Michishita Breaks Own 5000 m Asian Record at National Para Track and Field Championships

Tokyo Paralympics women's T12 marathon gold medalist and world record holder Misato Michishita (Mitsui Sumitomo) broke her own Asian area record to win the 5000 m on the first day of this weekend's National Para Track and Field Championships, just down the road in Kobe from the National Championships and U20 National Championships in Osaka. Running 18:31.72 with help from guide runner Megumi Kawaguchi, Michishita took over 17 seconds off her old record and over a minute off her own meet record to win by more than 2 minutes. T11 class Asian record holder Natsumi Inouchi (Mizuho FG) also took over a minute off the 5000 m meet record in her division, winning in 21:02.24. Wheelchair athlete Tsubasa Kina (Ryukyu Sports) won the T53/54 class in 12:22.22. The next day she was back in the 1500 m, where she was 2nd by 0.26 sec to NR holder Wakako Tsuchida (Willraise) 3:32.38 to 3:32.64.

The meet record also went in the T12 men's 5000 m, with Asian record holder Tadashi Horikoshi (NTT Nishi Nihon) beating his own meet record by more than 20 seconds in 14:53.55 but still 5 seconds short of his area record. T11 Asian record holder Kenya Karasawa (Subaru) was under his own meet record in 15:25.21 but was beaten by over 10 seconds by Shinya Wada (Nagase Sangyo), 1st in a 15:14.69 MR. Ryota Yoshida (SUS) and Kozo Kubo (Hitachi Solutions) had a photo finish in the T53/54 race, both going under the old MR and Yoshida getting the win by 0.14 sec in 10:18.73.

Wada and Karasawa faced off again in the 1500 m Sunday, and again Wada, the Asian record and meet record holder in the event, took 1st in a close race. Wada clocked 4:05.93 to Karasawa's 4:06.31, a fraction off a second off his own MR. In the T20 class race, Daiki Akai (NCR) broke his own meet record in 3:55.80, missing his Asian record by less than 3 seconds. T36 NR holder Naoyuki Tamura (SRC) lopped 32 seconds off his MR with a 5:25.27 win, while Takafumi Igusa (AC Kita) set a new T38 Asian record of 4:25.65, over 20 seconds under the old record. T53/54 winner Yoshida doubled in the 1500 m but was a DNF, leaving Tomoki Suzui (Toyota) to take the win in 3:07.77.

Complete results from the National Para Track and Field Championships are available here.

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."...

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...

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 .

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