Regional Corporate Track Championships Highlights

Regional corporate league track and field championship meets are split between two weekends, with this weekend seeing meets in the Kansai, Chubu and Chugoku regions.

At the 67th Kansai Region Corporate Track and Field Championships in Naruto, Tokushima, Yuki Ishii (NTT Nishi Nihon) and Sodai Shimizu (Otsuka Seiyaku) both went under the men's 5000 m meet record from 2007, Ishii getting the win in a new MR of 13:36.94 and Shimizu 2nd in 13:38.96. Takuya Kitasaki (NTT Nishi Nihon) took the men's 10000 m in 28:42.99 and Tomohiro Chimori (Otsuka Seiyaku) the men's 1500 m in 3:46.43. Yuta Koga (Otsuka Seiyaku) broke his own MR in the men's 5000 m RW, going over 19 seconds under his record from last year to win in 18:55.71.

Marathoner Yuka Ando (Wacoal) and steepler Yuno Yamanaka (Ehime Ginko) went 1-2 in both the women's 10000 m and 5000 m, Ando running 32:53.12 to win the 10000 m on Friday and 15:44.99 to take the 5000 m on Sunday, and Yamanaka 32:56.28 and 15:48.65 for 2nd in both. Yamanaka also ran the 1500 m on Saturday, running 4:23.22 for 4th behind winner Jerusha Yuri Mayaka (Otsuka Seiyaku), 4:20.63 for the win. Complete video of all three days of the meet is on the KJR Youtube channel.

At the 67th Chubu Region Track and Field Championships in Gifu, men's 1500 m NR holder Kazuki Kawamura (Toenec) won the 1500 m final in an easy 3:47.36, on Saturday, then was back Sunday to win the open men's 5000 m in 13:45.18. Emmanuel Maru (Toyota Boshoku) won the competitive men's 5000 m in a new MR of 13:29.24, with Tomoki Ota (Toyota) running the fastest Japanese time at 13:38.77. The top four went under 28 minutes in the men's 10000 m, Joseph Karanja (Aichi Seiko) getting the win in 27:47.35.

Akane Yabushita (Toyota Jidoshokki) duplicated Yamanaka's triple on an even more limited time scale, winning the women's 1500 m in 4:18.93 at 17:00 Saturday, then the 10000 m 20 minutes later in 34:19.19. Sunday she was back for the 5000 m where she was the top Japanese finisher at 3rd in 15:52.58. Hellen Ekarare (Toyota Jidoshokki) won in 15:32.87, Desta Burka (Denso) taking 2nd in 15:38.92.

In other events, Taiji Hongo (Onotech) and Yoshikazu Sakakura (TGK) both broke the men's 100 m MR, Hongo clocking 10.37 (-0.1) in the semifinals and Sakakura 10.37 (+1.3) to win the final. Masateru Yugami (Toyota) broke his own MR in the men's discus throw by almost two meters, throwing 58.76 m on his third attempt. Akane Minamisawa (Matsumoto Doken) set a MR of 58.97 to win the women's 400 mH. Complete video of both days of the meet is on the CJR Youtube channel.

The 62nd Chugoku Region Corporate Track and Field Championships are split between this weekend and next, with the men's 10000 m and women's 5000 m having happened Saturday and everything else scheduled for next weekend. Both graduates of local ekiden superpower Sera High School, Cosmas Mwangi (Chugoku Denryoku) won the men's 10000 m in 28:18.26, with Rebecca Mwangi (Daiso) taking the women's 5000 m in 15:24.28.

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...

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...

Route Inn Hotels Win National Corporate Women's Ekiden Qualifier for First Time

After Saturday's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifying race in Tokyo, 2nd-tier corporate women's teams were in Fukuoka for their own national championships qualifying race, the Princess Ekiden . With Queens Ekiden 19-placer Otsuka Seiyaku a DNS, 30 teams lined up for the 6-stage, 42.195 km race where the top 16 would go on to join the top 8 from last year's Queens Ekiden at next month's national race. Coming right in the middle of the international fall marathon season several teams had people still tired from Berlin and Chicago, with Daihatsu fielding Rika Kaseda and Natsuki Omori from Berlin, Tokyo Metro sending out its own Berlin duo of Mao Uesugi and Ayumi Morita , and Kraftia not playing its top member Yuka Akasaki after her solid run in Chicago last week. After a fast start from eventual 9th-placer Denso 's Rio Matsutani , Daihatsu took over on the Second Stage and held it until the Fifth, where a tired Omori dropped to 3rd. Mayuka Fujita from Route Inn H...

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