Skip to main content

10000 m National Championships Preview

 

Less than five months since the 2023 10000 m National Championships went down at the 2021 Olympic stadium in Tokyo, the 2024 edition happens Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium, with NHK broadcasting it live starting at 19:25 local time. Doubling up on Nationals like this lets Japanese athletes double dip on placing points to try to get into the Paris Olympics on rankings. But between the number of people who've hit the 30:40.00 women's standard and 27:00.00 men's standard and the lopsided eight spots given away to top placers at World XC, there are only four women's spots and three men's available via rankings. Of those, three of the four women's spots and two of the three men's spots are currently occupied by top placers at December's 2023 Nationals, Ririka Hironaka, Haruka Kokai and Rino Goshima for women and Ren Tazawa and Tomoki Ota for men.

The 2023 Nationals did get close to the standards, with Hironaka leading the top four women under 31:00 and Kazuya Shiojiri running a national record 27:09.80 to win the men's title. The top woman globally in the Paris rankings with the standard or XC backdoor, Hironaka has scratched this time around, but both Kokai and Goshima are back along with December's runner-up Yuka Takashima. Given the few slots left they kind of have to go for the Olympic standard. Like last time, that's made easier thanks to the Wavelight and Kenyan pacers.

It wouldn't take much for Kokai to improve her score, but to pass either GBR's Jessica Warner-Judd or Hironaka on points she'd have to run sub-30. Goshima and Takashima both have a chance of passing Kokai on points, but with the risk of spots getting eliminated by someone else hitting the standard somewhere, best to try to go one step beyond what they did together in December. Barring that, it's a race not to be the fourth Japanese woman between the three lining up in Shizuoka and Hironaka.


At 27:09.80 Shiojiri is closer to the standard than any of the women and has one fewer slot left to work with, so he really needs to take a serious shot at sub-27. If not, a win in 27:53.72 or better would put him ahead of France's Jimmy Gressier as the top rankings qualifier worldwide in the Paris quota. 2023 Nationals runner-up Ota, 27:12.53, would need a win in 27:44.70 or something faster for a lower finish to pass Gressier. 3rd at Nationals, former NR holder Akira Aizawa, 27:13.04, would need a 27:40.85 win. 4th last time, Tazawa is currently the top Japanese man in the quota but has scratched from Friday's Nationals. There's a pretty good chance all three rankings spots left in the quota will be filled by Japanese athletes come Saturday morning, and like with the women it'll be a race not to the 4th out of the four favorites.

2024 National Championships 10000 m Entry Lists

Ecopa Stadium, Shizuoka, 3 May 2024

Women
Yuka Takashima (Shiseido) - 30:57.26
Haruka Kokai (Daiichi Seimei) - 30:57.67
Rino Goshima (Shiseido) - 30:58.83
Mikuni Yada (Edion) - 31:34.39
Miyaka Sugata (Japan Post) - 31:49.20
Tomo Muramatsu (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 31:51.78
Kaede Kawamura (Iwatani Sangyo) - 31:54.73
Momoka Kawaguchi (Uniqlo) - 31:57.81
Wakana Itsuki (Kyudenko) - 31:58.59
Kazuna Kanetomo (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 32:27.84
pacer - Judy Jepngetich (Shiseido) - 14:50.20

Men
Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) - 27:09.80
Tomoki Ota (Toyota) - 27:12.53
Akira Aizawa (Asahi Kasei) - 27:13.04
Ayumu Kobayashi (NTT Nishi Nihon) - 27:28.13
Mebuki Suzuki (Toyota) - 27:30.69
Jun Kasai (Asahi Kasei) - 27:36.75
Kotaro Shinohara (Komazawa Univ.) - 27:38.66
Yusuke Tamura (Kurosaki Harima) - 27:43.11
Ryuto Igawa (Asahi Kasei) - 27:47.21
Shunya Kikuchi (Chugoku Denryoku) - 27:47.76
Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) - 27:48.09
Takashi Ichida (Asahi Kasei) - 27:48.22
Shunsuke Shikama (Logisteed) - 27:50.05
Yuto Imae (GMO) - 27:50.93
Yuya Yoshida (GMO) - 27:51.26
Tamaki Fujimoto (Logisteed) - 27:54.81
Shinichiro Nakamura (Kyudenko) - 27:54.93
Chikara Yamano (Kyudenko) - 27:55.57
Shoya Saito (Josai Univ.) - 27:59.68
Sodai Shimizu (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 28:01.47
Kazuma Maeda (Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) - 28:03.51
Kazuma Hattori (NTT Nishi Nihon) - 28:05.44
Aritaka Kajiwara (Comodi Iida) - 28:08.21
Tatsuya Iyoda (Fujitsu) - 28:06.26
Tomonori Yamaguchi (Waseda Univ.) - 28:17.87
pacer - Emmanuel Maru (Toyota Boshoku) - 27:09.06

© 2024 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Labels:

Comments

Stefan said…
I'll be cheering for Haruka Kokai tomorrow. Given what she achieved last year it is conceivable she can go under the 30:40.00 standard. I hope she does and also wins the race. It's a big ask. If she can do it she can stamp herself as a true rival to Hironaka. I'm disappointed Hironaka isn't running. I just hope it isn't a serious injury if that is the reason for her omission. As the poster girl for the event it has me worried. I recall she pulled out of a half marathon debut which I was anticipating so I am a little concerned. It would be terrible timing if it were the case. I've been looking forward to this race for a whille so I'll be glued to the screen.
May 2, 2024 at 4:55 PM
Brett Larner said…
Hironaka is also out of the Seiko GGP 5000, so it’s not looking good.
May 2, 2024 at 6:41 PM
Stefan said…
Thanks Brett. I didn't know about that.
May 3, 2024 at 3:59 AM
Post a Comment

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
Post a Comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more