Skip to main content

Fukuoka Women Break 4x100 m Collegiate Record on Second Day of National University Track and Field Championships



On-and-off rain and wind from the typhoon passing to the south meant unstable conditions on the second day of the 90th National University Track and Field Championships in Kumagaya, Saitama, some people lucking out and others out of luck. 

With Tokyo Olympian Mei Kodama running 2nd, the Fukuoka University women broke the 4x100 m relay meet record of 44.59 set three years ago by Nittai University. Fukuoka ran 44.51 for the win, not only clearing the old meet record but also going under the collegiate record of 44.56. Runner-up Ritsumeikan University was almost a second behind in 45.49. Kodama also won the 100 m final in 11.51 (+0.5), 0.16 off the individual meet record she set last year.

In his first-round heat NR holder and Olympic team member Shunsuke Izumiya (Juntendo Univ.) crushed the 110 m hurdles meet record of 13.67 that had stood since 2001, clocking 13.44 (+0.1). His teammate and Olympic alternate Rachid Muratake (Juntendo Univ.) did the same in his heat, going under the old record in 13.59 (+0.5) to win his heat. Taiga Yokochi (Hosei Univ.) was just off the old record, winning his heat in 13.69 (-1.0) to head to the semis ranked 3rd. No one else was under 13.84.

Other winners on the second day of competition:
  • Saki Takashima (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) won the women's 400 m final in 55.46.
  • Minori Yabuta (Mukogawa Joshi Univ.) took the women's 10000 mRW in 46:03.57.
  • Nagisa Takahashi (Nihon Univ.) won the women's high jump after clearing 1.79 m on her 3rd attempt.
  • Sakura Uchiyama (Tokyo Univ.) had a 13.02 (+1.0) jump in the first round of the women's triple jump that was good enough for the win.
  • Maki Saito (Tokyo Joshi Taiiku Univ.) beat discus throw collegiate record holder Nanaka Kori (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) to win in 54.18 m.
  • Karin Odama (Nittai Univ.) just missed the heptathlon meet record of 5550, scoring 5525 for the win.
  • In men's action, 2nd-year Aoto Suzuki (Toyo Univ.) was a surprise winner in the 100 m final, running 10.33 (-0.2) to follow in the footsteps of Toyo's meet record holder Yoshihide Kiryu.
  • 1st-year Masataka Tomita (Tokyo Rika Univ.) won the 400 m final in 46.35.
  • Waseda University returned to the top in the 4x100 m relay, winning in 39.15 over Ritsumeikan University and Juntendo University. Collegiate record holder Chuo University and meet record holder Tokai University both failed to make the final.
  • Yuta Koga (Meiji Univ.) took 1st in the men's 10000 mRW in 39:45.90, the only one under 40 minutes.
  • Soku Hiratsuka (Nihon Univ.) won the men's high jump, going over 2.15 m on his 2nd attempt.
  • 1st-year Jason Atuobeng won the men's shot put with a 5th-round throw of 17.64 m. Atuobeng looks like a good candidate to break the collegiate record of 18.64 by the time he hits his senior year.
  • Ririki Kawamoto (Ritsumeikan Univ.) won the decathlon with a score of 7250, holding off Ryoya Moriguchi (Tokai Univ.) who closed Kawamoto's lead from 88 to 30 points over the second day.
The National University Track and Field Championships wrap up Sunday. Live streaming can be had here.

© 2021 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...