Skip to main content

Nishiyama Runs Fastest-Ever JPN Men's Time in World Championships Marathon - Oregon 22 Day 3 Japanese Results



With the last-second withdrawal of NR holder Kengo Suzuki after a positive COVID test the day before the race, it was up to newbies Yusuke Nishiyama and Gaku Hoshi to represent Japan in the men's marathon at the start of Day 3 of the Oregon 22 World Championships. Nishiyama, who won February's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon in 2:07:47 in his debut, told JRN pre-race that his goals were top 8 and a PB, in that order. He stayed in the lead group for much of the race, but although he dropped off in the later stages and missed both goals, his 2:08:35 for 13th was still the fastest-ever by a Japanese man at the World Championships. Teammate Hoshi, 1st at February's Osaka Marathon in 2:07:31 in his debut, struggled to match Nishiyama, fading to 38th in 2:13:44.

In between, longtime Japan-based Mongolian NR holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir, 40, made good on one of his two goals for his 10th-straight World Championships, beating his best-ever Worlds time of 2:16:41 by 5:02 as he ran 2:11:39 for 26th. That fell short of beating his best-ever World placing, 19th in Daegu '11 when he ran the 2:16, but in the home straight and post-race Bat-Ochir was all smiles. Given Ethiopian gold medalist Tamirat Tola's 2:05:36 World Championships record and the fact that the top 19 were all sub-2:10, that seems pretty reasonable. Next up Bat-Ochir will run September's Muenster Marathon in Germany, the first stop on the road to qualify for his 11th World Championships and ultimately his 6th Olympic marathon.

Underperforming most of the season since Hakone, all-time #2 Ren Tazawa, a student at Nishiyama's alma mater Komazawa University, struggled to perform up to ability, finishing more than a minute off his best in 28:24.25 for 20th. Called up just over a week before Oregon 22 began to fill an open slot in the 10000 m, 27:25.73 man Tatsuhiko Ito did a good job not to finish last off only base training, finishing 22nd of 24 in 28:57.85 with a strong kick to make sure he got under 29 minutes.

In qualifying action, Fuga Sato and Julian Walsh both advanced to the men's 400 m semifinals, Sato running 45.88 for 4th in heat 5 and Walsh 45.90 for 4th in heat 1. Kaito Kawabata managed only a 46.34 for 5th in heat 6 and did not move on. Both Shunsuke Izumiya and Shuhei Ishikawa missed out on making the men's 110 m hurdles final, Izumiya 14th on time in 13.42 +0.3 and Ishikawa last in 13.68 -0.6. Kazuki Kurokawa likewise missed the men's 400 m hurdles final, 16th in 49.69.

The day closed with news of another scratch from the Japanese women's marathon team as Hitomi Niiya and her coach followed women-only NR holder Mao Ichiyama and her coach in testing positive for COVID. That means only one Japanese woman, this year's fastest, Mizuki Matsuda, will start tomorrow's race. Together with Suzuki's setback Oregon 22 has turned out to be a disaster for what would have been Japan's best-ever marathon lineups at a World Championships.

text and photos © 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Stefan said…
I think you summed it up perfectly when you said "Oregon 22 has turned out to be a disaster for what would have been Japan's best-ever marathon lineups at a World Championships."

I was gutted when hearing of the news of Hitomi Niiya's withdrawal due to COVID. Being 34 years old and with a renewed desire to take on the marathon challenge I felt this was a now or never event. I can imagine it will be difficult for her to stay motivated for this event and who knows how the COVID affects her health in the short and long term. I hope Mao Ichiyama has no lingering after effects either.

Nevertheless, what an outstanding run in a good time from the ever so consistent Mizuki Matsuda. I saw her post race interview where she was in tears. I'm not sure what was said but she should be proud of that performance! It was a good time in the circumstances.
July 19, 2022 at 6:55 AM
Eric in Seattle said…
I was in Eugene at Track & Field, I saw Matsuda got into ninth place. Onward. Eric
July 19, 2022 at 1:03 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

'CAS Clears Japan’s Olympic Silver Medallist Ikeda of Doping, Overturns Ban'

https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/10/23/cas-clears-japans-olympic-silver-medallist-ikeda-of-doping-overturns-ban The AIU's missteps in this case cost Tokyo Olympics and Oregon World Championships 20 km race walk silver medalist Koki Ikeda , a Toyo University graduate who competes for the Asahi Kasei corporate team, the chance to represent Japan at a home soil World Championships last year. It is almost unheard of for an athlete to successfully fight a biological passport suspension as Ikeda did, making this a highly significant case. The CAS' press release about its decision stated: "The Panel stressed that the Athlete did not merely assert his position on the ABP abnormalities but adduced very extensive evidence in support of his explanations. In this highly complex case, the evidence brought during the CAS proceedings was far more abundant and specific than during the first instance proceedings with the WA Disciplinary Tribunal, implying the CAS Panel had further ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meijo Back With Morinomiyako Ekiden CR for National University Title

The last big dynasty school in Japanese women's distance running with 7-straight wins at October's Morinomiyako Ekiden from 2017 to 2023 and 6-straight titles at the season-ending Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden from 2018 to 2023, Meijo University came back from a 3rd-place finish last year to win the 44th Morinomiyako Ekiden again, leading almost start-to-finish to set a 2:02:21 CR for the 6-stage, 38.0 km course in Sendai. 12 second back in 2nd after the opening leg, collegiate 3000 mSC champ Nozomi Kondo put Meijo out front with a 12:36 CR for the 4.0 km Second Stage, and the rest of the team never looked back. The biggest threat to a Meijo win was on the 9.2 m Fifth Stage, where this year's collegiate 10000 m winner Sarah Wanjiru from last year's runner-up Daito Bunka University started 50 seconds back from Meijo 1st-year Mao Kimura . In taking the 10000 m title Wanjiru had outrun Kimura by over a minute, but today Kimura was a revelation, strong and smooth out fr...
1 comment
Read more

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...
8 comments
Read more