Skip to main content

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.

© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Chien Breaks TPE NR, Iwata Betters ID-Class WR - Weekend Track Roundup

The last weekend of the academic and fiscal year saw at least 5 meets with good results domestically and abroad. Kicking things off Friday was the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne, where Tomohiro Shinno and Naoto Hasegawa took 1st and 3rd in the men's high jump, both of them only clearing 2.18 m along with 2nd-placer Roman Anastasios . 12 other Japanese athletes were in action on the second day of the meet on Saturday, where 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura ran 3:42.84 for 6th in the men's 1500 m. Nagiya Mori had a better one in the men's 3000 m with a 7:45.40 for 4th. Both Yota Mashiko and Rui Suzuki cleared 8:00 too, Mashiko's 7:53.84 the 2nd-fastest ever by a Japanese-born high schooler. Abigail Fuka Ido and Nagisa Takahashi both placed 3rd in their events, Ido going 23.85 (-0.9) in the women's 200 m and Takahashi clearing 1.82 m in the women's high jump. 8 Japanese men were at The TEN in California to run 10000 m. In the B-heat won by Edward Marks in ...
2 comments
Read more

Updates on Transfers

April 1 is the start of Japan's new academic and fiscal year, and there's always a wave of transfer announcements to go with it. Some notable ones yesterday: 800 m NR holder Rin Kubo skipped university to go straight to 2023 Queens Ekiden national champion Sekisui Kagaku after her graduation from Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S. Multiple NR holder Nozomi Tanaka rejoined the Toyota Jidoshokki women's team after having left it to pursue a solo pro career as a New Balance athlete. Already on the team for this fall's Nagoya Asian Games in the 10000 m, Ririka Hironaka announced a switch from her longtime home at Japan Post to the Uniqlo women's team. Collegiate marathon record holder Asahi Kuroda joined the 2026 national champion GMO corporate team after graduating from 2026 Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University last week. Hakone Ekdien First Stage CR holder Rui Aoki joins the Sumitomo Denko corporate team after running his final race for 2025 Izumo Ekiden w...
Post a Comment
Read more

JAAF Announces Marathon Teams for Nagoya Asian Games

On Mar. 25 the JAAF announced Japan's marathon team lineups for this fall's Nagoya Asian Games. Yuya Yoshida (GMO) and Ichitaka Yamashita (Mitsubishi Juko) make up the men's team, with Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku) and Mikuni Yada (Edion) representing Japan in the women's marathon. Each country can field up to 2 men and 2 women per marathon team at the Asian Games. The top-ranked male and female athletes in the 2025-26 MGC Series rankings were given first priority, with the second slots going to people with high-level performances in the 2025-26 MGC Series. Yoshida ran 2:05:16 to win the 2024 Fukuoka International Marathon, and at February's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon ran an excellent 2:06:59 to take the top Japanese spot in the race and in the MGC rankings. After having run the Tokyo World Championships marathon last fall this will be his second-straight marathon national team in a major international championships. Yamashita ran 2:06:18 at February's Osak...
Post a Comment
Read more