Keita Sato Breaks Indoor 5000 m NR by 18 Seconds at BU John Thomas Terrier Classic

Three weeks after running a 59:22 half marathon equivalent at the Hakone Ekiden, Komazawa University 2nd-year Keita Sato became only the second Japanese man ever to break 13:10 for 5000, taking over 18 seconds off the indoor 5000 m NR with a 13:09.45 for 10th at Boston University's John Thomas Terrier Classic.

After Hakone on Jan. 2 Sato took a week off to recover from what had been his first race longer than 11 km. Phasing back into training the week after that during exams, on Jan. 18 he flew to Boulder, Colorado for six weeks of training with OAC. On Jan. 22 he celebrated his 20th birthday, and on Jan. 24 the group flew to Boston. Throughout the race he stayed near the middle of the front pack, splitting 2:38.24-2:37:17-2:38.76-2:38.01-2:37.28 en route. His 3000 m split of 7:54.16 was 2 seconds faster than the only other indoor race he had ever run, a 7:56.41 for silver at last spring's Asian Indoor Championships.

Sato had been totally focused on building volume for his Hakone debut and only had the week with OAC to do speed work oriented toward the Terrier Classic 5000 m, but even so his time bettered his outdoor PB by 13.46 seconds and Hyuga Endo's Japanese indoor 5000 m record by 18.36 seconds. He was also 1.04 seconds off Kieran Tuntivate's 13:08.41 indoor 5000 m Asian area record, and 1.05 seconds from Suguru Osako's 13:08.40 outright Japanese national record.

"I thought I could run 13:07, but in the last 1000 m I just couldn't pick it up," Sato told JRN post-race. "There's still a lot of work to do. My stomach was bothering me and I had diarrhea, and I thought about not running at all. I think something I ate last night disagreed with me. I'm glad I did run, though."

After heading back to Boulder, Sato next races the 2 mile at the Feb. 11 Millrose Games, where he'll go for Osako's indoor 3000 m NR of 7:45.62.

John Thomas Terrier Classic 5000 m Scarlet Race

Boston University, Boston, 26 Jan. 2024

complete results

1. Edwin Kurgat (Under Armour) - 12:57.52 - PB

2. George Mills (OAC Europe) - 12:58.68 - NR

3. Yared Nuguse (OAC) - 13:02.09 - PB

4. George Beamish (OAC) - 13:04.33 - NR

5. Ben Flanagan (On Running) - 13:04.62 - PB

6. Joe Klecker (OAC) - 13:06.02

7. Morgan McDonald (OAC) - 13:07.30 - PB

8. Mike Foppen (Nike) - 13:08.60 - NR

9. Olin Hacker (NAZ Elite) - 13:08.76 - PB

10. Keita Sato (Komazawa Univ.) - 13:09.45 - NR

11. Mohamed Abdilaahi (Puma) - 13:16.43 - PB

12. Willy Fink (Under Armour) - 13:22.53

13. Maximilian Thorwirth (SFD75) - 13:29.00 - PB

14. Simon Bedard (Hoka One One) - 13:30.14 - PB

15. Jonas Raess (OAC) - 13:32.33

16. John Reniewicki (Under Armour) - 13:35.18

17. Mario Garcia Romo (OAC) - 13:57.24 - PB

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

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