Skip to main content

Oda Memorial Meet Preview and Streaming


This weekend's main event on the Japanese calendar is Saturday's Oda Memorial Meet in Hiroshima, a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meet. Streaming starts at 10:30 a.m. local time, with the first main field final happening at 11:45 and the first one on the track at 14:15. Check the full meet schedule here. Entry lists are here. Track event previews:

Women's 1500 m Final - 14:15
No Japanese women have cleared the Budapest World Championships standard of 4:03.50, but four are currently in the quota of 56. Three of them, Yume Goto (Uniqlo), Mizuki Michishita (Wacoal) and Saki Katagihara (Tsukuba Univ.) are entered, along with Tokyo Olympian Ran Urabe (Sekisui Kagaku) who's looking for enough points to break into the top 56. Goto is closest to the standard at 4:09.41, but realistically this race will be mostly about points.

Men's 1500 m Final - 14:25
The four fastest men in the 1500 m, NR holder Kazuki Kawamura (Toenec), Nanami Arai (Honda), Keisuke Morita (Subaru) and Rikuto Iijima (Ami AC) are in the same situation as Urabe, facing two of the three top-ranked Japanese men in the world rankings, Ryoji Tatezawa (DeNA) and Yuki Yamasaki (Kagotani), and sub-3:40 runner Yuta Noguchi (Toenec). It'd take a NR for anyone to meet the 3:34.20 Budapest standard, but enough focus is finally being put into middle distance in Japan that there are enough people for there to be a chance of that happening sometime.

Men's 110 mH A-Final - 14:40
Two of the three Japanese men to have broken the 13.28 Budapest standard, Shunya Takayama (Zenrin) and Rachid Muratake (Juntendo Univ.) are in the race, along with the #4 and #5-ranked men Shuhei Ishikawa (Fujitsu) and Ken Toyoda (Ehime T&F Assoc.). Ishikawa has a chance of making the Budapest team on rankings if one of the three time qualifiers is out with injury.

Women's 100 mH A-Final - 14:55
NR holder Mako Fukube (NKK) is the only Japanese woman to have cleared the 12.78 standard, and she's entered in Oda along with both of the women currently in the quota, Masumi Aoki (17 Ginko) and Yumi Tanaka (Fujitsu).

Women's 100 m A-Final - 15:10
The 11.08 standard is out of range of the current top Japanese women, but both of the ones in the quota right now, Mei Kodama (Mizuno) and Arisa Kimishima (DKS), are on the list, with some international support from Symone Darius (Liberia), 11.17, and Riley Day (Australia), 11.48.

Men's 100 m A-Final - 15:20
The men's 100 m has been one of Japan's best non-road events, but the DNF at the Tokyo Olympics was a bit of a confidence blow. None of the sub-10 runners has hit the 10.00 standard inside the window, and only one in the quota won't be at Oda. Akira Harada (Kitakyushu RC) has the fastest qualifying time at 10.11, but some notable names on the list include Chun-Han Yang (Taiwan), Hiroki Yanagita (Toyo Univ.), Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei) and Shota Iizuka (Mizuno).

Women's 3000 mSC Final - 16:35
None of the Japanese sub-10 women on the entry list, Yuzu Nishide (Daihatsu), Manami Nishiyama (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) and Reimi Yoshimura (Cramer Japan TC), is in the Budapest quota, so this will be another race about scoring points to get there. They'll have support from #4-ranked Australian Georgia Winkup.

Men's 3000 mSC Final - 16:50
None of the three current top-ranked Japanese men is in the race, but Tokyo Olympian Ryoma Aoki (Honda) and next-tier talent Hiroki Tsuetaki (Fujitsu) and Taisei Ogino (Asahi Kasei) are, with Japan-based Kenyan Philemon Kiplagat ;(Aisan Kogyo) the 2nd-fastest man on the list after Aoki.

Women's 5000 m A-Final - 18:30
#3 and #4-ranked Japanese women Yuma Yamamoto (Sekisui Kagaku) and Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) lead the domestic field, but the list is dominated by some of the top-ranked Kenyans. #2-ranked Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) is slated to pace, with 14:44.89 runner Teresia Muthoni (Daiso), #4-ranked Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo), #6-ranked Agnes Mwikali (Kyocera) and 14:57.79 runner Rebecca Mwangi (Daiso) all there.

Men's 5000 m A-Final - 18:50
The last race of the night, this one looks like the best. Indoor 5000 m NR holder Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko) faces #1-ranked Yuta Bando (Fujitsu), U20 NR holder Keita Sato (Komazawa Univ.), HS NR holder Hiroto Yoshioka (Juntendo Univ.), 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura (Juntendo Univ.), and six Japan-based Kenyans led by Daniel Ndiritu (NTT Nishi Nihon).

JRN will be on-site in Hiroshima at the meet.

© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin
Post a Comment
Read more

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi
Post a Comment
Read more

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and
Post a Comment
Read more