With the cloud cover starting to break up Tamaki Fujimoto (Nittai Univ.) took the D1 men's race out even harder, pushing the first 5 km through in 14:31, 1:01:15 pace, and holding the lead through 7 km before backing off. First Rei Yamahira (Chuo Univ.), then Daichi Kimoto (Toyo Univ.) took the lead, but around 14 km Fujimoto took off again and never looked back. Up by 14 seconds at 20 km, he closed with a 2:44 km to win in 1:02:20, 3 seconds under the meet record set back in 2008 by sub-60 half marathoner Mekubo Mogusu (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) and a PB by 35 seconds.
The front end of the chase group behind him saw nonstop turnover over the last 5 km, with almost everyone still in the group trying to make a break for it at some point. Ren Umezaki (Toyo Univ.) had the strongest finish, 2nd in a PB 1:02:41, with Yamahira surviving for 3rd in a PB of 1:02:48. 8 out of the top 10 ran PBs, a sign of how good conditions were and of the potential for this new course. Fujimoto executed an overall perfect race, setting it up the way he wanted it over the first 1/3, letting others do the work in the middle, then taking control over the last 1/3. More than the time, that positioned him at the top level of the current collegiate generation on the roads.
On the track, D2 men's 10000 m winner Noah Kiplimo (Nihon Yakka Univ.) made it a double in the D2 5000 m, winning a three-way sprint finish in a slow race in 13:55.47 as he outkicked newcomer Victor Kimutai (Josai Univ.), 2nd in 13:55.82, and Masaya Tsurukawa (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.). The women's 5000 m was a slow burner too, Mizuho Yamaga (Daito Bunka Univ.) leading the early stages before a Nittai University trio led by Risa Yamazaki went to the front together. Mao Kogure (Juntendo Univ.) and Yui Hagiwara (Toyo Univ.) tacked on the back, and over the last lap it came down to Yamazaki for the win in 16:05.97, Kogure 2nd in 16:06.87, and Hagiwara 3rd in 16:08.34. Hagiwara was actually the most impressive of the top three, showing great potential for the roads if not for winning in the last kick.
But the most anticipated race of the day was the D1 men's 5000 m. 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura (Juntendo Univ.) went straight to the front with a 63-second first lap, slowed to 2:45 for the first 1000 m, then backed off even further. But even though there were multiple people in the race who had run in the 13:30s, everyone was afraid to go ahead of him. What were they going to do, though, really? Miura was faster than anyone else in the race and, as he has showed again and again over the last year and a bit, he can kick harder than anyone else in Japan. Enter Rei Matsunaga (Hosei Univ.).
With 3 laps to go Matsunaga, whose PB pre-race was 14:06.77, started to move up from the middle of the lead group of almost 20. With 950 to go he was on Miura's shoulder. With 850 m to go he said, "Enough, let's do this!" and took off. The stadium roared. With 600 m to go he was 4 seconds ahead, Miura not taking the bait. With 400 m to go Miura finally moved, and the stadium roared again. And again when he caught Matsunaga with 250 m to go. Miura won in 13:42.35, with a margin of more than 5 seconds over 2nd-place Godfrey Musanga (Surugadai Univ.). Shota Nakano (Chuo Univ.) was 3rd in 13:48.01, with Matsunaga ultimately landing 6th in a PB 13:50.45.
In chasing him down Miura covered the last lap in 54 seconds, what might have been the fastest close ever by a Japanese athlete over 5000 m. Women's 400 m final winner Keiko Iida (Chuo Univ.) ran 53.84. Miura keeps going from strength to strength, but this was really on another level and a sign of things to come. It took Matsunaga as a catalyzing agent to bring it out, and it was without a doubt the highlight of the 101st Kanto Regionals.
In other finals:
- After taking 2nd in the 100 m, Towa Uzawa (Tsukuba Univ.) won the D1 men's 200 m final in 20.77 (-0.7). Abidahlarry Miyatake (Nittai Univ.) survived a yellow card in the women's 200 m final to win in 24.04 (-0.3). Shodai Hirano (Daito Bunka Univ.) won the D2 men's 200 m in 21.02 (+1.3).
- Junya Matsumoto (Hosei Univ.) won the D1 men's 800 m final in 1:47.23, 0.80 up on 2nd-placer Mikuto Kaneko (Chuo Univ.). Hikaru Yamaguchi (Juntendo Univ.) won the women's 800 m in 2:08.14. Yutaro Iihama (Rikkyo Univ.) was the D2 champ in 1:50.50.
- Matsumoto's Hosei teammate Kazuki Kurokawa won the D1 men's 400 mH final in 49.22, with Moe Matsuoka (Chuo Univ.) winning the women's race in 57.83. Shuta Nakai (Daito Bunka Univ.) broke the 2005-era D2 meet record in a PB 50.42.
- Yuki Satake (Daito Bunka Univ.) ran a solid 8:45.75 PB to win the D2 men's 3000 mSC final over Hayate Aoki (Shonan Kogyo Univ.), who likewise ran a new PB of 8:48.56 for 2nd. In his fourth race of the weekend Atsushi Shobu (Waseda Univ.) won the D1 men's 3000 mSC final in 8:52.38. Collegiate record holder Reimi Yoshimura (Daito Bunka Univ.) had an easy win in the women's 3000 mSC in 10:00.86, with 2nd through 8th place all running PBs.
- D1 men's 400 m champ Joseph Nakajima anchored Toyo University to the win in the D1 men's 4x400 m, running down Hosei University and Chuo University for the win in 3:04.59. Tokyo Nogyo University set a new D2 meet record of 3:06.68 thanks in large part to a solid anchor run from Arran Meldrum. Among the front contenders in the D2 race, Sakushin University was DQd after a failed exchange early in the race. Chuo won the women's 4x400 m by over a second, running 3:39.23 with 400 m champ Iida on anchor.
- Yudai Kurabayashi (Daito Bunka Univ.) was the D2 men's high jump winner, clearing 2.03 m on his first attempt with Konosuke Takada (Rikkyo Univ.) taking two tries to get over.
- Rikuto Takahashi (Ikuei Univ.) won the D2 men's pole vault, one of three athletes to clear 5.00 m on his first attempt but the only one with no missed attempts at lower heights.
- 1st-year Natsuki Mainaga (Nihon Univ.) won the D1 men's long jump with a 5th-round jump of 7.73 m (-0.4). Aoi Kondo (Tokai Univ.) came up just short of taking Mainaga out on his final attempt, jumping 7.72 m (+0.1) for 2nd.
- Hayato Tanigawa (Nihon Univ.) won the D1 men's javelin throw in a PB 71.59 m.
- Nanaka Kajiki (Chuo Univ.) was the heptathlon champ with a PB 5257.
In overall team scoring, Nihon University was back in the D1 men's champion's spot with 131.5 points. Toyo University took 2nd with 93 points and Tsukuba University 3rd with 75 points. Last year's winner Juntendo University was 4th with 64 points.
Nittai University had an even more dominant win in the women's team competition, 1st with 177.5 points. Tsukuba University was 2nd at 115 points, the only university in the top 3 for both women and men, with Chuo University 3rd at 72 points.
Kokusai Budo University took the D2 men's title with 110.5 points, beating Daito Bunka University by just 15.5 points. Rikkyo University was 3rd with 69 points.
Comments
Miura has been outstanding both in the qualifying and final. Basically did whatever he wanted.
And for the first time this year we saw him Attack with 400m to go rather than waiting the last 200.
I think he needs to race against some International competition as he needs to understand how much he can let someone on front.
In domestic races no one can match his kick/come back, on the world stage he Will need to be closer to the front and fight his tendency of losing so much ground before final 600.
That said, with that world class finish i think that if he gets there in good form and plays It well he could dream of a medal in the 3000 SC.
Great talent and hard to figure out at times, he Always seems like he Is not even pushing hard.