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National Track and Field Championships Day Two Highlights



Friday was day two of Japan's 104th National Track and Field Championships, and whatever else might have been happening in other parts of the world it was a good day at least for defending women's champions. Three scored repeat wins, Seika Aoyama (Osaka Seikei AC) winning the 400 m final in 53.55, Mariko Morimoto (Uchida Kensetsu AC) taking the triple jump in 13.14 m (-0.2) and Akane Watanabe (Maruwa) the hammer throw at 64.84 m.

As with day one a lot of the 2019 men's champs were missing, leaving Takatoshi Abe (Yamada) the only one to put a back-to-back title next to his name with a 49.73 win in the 400 m hurdles that saw him almost run down by Tatsuhiro Yamamoto (Nihon Univ.) after starting hard. 2017 and 2018 men's 1500 m national champ Ryoji Tatezawa (DeNA) made it back to the top after a bad year last year, winning in 3:41.32 with the top four all under 3:42. Times in the men's 100 m final were nothing special, but in maybe the most emotional performance of the day Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei), Japan's first man to break the 10-second barrier, won his first national title since 2014 in 10.27 (-0.2), running down a packed field that had all the big names in Japanese sprinting except Abdul Hakim Sani Brown and Ryota Yamagata.

After a set of great runs at last month's National University Championships that moved her up to all-time Japanese #3 for 100 m, Mei Kodama (Fukuoka Univ.) proved it wasn't a fluke with a win in 11.36 (+0.5). She couldn't have arrived on the scene at a better time, national record holder Chisato Fukushima fading from the scene and unlikely to make the Tokyo Olympic team. The breakthrough performance of the day came in the women's 1500 m, with Nanaka Yonezawa (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) running the fourth-fastest Japanese high school mark ever, 4:15.62, for 2nd. Koki Kuruma (Striders AC) had a good breakthrough day too, clearing 5.60 m for the first time to unexpectedly beat favorite Seito Yamamoto (Toyota) for the win.

The National Championships wrap up Saturday, everything broadcast live on NHK. There's no official live stream, but live results can be had here.

National Track and Field Championships

Day Two Highlights
Denka Big Swan Stadium, Niigata, Oct. 2, 2020
complete results

Women

Women's 100 m Final +0.5 m/s
1. Mei Kodama (Fukuoka Univ.) - 11.36
2. Remi Tsuruta (Minami Kyushu Family Mart) - 11.53
3. Yu Ishikawa (Soyo H.S.) - 11.65 - PB

Women's 400 m Final
1. Seika Aoyama (Osaka Seikei AC) - 53.55
2. Nanako Matsumoto (Toho Ginko) - 53.77
3. Saki Takashima (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 53.81

Women's 1500 m Final 
1. Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 4:10.21
2. Nanaka Yonezawa (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) - 4:15.62 - PB
3. Yume Goto (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 4:16.18 - PB
4. Ran Urabe (Sekisui Kagaku) - 4:16.33
5. Reimi Yoshimura (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 4:18.65

Women's Triple Jump Final
1. Mariko Morimoto (Uchida Kensetsu AC) - 13.14 m -0.2 m/s
2. Asuka Yamamoto (Kokushikan Club) - 12.85 m +0.5 m/s
3. Eri Sakamoto (Nihon Shitsunai TC) - 12.17 m -0.5 m/s

Women's Hammer Throw Final
1. Akane Watanabe (Maruwa) - 64.84 m
2. Hitomi Katsuyama (Oriko) - 62.47 m
3. Miharu Kodate (Ryutsu Keizai Univ.) - 60.80 m

Women's 200 m Final Qualifiers
Remi Tsuruta (Minami Kyushu Family Mart) - 23.95 +0.4 m/s
Sayaka Oishi (Cerespo) - 23.99 +0.1 m/s
Mei Kodama (Fukuoka Univ.) - 24.07 +0.2 m/s
Ami Saito (Osaka Seikei Univ.) - 24.11 +0.1 m/s
Saki Takashima (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 24.22 +0.1 m/s
Sayumi Yoshida (Hitomiya AC) - 24.27 +0.4 m/s
Sae Miyazono (Kokushikan Univ.) - 24.29 +0.2 m/s
Seika Aoyama (Osaka Seikei AC) - 24.29 +0.4 m/s

Women's 800 m Final Qualifiers
Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 2:05.14
Ayano Shiomi (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 2:05.61
Miu Nakamura (Fukushima Univ.) - 2:05.80 - PB
Ayaka Kawata (Higashi Osaka Univ.) - 2:06.92
Miki Shimura (Nittai Univ.) - 2:07.71 - PB
Yuki Taniguchi (Seiryo H.S.) - 2:08.22
Ran Urabe (Sekisui Kagaku) - 2:08.28
Rina Aoyama (Chukyo H.S.) - 2:08.53
Riku Kikuchi (Higo Ginko) - 2:08.61

Women's 100 m Hurdles Final Qualifiers
Asuka Terada (Pasona Group) - 13.13 +0.3 m/s
Masumi Aoki (77 Ginko) - 13.17 +0.1 m/s
Nana Fujimori (Zenrin) - 13.34 +0.1 m/s
Miho Suzuki (Hasegawa) - 13.36 +0.1 m/s
Miku Fujiwara (Sumitomo Denko) - 13.38 +0.1 m/s
Hitomi Shimura (Toho Ginko) - 13.46 +0.3 m/s
Yumi Tanaka (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 13.57 +0.3 m/s
Maya Takeuchi (Nihon Joshi Taiiku Univ.) - 13.57 +0.3 m/s - PB

Women's 400 m Hurdles Final Qualifiers
Aisha Ibrahim (Sapporo Kokusai Univ.) - 57.80
Akiko Ito (Cerespo) - 58.01
Kana Koyama (Waseda Univ.) - 58.16
Ami Yamamoto (Kyoto Tachibana H.S.) - 58.34
Eri Utsunomiya (Hasegawa) - 58.47
Rui Tsugawa (Waseda Univ.) - 58.79
Yuka Kawamura (Waseda Univ.) - 58.80
Moeka Sekimoto (Waseda Univ.) - 59.19

Men

Men's 100 m Final -0.2 m/s
1. Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei) - 10.27
2. Aska Cambridge (Nike) - 10.28
3. Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.30
4. Shota Iizuka (Mizuno) - 10.33
5. Shuhei Tada (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.34
6. Ryota Suzuki (Josai Univ.) - 10.41
7. Hiroki Yanagida (Tokyo Nogyo Daini H.S.) - 10.43
8. Ippei Takeda (Suzuki) - 10.52

Men's 400 m Final
1. Rikuya Ito (Waseda Univ.) - 45.94
2. Daichi Inoue (Nihon Univ.) - 46.48
3. Fuga Sato (Nasu Kankyo) - 46.50

Men's 1500 m Final
1. Ryoji Tatezawa (DeNA) - 3:41.32
2. Ryota Matono (Mitsubishi Juko) - 3:41.82 - PB
3. Yasunari Kusu (Ami AC) - 3:41.89
4. Shoma Funatsu (Kyudenko) - 3:41.96
5. Yusuke Takahashi (Hokkaido Univ.) - 3:42.33 - PB

Men's 400 m Hurdles Final
1. Takatoshi Abe (Yamada) - 49.73
2. Tatsuhiro Yamamoto (Nihon Univ.) - 49.79
3. Masaki Toyoda (Fujitsu) - 49.96

Men's Long Jump Final
1. Hibiki Tsuha (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 7.99 m -0.1 m/s
2. Daiki Oda (Yamada) - 7.81 m -0.6 m/s
3. Riku Ito (Kinkidai Kogyo H.S.) - 7.75 m +0.7 m/s

Men's Pole Vault Final
1. Koki Kuruma (Striders AC) - 5.60 m - PB
2. Seito Yamamoto (Toyota) - 5.60 m
3. Kosei Takekawa (Marumoto Sangyo) - 5.50 m

Men's Hammer Throw Final
1. Ryota Kashimura (Yamada) - 71.03 m
2. Takahiro Kobata (Chukyo Univ.) - 70.23 m - PB
3. Shota Fukuda (Nihon Univ.) - 69.30 m

Men's 200 m Final Qualifiers
Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) - 21.03 -0.1 ms
Kazuma Higuchi (Hosei Univ.) - 21.05 -0.2 m/s
Shota Iizuka (Mizuno) - 21.05 -0.2 m/s
Ryota Suzuki (Josai Univ.) - 21.10 -0.2 m/s
Keigo Yasuda (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 21.11 0.0 m/s
Naoki Uemoto (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.) - 21.14 0.0 m/s
Jun Yamashita (ANA) - 21.16 -0.2 m/s
Shota Hara (Suzuki) - 21.19 -0.1 m/s

Men's 800 m Final Qualifiers
Daichi Setoguchi (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:48.02
Kentaro Usuda (Tsukuba Univ.) - 1:48.19 - PB
Daiki Nemoto (Juntendo Univ.) - 1:48.60
Junya Matsumoto (Hosei Univ.) - 1:48.55
Daisuke Sakurai (Seiko) - 1:48.71
Sho Kawamoto (Suzuki) - 1:49.23
Mikuto Kaneko (Chuo Univ.) - 1:50.29
Kenta Umetani (Sunbelx) - 1:50.51

Men's 110 m Hurdles Final Qualifiers
Shunya Takayama (Zenrin) - 13.39 +0.8 m/s
Taio Kanai (Mizuno) - 13.40 +0.4 m/s
Shunsuke Izumiya (Juntendo Univ.) - 13.45 +0.8 m/s
Shusei Nomoto (Ehime T&F Assoc.) - 13.54 +0.8 m/s
Shuhei Ishikawa (Fujitsu) - 13.58 +0.8 m/s
Kenta Masuno (Masonwork) - 13.59 +0.4 m/s
Taiga Yokochi (Hosei Univ.) - 13.60 +0.8 m/s - PB
Thomas Higashi Ishida (Katsuura Golf Club) - 13.61 +0.4 ms

© 2020 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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