Skip to main content

Muthoni Runs 3rd-Fastest 3000 m in World, Kenyans Break 9 Meet Records - Corporate Regionals Weekend Roundup

Regional corporate track and field championships made up most of the weekend's major action, with Japan-based African athletes setting new meet records across the country. The Chugoku Region Corporate Meet in Miyoshi, Hiroshima was split between the last two weekends, with the 5000 m held last weekend and everything else this weekend.
  • Teresiah Muthoni (Daiso) and teammate Rebecca Mwangi crushed the 5000 m MR by over 20 seconds, Muthoni running 14:55.23 and Mwangi 14:57.79.
  • A week later Muthoni was back in the 3000 m, where she took over 35 seconds off the MR with a solid 8:39.91 for the win, the 3rd-fastest time in the world this year.
  • Mwangi opted to double in the 10000 m, taking over 35 seconds off that MR to win in 31:28.28. Following up on her comeback win at the Sendai International Half Marathon, Tokyo Olympics marathoner Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) had a good run for 2nd in 32:18.69.
  • Hillary Mosop (Mazda) had a near miss on the men's 1500 m MR, winning 3:44.94 just 0.24 off the record.
  • Cosmas Mwangi (Chugoku Denryoku) broke the men's 5000 m MR by 3 seconds with a 13:33.79.
  • Mwangi also came back to break the 10000 m MR, winning in 27:46.34. Runner-up Waweru Nganga (Chugoku Denryoku) also broke the MR, running 27:57.10.

  • Hellen Ekarare (Toyota Jidoshokki) took 2 seconds off her own 1500 m MR with a 4:09.76 for the win.
  • Her teammate Momoka Kawaguchi won the 5000 m in 15:44.95.
  • Ethiopian Desta Burka (Denso) won the 10000 m in 33:40.07.
  • Philemon Kiplagat (Aisan Kogyo) cut almost 4 seconds off his own 3000 mSC MR to win by 28 seconds in 8:22.79 on Saturday, then came back Sunday to win the 5000 m in 13:29.10. His teammate, Tokyo Olympian Kosei Yamaguchi, skipped the steeple to finish in the top Japanese spot in the 5000 m in 13:32.38 for 4th.
  • Rodgers Chumo Kwemoi made it a clean sweep for the Aisan Kogyo team, taking over 6 seconds off the 2010-era 10000 m MR to win by 1 minute in 27:25.17.
  • Tokyo Olympics 20 kmRW bronze medalist Toshikazu Yamanishi (Aichi Seiko) won the 10000 mRW in 39:18.57.

  • Judy Jepngetich (Shiseido) won the women's 3000 m in 8:59.34.
  • Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) won the 1500 m in 4:20.13 Saturday, then on Sunday beat the 2009-era 5000 m MR by 9 seconds to win in 15:03.95. Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) was just under the old record in 15:11.21 a week after taking the top spot in the Japanese 10000 m National Championships. Tokyo Olympics marathoner Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post) was 2nd in the B-heat in 16:04.72.
  • Rosemary Wanjiru (Starts) had an easy win by 59 seconds in the 10000 m in 32:10.24.
  • NR holder Kumiko Okada (Fujitsu) won the 5000 mRW in 21:15.87.
  • Keisuke Morita (K.morita) improbably beat Justus Soget (Honda) to win the men's 1500 m, 3:46.55 to 3:47.46. Soget was back the next day to win the 5000 m, running 13:29.02.
  • Jonathan Ndiku (Hitachi Butsuryu) won the 10000 m in 28:06.87.

At the Kansai Region Corporate Championships in Naruto, Tokushima:
  • Marathoner Yuka Ando (Wacoal) won the women's 10000 m in 32:44.22 on Friday, then came back Sunday to take the 5000 m in 15:31.34. Arisu Fuwa (Senko), older sister of 10000 m collegiate record holder Seira Fuwa, was 3rd in the B-heat in 16:42.36.
  • Yuki Ishii (NTT Nishi Nihon) won the men's 1500 m in 3:45.63.
  • Antipas Kibet (SG Holdings) won the 5000 mm in 13:45.41.
  • A recent transfer from the Konica Minolta team, Kazuto Kawabata (SG Holdings) won the 10000 m in 29:05.14.
  • 5000 mRW U20 NR holder Yuta Koga (Otsuka Seiyaku) beat the MR by 22 seconds to win in 19:14.95.
With the Hokuriku Region having held its regional championships a month ago only the Kyushu Region Corporate Championships are still to come, scheduled for next weekend in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka.

© 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Stefan said…
I watched Ayuko Suzuki's 5000m race. She is struggling post Olympics. It's unfortunate but so far the 3 appearances I can recall post Olympics (an Exiden leg, 10000m and this 5000m) have all been underwhelming by her standards. It must be difficult for her to stay motivated.

Honami Maeda's run is very positive coming off her excellent showing in the Sendai Half. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any Youtube video of her race.

Sayaka Sato ran a decent time in the 3000m race won by Judy Jepngetich. 9:08.19 early in the season is a good time for her. I'm hoping she is slowly working herself back into some good form.

I didn't know Seira Fuwa had an older sister who was also an athlete.

Thank you for an excellent roundup of all the events over the weekend.

Most-Read This Week

Heisei Mountaineering Stops Takigahara SDF Base From Scoring 10-Year Streak at Mount Fuji Ekiden

by Koichi Iwasa of DogsorCaravan On Aug. 2 the 51st Mount Fuji Ekiden took place, starting and finishing in Gotemba, Shizuoka and covering 11 stages up to the peak of Mount Fuji and back down. Teams of 6 runners tackle the tough course, each running handling one uphill and one downhill leg with the 6th runner reaching the peak before turning around to head back to the exchange zone where they started. The Heisei Mountaineering Club team took the overall win in 3:50:39, beating 9-time winner Takigahara SDF Base by 2:07 and stopping them from achieving a 10-year victory streak. The independent team division and SDF team division were separated in 2005, and this was the first time that the winning independent team outran the fastest SDF team to take the overall title. The roster that Heisei Mountaineering put together for this year's race raised eyebrows among everyone familiar with the Japanese trail running scene. Handling the 5th and 7th legs was Ruy Ueda , winner of the Fuji M...

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...

Komazawa University One Step Away From Perfect Season With Hakone Ekiden Day One Win

Already the course record-breaker at the Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden this season, 2021 Hakone Ekiden champion Komazawa University came one step away from its first-ever triple crown of single-season ekiden wins as it won a highly competitive 2023 Hakone Ekiden Day One over defending champ Aoyama Gakuin University and last year's 6th placer Chuo University . Things got off to an unexpected start when Select Team runner Hayate Nitta of non-qualifier Ikuei University decided to take his one and only Hakone shot and run it up to his ability on the 21.3 km 1st leg even though the rest of the field opted to jog. At one point Nitta had a lead of almost a minute and a half, but as beautiful as it would have been for him to pull it off, Meiji University 's Shunpei Tomita and Komazawa's Kensuke Tsubura still managed to run him down in the final kilometer. Tomita took the stage win in 1:02:44, 1:02:08 half marathon pace vs. his 1:02:10 PB despite the slow s...