Skip to main content

Japan Sweeps Half Marathon and Men's 20 km Race Walk Medals at Napoli Universiade



Japan pulled off three medal sweeps in the last two days of track and field competition at the 2019 Napoli Universiade, taking all three individual medals and the team gold medals in the men's 20 km race walk and both the women's and men's half marathons.

Koki Ikeda kicked off the medal rush Friday with a 1:22:49 win in the men's 20 km race walk, opening more than 30 seconds on teammates Masatora Kawano and Yuta Koga. The next morning the Japanese women followed the walkers' lead, waiting until the third time around the three-lap course to drop the competition. Just 19, 2019 National University Half Marathon champion Yuka Suzuki (Daito Bunka Univ.) was really impressive over the last two kilometers, seeming to be going at an all-out sprint and opening more than 20 seconds on Rika Kaseda (Meijo Univ.) and Yuki Tagawa (Matsuyama Univ.) for the win in 1:14:10.


The men followed the identical race plan, letting Australian Edward Goddard do all the work over the first two laps before men's 2019 National University Half Marathon champion Akira Aizawa (Toyo Univ.) got things into gear on the last lap. While the Japanese women pulled away as a unit, this time Tatsuhiko Ito (Tokyo Kousai Univ.) struggled to go with Aizawa and Taisei Nakamura (Komazawa Univ.), falling back alongside China's Jian Hua Peng and seeing his place in the lead trio taken by another Chinese runner, Bu Jie Duo. Aizawa easily took the win in 1:05:15 with Nakamura 2nd in 1:05:27. Duo faded badly in the final kilometer, both Ito and Peng bearing down on him in the home straight. Duo crossed the line in 3rd with Ito 4 seconds back and Peng another 2 seconds back, but a post-race protest resulted in both Chinese runners being disqualified for receiving aid outside the designated aid stations. Their DQ elevated Ito to 3rd to give the Japanese men a clean sweep, early leader Goddard advancing to 4th.


Almost as predictably as with the half marathon medals, Japan scored gold in the men's 4x100 m relay, the only team to go under 39 seconds with a 38.92 ahead of silver and bronze medalists China and South Korea.  Gold also came in the men's long jump, where national champion Yuki Hashioka (Nihon Univ.) was the only man over 8 m, just, at 8.01 m. Men's 110 m hurdles national record co-holder Shunsuke Izumiya (Juntendo Univ.) picked up the other medal of the last two days, clocking 13.49 (+0.1 m/s) to take bronze. Yuna Wada (Meijo Univ.) had a near-miss in the women's 5000 m at 4th in 15:56.94, with a 4th-place finish also coming in the men's 4x400 m relay and 5th-place finishes in the men's 5000 m, women's 4x100 m relay and men's pole vault.

All told Japan picked up eight gold medals, six silver medals and five bronze medals in track and field competition at the Napoli Universiade, one of its best-ever tallies and a major part of Japan leading Russia, China and the U.S.A. to top the overall medal count with one day to go.

Napoli 2019 Summer Universiade Japanese Results

Napoli, Italy, July 8-13
complete results

Women's 5000 m Final  - July 12
1. Jessica May Judd (Great Britain) - 15:45.82
2. Nicole Hutchinson (Canada) - 15:48.06
3. Juia Van Velthoven (Netherdlands) - 15:51.75
4. Yuna Wada (Japan) - 15:56.94
5. Katarzyna Jankowska (Poland) - 15:57.76
-----
7. Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu (Japan) - 16:03.57

Men's 5000 m Final  - July 13
1. Jonas Raess (Switzerland) - 14:03.10
2. Yann Schrub (France) - 14:03.24
3. Robin Hendrix (Belgium) - 14:04.06
4. Kieran Lumb (Canada) - 14:06.08
5. Ryoji Tatezawa (Japan) - 14:16.63

Women's Half Marathon Final - July 13
1. Yuka Suzuki (Japan) - 1:14:10
2. Rika Kaseda (Japan) - 1:14:32
3. Yuki Tagawa (Japan) - 1:14:36
4. Deborah Schoneborn (Germany) - 1:15:03
5. Zhi Xuan Li (China) - 1:15:14
6. Citlali Cristian Mascote (Mexico) - 1:15:28
7. Rebecca Louise Murray (Great Britain) - 1:15:50
8. Anna Kelly (Australia) - 1:16:06
9. Anne-Marie Comeau (Canada) - 1:16:18
10. Fatma Demir (Turkey) - 1:17:35

Team Scoring
1. Japan - 3:43:18
2. China - 3:52:40
3. South Africa - 4:19:15

Men's Half Marathon Final
1. Akira Aizawa (Japan) - 1:05:15
2. Taisei Nakamura (Japan) - 1:05:27
3. Tatsuhiko Ito (Japan) - 1:05:48
4. Edward Goddard (Australia) - 1:06:20
5. Iliass Aouani (Italy) - 1:06:52
6. Shokhrukh Davlatov (Uzbekistan) - 1:07:06
7. Saffet Elkatmis (Turkey) - 1:07:07
8. Alessandro Giacobazzi (Italy) - 1:07:56
-----
DQ - Bu Jie Duo (China)
DQ - Jian Hua Peng (China)
DNF - Lachlan Cook (Australia)

Team Scoring
1. Japan - 3:16:30
2. Turkey - 3:24:47
3. Denmark - 3:30:29

Men's 110 m Hurdles Final - July 12 +0.1 m/s
1. Gabriel Constantino (Brazil) - 13.22
2. Wilhem Belocian (France) - 13.30
3. Shunsuke Izumiya (Japan) - 13.49

Men's 3000 m Steeplechase Final  - July 12
1. Mounaime Sassioui (Morocco) - 8:30.24
2. Rantso Alfred Mokopane (South Africa) - 8:30.37
3. Ashley Fergus Smith (South Africa) - 8:33.60
-----
6. Ryohei Sakaguchi (Japan) - 8:41.64

Women's 4x100 m Relay Final - July 13
1. Switzerland - 43.72
2. Australia - 43.97
3. New Zealand - 44.24
-----
5. Japan - 44.91

Men's 4x100 m Relay Final - July 13
1. Japan - 38.92
2. China - 39.01
3. South Korea - 39.31

Men's 4x400 m Relay Final - July 13
1. Mexico - 3:02.89
2. South Africa - 3:03.23
3. Poland - 3:03.35
-----
4. Japan - 3:04.34

Men's Pole Vault Final  - July 12
1. Ernest John Obiena (Phillippines) - 5.76 m
2. Torben Blech (Germany) - 5.76 m
3. Ben Joren Broeders (Belgium) - 5.51 m
-----
5. Kosei Takekawa (Japan) - 5.31 m
7. Masaki Ejima (Japan) - 5.21 m

Men's Long Jump Final - July 13
1. Yuki Hashioka (Japan) - 8.01 m
2. Yann Randriansolo (France) - 7.95 m
3. Darcy Roper (Australia) - 7.90 m

Men's 20 km Racewalk Final  - July 12
1. Koki Ikeda (Japan) - 1:22:49
2. Masatora Kawano (Japan) - 1:23:20
3. Yuta Koga (Japan) - 1:23:35

Team Scoring
1. Japan - 4:09:44
2. South Korea - 4:46:21

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .
77 comments
Read more

Gold Coast Half Marathon Elite Field

Over the weekend the Gold Coast Marathon announced its elite fields for the China Airlines Half Marathon the day before the main race. For the last couple of years there's been a friendly rivalry between Gold Coast and Tasmania's Launceston Half a month earlier to produce the fastest times ever on Australian soil. Gold Coast has had the women's record for a few years since American Keira D'Amato ran 1:06:39 in 2023, and last year it added the men's record with a 1:01:08 from Andy Buchanan . Launceston took the men's record this year with a 1:00:41 from Haftu Strintzos , and women's winner Izzi Batt-Doyle ran a course record 1:08:46, the fastest time ever by an Australia in Australia. NR holder Batt-Doyle is the favorite again in the women's race at Gold Coast. Women-only half marathon NR holder Rino Goshima has run as fast as 1:08:03, but since moving up to the marathon she hasn't anything near that kind of time, and a 33:12 at the B.A.A. 10 km ...
3 comments
Read more

Goto Drops 2nd-Straight WR - National Championships Day Three Highlights

Just over a month since his 17th birthday, Taiju Goto proved his 48.31 U18 WR in the men's 400 mH heats yesterday wasn't a fluke as he bettered that in the final on the last day of the 110th National Track and Field Championships in Nagoya. Slow in the start, Goto picked up momentum coming up to 200 m before really getting into gear, pulling away from the rest of the field in the last 100 m to win in 48.09, another U18 WR, a new U20 NR, and a run that made him the first high schooler ever to with the Nationals 400 mH. Now only 0.20 off the senior NR, Goto joins the list of Rakunan H.S. talent to be re-writing the record books that includes Yoshihide Kiryu , Ryuji Miura , Keita Sato and Toshinari Takaoka . Another Nationals MR went down, this one in the women's 3000 mSC thanks to NR holder Miu Saito . Having taken 3rd in the 5000 m 2 days ago, Saito started out a little on the conservative side with company from last year's winner Manami Nishiyama in the first 1000 ...
1 comment
Read more