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

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

Kipyegon Repeats, Toyo Wins Hakone Ekiden Qualifier in First Appearance in 21 Years

Back for the first time in 21 years after a disastrous 14th-place finish at the 102nd Hakone Ekiden this past January, Toyo University hit one out of western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park with a solid win at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, the half marathon that serves as the official qualifying race for the 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The top 10 teams in the Hakone auto-qualify for the following year, with the rest having to run the Yosenkai in October with a squad of 10 to 16 runners out of which the top 10 score on aggregate time, with the 10 fastest schools joining the Hakone field and top individuals from non-qualifying teams names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team to make up the complete Hakone field of 21. Driven in large part by an aggressive run from 3rd-year Yu Miyazaki , one of only 2 Japanese athletes to go with the big African contingent up front, Toyo won in 10:31:30, 1:03:09 or 2:59.6/km per athlete. As the first team to have broken the 3:00/km average pace barrie...
1 comment
Read more

Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...
2 comments
Read more