Fukube Breaks 100 mH NR - National Corporate Track and Field Championships Highlights

The 70th National Corporate Track and Field Championships took place Friday through Sunday at Gifu Memorial Center Nagaragawa Field in Gifu. The performance of the meet happened Sunday, when Mako Fukube (NKK) broke her own women's 100 mH NR. Opening with a 13.00 (-1.5) meet record to win her qualifying heat, Fukube was back 3 hours later to run 12.73 (+1.1) in the final. That took 0.09 off the NR she set in the semifinals at July's Oregon World Championships, and put her under the qualifying standard for next summer's Budapest World Championships. Runner-up Masumi Aoki (77 Ginko) ran 13.03 in the final, 0.07 under the old MR, with Chisato Kiyoyama (Ichigo) just off the old MR at 13.12.

A near-miss on another NR came in the women's 100 m. Mei Kodama (Mizuno) won her qualifying heat in 11.24 (+1.3), 0.18 under the 2001-era MR and just 0.03 from Chisato Fukushima's 2010 NR of 11.21. Hopes were high that Kodama would get the NR in the final, but while her 11.39 (-0.0) there was only enough to get under the old MR again Kodama still walked away from the meet at #2 on the all-time Japanese lists and with the NR looking like hers for the taking. Kodama also picked up the MR in the 200 m, running 23.41 (-1.0) to go 0.18 under the 2000-era NR in the qualifying round and going under it again with a 23.49 (-0.7) in the final.

Other meet records that fell over the weekend:

Shunya Takayama (Zenrin) won the men's 110 mH final in 13.39 (+0.8), 0.09 under the MR set by Taio Kanai last year.
NR holder Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) ran 4:10.41 to win the women's 1500 m, 0.60 under the previous MR from 1994.
Olympic and World Championships silver medalist Koki Ikeda (Asahi Kasei) set a men's 10000 mRW MR of 38:15.86.
Sumire Hata (Shibata Kogyo) jumped a PB 6.67 m (+1.6) on her 6th attempt in the women's long jump, bettering Kumiko Ikeda's 2005 MR and inching Hata closer to Ikeda's NR of 6.86 m.
Mariko Morimoto (Uchida Kensetsu) got the women's triple jump MR with a 13.71 (+1.4) jump on her 3rd attempt.
Women's discus throw NR holder Nanaka Kori (Niigata Albirex RC) picked up the antique MR with a 2nd attempt of 56.15 m, 0.22 m up on Yuka Murofushi's MR from 1999. Kori also won the women's shot put with a throw of 15.55 m.

In distance events:

Steepler Ryoma Aoki (Honda) won the men's 1500 m in 3:40.90.
Judy Jepngetich (Shiseido) took the junior women's 3000 m in 8:50.68.
Last year's women's 10000 m winner Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) did it again, winning in 31:17.40 by less than 3 seconds over Pauline Kamulu Kaveke (Route Inn Hotels).
Stanley Waithaka (Yakult) won the men's 10000 m in a photo finish with MR holder Richard Kimunyan (Hitachi Butsuryu), Waithaka timed at 27:19.86 and Kimunyan at 27:19.92. Benard Koech (Kyudenko) was right behind in 27:20.02 for 3rd, making this the most exciting race of the meet.
Teresiah Muthoni (Daiso) scored the women's 5000 m title in 14:57.81, not far off the MR of 14:55.32.
Jonathan Ndiku (Hitachi Butsuryu) won the men's 5000 m in 13:22.69 after doubling in the 3000 mSC, where he was 2nd in 8:32.01.
Yukari Ishizawa (Hitachi) won the women's 3000 mSC in 10:14.03.
Philemon Kiplagat (Aisan Kogyo) won a close men's 3000 mSC in 8:30.18, beating Ndiku by just over a second with Olympian Kosei Yamaguchi (Aisan Kogyo) 3rd in 8:37.63.

One other record fell on the track over the weekend. At Friday's Nighter Time Trial in Nagasaki, girls' 3000 m H.S. NR holder Caroline Kariba, a 2nd-year at Kamimura Gakuen H.S., broke her own record, winning in 8:42.31. Kariba was nearly 30 seconds up on teammate Airi Tashima, with Kamimura Gakuen runners taking the top 5 spots.

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...

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...

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...

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