With the Japanese academic and fiscal year ending Wednesday, this year saw one last blowout with decently competitive track time trial meets across the country.
At the Asahi Kasei corporate team's home track in Nobeoka, 2016 Rio Olympics steepler Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) led five men under the 28:16.00 B-standard for May's 10000 m National Championships, winning in 28:09.10. Olympic marathon team alternate Shohei Otsuka (Kyudenko) had a bad day of it, off the back in the first lap and finishing last in 29:55.91. Keijiro Mogi (Asahi Kasei) led start to finish in the slower heat to win in 28:48.58.
In suburban Tokyo, National University Ekiden and Hakone Ekiden champ Komazawa University dominated the fast races at the Setagaya Time Trials meet. Komazawa's Takumi Karasawa won the 5000 m A-heat in 13:40.90, with teammate Mebuki Suzuki bouncing back from qualifying for the World University Games half marathon two weeks ago to win the 3000 m A-heat in 8:01.83.
One of the stars of this year's Hakone Ekiden, Tokai University first-year Shotaro Ishihara was even faster than Suzuki, running 7:58.26 to win Tokai's home ground time trials meet 3000 m A-heat and landing at all-time #3 on the Japanese U20 lists. The top 11 were all under 8:10, an exceptionally good race by Japanese standards. Johnson Mogeni (Yugakkan H.S.) won the 5000 m A-heat in 13:40.27. Club runner Shiho Kaneshige (GRlab Kanto) outran corporate leaguers from the Daiichi Seimei and Panasonic teams to win the women's 3000 m A-heat in a PB of 9:22.76.
At the Heisei Kokusai University Time Trials meet, Judy Kipngetich (Masuda Higashi H.S.) ran 8:59.53 to win the women's 3000 m A-heat by over 25 seconds. Seia Hotta (Chiharadai H.S.) won the men's 5000 m A-heat in 14:05.57.
Usually the biggest of the time trial meets, this time the Nittai University Time Trials was relatively low-key, with Yuya Ueda (Hiramatsu Byoin) turning in just about the only noteworthy run as he won the 5000 m fast heat in 13:56.89.
© 2021 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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