Skip to main content

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

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Endo, Nishikawa and Yamakawa Announce Corporate Team Changes

The SG Holdings men's corporate team announced on Oct. 1 that long-distance athletes Hyuga Endo and Yuichiro Nishikawa have joined its roster after leaving the Sumitomo Denko team. Endo, 28, won the Junior Olympics 3000 m while at Koriyama Nishi J.H.S. before going on to Gakuho Ishikawa H.S. where he was the the top Japanese placer in the 5000 m at the National High School Championships 2 years in a row. After graduating from Gakuho Ishikawa he joined the Sumitomo Denko team, winning the National Championships 5000 m in 2021. He won gold at the 2023 Asian Championships and represented Japan at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships. "I will give everything I have as part of the team and work hard toward helping it win the New Year Ekiden," he said of his new environment. Of his personal goals he said, "I want to focus on the 5000 m and reach new levels to compete internationally." Nishikawa, 28, was a member of Tokai University 's winning teams at the H...
Post a Comment
Read more

3 Athletes Provisionally Suspended After Positive Drug Tests at Asian Games (updated)

The International Testing Agency announced on Oct. 2 that provisional suspensions have been imposed on two athletes, Kazakhstan's Aiana Bolatbekkyzy in track and field, and Tajikistan's Issamjon Sharifov in tennis, after they tested positive for prohibited substances at the Asian Games in Nagoya, Aichi. Bolatbekkyzy, 19, tested positive for the steroid drostanolone in a sample collected during an in-competition test at the Games. A diuretic drug was found in the sample collected from Sharifov, 23. Update:  On Oct. 3 a third athlete, kurash wrestler Yash Kumar Chauhan  of India, was provisionally suspended after an in-competition test detected the steroid metandienone, the metabolic modulator GW1516, and the stimulant mephentermine in his system. source article: https://www.sanspo.com/article/20261002-X4FJLT5MMZKFND6WXPOESAKETQ/ translated by Brett Larner
Post a Comment
Read more