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Miura Headlines Kanto Regionals 5000 m, Tazawa and Fuwa Not Entered

On May 9 the KGRR released the entry lists for this year's Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships to be held May 19-22 at Tokyo's National Stadium. Along with the Hakone Ekiden, the Kanto Regionals meet is one of the two most competitive collegiate competitions in Japan. It was held in the old National Stadium until 2013, and its return to the new version of the stadium this year after 9 years away restores some of its prestige and promises higher levels of excitement than ever before.

7th in the men's 3000 mSC final at last summer's Tokyo Olympics, 3rd-year Ryuji Miura (Juntendo Univ.) is skipping his speciality event to run the 5000 m. In past years the 5000 m was held as a straight final, but this year's program will include semis and a final. At last year's Kanto Regionals Miura won the 1500 m and was 2nd in the 5000 m. This year he will seek to overcome tough Kenyan competition to take the 5000 m title for the first time. The top-level collegiate meet will serve as a springboard for Miura for June's National Championships and July's Oregon World Championships.

Men's 10000 m all-time Japanese #2 and fastest-ever Japanese-born collegian Ren Tazawa (Komazawa Univ.) is not entered. With a best of 27:23.44 Tazawa has cleared the 27:28.00 Oregon qualifying standard, but at the May 7 National Championships he ran only 28:06.34 for 10th, missing out on the requirement of a top 3 placing for a guaranteed spot. But with a chance still remaining of being picked for the team if not enough people who finished ahead of him clear the standard, he is opting to focus on training and preparing.

2nd-year Seira Fuwa (Takushoku Univ.), the all-time 2nd-fastest Japanese woman over 10000 m and collegiate record holder at 30:45.21, is still in the process of recovering from an injury to her right Achilles tendon in January. Following her withdrawal from last weekend's National Championships she is also giving Kanto Regionals a pass.

First held in 1919, this year's Kanto Regionals will be the meet's 101st edition. Its history is even longer than that of the Hakone Ekiden, which began in 1920 and saw its 98th running this past January. In each event athletes who finish in the top 8 score points for their schools, 8 points for a win down to 1 point for 8th place, with a maximum of 3 athletes per school per event. 

Division 1 includes the top 16 schools, Division 2 the rest of the undergraduate programs entered, and D3 the graduate schools. Every year the bottom 2 placers in D1 are replaced by the top 2 from D2. With team scores determined by overall strength across all events including sprints and field events, long-distance powerhouses like Komazawa University and Aoyama Gakuin University remain perpetual fixtures in D2. This means that there is no major difference between D1 and D2 when it comes to the level of long-distance competition.

source article:
translated by Brett Larner

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