Skip to main content

Meet, Youth, Collegiate and National Records - Oda Memorial Meet Highlights



The 55th Oda Memorial Meet went off as scheduled Thursday in Hiroshima with off and on rain leaving a wet track for most of the day. 

In the women's 5000 m, Teresia Muthoni (Daiso) set a meet record 15:06.76 for the win, with runner-up Naomi Muthoni (Univ. Ent.) the only other runner under the Olympic standard at 15:08.07. Japan-based Kenyans took five of the top six positions. Kazuna Kanetomo (Kyocera) won the B-heat in 15:55.24.

Kenyans swept the top three spots in the men's 5000 m A-heat, with local high schooler Cosmas Mwangi (Sera H.S.) taking 1st in 13:22.80. Keita Sato (Rakunan H.S.), who turned 17 in January, was 4th in 13:42.50, the 4th-best time ever by a Japanese high schooler and over 3 seconds under the previous U18 national record. The men's 3000 m also turned out high-level results, with Keisuke Morita (Komori Corp.) leading the top six under 8:00 in a meet record 7:53.01.

Another meet record came in the women's 3000 m steeplechase, with collegiate star Reimi Yoshimura (Daito Bunka Univ.) getting the better of rival Yuno Yamanaka (Ehime Ginko), winner of the 2000 mSC at last week's Hyogo Relay Carnival. Yoshimura ran 9:51.47 to Yamanaka's 9:53.00, both clearing the old  record. 

Yet another new record came in the men's 3000 m steeplechase, where Philemon Kiplagat (Aisan Kogyo), Ryuji Miura (Juntendo Univ.) and 2020 national champ Kosei Yamaguchi (Aisan Kogyo) kicked past Rio Olympian Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) in the last 200 m to all go under the old meet record. Kiplagat took 1st in a new record of 8:25.13, Miura next in 8:25.31 and Yamaguchi 3rd in 8:26.52. All three came up short of the Olympic standard of 8:22.00, which both Kiplagat and Miura broke last summer outside the qualifying window. 

Outside the distance events, the national records fell in both the women's 100 m hurdles and men's 110 m hurdles. In the women's race, Asuka Terada (Japan Create) bettered her own record in 12.96 (+1.6 m/s) to win the final. Taio Kanai (Mizuno) took the men's final with a new record of 13.16 (+1.7 m/s), runner-up Shunsuke Izumiya (Juntendo Univ.) also bettering his own collegiate national record in 13.33 but coming up 0.01 short fo the Olympic standard.

No records fell in the women's or men's 100 m, the latter the most hyped-up event of the meet. Arisa Kimishima (DK Shiken) won the women's final in 11.64 (+0.9 m/s), with Ryota Yamagata (Seiko) taking the top men's spot in 10.14 (+0.1 m/s) over fellow big guns Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko), Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei) and Shuhei Tada (Sumitomo Denko).


© 2021 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Tokyo Marathon Top Japanese Man Tsubasa Ichiyama Works 4 Days a Week, Walked On in College

38,000 people ran the 2025 Tokyo Marathon . Every runner had their own story, but one of the most special was Tsubasa Ichiyama (Sunbelx). Despite being on almost nobody's radar, he outran some of the best in the country to finish as the top Japanese man. Ichiyama ran most of the race in the 3rd pace group, going through halfway in 1:02:44 and 30 km in 1:29:13. When the pacers stopped, he showed what he could really do. "I'm not good at downhills, so in the first part it was hard to run smoothly," he said at the post-race press conference. "But after the downhill part ended I got into my rhythm, and I think that helped me over the 2nd half." After dropping Asian Games gold medalist Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) and others, he quickly bore down on the Japanese athletes who had gone out faster in the 2nd pace group. Overtaking Paris Olympics 6th placer Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu), at 39.8 km he caught all-time Japanese #2 man Yohei I...

Chepkirui Wins Nagoya Women's Marathon

Heavy-duty favorite Sheila Chepkirui took the win at Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon , pulling away after 30 km to cruise in for 1st in 2:20:40. Erratic pacing early saw the first and second groups only seconds apart for much of the first half of the race, the top group slower than planned and the 2nd group a bit ahead of schedule. At halfway in 1:10:37 the front group included Chepkirui, #2-ranked Ruti Aga and last year's runner-up Eunice Chumba , and Japanese contingent Sayaka Sato , Rika Kaseda , Natsuki Omori and Mao Uesugi . Omori was the first to drop, then Uesugi, then Aga, who ultimately dropped out before 30 km. When the pacers stopped at 30 km Chepkirui made a move that dropped Kaseda and strung out Chumba and Sato behind her, but all four came back together once before another surge put Kaseda away for good. As Chepkirui inched away Sato and Chumba passed each other repeatedly, and Chumba could only watch as the top Japanese runner got away from her again thi...

Who's Running Tokyo Worlds?

The Japanese marathon teams will be the most prestigious ones to be on for September's Tokyo World Championships, and with Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon the window for Japanese athletes to get onto the JAAF's shortlist closed. Who's on it? The final decision won't be made until Mar. 26, but let's look through the selection criteria and see who's guaranteed, who's pretty likely, and who has a chance. 1. Marathon medalists at the Paris Olympics - There weren't any, so nobody makes the team this way. Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) were the top placers, both of them running PBs in the Olympics to finish 6th. You'd think that would count for something a year later, but you'd think wrong. 2. JMC Series IV Champions - The top point scorers in the Japan Marathon Championship Series IV, which ran from April, 2023 to March, 2025, earn places on the marathon teams along with cash prizes. For women that's Yuka ...