Skip to main content

Sub-13:30 High Schoolers, 17 Teammates Sub-14 in One Race and More - Weekend Track Roundup

 

The National Corporate Track and Field Championships in Gifu were the main track action this weekend, but there were also two big time trial meets in the greater Tokyo area. At the Nittai University Time Trials meet in Yokohama Saturday, Charles Kamau Wanjiku (Musashino Gakuin Univ.) was right up there with the best in the corporate leagues, soloing a 27:29.56 to win the B-heat by over 40 seconds. Antipas Kibet (Komori Corp.) won what was technically the A-heat in 27:57.48, with the next three runners including Taisei Nakamura (Yakult) squeezing under 28 minutes, in Nakamura's case in 27:59.96.

Erika Tanoura (Sekisui Kagaku) won the women's 5000 m A-heat in 15:47.07, but there wasn't much difference from the B-heat where Momoa Yamada (Tamagawa Univ.) won in 15:50.92. The women's 3000 m was low-key, with Harumi Okamoto (Yamada Holdings) taking the A-heat in 9:10.92 and the next four runners all getting under 9:12.

The men's 1500 m saw one noteworthy performance by Japanese standards as A-heat winner Hayato Oguma (Tokyo Jitsugyo H.S.) ran 3:44.36, the 5th-fastest ever by a Japanese-born high schooler. Steepler Reimi Yoshimura (Cramer Japan TC) took the women's 1500 m in 4:25.31.


As usual Sunday at Nittai was dedicated to men's 5000 m, with a total of 17 heats on the program. In the A-heat, Edwin Kisalsak (Fujisan no Meisui) scored the win with a very decent 13:20.75 and the top six all going under 13:30. 6th among those was 12-grader Sota Orita (Suma Gakuen H.S.), whose 13:28.78 was the 2nd-fastest ever by a Japanese high schooler and 5th on the U20 lists.


In the B-heat Yamato Hamaguchi (Saku Chosei H.S.) outkicked 10000 m NR holder Akira Aizawa (Asahi Kasei) for the win 13:38.40 to 13:39.25 in Aizawa's return to competition after injury. Hamaguchi's mark put him at #8 on the all-time high school list and #1 among 11th-graders but came up short of the U20 top 10.


Nearby at Aoyama Gakuin University the Kizuna Time Trials meet was dual between AGU and Soka University with a splash of high schoolers and miscellaneous others. The big result came in Heat 3 of the men's 5000 m, with Soka's Kamina Leakey and Riki Koike going 1-2 in 13:30.54 and 13:34.82. A graduate of Hamaguchi's school Saku Chosei H.S. in his first year at Soka, Koike's time landed him at #9 on the all-time U20 list. 17 runners from AGU went sub-14 in Heat 3, led by Kento Yamauchi in 13:35.04.

© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Saku Chosei H.S. Makes It 2 In a Row - National High School Ekiden Boys' Race

While the girls' race was a blowout by 2022 champ Nagano Higashi H.S. , the boys' race at Sunday's National High School Ekiden was a tense battle of turnover that saw all of the final top four teams take a stab at leading. 2023 3rd-placer Yachiyo Shoin H.S. handled the first 2 of the 7 stages in the 42.195 km race, with lead runner Rui Suzuki delivering a bold run on the 10.0 km First Stage that produced the fastest-ever time by a Japanese runner on the stage, 28:43, and put Yachiyo Shoin 29 seconds out front. Last year's Fifth Stage CR breaker Tetsu Suzuki ran Yachiyo Shoin down to put 2023 champ Saku Chosei H.S. into 1st on the 8.1075 km Third Stage, but Genta Sugano of last year's 8th-placer Sendai Ikuei H.S. had other plans and took the lead on the 8.0875 km Fourth Stage. Smiling and fist pumping to the crowd almost the entire way, Taketo Tsukada of last year's 6th-placer Omuta H.S. moved up from 3rd to 1st by 2 seconds over Saku Chosei on the 3.0 k...
Post a Comment
Read more

Japan Post Holds Off Sekisui Kagaku to Win Queens Ekiden National Title

  Japan Post  was back on top at the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championships Sunday in Sendai, holding off last year's winner Sekisui Kagaku  over the second half of a race that came as close as 1 second to take 1st with a final margin of victory of 27 seconds. Sekisui Kagaku was out fast with a win on the 7.0 km opening leg by Erika Tanoura  and a new CR for the 12:56 second leg by Yuma Yamamoto , 17 seconds better than her own CR from last year. Last year's 4th-placer Shiseido  briefly led on the 10.6 km third leg with an excellent 33:17 stage win from Rino Goshima , but behind her Japan Post's Ririka Hironaka  returned from her latest injury problems to pass Sekisui Kagaku's Sayaka Sato  and hand off 6 seconds ahead. New recruit Caroline Kariba  ran Shiseido down on the 3.6 km fourth leg and put Japan Post 22 seconds ahead of Sekisui Kagaku, but a duel of marathoners between JP's  Ayuko Suzuki  and Sekisui's Hitomi Niiy...
1 comment
Read more

Nagano Higashi Girls Lead Start to Finish to Win National High School Ekiden

2022 National High School Ekiden girls' champion Nagano Higashi H.S. was back in force after a 5th-place finish last year, leading start to finish to win this year's national title Sunday in Kyoto. Lead runner Airi Mashiba kicked it off with a 19:30 stage win on the 6.0 km opening leg, something that head coach Fumio Yokouchi said later that he hadn't been expecting. That ended up being Nagano Higashi's only individual stage win in the 5-leg, 21.0975 km race, but the rest of its team ran well enough to hold a lead that was never less than 11 seconds but never more than 21. Last year's 4th-placer Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. spent most of the race in 2nd, but over the second half of the race Sendai Ikuei H.S. , 2nd last year by just 1 second, came from further back to run Kunei down on the anchor stage thanks in big part to a critical stage win on the 4th leg by Tsubomi Tezuka that put anchor Aoi Hosokawa in position to catch Kunei's Mizuki Oda . Nagano Higashi ...
Post a Comment
Read more