Melbourne Track Classic

After three straight weeks of road racing that included a half marathon national record, Hitomi Niiya (Sekisui Kagaku) returned to the track alongside 2019 national champion Tomoka Kimura and teammate Yuka Takashima (both Shiseido) for a 5000 m at Australia's Melbourne Track Classic. Kimura collided with another runner at the start and never regained her composure, finishing 12th in 15:51.92. Takashima and Niiya went straight to the front, with Niiya's training partner Wakana Kabasawa (Keio Univ.) handling pacing duties in the early going.

Once Kabasawa stepped off at 1000 m Niiya took over, leading the rest of the way just off the pace she needed to break her 2012-era PB of 15:10.20. The leaders quickly boiled down to just her and Australians Jessica Hull and Genevieve Gregson. From 600 m out Hull kicked, going on to win unchallenged in 15:06.12. Niiya uncharacteristically dropped Gregson over the last lap, taking 2nd in 15:15.41 with Gregson 3rd in 15:20.60. Jenny Blundell was 4th, taking the third spot on the podium for the Australian championships title. Takashima faded to 13th in 15:53.80.

Also at the meet, last year's 800 m and 1500 m double national champion Ran Urabe (Sekisui Kagaku) kicked off her 2020 season with a 4:28.48 for 9th in the women's 1500 m. Daigo Hasegawa (Ito Chotanpa) was 7th in the men's triple jump with a jump of 15.26 m (+0.7 m/s).

Melbourne, Australia, 2/6/20
complete results

Women's 5000 m
1. Jessica Hull (Australia) - 15:06.12 - WL
2. Hitomi Niiya (Japan/Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:15.41
3. Genevieve Gregson (Australia) - 15:20.60
4. Jenny Blundell (Australia) - 15:22.14
5. Linden Hall (Australia) - 15:26.22
-----
12. Tomoka Kimura (Japan/Shiseido) - 15:51.92
13. Yuka Takashima (Japan/Shiseido) - 15:53.80
-----
DNF - Wakana Kabasawa (Japan/Keio Univ.) - pacer

Women's 1500 m
1. Lauren Reid (Australia) - 4:16.52
2. Sarah Billings (Australia) - 4:18.25
3. Katherine Camp (New Zealand) - 4:20.75
4. Rebekah Greene (New Zealand) -4:22.09
5. Bernadette Williams (Australia) - 4:22.76
-----
9. Ran Urabe (Japan/Sekisui Kagaku) - 4:28.48

Men's Triple Jump
1. Julian Konlee (Australia) - 16.66 m +0.7 m/s
2. Ayo Ore (Australia) - 16.21 m +0.4 m/s
3. Shemaiah James (Australia) - 16.16 m +1.8 m/s
4. Alwyn Jones (Australia) - 16.05 m +0.9 m/s
5. Connor Murphy (Australia) - 15.68 m +1.3 m/s
-----
7. Daigo Hasegawa (Japan/Ito Chotanpa) - 15.26 m +0.7 m/s

© 2020 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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."...

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

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 .

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