This was the last weekend where Japanese athletes could turn in qualifying marks for the June 27-30 National Championships and Olympic Trials in Niigata ahead of the June 5 deadline. For middle and long distance the big meet was the Nittaidai Challenge Games, aka the Nittai University Time Trials, Saturday and Sunday in Yokohama.
In a bid to firm up her world rankings score enough to get into the Kenyan Olympic Trials, Mirriam Cherop (Shin Nihon Jusetsu) took the first main race Saturday, winning the women's 1500 m fast heat in 4:13.49 after a 61-second first lap. Airi Tajima (Juntendo Univ.) was 2nd with a PB 4:19.02 and Runa Shoji (Kantaiheiyo Univ.) 3rd in 4:20.55, both clearing the 4:21.50 Trials standard.
The top nine in the men's 1500 m fast heat were all under the 3:45.00 standard, led by Yudai Noguchi (Toenec) in 3:42.18 in a photo finish with Nao Kurihara (Josai Univ.) National record holder Kazuki Kawamura (Toenec) was 4th in 3:43.62. With a target number of 30 it's likely it'll take something under 3:44 to actually make the starting line at the Trials.
Along with Cherop, Kenyans took the women's 3000 m and 5000 m fast heats. Newcomer Deborah Chemutai (Universal Entertainment) was fastest in the 3000 m in 9:09.82, with veteran Hellen Ekarare (Toyota Jidoshokki) soloing a 15:26.86 to win the 5000 m. No Japanese women cleared the 15:40.00 Trials standard.
In the last main race Saturday, Anthony Maina (Toyota Kyushu) led the top five under 27:44.00 in the men's 10000 m fast heat, winning in 27:41.20 ahead of Jonathan Ndiku (YKK), Andrew Lorot (YKK), Waweru Nganga (Chugoku Denryoku) and Cosmas Mwangi (Chugoku Denryoku). Shunta Uchida (Toyota) was the top Japanese man at 28:31.55.
Sunday was all about the men's 5000 m, with 17 heats run from mid-afternoon through evening. On-and-off rain, sometimes heavy, meant a wide range of conditions depending on when people ran. 1st-year Brian Kiptoo (Reitaku Univ.) won the first of the two fast heats in 13:24.15, his senior teammate David Shunqeya 3rd in 13:29.18. In 2nd, 3rd and 5th, Masaya Tsurukawa (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.), Ryuto Igawa (Asahi Kasei) and Asahi Kuroda (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) all cleared 13:30 for the first time. Raphael Dapash (JR Higashi Nihon) took the 2nd fast heat in 13:27.85, with both Ayumu Kobayashi (NTT Nishi Nihon) and Shunya Kikuchi (Chugoku Denryoku) getting under 13:30, Kikuchi for the first time.
That brings the number of Japanese men who've broken 13:30 since the Trials window opened on Jan. 1, 2023 to 31 in meets on the World Athletics calendar. The 5000 m qualifying time for the Olympic Trials was set at 13:36.00, but it shows how quickly things are progressing that there's a chance all 30 people on the starting line later this month will have times under 13:30. That's something only Kenya and the United States could match.
Most corporate league regions had their regional championship meets in the first half of May, but for whatever reason the Kansai Region moved its meet two weeks later to this weekend. Noteworthy performances included:
- Yugo Shikata (4Directions) set a meet record 1:50.31 in the men's 800 m.
- Kotaro Kondo (SGH), Yuto Akahoshi (Otsuka Seiyaku), Kazuto Kawabata (SGH) and Tsuyoshi Bando (Osaka Gas) all went under the men's 10000 m MR, AGU grad Kondo getting the win in 28:05.55.
- Shinichi Yukinaga (Shikoku Univ.) threw 57.91 m in the men's discus, beating his own MR by almost 2.5 m.
- Mayu Inaoka (Kagotani), Kina Matsuo (Super Fresco) and Ayaka Kawata (Niconiconori) broke the women's 400 m MR, Inaoka running over a second under the record she set 4 years ago with a 54.08 for the win.
- Kawata also broke the 800 m MR, taking almost one second off the 1988-era MR held by Bunko Arai in 2:05.77 and beating runner-up Ayu Koyama (Iwatani Sangyo) by almost 3.5 seconds.
- Marathoner Rika Kaseda (Daihatsu) did the distance double, winning the women's 10000 m in 32:33.88 on Friday and coming back Sunday to take the 5000 m in 15:44.16. Holding off on plans to retire, her teammate Mizuki Matsuda was 2nd in 32:44.42.
- The meet records also went in the women's 400 mH, Satsuki Umehara (Sumitomo Denko) taking the win in 58.01 and Karen Yokota (Kagotani) also under the record in 58.38 for 2nd.
At the Fuse Sprint meet the biggest draw was the men's 100 m, where Ryota Suzuki (Suzuki) took the win in 10.06 (+2.8) and Shoma Yamamoto (Hiroshima Univ.) 2nd in 10.08. Former NR holder Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei) was only 7th in 10.19. In other results:
- China's Zhuoyi Xu and Weibo Qin went 1-2 in the men's 110 mH, Xu setting a meet record 13.22 (+1.3).
- Arisa Kimishima (DKS) won the women's 100 m in 11.45 (+0.7).
- NR holder Mako Fukube (NKK) took the women's 100 mH in 12.99 (+1.9) by 0.01 over Hitomi Shimura (Rita Japan), whose 13.00 was a PB by 0.02 over the old best she had set way back in 2013.
Overseas, Shota Iizuka (Mizuno) won the men's 200 m at the Taiwan Athletics Open in a 20.65 (+0.0) MR. Koki Ueyama (Sumitomo Denko) was 2nd in 20.81.
- Daiki Ogawa and Yusaku Kodama also went 1-2 in the men's 400 mH, Ogawa getting the win in 49.43 and Kodama next in 49.44.
- Another win went to Ryoichi Akamatsu in the men's high jump, both he and 3rd-placer Takashi Eto clearing 2.25 m. Yuto Seko was 5th at 2.22 m. Both Akamatsu and Seko are currently in the Paris Olympics quota and will need to make top 3 at the Trials to be named to the Paris team.
- Hibiki Tsuha and Yuto Toriumi went 2nd and 4th in the men's long jump in heavy rain, Tsuha 1 cm off the win at 7.52 m (+0.6) and Toriumi 3 cm off the podium at 7.41 m (+0.8).
- Ryota Kashimura broke the men's hammer throw MR in 72.57 m but was outclassed by Canada's Ethan Katzberg, who won with a big 80.04 m throw. Shota Fukuda was 3rd at 71.67 m.
- In women's events, Ayano Shiomi was 2nd in the 800 m with a 2:05.99 NR, 0.25 behind winner Dissanayake Mudiyanselage of Sri Lanka.
- NR holder Sumire Hata was 2nd in the long jump at 6.37 m (+0.6), Nanaya James of India getting the win in 6.43 m (+0.6). Japan's Ayaka Kora was 4th at 6.06 m (+0.0).
- Sara Fujimoto and Miharu Kodate were 4th and 5th in the women's hammer throw at 62.30 m and 61.86 m. Winner Lauren Bruce of New Zealand threw a MR 67.30 m for the win.
Elsewhere, Abdul Hakim Sani Brown had a good one in the Oslo Diamond League men's 100 m, running a SB 9.99 (+0.4) for 2nd, and followed that up with a 10.28 (-1.0) for 5th at the Stockholm Diamond League meet. Nozomi Tanaka also doubled in Oslo and Stockholm, taking 10th in the Oslo 3000 m and shaving another fraction off her own NR in 8:34.09, and 9th in the Stockholm 1500 m with a 4:02.98 SB, just missing the 4:02.50 Olympic standard. Ayano Ikeuchi was also in Stockholm, taking 8th in Saturday's Stockholm Marathon in 2:41:56.
© 2024 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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