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Three More Meet Records, Fuwa Last - National University Individual Track and Field Championships Day Three



The National University Individual Track and Field Championships wrapped its third day with three new meet records. First up, Atsushi Shobu (Waseda Univ.) led the top 5 under the old record in the men's 3000 m steeplechase, winning in 8:40.57. The next 4, Soma Hattori (Juntendo Univ.), Shohei Yamaguchi (Teikyo Univ.), Ryotaro Onuma (Josai Univ.) and Kento Uchida (Rikkyo Univ.) were all under 8:50, and with all 5 coming from different universities it showed the impact Olympian collegian Ryuji Miura of Juntendo University is having on making the steeple a focus event in Japan.

Women's steeple collegiate record holder Reimi Yoshimura (Daito Bunka University), now a 4th-year, also broke the meet record, taking over 4 seconds off 2016 Olympian Anju Takamizawa's old record to win in 9:53.64. Manami Nishiyama was next across the line in 10:01.67 but didn't count in standings due to being a corporate leaguer, leaving official 2nd-placer Nanase Tanimoto (Meijo Univ.) far back in 10:07.19.

Tokyo Olympian Kazuki Kurokawa (Hosei Univ.) rounded out the haul of records, winning the men's 400 m hurdles by exactly 1 second in 49.40, 0.28 under the old record.

Records aside, the biggest news came in the women's 5000 m where collegiate 10000 m NR holder Seira Fuwa (Takushoku Univ.) kicked off her 2nd year with a last-place finish. National University Ekiden champion Meijo University took 1st and 3rd, 4th-year Yuma Yamamoto getting the win in 15:49.19 and new recruit Nanaka Yonezawa running her first 5000 m in the Meijo uniform in 15:51.62 behind Risa Yamazaki (Nittai Univ.).

But Fuwa never engaged, running 3:30/km from the start and finishing last by over 37 seconds in 17:30.45. Post-race she revealed that she had injured her Achilles tendon at January's National Women's Ekiden and been forced to take time, only starting up again on Apr. 7. She and her coach had indicated that her goals for this race were to make it to the finish and to run an even pace, and with both accomplished seemed positive about the result and her chances at next month's 10000 m national championships.

The men's 5000 m was small with only 7 starters, but decently competitive. Kotaro Shinohara (Komazawa Univ.) took the win in 13:47.90, less than 3 seconds off the meet record and less than a second ahead of Shota Nakano (Chuo Univ.), 2nd in 13:48.36, and Masaya Tsurukawa (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.), 3rd in 13:48.66.

Another noteworthy and very unusual result came in the discus throw. Women's U20 NR holder and meet record holder Maki Saito (Tokyo Joshi Taiiku Univ.) threw 53.96 m to win the women's discus, improbably beating men's discus winner Ryoga Tobikawa (Tokai Univ.) who threw only 53.31 m.

In other action on the last day of the meet:
  • Shuri Aono (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) was just off the meet record in the women's 200 m final, winning in 23.86 (+0.3).
  • Reon Miura (Waseda Univ.) won the men's 200 m final in 20.85 (+1.0), 0.1 up on Ryo Kimura (Meiji Univ.).
  • Hikaru Yamaguchi (Juntendo Univ.) took the women's 800 m final in 2:10.36, Junya Matsumoto (Hosei Univ) winning the men's 800 m final in 1:49.95. Ayano Shiomi was technically 1st across the line in the women's race in 2:10.30 in her debut with the Iwatani Sangyo corporate team but didn't count in final standings.
  • Honoka Aoki (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) won the women's 400 mH in 58.23.
  • Tomoya Kawasawa (Nittai Univ.) won the men's pole vault, clearing 5.30 m on his first attempt bu unable to go higher.
  • Yuto Adachi (Fukuoka Univ.) took the men's triple jump with a 15.68 m (0.0) on his first jump that ended up being enough to win.
© 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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Stefan said…
I watched Seira Fuwa on the Youtube livestream and was wondering what was happening. Your article explained it perfectly. Having suffered a few Achilles injuries myself I know it is a very difficult injury to recover from and it doesn't happen quickly and you will lose a lot of 'running' fitness during this time. What I feared might happen has happened. My hope is that she has pulled up well after this run because sometimes you don't really know till the day after. It will now be an amazing feat if she were to qualify for the World Championships in 10000m national championships race next month. I hope she can do it. She is a crowd pleaser and generates a lot of interest as can be seen when the viewership numbers rose dramatically when her race started.
April 18, 2022 at 5:12 AM
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