Skip to main content

Yoshimura and Ito Set New Collegiate Records on Last Day of National University Track and Field Championships



The 90th National University Track and Field Championships wrapped up Sunday under sunny skies and late-summer temps in Kumagaya, Saitama.

Already the U20 and meet record holder in the women's 3000 m steeplechase, Reimi Yoshimura (Daito Bunka Univ.) broke both the meet and collegiate national records with a solo 9:41.43 for the win. Yoshimura just edged Yuno Yamanaka (Ehime Ginko), who ran 9:41.84 in June, out of the 2nd-fastest Japanese ever position, and with two women now within 8 seconds of Minori Hayakari's 9:33.93 it feels like there's a legit shot at a new national record on the horizon.

The men's 3000 mSC was uneventful, with national record holder Ryuji Miura (Juntendo Univ.) turning in a perfunctory 8:32.47 for the win, 4 seconds off the meet record he set last year during his first collegiate season.

Another collegiate record came in the men's triple jump courtesy of another U20 national record holder. Riku Ito (Kinki Univ.) jumped 17.00 m (+1.3) on his 4th attempt, breaking the collegiate record by 2 cm and the 1985 vintage meet record by 8 cm to move into all-time Japanese #3. The national record, set in 1986, is now just another 15 cm away for Ito.

The decade-old women's 100 m hurdles collegiate record was out of reach, but Manaka Shibata (Kantaiheiyo Univ.) took the win in a meet record 13.23 (+1.8) after having set the previous record of 13.25 (+1.6) in the semifinals. Shibata looked the most relaxed and causal during the pre-race introductions, just smiling and waving when her name was called like it was any other race.

Men's 110 mH national record holder Shunsuke Izumiya (Juntendo Univ.) bettered his own day-old meet record to win the final in 13.29 (+1.4). Taiga Yokochi (Hosei Univ.) was a surprise in 2nd, just 0.03 off Izumiya's previous record at 13.47 and bettering Olympic alternate Rachid Muratake (Juntendo Univ.), 3rd in 13.48.

Star 1st-year Seira Fuwa (Takushoku Univ.) did most of the heavy lifting in the women's 5000 m, surviving a mid-race surge from rival Narumi Kobayashi (Meijo Univ.) to retake the lead. In the last 200 m she was outkicked by Kenyan 1st-year Sheila Cherotich (Meiji Kokusai Iryo Univ.), but post-race Cherotich was disqualified for stepping inside the rail at the start. Fuwa was elevated to 1st in 15:50.32, with Kobayashi 2nd in 15:54.14 and Risa Yamazaki (Nittai Univ.) 3rd in 15:59.85. 

With the four best Africans in the field all a DNS and Waseda University star Yuhi Nakaya a mid-race DNF, Japanese runners took the top 3 places in the men's 5000 m. Kotaro Kondo (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) got the national title with a kick on the last bend to run down leader Kotaro Shinohara (Komazawa Univ.) 13:46.98 to 13:48.57. Ken Tansho (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) was 3rd in 13:48.78.

In other finals:
  • Olympic 4x100 m team member Ami Saito (Osaka Seikei Univ.) won the women's 200 m final in 23.76 (-0.9), beating Olympic teammates Aiko Iki (Ritsumeikan Univ.) and Mei Kodama (Fukuoka Univ.)
  • Ayano Shiomi (Ritsumeikan Univ.) went out front from the start on collegiate record pace in the women's 800 m, fading but still hanging on to win in 2:05.57.
  • Yuka Kawamura (Waseda Univ.) won the women's 400 mH final in 58.57.
  • Shiomi was back from the 800 m to anchor Ritsumeikan University to the win in the women's 4x400 m, where they clocked 3:38.44 to finish nearly a second up on Sonoda Gakuen Joshi University.
  • Fumika Ono (Saitama Univ.) won the women's shot put in 16.37 m, the only woman to go over 16 m.
  • Narumi Matsushima (Kokusai Budo Univ.) took the women's hammer throw with a 5th-attempt throw of 59.72 m.
  • In men's events, Ryota Suzuki (Josai Univ.) won the 200 m final in 20.50 (+1.3).
  • Kazuto Iizawa (Tokai Univ.) won a slow 800 m final, kicking in the home straight to win in 1:50.47.
  • Hiromu Yamauchi (Waseda Univ.) took the men's 400 mH final in 49.28.
  • Anchor Yuki Joseph Nakajima came through to give the Toyo University men the win in the 4x400 m final, stopping runner-up Waseda from taking both men's relay titles.
  • As in the women's pole vault, 1st-years took the top two places in the men's pole vault, both Kazuki Furusawa (Tsukuba Univ.) and Tomoya Karasawa (Nittai Univ.) clearing 5.40 m but Karasawa getting the win after making it on his 2nd attempt.
  • Koji Murofushi may have put all hammer throw records permanently out of reach for other Japanese men, but Tatsuto Nakagawa (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) came decently close to the meet record this year, throwing 70.58 m for the win on his final attempt, 1.26 m short of Murofushi's meet record dating back to 1996.
© 2021 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Hakone Champ AGU Hits 50 km a Day in Spring Break Training Camp

Having scored its 3rd-straight Hakone Ekiden win this past January, Aoyama Gakuin University spent the Golden Week spring holidays training on the Myoko Plateau in Niigata from May 2-6. Along with the champion men's ekiden team, the first 2 members of AGU's new women's long distance team Nodoka Ashida and Kairi Ikeno , and AGU alumni and 2026 New Year Ekiden champion GMO team members Yuya Yoshida and Asahi Kuroda also took part in the training camp. Depending on the day's training schedule, mileage at the camp was over 50 km a day. AGU men's captain Kaito Nakamura confidently said, "This Golden Week training camp is where we lay the foundations for our 4th-straight Hakone title." A lot of people spend Golden Week on vacation, but the AGU ekiden team spent their time working hard on Myoko's rolling land amid the sprouting leaves of spring. On the 2nd day of the camp, May 3, team members woke up at 5:00 a.m. to do their warmup. The team assembled a...
1 comment
Read more

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...
3 comments
Read more

70th Yamagata-ken Judan Ekiden

The 70th running of the Yamagata-ken Judan Ekiden happened over the start of the Golden Week holidays, a 3-day, 29-leg race covering 306.9 km around the northern prefecture of Yamagata. There used to be a lot more of these races where people from the prefecture run for their hometown teams on a Tour de Whatever prefecture or area it happens to be held in, but Yamagata's is one of the few to have survived this long. And amazingly enough, local broadcaster YBC live streamed the entire thing on Youtube. There aren't many corporate teams in the mostly rural area, so runners from the ND Software corporate team played a heavy role, its 2 best runners Masato Arao and Ryoma Takeuchi winning their stages on Day 2 with Takeuchi doubling to anchor the Kita-Murayama team to an overall 5th-place finish, and Koichi Shoji breaking the 2nd leg CR on Day 1 and winning the 2nd-to-last stage on Day 3 to play a key role in the Yamagata city team taking the overall win in 16:06:51, 3:09/km ...
1 comment
Read more