Weekend Track and Road Roundup

The Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon aside, a quick roundup of results from this past weekend:

At the Nittai University Time Trials, aka the Nittaidai Challenge Games, Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) led a great men's 10000 m A-heat in 27:20.05, with the top six men all going under 27:28. James Mutuku (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) was the only other collegiate runner among them at 3rd in 27:23.09, with 2:06 marathoner Hidekazu Hijikata (Asahi Kasei) the top Japanese finisher at 8th in 28:23.27.

Mutuku's YGU teammate Brian Kipyegon won the 5000 m A-heat in 13:30.88, James Karuri (Aomori Yamada H.S.) next in 13:33.67 and Kaisei Okada (Chuo Univ.) 3rd in 13:48.44. Soya Katayama (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) had the fastest 1500 m with a 3:46.19 to win the A-heat.

In the women's races at Nittai, Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) was the only one to clear 16 minutes in the 5000 m A-heat, running 15:27.12 for the win. Lucy Nduta (Aomori Yamada H.S.) was likewise the only one under 9 minutes in the 3000 m A-heat at 8:57.59, Runa Shoji (Kantaiheiyo Univ.) taking the 1500 m A-heat in 4:19.30 by 0.12 over Yuma Yamamoto (Sekisui Kagaku). Yamamoto was also 2nd behind Nduta in the 3000 m, running 9:08.38.

Like last year, heavy rain hit Hiroshima's Oda Memorial Meet on Monday, but there were still a lot of good performances. Shunsuke Yoshii (Chuo Univ.) led the top six under 13:30 in the men's 5000 m A-heat in 13:24.06, with Taishi Ito (Waseda Univ.) running in the 13:20s for the first time at 13:28.67 for 5th.

Just-graduated 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura (Subaru) and perpetual rival Philemon Kiplagat (Aisan Kogyo) both went under Kiplagat's meet record from 2021, Miura winning in 8:22.07 and Kiplagat 2nd in 8:23.35. On the way up this season, Yutaro Niinae (Aisan Kogyo) was 3rd in 8:28.54, his first time under 8:30. Three men broke the MR in the 1500 m, all under 3:40, led by Abraham Guem (Ami AC) in 3:39.17. Ryoji Tatezawa (DeNA) was 2nd in 3:39.55 and Masato Saiki (Fujisan no Meisui) 3rd in 3:39.88.

Agnes Mwikali (Kyocera) was less than a second off the MR in the women's 5000 m, winning by over 20 seconds in 15:04.71. Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) was 2nd in 15:25.30, with Ireland's Jodie McCann 4th in a PB 15:30.20. Tomoka Kimura (Sekisui Kagaku) shaved 0.19 off the women's 1500 m MR dating way back to 1994, winning 4:10.75 over Rose Wangui (Sera H.S.), 2nd in 4:12.85. Overseas, NR holder Nozomi Tanaka (New Balance) was slightly faster at the Penn Relays, running 4:08.32 for 3rd.

Also overseas, a massive crew of nine Adidas-sponsored Japanese men ran the 5 km at the adizero Road to Records in Germany, where they duly filled up the back half of the field, jogging in a pack and finishing 15th through 22nd and 24th of 24. Kosei Atomura (Koku Gakuin Univ.) was the only one to run relatively seriously, clocking 14:00 for 15th. The 16th through 21st-placers all ran between 14:30 and 14:38, 14:38 being the time run by women's winner Medina Eisa.

'Kobe 2024: Aitchison, Athmani Lead Record-Breaking Thursday'

https://www.paralympic.org/news/kobe-2024-para-athletics-world-championships-aitchison-athmani-lead-record-breaking-thursday Complete results and daily schedule from the Kobe World Para Athletics Championships are here .

Chesang Wins Osaka Women's Marathon in 2:19:31, Yada Drops 2:19:57 Debut NR

This year's Osaka International Women's Marathon was a race run with a high level of methodicalness, starting slower than the planned 3:19/km but ramping up until the lead pack was skimming around the 2:20:15-30 projected finish level. After hitting halfway in 1:10:13 with a group of 6, by 25 km only 4 were left up front, sub-2:19 runners Workenesh Edesa , Stella Chesang and Bedatu Hirpa , and the debuting Mikuni Yada , and when the last 2 pacers stepped off at 30 km it was Yada who went to the front. Despite never have raced longer than the 10.6 km Third Stage at November's Queens Ekiden where she had helped the Edion team score its first-ever national title, Yada was very, very impressive, fearlessly surging from 12 km and never letting up, even laughing and smiling to fans along the course. When she started sustaining a pace around 3:15/km the projected finish dropped under 2:20 and all the way down to 2:19:28 by 35 km, and even when all 3 of the more experienced ru...

Hirayama Breaks Osaka Half CR, Martinez Set Puerto Rican NR

The Osaka Half Marathon took another big step up the domestic half marathon rankings from a mass-participation race run alongside the Osaka International Women's Marathon to one of the country's top-tier races. In the women's race, the debuting Jecinta Nyokabi (Denso) went out fast, only to be run down by veteran Yumi Yoshikawa (Canon AC) by 10 km. Nyokabi faded to 6th in 1:10:41, but Yoshikawa pushed on to a PB 1:09:14 for the win. Rina Shimizu (Noritz), Yuna Takahashi (Shimamura) and Makoto Tsuchiya (Ritsumeikan Univ.) all broke 70 minutes, Tsuchiya taking the Kansai Region collegiate title in 1:09:32 for 4th overall. Everyone in the top 10 who wasn't debuting ran a PB, a mark of how fast the day was even with cold and windy conditions. The men's race went out on sub-61 pace courtesy of Yudai Shimazu (GMO), then got a big injection of speed when Kyuma Yokota (Toyota Kyushu) took off close to 60-flat pace. Yokota opened a 10-second lead by 15 km, but over ...

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