Skip to main content

Izumiya Sets Collegiate NR, Yegon Just Misses Olympic Standard, Ishihara Runs U20 World Lead - Kanto Regionals Day 1 and 2 Highlights


The 100th edition of Japan's biggest collegiate meet, the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships kicked off Thursday at Kanagawa's Gion Stadium. Or more exactly it kicked off at the Yomiuriland amusement park closer to Tokyo, where the men's half marathon was held on a closed circuit course inside the park. D1 top three Vincent Raimoi (Kokushikan Univ.), Charles Ndungu (Nihon Univ.) and Paul Onyiego (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) stayed together the entire way until Raimoi pulled away in the last sprint to win in 1:01:13. Ndungu clocked 1:01:14 and Onyiego 1:01:15. 4th-placer Shunsuke Shikama (Juntendo Univ.) just missed, running 1:02:26 for the top Japanese spot with the next four all under 1:03.

The D2 race was just as exciting and almost as deep, Ryo Nishikubo (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) and Kyosuke Hanao (Komazawa Univ.) outkicking Luka Musembi (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.)) and both timed at 1:02:00 but Nishikubo earning the win. Musembi was 3rd in 1:02:01, with another four runners going under 1:03. Although it has yet to be noted on the published results, the course was reported to have been short, roughly 20.8 km.

The D2 men's 10000 m was probably the race of the opening day, as 2021 Hakone Ekiden MVP Vincent Yegon (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) soloed a 27:30.24 PB for the win, going 30 seconds under the old D2 meet record and coming up seconds short of both the Tokyo Olympics qualifying standard and the Kanto Region record. 2nd-placer Philip Mulwa (Soka Univ.) was also under 28 in 27:56.11. With teammate Takuma Ishikawa a DNS after getting arrested the day before the meet, Takumi Karasawa (Komazawa Univ.) ran big for 3rd in 28:05.76. 

A transfer from the Sunbelx corporate team this year, Samson Ndirangu (Ryutsu Keizai Univ.) held off a bold move over the last four laps from Shotaro Ishihara (Tokai Univ.) to win the D1 men's 10000 m in 28:01.80. Ishihara, who turned 19 in January two days after winning his Hakone Ekiden stage as a first year, ran 28:05.91 for 2nd, an U20 world-leading time, the second-fastest Japanese U20 and third-fastest Asian U20 mark ever. Longtime leader James Bunuka (Surugadai Univ.) faded after Ishihara's move and settled for 3rd in 28:13.96.

The women's 10000 m was very conservative until the last 1000 m, most of it spent hovering around only 3:30/km. Kaede Okajima (Nittai Univ.) hammered a 3:04 last 1000 m, going close to 60 seconds for the final lap to win in 34:08.73 by just over a second over Nana Matsumoto (Juntendo Univ.) and Mizuho Yamaga (Daito Bunka Univ.).


Stepping away from his specialty to help Juntendo University score team points, brand new 3000 m steeplechase national record holder Ryuji Miura ran a PB of 3:46.29 to lead Thursday's D1 1500 m qualifying round, then won Friday's windy and rainy final with a perfunctory kick over the last 100 m to come home in 3:48.57. Miura is scheduled to run Sunday's 5000 m, skipping out on his main event where he would be almost guaranteed to win easily.

Max Miller-Chimoto (Rikkyo Univ.) won the D2 title in 3:50.65, beating Reo Yamabayashi (Jobu Univ.) won won his qualifying heat in a PB 3:45.88. Risa Yamazaki gave the Nittai University women another win to go along with Okajima's in the 5000 m, winning the 1500 m final in 4:24.19.

In non-distance action, men's 110 m hurdles collegiate record holder Shunsuke Izumiya (Juntendo Univ.) broke his own record with a 13.30 (+0.8 m/s) in his first round heat on Thursday to become the third Japanese man to clear the Tokyo Olympics qualifying standard of 13.32. Friday's strong winds meant fast times in the D1 semis and final, where Izumiya won in 13:05 (+5.2 m/s). Likewise in the D1 men's 100 m final, where Ryota Suzuki (Josai Univ.) won in 10.01 (+5.5 m/s). 

Jun Maekawa (Nittai Univ.) cleared 4.05 m in the D1 women's pole vault, a new meet record by 5 cm. Another meet record came in the D1 women's discus throw, where Maki Saito (Tokyo Joshi Taiiku Univ.) threw 54.56 m. First-year Yu Ishikawa (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) won the D1 women's 100 m final in 11.44 (+5.1 m/s), with Mao Shimano (Nittai Univ.) winning the D1 100 mH final in 13.11 (+4.2 m/s).

The 100th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships continue Saturday and Sunday at Gion Stadium, with live streaming courtesy of organizers KGRR.

© 2021 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Toyota Wins New Expo Ekiden

A new, nominally one-off event held as part of Osaka's hosting of Expo 2025, Sunday's ACN Expo Ekiden pit top top corporate and collegiate teams against each other on a 7-stage, 54.5 km course. The new race lost a bit of steam when New Year Ekiden runner-up Honda declined to participate, when winner Asahi Kasei pulled out days before the race, and when the top two teams at the Hakone Ekiden, Aoyama Gakuin University and Komazawa University , didn't field A-list lineups. In their absence it was pretty much a blowout for New Year Ekiden 3rd-placer Toyota , who led start-to-finsh off a great leading run by Yamato Yoshii and stage best titles on 4 of the 7 individual legs to win in 2:32:48. Fujitsu came on strong over the 2nd half with wins by 4th and 5th runners Daniel Kosen and Kazuya Shiojiri and strong runs on the final stages by Hiroki Matsueda and Kengo Suzuki to move into 2nd, finishing 1:14 behind Toyota in 2:34:02. Hakonen 3rd-placer Koku Gakuin University b...

Weekend Road Race Roundup

The ACN Expo Ekiden was the biggest race of the weekend domestically, but there was so much else going on domestically and internationally that it was hard to keep track. We'll do our best. Saturday in Fukuoka the Fst in Fukuoka road mile and 5 km moved from its usual fall date to a spring date for the first time. Ireland's Sophie O'Sullivan outran high school sensation Sherry Drury by 1 second for the win in the women's mile, 4:53 to 4:54. Drury's mark was a new U20 NR. The men's mile also came down to a 1-second win for Irishman Brian Fay over Japan's Jo Aoki , 4:12 to 4:13. Margaret Akidor had an easy win in the women's 5 km in 15:34, with veteran Yuichiro Ueno outrunning a doubling Fay in the men's 5 km to win in 14:07. Complete results here . The Matsue Ladies Half Marathon hosted the National University Women's Half Marathon Sunday. National champion Ritsumeikan University 's Makoto Tsuchiya outran Daito Bunka University 's...

Kiyama and Murakami Making International Debuts at United Airlines NYC Half

Since the start of JRN's collegiate development program in 2012, a partnership between the New York Road Runners and the Ageo City Half Marathon that brings two of the top male university half marathoners in the country to the United Airlines NYC Half every year, a total of 25 athletes have made the trip. For most of them it's been their first time racing outside Japan. 10 of the 25 have been from Komazawa University , including 4 of the 5 fastest times and 4 of the 5 best placings. Kenta Murayama 's 1:00:57 for 5th in 2017 leads both lists and still stands as the fastest half marathon ever run by a Japanese man on U.S. soil. This year two more Komazawa runners are in New York as numbers 24 and 25, Yudai Kiyama and Hibiki Murakami . At Ageo last November Kiyama and Murakami ran PBs of 1:01:59 and 1:02:04 for 2nd and 4th overall to pick up invites to the NYC Half. A 3rd-year, Kiyama was a national-level 1500 m runner in high school. At Komazawa he struggled to make its ...