Skip to main content

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

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Most-Read This Week

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and