Skip to main content

Keitany Wins Deepest-Ever 10,000 m at Hachioji Long Distance


Temperatures in the single digits and strong winds held back people's chances of qualifying for next year's World Championships, but they couldn't stop this year's Hachioji Long Distance meet from delivering a piece of history. In the fastest of the meet's seven heats of 10,000 m, Evans Keitany (Toyota Boshoku) ran 27:28.25 for the win, edging 2nd-placer James Muoki (Konica Minolta) by 0.24 seconds and 3rd-placer Samwel Masai (Kanebo) by 0.52.  Behind them another 18 men broke 28 minutes for a total of 21, breaking the record of 20 set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. 8 of the 21 men were Japanese, with Tatsuhiko Ito (Honda) taking the top Japanese spot at 4th in 27:30.69 and Tomoki Ota (Toyota) breaking through with a 27:33.13 PB for 5th. National record holder Akira Aizawa (Asahi Kasei) was 20th in 27:58.35.

And it didn't stop there. In the final heat marathoner Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) ran a 13-second PB of 27:43.17 for the win, leading 14 Japanese men under 28 minutes in his heat. Heat 4 had 6 men under 28:10 and Heat 5 a winning time of 28:10.57 from Yamato Otsuka (NTT Nishi Nihon), with Yuma Hattori (Toyota) finishing 8th in 28:22.86 in his first race since suffering symptoms of heat stroke in the Tokyo Olympics marathon. All around it was one of the deepest days on the track in Japanese history.

Hachioji Long Distance

Kamiyugen Park Field, Hachioji, Tokyo, 27 Nov. 2021

Heat 6
1. Evans Keitany (Toyota Boshoku) - 27:28.25
2. James Muoki (Konica Minolta) - 27:28.49
3. Samwel Masai (Kanebo) - 27:28.77
4. Tatsuhiko Ito (Honda) - 27:30.69
5. Tomoki Ota (Toyota) - 27:33.13
6. Patrick Kiprono (Komori Corp.) - 27:33.78
7. Philip Muluwa (Soka Univ.) - 27:35.29
8. Boniface Kandie (Mitsubishi JUko) - 27:36.06
9. Titus Wambua (SID Group) - 27:36.87
10. Amos Kurgat (Chudenko) - 27:37.82
11. Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Asahi Kasei) - 27:41.78
12. Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu) - 27:42.73
13. Kota Murayama (GMO) - 27:45.09
14. Philemon Kiplagat (Aisan Kogyo) - 27:46.91
15. Ledama Kisaisa (Kanebo) - 27:47.17
16. Yusuke Tamura (Kurosaki Harima) - 27:48.42
17. Benuel Mogeni Magoma (Asahi Kasei) - 27:48.77
18. Muiru Muthoni (JR Higashi Nihon) - 27:51.43
19. Dominic Langat (Konica Minolta) - 27:57.03
20. Akira Aizawa (Asahi Kasei) - 27:58.35
21. Yuya Yoshida (GMO) - 27:59.14
22. Takashi Ichida (Asahi Kasei) - 28:05.89
23. Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu) - 28:12.91
24. Naoki Koyama (Honda) - 28:12.96
25. Taku Fujimoto (Toyota) - 28:14.86

Heat 7
1. Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) - 27:43.17
2. Keijiro Mogi (Asahi Kasei) - 27:44.17
3. Tomoya Ogikubo (Yakult) - 27:44.74
4. Kanta Shimizu (Subaru) - 27:45.04
5. Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) - 27:45.18
6. Naoki Aiba (Chudenko) - 27:48.26
7. Kazuya Nishiyama (Toyota) - 27:48.26
8. Hironori Tsuetaki (Fujitsu) - 27:49.80
9. Kiyoshi Koga (Yasukawa Denki) - 27:51.64
10. Hideyuki Tanaka (Toyota) - 27:52.60
11. Tatsuya Oike (Toyota Boshoku) - 27:53.45
12. Yuki Muta (Hitachi Butsuryu) - 27:56.25
13. Yuki Suzuki (Kanebo) - 27:57.15
14. Masashi Nonaka (Osaka Gas) - 27:58.38
15. Yohei Ikeda (Kanebo) - 28:00.65
16. Shingo Moriyama (YKK) - 28:01.06
17. Shunya Kikuchi (Chugoku Denryoku) - 28:02.17
18. Takahiro Nakamura (Kyocera Kagoshima) - 28:03.73
19. Shoya Kawase (Honda) - 28:03.89
20. Wataru Tochigi (Hitachi Butsuryu) - 28:14.05

Heat 4
1. Shota Maeda (Hitachi Butsuryu) - 28:05.62

Heat 5
1. Yamato Otsuka (NTT Nishi Nihon) - 28:10.57

Heat 3
1. Tetsu Yokoyama (Hitachi Butsuryu) - 28:26.34

Heat 2
1. Tomoya Kitamura (OBRS) - 28:40.69

Heat 1
1. Seiya Kusaka (Nichi Akagaku Kogyo) - 29:22.90 

© 2021 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Rigajags said…
Given the conditions It was great results overall.
Was expecting more from Aizawa, to me It seems that since last May he Is not running as well as before. Dont know why.
Ito was impressive.

Talking about Ekiden guys: muluwa had a great run, could be a sign that Soka guys are getting in top form.
Yamato Yoshii at over 29 minutes was disappointing.
Are Ekiden teams still going with heavy work before unloading in december so some runners may still be a work in progress and a bit behind? (Just wondering given Yoshii time)

Anyway was a great meeting.

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Takeuchi Wins Niigata Half in Boston Tune-Up

Running in cold, windy and rainy conditions, Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Software) warmed up for April's Boston Marathon with a win at Wednesday's Niigata Half Marathon . Takeuchi sat behind Nittai University duo Susumu Yamazaki and Ryuga Ishikawa in the early stages, then made a series of pushes to pick up the pace. Each time he tucked in behind whoever went to the front, while behind them others dropped off. Before 15 km only Yamazaki and Riki Koike of Soka University were left, and when Takeuchi went to the front the last time after 15 km only Koike followed. By 16 he was gone too, leaving Takeuchi to solo it in to the win in 1:03:13 with a 17-second negative split. "This was my last fitness check before the Boston Marathon next month, and my time was right on-target," he said post-race. "Everything went as planned. I'm looking forward to racing some of the world's best in Boston, and my goal there is to place in the single digits." Just back from tr