Kusu Breaks 2000 mSC NR - Weekend Track Roundup

Saturday's Spring Nobeoka Time Trials meet was a tuneup for Kyushu-area men's teams for next month's Golden Games in Nobeoka, notable mostly for 2:06~2:08 marathoners Toshiki Sadakata (Mitsubishi Juko), Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei), Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) and Ichitaka Yamashita (Mitsubishi Juko) returning to action after marathons in February and March. Emmanuel Kiplagat (Mitsubishi Juko) took the top spot in the men's 5000 m in 13:30.54, with Daiki Ando (Asahi Kasei) the fastest Japanese man at 6th in 13:41.76.

At the Nittai University Time Trials meet, Saturday's main action was the women's 3000 m, where Esther Muthoni (Nitori) beat Cynthia Mbaire (Hitachi) 8:59.74 to 9:01.66. Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita) ran a PB 9:14.99 for 3rd, heading straight from there to Gifu for a sub-70 half marathon PB the next morning. 24 men ran sub-29 for 10000 m, led by Ayumu Kobayashi in 28:18.87. On Sunday, 22 heats of men's 5000 m, a total of 44 men went sub-14 across the 4 fastest heats. Antipas Kibet (SG Holdings) was the fastest at 13:25.80 to win the A-heat, Yushin Nakajima (Hitachi Butsuryu) the fastest Japanese man at 13:37.63.

Only 2 men went sub-14 at the Hyogo Relay Carnival, but both were local high schoolers, Sonota Nagashima (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) winning in 13:55.00 over Kazuma Maeda (Hotoku H.S.), 13:56.65. In 3rd was Reo Niizuma (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) in 14:11.98, whose twin brothers Koki and Haruki Niizuma (Hiraoka J.H.S.) both broke the J.H.S. meet record, Koki winning in 8:34.42 and Haruki 2nd in 8:36.84. Across 3 heats of men's 10000 m 26 went sub-29, Richard Kimunyan (Hitachi Butsuryu) leading four Kenyans under 28 in 27:39.79 and sub-61 half marathoner Masashi Nonaka (Osaka Gas) dropping the fastest Japanese time of the weekend, 28:17.25. Yasunari Kusu (Ami AC) broke the men's 2000 mSC NR in 5:29.11, with Nanami Arai (Honda) taking the men's 1500 m in 3:41.08.

Helen Ekarare (Toyota Jidoshokki) won the women's 10000 m in 31:22.89 in her first serious race at the distance. Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) was 2nd in 32:39.29, just holding off amateur club runner Shiho Kaneshige (GRLab) by 2 seconds after doubling in the 1500 m. Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) took over 33 seconds off the women's 5000 m meet record, winning in 15:06.00 by almost 44 seconds over Kaede Kawamura (Iwatani Sangyo). Tokyo Olympian Yuno Yamanaka (Ehime Ginko) missed her own 2000 mSC NR by less than a second, winning in 6:20.21 in a sprint finish against Yukari Ishizawa (Hitachi) and Yuzu Nishide (Daihatsu). Fuka Otagaki (Yoka H.S.) was only slightly faster in the high school girls' 2000 m, winning in 6:18.38.

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