43
3. Ethiopia - 46
-----
14. Japan - 297

Mised Relay 4 x 2 km
1. Ethiopia - 25:49
2. Morocco - 26:22
3. Kenya - 26:29

medal ceremony photo © 2019 Kosei Yamaguchi, all rights reserved
text, video and other photos © 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Murayama and Sasaki Making U.S. Debut at New York Mini 10 km

Every year since 2012 that there's been a United Airlines NYC Half , JRN has partnered with the NYRR and November's Ageo City Half Marathon to bring two top-tier collegiate Japanese men to the NYC Half for what's usually been their international debuts. For years we've wanted to extend that program to include top collegiate women, but that has always faced 2 problems. For one, while the half marathon distance is the main focus for Japanese collegiate men due to the stage lengths at the Hakone Ekiden, few collegiate women run it. Those that do run the National University Women's Half Marathon in Matsue, held the same day as the NYC Half. This year, though, we're finally making it happen in a slightly different way. Amisa Murayama and Nazuki Sasaki of 2025 Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden national collegiate championship runner-up Tohoku Fukushi University are joining the field for the NYRR's Mastercard New York Mini 10 km on June 6. After running an 18:14 CR ...

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

Some Reflections on the Ekiden

by Brett Larner This ekiden season I've had a few thoughts kicking around, and watching this week's Hakone Ekiden a few of them became clearer. These are still in progress, but at the moment this is what I'm thinking in terms of running as a spectator sport and about the quality of Japanese men's distance running right now. Quality: Japanese men's running is coming up very, very quickly. I was in the lead car at November's Ageo City Half Marathon , where 18 men, 17 of them university runners, broke 63 minutes. As it was going on we all thought it was a slow race because there were so many people running that pace all the way, no separation at all in the mass of the pack. See the JRN header photo above, taken just past halfway. That's pretty unusual in Japan, especially at the university level; generally you'll get a handful of guys who run an aggressive pace and a mass running dead on a safe pace, 3:00/km in a half marathon, for example. Th...

japan running news

Search This Blog