Iizawa and Nakagawa Break Meet Records - National University Individual Track and Field Championships Day One Results

Usually a 2nd-tier meet held in June every year in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, this year the National University Individual Track and Field Championships have been moved up to this weekend with a full schedule of events and top-level collegiate talent.

Friday's opening day kicked off with a meet record in the men's 1500 m from Kazuto Iizawa (Tokai Univ.). Iizawa took almost 2 seconds off the old record to win in 3:44.54, with teammate Jin Mizoguchi also under the old record in 3:46.49 for 2nd. The top 9 in the final were all under 3:50, pretty good for a Japanese collegiate meet. Sheila Cherotich (Meiji Kokusai Iryo Univ.) was a second off the women's 1500 m meet record, winning in 4:21.75 over Saki Katagihara (Tsukuba Univ.).

The meet record also went in the men's hammer throw, with winner Tatsuto Nakagawa (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) throwing 70.85 m and 2nd-place Shota Fujita (Nihon Univ.) also over the old record at 70.56 m. Remi Katsuya took the women's hammer throw with a 59.96 m throw to make it a double win for Kyushu Kyoritsu University. Nanako Tamaoki (Kokushikan Univ.) tied her own women's 100 mH meet record, running 13.30 (+0.5) to win the final.

This meet usually only goes up to 5000 m, but the addition of a 10000 m this year brought in some bigger names. National ekiden champion Meijo University captain Narumi Kobayashi won the women's 10000 m in an easy 33:21.48 with 2nd through 4th all less than a second behind. Kobayashi will face #1 collegian Seira Fuwa (Takushoku Univ.) in Sunday's 5000 m. Runners from 2021 Hakone Ekiden 2nd-placer Soka University surprisingly took the top two spots in the men's 10000 m, Jun Kasai getting the win in 28:30.65 and Yudai Shimazu 2nd in 28:38.27. In 3rd was the team that beat them at Hakone, Komazawa University, repped by Kotaro Shinohara in 28:43.03.

Olympian Rachid Muratake (Juntendo Univ.) was under the meet record in the men's 110 mH with a wind-aided 13.43 (+2.6) to win the final. His teammate Kazuhiro Tateiwa took the men's 10000 mRW by over 30 seconds in 40:19.71. Hiromichi Yoshida (Kinzakigun Univ.) won the men's long jump with a 7.85 m (+0.6) jump. Ayaka Kora (Tsukuba Univ.) won the women's long jump at 6.20 m (-0.1). Rena Tanaka (Kagawa Univ.) won the women's pole vault, clearing 4.00 m on her first attempt. Sae Takemoto (Saga Sports Univ.) took the women's javelin, throwing 58.02 m.

The National University Individual Championships continue Saturday and Sunday.

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi

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