Outdoor Track Season Kicks Off at Chukyo and Setagaya

With the traditionally season-opening Oda Memorial Meet coming a week late this year the outdoor track season got started with two main time trial meets Saturday.

Runners from the Toenec corporate team dominated Aichi's Chukyo University Saturday Time Trials, with Daichi Takeuchi following up his runner-up finish at last month's Inuyama 10 km with a win in 13:42.57 over Kenyan Nicholas Kiplimo (Aichi Seiko). His teammate Daiji Kawai returned from a 2:10:50 at Lake Biwa to take 3rd in 13:51.52. The B-heat was also decently quick, winner Ryusei Takahashi (Aichi Seiko) just dipping under 14 minutes in 13:59.00.

Usually maxing out at 3000 m at this point in the season, this time around Tokyo's Setagaya Time Trials featured both women's and men's 5000 m and even a men's 10000 m. Kenyan Grace Kimanzi (Starts) won the women's 5000 m in 15:43.53, with Hakone Ekiden Fifth Stage winner Yuhei Urano (Koku Gakuin Univ.) taking the fastest men's heat in 13:52.80. Taiki Suzuki won what seemed to be mostly an intramural 10000 m time trial for the Raffine corporate team, running 29:15.19. In the 3000 m, the Sunbelx team showed off its new transplants from the now-defunct Nissin Shokuin team, with Yudai Okamoto and Masaki Toda going 1-2 in 8:05.96 and 8:07.40.

Chukyo University Saturday Time Trials

Umemura Field, Toyota, Aichi, 4/6/19

Men's 5000 m Heat 4
1. Daichi Takeuchi (Toenec) - 13:42.57
2. Nicholas Kiplimo (Aichi Seiko) - 13:51.15
3. Daiji Kawai (Toenec) - 13:51.52
4. Hazuma Hattori (Toenec) - 13:59.87
5. Shintaro Miwa (NTN) - 14:00.35

Men's 5000 m Heat 3
1. Ryusei Takahashi (Aichi Seiko) - 13:59.00
2. Hiroyuki Fujii (Aisan Kogyo) - 14:03.28
3. Bernard Muia (Toyota Boshoku) - 14:03.35
4. Satoshi Kondo (Toyota) - 14:03.75
5. Masanori Sakada (Aichi Seiko) - 14:09.14

Setagaya Time Trials

Kinuta Park Field, Setagaya, Tokyo, 4/6/19
complete results

Women's 5000 m Heat 1
1. Grace Kimanzi (Starts) - 15:43.53
2. Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:52.01
3. Nana Sato (Starts) - 16:05.48
4. Kyoka Kudo (Nittai Univ.) - 16:09.90
5. Narumi Kobayashi (Meijo Univ.) - 16:10.33

Men's 3000 m Heat 6
1. Yudai Okamoto (Sunbelx) - 8:05.96
2. Masaki Toda (Sunbelx) - 8:07.40
3. Yuji Osuda (Komori Corp.) - 8:07.53
4. Haruki Minatoya (DeNA) - 8:09.33
5. Keigo Yano (Kanebo) - 8:10.35

Men's 5000 m Heat 7
1. Yuhei Urano (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 13:52.80
2. Yoshihiro Hiraga (SDF Academy) - 13:54.39
3. Tomoki Yasuda (Kanagawa Univ.) - 13:55.36
4. Shun Yoshizato (Surugadai Univ.) - 13:57.56
5. Kei Fumimoto (Kanebo) - 13:59.23

Men's 10000 m Heat 1
1. Taiki Suzuki (Raffine) - 29:15.19
2. Ryota Komori (Teikyo Univ.) - 29:18.08
3. Kansuke Morihashi (Raffine) - 30:07.68
4. Futoshi Ebisawa (Raffine) - 30:16.51
5. Kenta Fukumura (Raffine) - 30:27.78

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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