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Njeri, Niiya and Hironaka Go Sub-15 - National Corporate Championships Day Three Results


With the first two days of the 2020 National Corporate Track and Field Championships bringing national records, world-leading marks and meet records, the last day saw one of the best races of the weekend. Fresh off her meet record win in the junior women's 3000 m, 19-year-old Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) took the women's 5000 m A-heat out hard in search of Japan's second sub-15 clocking ever. Right with her were Kenyans Rebecca Njeri (Daiso) and Joanne Kipkemoi (Kyudenko), and half marathon national record holder Hitomi Niiya (Sekisui Kagaku).

Together they went through splits of 3:02, 2:58, 3:01 and 2:59 to hit 4000 m in exactly 12:00, Niiya and Njeri taking their turns up front and Kipkemoi sliding off the back. Njeri pushed hard over the last 1000 m to open a gap, but while Hironaka couldn't stay with her Niiya kicked over the last 200 m to almost close it up, just about a first in her career and showing the effects of the work she put into the 1500 m over the summer. Njeri got the win in a meet record 14:55.32 with Niiya 2nd in 14:55.83, just over 2 seconds off Kayoko Fukushi's national record and just second time a Japanese woman has ever gone under 15. Just back from her Hironaka made it three, just getting under in 14:59.37. With three other women under 15:10 in the last year Japan is looking at its best-ever team for the Tokyo Olympics 5000 m, if there is one.

The men's 5000 m was also solid, with 3000 m SC winner Jonathan Ndiku (Hitachi Butsuryu) going head-to-head with 10000 m runner-up Benard Koech (Kyudenko). Ndiku had the wheels in the last 100 m for the win in 13:10.64 to Koech's 13:11.10, with Dominic Langat (Konica Minolta) 3rd in 13:22.42. Right behind him, Yuta Bando (Fujitsu) clocked the 12th-fastest time ever by a Japanese man and the fastest at Corporate Nationals, 13:22.60, for 4th.

Njeri's was the only women's meet record of the day, but on the men's side there were two new records. In the men's high jump Tomohiro Shinno (Kyudenko) bettered his PB by 3 cm to clear 2.31 m, tying the all-time #4 Japanese mark with a new meet record. It was the second-highest jump in the world so far this year. 110 m hurdles national record holder Shunya Takayama (Zenrin) was far off his best, but his 13.51 (+0.1 m/s) was good enough for a new meet record.

Some athletes who competed this weekend will turn around for next weekend's rescheduled Kansai Corporate Track and Field Championships, but most of the top people outside long distance will be focused on the National Track and Field Championships the first weekend of October at Niigata's Denka Big Swan Stadium. Long distance people will have to wait another two months for the 3000 m  steeplechase, 5000 m and 10000 m in Osaka the first weekend of December.

68th National Corporate Track and Field Championships

Day Three Highlights
Kumagaya, Saitama, Sept. 20, 2020
complete results

Women

 Women's 200 m Final A +0.6 m.s
1. Sayaka Oishi (Cerespo) - 23.85
2. Seika Aoyama (Osaka Seikei Gakuen Univ. Staff) - 24.03
3. Konomi Takeishi (Toho Ginko) - 24.43

 Women's 800 m Final
1. Ran Urabe (Sekisui Kagaku) - 2:05.26
2. Riku Kikuchi (Higo Ginko) - 2:07.17
3. Hana Yamada (Warabeya Nichiyo) - 2:07.48

 Women's 5000 m Time Race 3
1. Rebecca Mwangi Njeri (Daiso) - 14:55.32 - MR
2. Hitomi Niiya (Sekisui Kagaku) - 14:55.83 (MR)
3. Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) - 14:59.37 (MR)
4. Joanne Kipkemoi (Kyudenko) - 15:13.76
5. Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:16.52
6. Helen Ekarare (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 15:25.23
7. Yuka Ando (Wacoal) - 15:26.34
8. Rina Nabeshima (Japan Post) - 15:31.49
9. Miyaka Sugata (Japan Post) - 15:31.60
10. Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) - 15:36.11

 Women's 100 m Hurdles Final +0.0 m/s
1. Masumi Aoki (Nanajunana Ginko) - 13.13
2. Miho Suzuki (Hasegawa) - 13.30
3. Hitomi Shimura (Toho Ginko) - 13.32

 Women's 400 m Hurdles Final
1. Eri Utsunomiya (Hasegawa) - 58.12
2. Akiko Ito (Cerespo) - 59.04
3. Sayaka Aoki (Toho Ginko) - 59.81

 Women's High Jump Final
1. Sheriai Tsuda (Tsukiji Gindako) - 1.85 m
2. Suzuna Tokumoto (Yuboku Butsuryu) - 1.76 m
3. Natsumi Aoyama (Daitechs) - 1.73 m

 Women's Triple Jump Final
1. Mariko Morimoto (Uchida Kensetsu) - 13.27 m (+0.9)
2. Sayaka Asano (TIS) - 12.66 m (+0.8)
3. Saki Kenmochi (Hasegawa) - 12.65 (+0.9)

Women's Discus Throw Final
1. Minori Tsujikawa (Uchida Yoko) - 52.63 m
2. Mai Shimizu (Asai) - 49.69 m
3. Natsumi Fujimori (Fukui Sports Assoc.) - 49.00 m

Women's Hammer Throw Final
1. Akane Watanabe (Maruwa) - 59.34 m
2. Tamami Saeki (Champion) - 56.51 m
3. Hitomi Katsuyama (Orico) - 55.84 m

Men

Men's 200 m Final A +1.2 m/s
1. Shota Iizuka (Mizuno) - 20.47
2. Sho Kitagawa (Watanabe Pipe) - 21.08
3. Kirara Shiraishi (Cerespo) - 21.19

 Men's 800 m Time Race 2
1. Kenta Umetani (Sunbelx) - 1:50.33
2. Kosuke Moritani (Office Yagi) - 1:50.76
3. Kazuyoshi Tamogami (Ami AC) - 1:51.13

Junior Men's 5000 m Final
1. Hiroto Hayashida (Mitsubishi Juko) - 14:19.89
2. Junya Ogawa (Aisan Kogyo) - 14:21.69
3. Yugo Nakamura (Kurosaki Harima) - 14:24.48

 Men's 5000 m Time Race 4
1. Jonathan Ndiku - 13:10.64
2. Benard Koech (Kyudenko) - 13:11.10
3. Dominic Langat (Konica Minolta) - 13:22.42
4. Yuta Bando (Fujitsu) - 13:22.60
5. Benuel Mogeni (Asahi Kasei) - 13:25.29
6. Wesley Ledama (Subaru) - 13:29.16
7. Kohei Urano (Fujitsu) - 13:30.41
8. Shu Hasegawa (Kanebo) - 13:32.34
9. Evans Yego (Sunbelx) - 13:32.45
10. Haruki Minatoya - 13:34.10


Men's 110 m Hurdles Final +0.1 m/s
1. Shunya Takayama (Zenrin) - 13.51 - MR
2. Shuhei Ishikawa (Fujitsu) - 13.69
3. Ryota Fujii (Mie Sport Assoc.) - 13.78 

 Men's 400 m Hurdles Final
1. Takatoshi Abe (Yamada Denki) - 49.38
2. Masaya Oda (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 50.13
3. Masaki Toyoda (Fujitsu) - 50.63

Men's 4x400 m Relay Final
1. Kojima Press - 3:21.18
2. Toyota Jidoshokki - 3:23.02
3. Mitsubishi UFJ - 3:27.90

Men's High Jump Final
1. Tomohiro Shinno (Kyudenko) - 2.31 m - MR
2. Takashi Eto (Ajinomoto AGF) - 2.25 m
3. Naoto Hasegawa (Niigata Albirex RC) - 2.19 m

Men's Triple Jump Final
1. Hikaru Ikehata (Surugadai Univ. Staff) - 15.85 m (+0.1)
2. Yutaro Kurogi (MSG) - 15.55 m (+0.6)
3. Yuhei Nakayama (Watanabe Pipe) - 15.43 m (+0.5)

Men's Discus Throw Final
1. Yuji Tsutsumi (Alsok) - 59.22 m
2. Masateru Yugami (Toyota) - 53.99 m
3. Kazumasa Yomogida (Golds Gym) - 53.69 m

Men's Hammer Throw Final
1. Ryota Kashimura (Yamada Denki) - 69.12 m
2. Kunihiro Sumi (Kobayashi Create) - 67.17 m
3. Yushiro Hosaka (Saitama Ika Univ. Group) - 66.74 m

© 2020 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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Comments

j said…
Pretty cool that Daiso already gets to claim a 14 minute runner (even if it is a foreigner) as one of the newest teams!
September 21, 2020 at 5:04 AM
Stefan said…
The women's 5000m race lived up to the billing. Niiya was outstanding. Pretty close to the National record! A mere 2-3 seconds. In the coming years I firmly believe Ririka Hironaka will break this record and if she progresses to the marathon (as seems to be the trend) and stays injury free she has the potential to become Japan's premier marathoner. Ichiyama's performance was ok considering she was backing up from her 10k effort 2 days previous. Sayaka Sato impressed me with her time too. It was a shame the tv coverage was poor for this event. I realise the high jump is going on at the same time but still did we need to see an official raise the high jump bar for minutes on end. Do you know if there is anywhere you can watch the full race without distraction or is it limited to just the official coverage? What a shame it would have been if national record was broken and this was the only coverage we had.
September 21, 2020 at 11:22 AM
Andrew Armiger said…
Niiya is simply amazing and Hironaka is definitely exciting!
September 29, 2020 at 12:59 AM
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