Skip to main content

Weekend Track Roundup


The last weekend of the 2021-22 fiscal and academic year had some good early-season outdoor track action at multiple meets across the greater Tokyo area. In Chiba, 2016 Rio Olympics steepler Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) met up with 2021 Tokyo Olympics steepler Ryuji Miura (Juntendo Univ.) over 3000 m at the Juntendo University Time Trials on Saturday. Last year at another edition of the Juntendo series Miura bettered Shiojiri 7:48.07 to 7:53.68. Shiojiri ran almost the same time, 7:53.44, but this time he took the top spot as Miura ran 7:55.43 for 2nd. Five other runners from the Fujitsu and Juntendo teams were under 8:05, led by Fujitsu's Yuhei Urano in 8:01.78 in his first race since running 2:07:52 for 3rd at the Feb. 28 Osaka Marathon. 1st-year Kenshin Ebisawa (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) took the men's 10000 m in 29:31.42.


Sub-8 times for 3000 m used to be rare in Japan, but another one happened Sunday at the Tokai University Time Trials. Tomoki Ichimura from hosts Tokai University soloed a 7:58.26 for the win, the only man to go under 8:05. Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) won the men's 5000 m fast heat in 13:52.85, with Tomohiro Chimori (Chuo Univ.) winning the men's 10000 m fast heat in 29:27.57. Yamada Holdings runners went 1-2 in the women's 3000 m, Harumi Okamoto getting the win in 9:21.83 and Sakiho Tsutsui 2nd in 9:27.69.

Saturday's Heisei Kokusai University Time Trials didn't produce any fast times, but the men's 5000 m A-heat was notable mostly for who was in it. All-time Japanese #3 for 10000 m Tatsuhiko Ito won in 14:06.44, with his 2022 New Year Ekiden champion Honda teammates Shoya Kawase and Ken Nakayama 4th and 8th in 14:16.47 and 14:35.74. All-time high school 10000 m #3 Shunsuke Yoshii (Sendai Ikuei H.S.), younger brother of 2022 Hakone Ekiden First Stage winner Yamato Yoshii (Chuo Univ.) was 3rd in 14:12.61, with 2:08:28 marathoner Daisuke Hosomori (YKK) 6th in 14:21.96.

Along with Tokyo Olympian Kosei Yamaguchi's win at the Melbourne Track Classic last weekend, two domestic meets also had good results. On Monday's public holiday, Komazawa University duo Kotaro Shinohara and Chikara Yamano followed up on their incredible runs at February's National Corporate Half Marathon with a 1-2 at the Tokai University Spring Time Trials meet. Shinohara took 1st in 13:45.65, with Yamano next in 13:57.32. Two days earlier, last year's top Japanese half marathoner Takashi Ichida (Asahi Kasei) won the Miyazaki Time Trials men's 10000 m in 28:09.50, a second and a half ahead of teammate Benuel Mogeni Magoma.

© 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Rigajags said…
Excellent write up!
I had managed to read only about the juntendo event so it's good to know about other meetings.

With university Nationals coming up mid April can we expect some top names there or Miura, tazawa and the others will likely hold out for June nationals and Oregon in july?
I tried to look at the event schedule but couldnt find much.
Thank you as usual.
March 29, 2022 at 8:00 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...
8 comments
Read more

Kipyegon Repeats, Toyo Wins Hakone Ekiden Qualifier in First Appearance in 21 Years

Back for the first time in 21 years after a disastrous 14th-place finish at the 102nd Hakone Ekiden this past January, Toyo University hit one out of western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park with a solid win at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, the half marathon that serves as the official qualifying race for the 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The top 10 teams in the Hakone auto-qualify for the following year, with the rest having to run the Yosenkai in October with a squad of 10 to 16 runners out of which the top 10 score on aggregate time, with the 10 fastest schools joining the Hakone field and top individuals from non-qualifying teams names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team to make up the complete Hakone field of 21. Driven in large part by an aggressive run from 3rd-year Yu Miyazaki , one of only 2 Japanese athletes to go with the big African contingent up front, Toyo won in 10:31:30, 1:03:09 or 2:59.6/km per athlete. As the first team to have broken the 3:00/km average pace barrie...
1 comment
Read more

Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...
2 comments
Read more