Richard Etir Runs 27:06.88 Collegiate 10000 m Record

Richard Etir Runs 27:06.88 Collegiate 10000 m Record - Weekend Track Roundup

There were big meets across the country this weekend, but the biggest results were at the Nittai University Time Trials in suburban Yokohama. Across the fastest two 10000 m heats Saturday night, a total of 10 men, 7 of them university athletes, broke 28 minutes. Topping the list was 19-year-old Tokyo Kokusai University 1st-year Richard Etir, who just missed a world-leading time as he blasted a new collegiate record of 27:06.88 to win the A-heat. Emmanuel Maru (Toyota Boshoku) was also under 27:10, taking 2nd in 27:09.96. 2023 Hakone Ekiden champ Komazawa University added another sub-28 runner to its roster as 4th-year Takumi Karasawa took 5th in 27:57.52, with Waseda University 3rd-year Haruto Ishizuka 6th in 27:58.53.

In the B-heat, Yamanashi Gakuin University 2nd-year James Mutok won in 27:50.54, edging Soka University 3rd-year Kamina Leakey by just 0.08. YGU 1st-year Birian Kipyegon was 3rd in 27:51.65.

3000 m was the main event for women at Nittai, with Judy Jepngetich (Shiseido) taking 1st in 8:53.98. 5000 m A-heat winner Maki Izumida (Daiichi Seimei) ran only 16:11.33 for the win. Emmanuel Kipchirchir (SGH) won the men's 5000 m A-heat in 13:32.44, indoor 5000 m NR holder Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko) 2nd in 13:34.02. 10000 m Olympian Tatsuhiko Ito (Honda) dropped the fastest Japanese men's 1500 m of the weekend, running 3:42.19 for the win in the fast heat.

Another 4 men were under 28 minutes for 10000 m Saturday at the Hyogo Relay Carnival meet in Kobe. Emmanuel Kiplagat (Mitsuibishi Juko) was fastest in 27:32.07, with just over a 5-second spread back to 4th-placer Benard Kibet Koech (Kyudenko). Top Japanese man Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei) was over a minute behind in 28:41.29. B-heat winner Nelson Mubithi Mandela (Obirin Univ.) just missed adding another 27-minute mark to the day's haul, running 28:01.88.

Esther Wangui (Starts) took the women's 10000 m in 32:22.45, with Desta Burka (Denso) and Kazuna Kanetomo (Kyocera) both finishing within 9 seconds of her. Marathoner Yuka Ando (Wacoal) won the women's 5000 m win 15:42.47, Manami Nishiyama (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) taking the 2000 mSC in 6:27.31 and Nozomi Tanaka (New Balance) the 1500 m in 4:09.79. There was no elite-level men's 5000 m on the program, but Olympian Ryoma Aoki (Honda) won the men's 2000 mSC in 5:30.39 by 0.03 over Taisei Ogino (Asahi Kasei), and Ryoji Tatezawa (DeNA) took another easy win in the 1500 m in 3:43.03.

At the National University Individual Championships in Kanagawa, the most notable men's results were in the 1500 m, where Nittai University's Hiroto Takamura led the top 3 under the old MR in 3:43.70. Another meet record happened in the 3000 mSC, where Waseda 4th-year Atsushi Shobu took over a second and a half off his own meet record from last year to win in 8:38.94. Komazawa's Taiyo Yasuhara added another win to the team's 2023 resume, taking the 5000 m title in 13:59.16. Yuito Yamamoto of Josai University claimed the 10000 m title in 29:29.98.

The women's 1500 m title went to Saki Katagihara (Tsukuba Univ.) in 4:24.80, Mayu Kawase (Daito Bunka Univ.) taking the 3000 mSC title in 10:13.78. Times were better in the longer events, where DBU 1st-year Sarah Wanjiru had a great debut with a 15:33.29 MR in the 5000 m, 0.40 under the old record from 2021. Nittai 3rd-year Risa Yamazaki won the 10000 m in 32:40.40.

There's no official 2-mile Japanese NR, but that was the distance event on offer at the Tokyo Spring Challenge meet. Kanta Shimizu (Subaru) won the men's race in 8:35.79, with Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) scoring the women's win in 9:42.44.

Arao Becomes 1st Man in 40 Years to Score Back-to-Back Ome Road Race Wins

30 km is an under-appreciated distance, and both of Japan's big races at that distance happened Sunday. At the Ome Road Race in western Tokyo's mountains, Sydney Marathon 6th-placer Masato Arao (ND Software) became the first man since the great Kunimitsu Ito in 1985-1986 to win back-to-back years. Arao, who finished 39th of 40 on his leg at the New Year Ekiden last month, stayed in the pack through 20 km before going on the attack, putting over a minute on New Year Ekiden Sixth Stage CR breaker Yudai Shimazu (GMO). Sub-1:31 winning times are rare on the tough and hilly Ome course, but Arao's 1:30:54 almost equaled his 1:30:50 from last year, making him the first Japanese man ever to do it twice and second only to CR holder Ezekiel Cheboitibin . Next up Arao races the Tokyo Marathon, where he is targeting sub-2:06. Shimazu was 2nd in 1:31:58 and Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:32:07. Cheboitibin was only 9th, running almost 8 minutes off his CR in 1:36:42. Shi...

Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field

Last year's top 3 Sheila Chepkirui , Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba are back for this year's Nagoya Women's Marathon on Mar. 8, but things are being set up more for it to be a race between Chepkirui, 2:17:49 in Berlin 2023, Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda , 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024. Aynalem has the freshest sub-2:20 of the 3, with neither Chepkirui nor Maeda having done it in 2 years. Maeda's only recent result is a 1:10:07 from Houston last month, but when she ran her NR she didn't have any kind of tuneup race to indicate her fitness so it's probably best not to read too much into that. If it goes out as a 2:18 race those are the only 3 who can probably hang with it. If it turns out to be more of a 2:20 race like when Chepkirui won in 2:20:40 last year then there's a group of 7 at the 2:20-2:22 level who will be in the picture, including Chumba, Selly Chep...

Osaka Marathon Preview

The Osaka Marathon is Sunday, one of Japan's biggest mass-participation races and the next stop on the calendar for its elite marathoners hoping to qualify for the L.A. Olympics marathon trials in the fall of 2027. Last year it snowed mid-race, but this year is looking warmer than ideal given the season, with sunny skies, almost no wind, and temps forecast to be 11˚ at the start and rising to 19˚ by the time the winners are finishing. NHK is broadcasting Osaka with a heavy emphasis on the men's race, and if you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it from overseas. There's also official streaming on Youtube starting at 8:30 a.m. local time, although it doesn't look like it's the same as what NHK will be showing. Given Osaka's history at the elite level as the continuation of the men-only Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, the women's field is small relative to the men's, just enough to tick World Athletics' label requirements and with almost no do...

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