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Atuobeng Breaks Shot Put Meet Record - National University Track and Field Championships Day 2 Highlights

 

Afternoon thunderstorms interrupted some of the later events on the second day of the National University Track and Field Championships in Kumagaya, Saitama, but Jason Atuobeng (Fukuoka Univ.) got in before that with a meet record 18.18 m to win the men's shot put title. Atuobeng's opening 17.67 m would have been enough for the win, but on his 2nd attempt he went 12 cm over the year-old meet record with the 18.18 m throw that proved to be his best of the day. His 3rd attempt was over the old record too at 18.17 m, but Atuobeng couldn't get any closer to his pre-meet goal of Japan's first-ever throw over 19 m.

In other field event results:
  • Koki Fujihara (Toyo Univ.) led the men's long jump with a 2nd attempt of 8.05 (+1.2), but on his final attempt Yuto Toriumi (Nihon Univ.) dropped a 8.07 m (+0.8) jump to steal the win.
  • Megumi Dainobu (Nittai Univ.) and Akari Osakaya (Sonoda Gakuen Joshi Univ.) both cleared 4.00 m in the women's pole vault, but with Dainobu making it over on her 2nd attempt and Osakaya taking 3 the national title went to Dainobu.
  • Budapest World Championships team member Tomoya Karasawa (Nittai Univ.) won the men's pole vault, one of 3 men to clear 5.30 m but the only one to do it on his first attempt.
  • Akiho Hyodo (Tsukuba Univ.) won the women's javelin throw with her opening 56.05 m attempt. Rin Suzuki (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) closed with a very solid 78.71 m to win the men's javelin throw less than 2 m off the meet record set in 2001 a year before he was born.
  • Suzuki's teammate Ayu Kubota (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) took the women's shot put title with a final attempt of 15.07 m to overtake leader and teammate Niko Murase by 19 cm. Akari Imanishi was 3rd at 14.82 m to make it a Kyushu Kyoritsu University sweep of the podium.
  • Decathlon favorites Kiriki Kawamoto (Ritsumeikan Univ.) and Masayuki Maekawa (Chukyo Univ.) both struggled through the first day, Kawamoto a DNF in the 400 m. But there was still a close battle up front with only 8 points separating leaders Shigetora Tsutsui (Gifu Kyoritsu Univ.) and Hayato Shinkai (Tsukuba Univ.).
On the track:
  • Konan University dominated the women's 100 m, with Miu Kurashige, Wakana Okane and Yume Okuno going 1-2-3 in the 100 m final and taking the 4x100 m title in the same running order with the addition of Abigail Ido on 3rd.
  • Fresh from Budapest, Hiroki Yanagita (Toyo Univ.) took the men's 100 m title in 10.18 (+0.4), then anchored the Toyo University men to the win in the 4x100 m in 38.94.
  • Shizuho Moriyama (Fukuoka Univ.) edged Marin Adachi (Sonoda Gakuen Joshi Univ.) by 0.04 to win the women's 400 m 53.83 to 53.87, almost the same margin in the PBs they brought to the met.
  • Kodai Mamada (Waseda Univ.) pulled off an upset in the men's 400 m, running 46.41 to beat Budapest team member Kenki Imaizumi (Tsukuba Univ.) by 0.15 for the win.
  • Saki Katagihara (Tsukuba Univ.) got the win in the women's 1500 m final, at 4:19.54 the only one to go under 4:20.
  • After decently fast heats Kizuku Ushiroda (Juntendo Univ.) took an unexpected win in a slow but action-packed men's 1500 m final that saw one of the two favorites, 3:38 man Yusuke Takahashi (Hokkaido Univ.) finish 13th of 14 after being in contention for the win with less than 200 m to go and the other, Amos Bett (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.), disqualified for interference after he changed lanes to block Ushiroda in the home straight.
  • Hitomi Shimooka (Doshisha Univ.) dominated the women's 10000 m race walk, winning by almost a minute in 45:59.45.
In qualifying rounds:
  • Favorite Rachid Muratake (Juntendo Univ.) easily led the men's 110m hurdles heats in 13.52 (+1.5) to take Heat 3. Heat 1 winner Ryota Machi (Kokusai Budo Univ.) was the only other athlete under 13.60, running 13.58 (+1.7).
  • Women's 100 mH heat winners Ayaka Ito (Fukuoka Univ.) and Sayuri Nagasaki (Aoyama Gakuin. Univ.) both ran 13.41, putting them in the neighborhood of the two-year-old MR of 13.25 with two rounds to go.
  • Men's 400 mH Heat 6 winner Ken Toyoda (Keio Univ.) and Heat 3 winner Tenjiro Tanaka (Waseda Univ.) both went under 50.00 to take their heats, Toyoda the faster at 49.51 and Tanaka in 49.65.
  • Women's 400 mH Heat 5 winner Sumika Okawa (Waseda Univ.) and Heat 2 winner Yuka Kawamura (Waseda Univ.) likewise both went under 59.00, Okawa in 58.39 and Kawamura in 58.45 to lead the field for the semifinals. But Budapest team member Ami Yamamoto (Ritsumeikan Univ.) also went through, winning Heat 3 in a low-key 59.52.
Complete results here. The National University Track and Field Championships continue through Sunday in Kumagaya, Saitama.

© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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