Skip to main content

Kobayashi Breaks Collegiate Women's 10000 m Record - Hokuren Distance Challenge Abashiri Highlights


Meet 3 of 5 in this year's Hokuren Distance Challenge series happened Saturday in Abashiri, Hokkaido. The biggest news came in the women's 10000 m, where 2021 National University Half Marathon champion Narumi Kobayashi (Meijo Univ.) broke the 11-year-old collegiate women's national record and cleared the qualifying time for next year's World Championships. Running with excellent pacing by Pauline Kamulu (Route Inn Hotels), Kobayashi split 15:44 at 5000 m before picking it up in the second half to win in 31:22.34. Ai Hosoda (Edion) hung with Kobayashi as long as she could but ended up 2nd in 31:39.32, with amateur club runner Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita) taking 15 seconds off her two month-old PB for 3rd in 32:09.44.

James Muoki (Konica Minolta) won the men's 10000 m A-heat in 27:35.59. Muiru Muthoni (JR Higashi Nihon) was the only other man under 28 minutes at 27:52.93, Kazuya Nishiyama (Toyota) fading to 28:08.36 after Yuki Sato (SGH Group) abruptly dropped out at 8000 m, leaving Nishiyama on his own at the toughest point in the race. Ken Tansho (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) won the B-heat in 28:19.17. Haruki Mori (Hokkaido Sakae H.S.) was 8th in the B-heat in 28:44.97, the fastest-ever by a Hokkaido high schooler.

Like the men's 10000 m, Kenyans went 1-2 in the women's 5000 m A-heat, Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) winning in 15:16.09 and Dolphine Nyaboka Omare (U.S.E. RC) 2nd in 15:21.07. Naruha Sato (Shiseido) took the top Japanese spot at 3rd in 15:41.28.  Visually-impaired marathon world record holder Misato Michishita (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) had a solid tuneup for the Tokyo Paralympics, winning the T11-13 women's 5000 m in 18:54.09.

Muoki's teammate Dominic Langat (Konica Minolta) won the men's 5000 m A-heat in 13:27.10, just outlasting 2021 Hakone Ekiden winner Komazawa Universtiy 2nd-year Mebuki Suzuki, who dropped a 13:27.83 for 2nd, making him all-time #8 on the Japanese collegiate charts. Emmanuel Kipchirchir (Kurashiki H.S.) was 3rd in 13:28.11, with Kenyans also the next two places. Olympic 10000 m team members Katsuhiko Ito  (Honda) was 14th in 13:42.50, proclaiming it on-target post-race and saying his goal in the Olympic 10000 m is to make top 8.

The T11-13 men's 5000 m was also a good preview of where Japan's Paralympians are at, with Shinya Wada (Nagase Sangyo) taking the top spot in 15:28.32 over Tadashi Horikoshi (NTT Nishi Nihon), 2nd in 15:32.66, and Kenya Karasawa (GSWC), 3rd, in 15:34.92.

Taisei Ogino (Asahi Kasei) took the top spot in the men's 3000 mSC in 8:43.95, Yuzu Nishide (Kansai Gaikokugo Univ.) winning the women's 3000 m SC in 10:26.97.  Tuning up for a planned 1500 m and 5000 m double in Tokyo, Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) shaved a little off her record with a win in 8:40.84 in the women's 3000 m. The top 6 al broke nine minutes, making it an usually fast race by Japanese standards.

Hidenori Sakuma (Meiji Univ.) turned in the fastest time in the two men's 15000 m heats, winning the A-heat in 3:41.62. Mizuki Michishita (Rikkyo Univ.) won the women's 800 m in 2:06.63. 

The Hokuren Distance Challenge series continues Wednesday in Kitami.

© 2021 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Stefan said…
In the womens 3000m, Sayaka Sato smashed her PB which was previously 9:05.75 set in July 2020 and set a time around 8:52.43 which is incredible. Given that she ran the Nagoya marathon last year in a time of 2:23:27 and 2:24:32 this year (in the revised looped course), my hopes are raised very high. If she should be able to translate this short distance speed into her marathon efforts a marathon PB beckons large... perhaps a time of 2:20:00 or thereabouts! From the marathoners, only Mao Ichiyama has this type of short distance speed in recent times and we know what she is capable of in terms of marathon times.
July 11, 2021 at 4:02 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin
Post a Comment
Read more

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi
Post a Comment
Read more

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and
Post a Comment
Read more