Hokuren and Nittai - Early July Track Results

Three big meets have happened in Japan in the last few days. Nittai University held a one-day edition of its time trials series on July 1, most of its usual base of athletes being up north in Hokkaido. Unattached Kenyan Stephen Lemayan took the men's 5000 m A-heat in 13:47.49 over Tomoki Ichimura (Sunbelx), 2nd in 13:47.92. Hayato Oguma (Tokyo Jitsugyo H.S.) won the 1500 m A-heat in 3:46.83, a quality mark for a Japanese high schooler.

Sarah Wanjiru (Daito Bunka Univ.) continued her solid debut season with a 15:53.46 win by almost 15 seconds in the women's 5000 m A-heat. The home team's Haruko Hosaka (Nittai Univ.) won the women's 3000 m A-heat in 9:20.54.

The Hokuren Distance Challenge series in Hokkaido also kicked off July 1 with its first meet happening in Shibetsu. Mostly a tune-up for later meets in the series, the highlight in women's races was an 8:55.80 win by Eva Cherono (Toto) in the 3000 m A-heat by 4 seconds over Esther Muthoni (Nitori). Rion Furukawa (Nitori) was the top Japanese woman at 3rd in 9:14.73 after 5000 m NR holder Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) faded off an early sub-9 pace to finish 9th in 9:20.63. Marathoner Mao Uesugi (Starts) was 10th in 9:20.94.

Da Eun Jeong (South Korea) couldn't sustain a shot at the Korean women's 5000 m NR but still had the win in her, taking 1st in 16:06.62 by 12 seconds. Set to run the marathon at the Budapest World Championships next month, Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku) won the 10000 m in 32:38.71.

Jonathan Ndiku (Hitachi) had a narrow win over Yuichiro Nishikawa (Sumitomo Denko) in the men's 3000 m, 7:59.55 to 7:59.97. South Koreans went 1-2 in the 1500 m A-heat, Jong Hak Park getting the win in 3:47.43. All five heats of 5000 m had winning times under 14 minutes, with the fastest time coming from the almost all-Kenyan C-heat winner Samuel Kibathi (Kurashiki H.S.) in 13:23.76. The only Japanese man in the C-heat, Tomoki Ota (Toyota) ran a good 13:24.59 PB for 2nd, just over a second ahead of 3rd-placer James Muoki (Konica Minolta).

The second meet in the series took place July 5 in Fukagawa. Muoki was back to win a three-way sprint finish over Ndiku and Andrew Lorot (YKK) in the 10000 m A-heat, Muoki running 27:43.67, Ndiku 27:44.50 and Lorot 27:44.65. Hideaki Sumiyoshi (Kyudenko) ended up in the top Japanese spot at 5th in 28:26.18, running down early frontrunners Sonata Nagashima (Asahi Kasei), Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) and Ichitaka Yamashita (Mitsubishi Juko). Dennis Kipkirui (Makes) had the top 5000 m time of the day at 13:31.27, with Katsutoshi Monoe (Kao) leading the 1500 m results in 3:47.40.

Ai Watanabe (Sonoda Gakuen Joshi Univ.) made into the all-time collegiate top 10 in the 800 m, winning in 2:03.75 over 2:02 runners Ayaka Kawata (Niconiconori) and Ayano Shiomi (Iwatani Sangyo). Jeong was back in the 3000 m, winning in 9:08.98. Momoka Kawaguchi (Uniqlo) beat Kenyan Martha Mokaya (Canon) and Shibetsu 10000 m winner Sato in the 5000 m, taking the top spot in 15:42.93. Agnes Mwikali (Kyocera) scored the 10000 m win in 32:15.47, top Japanese woman Hikaru Kitagawa, a performing arts major at Osaka Geijutsu University, 2nd in 32:39.02 just a fraction of a second off Sato's Shibetsu time.

The Hokuren Distance Challenge Series continues Saturday in Abashiri. Streaming and live results will be here.

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...

World Marathon Majors Japanese Entries

We're back from a short summer break. A week and a half out from the first race of the season's four World Marathon Majors races, here's a look at Japanese athletes scheduled to run. Everything right now is about qualifying for the MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to be held in the fall of 2027 in Nagoya. The JAAF makes no mistake about wanting to keep its top people racing domestically where it can get a share of revenue from the TV broadcast and race operations, so anyone who decides to race overseas has to do it in a WA platinum label race and hit either 2:06:30 or 2:23:30, regardless of place, course or weather if they want to make the trials. At the same time concessions are make for domestic races, like for example the late-August Hokkaido Marathon where up to 3 men and 3 women can qualify if they go 2:12:00 or 2:32:00. As a result, you get things like last year where amateur runner Yudai Fukuda made the trials by finishing 3rd Jap...

Nakajima Breaks 100 mH NR Twice, Kitaguchi Returns - August Track Roundup

Catching up on what's been happening in track and field this month during our summer break: Men's 3000 m NR holder Nagiya Mori was just off his 5000 m PB at the IFAM Oordegem meet in Belgium on Aug. 1, taking 16th in 13:15.01. Shota Nakano was 26th of 28 in 13:35.02. This year's national champion Ryoma Aoki ran the 3000 mSC but didn't finish. Naoto Hasegawa was the only Japanese athlete at Mutaz Essa Barshim 's What Gravity Tour stop at the Monaco Athletics Festival meet on Aug. 5. Having cleared 2.30 m for the first time earlier this year Hasegawa only managed 2.18 m in Monaco, taking 7th of 10. There were a lot of good performances at the Fuji Hokuriku World Trial meet in Fujiyoshida on Aug. 9, but the one that got the headlines was a 12.62 (-0.2) NR in the women's 100 mH by Hitomi Nakajima . Nakajima actually did it twice, running 12.62 (+2.0) in the heats before repeating in the final. Masumi Aoki also ran big in the heats, with a 12.68 (+2.0) for al...

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