Skip to main content

Kanto Regionals Day Two Streaming and Preview


The 102nd Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships continue Friday at Kanagawa's Sagamihara Gion Stadium. Streaming starts at 9:00 a.m. local time on the main feed above, with different camera angles on the secondary feed below.

The first middle and long distance event on the day's schedule is the D2 men's 1500 m final at 13:00. #2-ranked Nao Kurihara (3rd yr., Josai Univ.) made it through with a 3:52.14 for 2nd in Heat 1. In the final his main competition will be Heat 2 winner Shunya Udagawa (2nd yr., Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) with a 3:44.03 best, and Udagawa's 3rd-year YGU teammate Soya Katayama and 4th-year teammate Kento Yamauchi. Ranked #4 in the final, Haruto Matsuo (1st yr., Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) could make the podium in his debut.

All five women with 1500 m bests under 4:20 made the final at 13:15. Saki Katagihara (4th yr., Tsukuba Univ.) won Heat 1 in 4:26.10, Haruko Hosaka (4th yr., Nittai Univ.) took Heat 2 in 4:26.28, Yuzuha Sawai (4th yr., Tsukuba Univ.) was 2nd in Heat 3 in 4:26.65, collegiate record holder Mizuki Michishita (4th yr., Rikkyo Univ.) was 3rd in Heat 2 in 4:27.41, and Mao Kogure (3rd yr., Juntendo Univ.) squeezed through on time at 4th in Heat 3 in 4:27.22. With better weather on the forecast for Friday Katagihara's 4:16.41 meet record from last year could be in range.

The D1 men's 1500 m final kicks off at 13:30. #1-ranked Mikuto Kaneko (4th yr., Chuo Univ.) was a DNS in the heats, but #2 and #3-ranked Yuichiro Baba (4th yr., Meiji Univ.) and Hiroto Takamura (3rd yr., Nittai Univ.) both went through. Takamura ran the fastest time in the heats at 3:50.56, but there's a narrow enough range of talent in the field that people like Tomoki Nakano (3rd yr., Chuo Univ.), Toshiki Yamada (4th yr., Chuo Univ.) and at least three others are all in range of the win.

For men D1 has a limited number of teams, but in D2 there are enough that this year there's a qualifying round in the 5000 m. The first heat starts at 17:25, with Nelson Mandela (2nd yr., Obirin Univ.) the fastest on the list at 13:29.59. Mandela was 2nd in last night's 10000 m, making it a tough turnaround for him less than 24 hours later. He'll probably do the least necessary to qualify, and with only one other runner on the list, Johnson Mogeni (1st yr., Asia Univ.), under 13:40 he's got a bit of a margin of error to work with, especially with Mogeni having run the 10000 m too.

Heat 2 is the same story, with 10000 m winner Victor Kimutai (2nd yr., Josai Univ.) leading the field at 13:26.77 and Boniface Mutech (1st yr., Ryutsu Keizai Univ.) under 13:40 but also doubling from the 10000 m. But in this case there's some solid Japanese competition with fresh legs from 2023 Hakone Ekiden winner Komazawa University 4th-year Taiyo Yasuhara with at 13:37.01 PB.


© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Most-Read This Week

'CAS Clears Japan’s Olympic Silver Medallist Ikeda of Doping, Overturns Ban'

https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/10/23/cas-clears-japans-olympic-silver-medallist-ikeda-of-doping-overturns-ban The AIU's missteps in this case cost Tokyo Olympics and Oregon World Championships 20 km race walk silver medalist Koki Ikeda , a Toyo University graduate who competes for the Asahi Kasei corporate team, the chance to represent Japan at a home soil World Championships last year. It is almost unheard of for an athlete to successfully fight a biological passport suspension as Ikeda did, making this a highly significant case. The CAS' press release about its decision stated: "The Panel stressed that the Athlete did not merely assert his position on the ABP abnormalities but adduced very extensive evidence in support of his explanations. In this highly complex case, the evidence brought during the CAS proceedings was far more abundant and specific than during the first instance proceedings with the WA Disciplinary Tribunal, implying the CAS Panel had further ...

Meijo Back With Morinomiyako Ekiden CR for National University Title

The last big dynasty school in Japanese women's distance running with 7-straight wins at October's Morinomiyako Ekiden from 2017 to 2023 and 6-straight titles at the season-ending Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden from 2018 to 2023, Meijo University came back from a 3rd-place finish last year to win the 44th Morinomiyako Ekiden again, leading almost start-to-finish to set a 2:02:21 CR for the 6-stage, 38.0 km course in Sendai. 12 second back in 2nd after the opening leg, collegiate 3000 mSC champ Nozomi Kondo put Meijo out front with a 12:36 CR for the 4.0 km Second Stage, and the rest of the team never looked back. The biggest threat to a Meijo win was on the 9.2 m Fifth Stage, where this year's collegiate 10000 m winner Sarah Wanjiru from last year's runner-up Daito Bunka University started 50 seconds back from Meijo 1st-year Mao Kimura . In taking the 10000 m title Wanjiru had outrun Kimura by over a minute, but today Kimura was a revelation, strong and smooth out fr...

Morinomiyako Ekiden Preview

The university men's ekiden circuit is 100% dominated by schools from the Tokyo-area Kanto Region, but for women it's more geographically diverse, the last two big dynasty schools being the Tokai Region's Meijo University and the Kansai Region's Ritsumeikan University with Kanto's Daito Bunka University a perpetual close 2nd at both of the main races, Sunday's Morinomiyako Ekiden and December's Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden . Last year Kanto's Josai University scored upset wins at both Morinomiyako and Mt. Fuji , to make it a rare Kanto sweep. At Morinomiyako DBU was 2nd yet again with Meijo 3rd and Tohoku region local Tohoku Fukushi University a surprise 4th to hold 2024 winner and top Kansai team Ritsumeikan back to 5th. At Mt. Fuji Tohoku Fukushi almost pulled off a shock win on the anchor stage before Josai came back on the final climb, bumping DBU down to 3rd and Meijo to 4th, with Ritsumeikan 5th there too. Fresh names at the top of the list a...