Tanaka Breaks Meet Record in Andujar, Sakaguchi Just Short of Doha Standard

Running her first race as a 20-year-old two days after her birthday, 2018 World U20 Championships 3000 m gold medalist Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki TC) tuned up for the Doha World Championships with a 15:17.28 meet record in the Memorial Francisco Ramon Higueras meet in Andujar, Spain.

Running with support from JRN, Tanaka had an unexpected rematch against this year's 5000 m national champion Tomoka Kimura (Shiseido). With a projected 3000 m split of 9:13 Tanaka kept herself in 3rd place until the pacer dropped out a lap early at 2600 m. When frontrunning Ethiopian-born athletes Beyenu Degefa and Bontu Rebitu immediately slowed down Tanaka went to the front to keep the pace moving, dropping Kimura and others. Over the next three laps she and Degefa exchanged the lead at least three times before Tanaka put the hammer down from 800 m out.

Alone over the last 800 m, Tanaka was under 3:00 for the final 1000 m to take the win in 15:17.28, missing her PB by less than 2 seconds but beating Kimura's year-leading Japanese time by almost 3. Tanaka's time took 16 seconds off the meet record and opened 13 seconds on runner-up Degefa over the last two laps. "I totally blew it at Nationals," she told JRN post-race. "This time I ran the kind of race I was envisioning." Next up she will run the 5000 m in Doha.

Once she let go, national champion Kimura rapidly dropped back from Tanaka and the others in the lead group to finish 8th in 16:19.80. Pre-race her coach, men’s 3000 m steeplechase national record holder Yoshitaka Iwamizu, told JRN, “She’s been feeling pretty tired lately, and we’re kind of surprised there are other Japanese runners here. We’d been planning for her to come here so she could race without any other Japanese around and get a good mental image in place for Doha.” The fastest Japanese woman of the year prior to Tanaka’s win with a 15:19.99 in May, Kimura will need to make the most of the next month to recover and be ready for her World Championships debut.

Having missed Doha qualification by less than a second while winning June’s National Championships men’s 3000 m steeplechase, Ryohei Sakaguchi (Tokai Univ.) was also in Andujar in a last-ditch attempt to clear the standard. Three days earlier Sakaguchi raced in the Memorial Borisa Hanzekovica meet in Zagreb, Croatia alongside Nationals runner-up Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu). Shiojiri suffered a bad fall on the first water jump, landing with the edge of the water pit hitting directly across his thigh, and dropped out.

Sakaguchi frontran early but slowed, rallying over the last lap but again missing the standard by less than a second with a 9:29.91 for 8th. In Andujar he again went out at the front behind the pacer, but this time he showed real fatigue and slowed dramatically over the last 1000 m, absent of any sign of his characteristic closing speed and finishing 10th in 8:47.86.

His only hopes now are of earning an invitation from the IAAF based on his 8:29.85 at Nationals and of the JAAF accepting. Shiojiri’s fate is less clear, having gone under the standard earlier in the season but falling at both Nationals and in Zagreb to say nothing of the impact of his fall. The final lineup of the Japanese team will be announced Sept. 17.

Memorial Borisa Hanzekovica

Zagreb, Croatia, 9/3/2019
complete results

Men's 3000 m Steeplechase
1. Matthew Hughes (Canada) - 8:23.42
2. Topi Raitanen (Finland) - 8:25.51
3. Lawrence Kipsang (Kenya) - 8:26.93
4. Ben Buckingham (Australia) - 8:27.51
5. Yaser Bagharab (Qatar) - 8:28.45
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8. Ryohei Sakaguchi (Japan/Tokai Univ.) - 8:29.91

Memorial Francisco Ramon Higueras

Andujar, Spain, 9/6/19
complete results

Women's 5000 m
1. Nozomi Tanaka (Japan/Toyota Jidoshokki TC) - 15:17.28 - MR
2. Beyenu Degefa (Ethiopia) - 15:30.51 (MR)
3. Meraf Bahta (Sweden) - 15:35.17
4. Maja Alm (Denmark) - 15:35.81 - PB
5. Bontu Rebitu (Bahrain) - 15:50.60
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8. Tomoka Kimura (Japan/Shiseido) - 16:19.80
9. Nana Kuraoka (Japan/Denso) - 16:25.99
11. Mai Shoji (Japan/Denso) - 16:33.05
12. Mikuni Yada (Japan/Denso) - 16:34.08

Men's 3000 m Steeplechase
1. Yaser Bagharab (Qatar) - 8:27.25
2. Tom Karbo (Norway) - 8:27.67 - PB
3. Barnabas Kipyego (Kenya) - 8:34.02
4. Abdelhamid Zerrifi (France) - 8:35.82
5. Kaur Kiwstik (Estonia) - 8:38.44
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10. Ryohei Sakaguchi (Japan/Tokai Univ.) - 8:47.86

text and photo © 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved