Fukuda and Yamaura Break Meet Records on Kanto Regionals Day Three

The 101st Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships rolled on Saturday at Tokyo's National Stadium. Shota Fukuda (Nihon Univ.) turned in the performance of the day, breaking his own D1 men's hammer throw MR on his 3rd attempt with a throw of 69.49 m. After fouling his 4th attempt, Fukuda came back in the 5th round to do it again with a 69.88 m throw for the win.

Along with the new meet records in the women's 1500 m and D1 men's shot put yesterday, another MR from the mid-90s fell in the D2 men's long jump. Keito Yamaura (Kokusai Budo Univ.) tied the old record of 7.66 m from 1995 on his first attempt, then broke it on his final attempt with a new record of 7.71 m (+0.4). Koki Matsuoka (Daito Bunka Univ.) came close to the old mark too, closing with a PB 7.62 m (+0.0) on his last jump for 2nd.

The only man in the D1 men's 10000 mRW field to have broken 40 minutes, Ryo Hamanishi (Meiji Univ.) soloed the win in 40:05.25. The next three athletes behind him all turned in PBs, Rihito Ishida (Toyo Univ.) came through with a 40:39.21 PB for 2nd, beating #2-ranked Kento Yoshikawa (Tokyo Gakugei Univ.) by 10 seconds. Hamanishi's teammate Kaichi Shimizu also had a PB at 41:06.06 to beat one of the other pre-race favorites, Mitsuki Murate (Tokyo Gakugei Univ.) for 4th. Tomoki Kondo (Jobu Univ.) took the D2 men's title in a PB 42:44.63.

In other finals:

Ryoma Fujii (Tsukuba Univ.) won the D1 men's high jump, clearing 2.11 m.
Tomoya Karasawa (Nittai Univ.) won the D1 men's pole vault at 5.40 m, clearing 5.10 m, 5.30 m and 5.40 m on his first attempt each and then skipping straight to 5.62 m to try for a new collegiate NR.
Ayaka Kora (Tsukuba Univ.) won the women's triple jump, clearing 12.93 m (+0.5) on her last jump. The 2nd through 4th-placers all produced PBs on their last jumps as well.
The top 3 all threw PBs in the D2 men's shot put, with Ryo Takano (Meikai Univ.) getting the win at 14.63 m on his last throw.
1st-year Aoi Murakami (Nittai Univ.) won the women's javelin throw with a PB 56.30 m on her last throw, with the 2nd and 3rd-placers also turning in PBs to make the podium. Yusaku Seki (Kokusai Budo Univ.) won the D2 men's javelin throw with a 64.18 m on his fifth throw.
Nanaka Kajiki (Chuo Univ.) led Rara Mizuochi (Kokushikan Univ.) 3072 to 3071 at the end of the first day in the women's heptathlon, with Miku Hamaguchi (Kokushikan Univ.) the only other woman over 3000 points at 3009.

#1-ranked Hibiki Obara (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) was a DNS in the D2 men's 3000 mSC heats, leaving Yuki Satake (Daito Bunka Univ.) to take the top spot in the lineup for Sunday's final in 8:47.90. Shota Sugimoto (Tokai Univ.) was fastest in the D1 men's heats in 8:52.98, with favorite Atsushi Shobu (Waseda Univ.) winning the other heat in 8:59.30. Expected to contend for the win in the final, Soma Hattori (Juntendo Univ.) was only 7th in the heat won by Sugimoto and failed to move on. Taiga Kushima (Nittai Univ.) advanced on time after losing his balance going over a barrier mid-race while leading and landing face-down. 0.30 seconds separated him from Shobu, with 2nd through 6th all within 0.05.

Complete results are available here. Kanto Regionals wrap up Sunday.

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

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