Weekend Track Roundup

The two-day Hyogo Relay Carnival was the biggest meet of the weekend on the Japanese calendar. Sarah Wanjiru (Daito Bunka Univ.) kicked off her 2nd academic year with a 31:48.11 win in the GP women's 10000 m, beating Pauline Kamulu (Route Inn Hotels) by 4 seconds. Emmanuel Kiplagat (Mitsubishi Juko) had a tighter win in the GP men's 10000 m, 27:58.01 to 27:58.35 over Jonson Mugeni (Asia Univ.). Kenyans also dominated the men's B and C-heats, Nelson Mandela (Obirin Univ.) taking the B-heat by 0.06 over Stephen Muthini (Soka Univ.) in 28:05.37 and Patrick Wambui (NTT Nishi Nihon) the C-heat in 28:14.83. Top Japanese marks across the four races were 32:24.50 by Sora Shinozakura (Panasonic), 28:11.30 by Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon), 28:41.68 by Masashi Nonaka (Toyota), and 28:42.38 by former Rikkyo University head coach Yuichiro Ueno (Hiramatsu Byoin).

The GP women's 3000 mSC might have been the best race of the meet, both Miu Saito (Nittai Univ.) and Manami Nishiyama (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) going under the old meet record in 9:47.76 and 9:49.77, and previous MR holder Reimi Yoshimura (Cramer Japan TC) also getting under 10 minutes in 9:59.14 for 3rd. Four of the top five men in the GP 3000 mSC ran PBs, World XC relay team member Yutaro Niinae (Aisan Kogyo) winning in 8:33.43, Shintaro Nakazono (SID Group) 2nd in 8:34.76, and Asahi Kuroda (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) 3rd in 8:35.10.

NR holder Nozomi Tanaka (New Balance) duly set a MR 4:07.79 to win the GP women's 1500 m by over 3 seconds. The GP men's 800 m was unremarkable, Kaishi Kitamura taking the win in 1:48.29. Mitsu Ozaki (Sysmex) won the non-GP women's 5000 m in 15:59.91 in a photo finish with Rina Shimizu (North), who clocked in at 15:59.92. Only a high school boys' 5000 m was on the menu for men, with local Koki Niizuma (Nishiwaki Kogyo) 1st in 14:25.87.

The Tokai University Time Trials meet also had some quality marks, led by Hibiki Yoshida (Soka Univ.) with a 28:12.82 PB for the win in the men's 10000 m A-heat. A trio of men from Toyo University took the next three spots, Mashu Nishimura 2nd in 28:45.98, Ryota Kobayashi 3rd in 28:49.53, and former H.S. 5000 m NR setter Kosuke Ishida continuing his comeback with a 28:49.61 for 4th. Patrick Kamau (Jobu Univ.) took the B-heat in 29:51.22. Hayato Sano (Musashino Gakuin Univ.) ran a decent 3:48.95 to win the men's 1500 m A-heat.

The Kokushikan University Time Trials meet had a good men's 10000 m, where Koei Yahara (Hosei Univ.) got the win in 29:00.29 over Goki Higashihara (Meiji Univ.), 2nd in 29:00.94.

Overseas, four Japanese athletes were in action at the Xiamen Diamond League meet. Shunsuke Izumiya was 3rd in the men's 110 mH with a 13.17 -0.3 m/s SB Tomohiro Shinno was 4th in the men's high jump, clearing 2.24 m on his 2nd attempt but missing 2.27 m. Ryo Wada was 5th in the men's 100 m in 10.31 -0.6 m/s, former NR holder Yoshihide Kiryu 7th in 10.38.

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...

Kipyegon Repeats, Toyo Wins Hakone Ekiden Qualifier in First Appearance in 21 Years

Back for the first time in 21 years after a disastrous 14th-place finish at the 102nd Hakone Ekiden this past January, Toyo University hit one out of western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park with a solid win at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, the half marathon that serves as the official qualifying race for the 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The top 10 teams in the Hakone auto-qualify for the following year, with the rest having to run the Yosenkai in October with a squad of 10 to 16 runners out of which the top 10 score on aggregate time, with the 10 fastest schools joining the Hakone field and top individuals from non-qualifying teams names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team to make up the complete Hakone field of 21. Driven in large part by an aggressive run from 3rd-year Yu Miyazaki , one of only 2 Japanese athletes to go with the big African contingent up front, Toyo won in 10:31:30, 1:03:09 or 2:59.6/km per athlete. As the first team to have broken the 3:00/km average pace barrie...

Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...

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