Skip to main content

Chuo University 1st-yr Kaisei Okada Runs 7:55.41 for 3000 m

 

At this weekend's Summer Night Run Festival in CHUO track meet at Chuo University's Tama campus, Chuo 1st-year Kaisei Okada ran 7:55.41 for 3000 m, the 4th-fastest Japanese U20 time ever. A rebranded version of the Chuo University Time Trials series, the Summer Night Run Festival featured top junior high school and high school athletes and members of Aoyama Gakuin University's 2024 Hakone Ekiden champion team, with Chuo team members and alumni running as pacers.

The third heat of 3000 m included AGU's Asahi Kuroda, Shota Shiode and Shunya Udagawa. Okada won, his 7:55.41 being his first time under 8 minutes, with 2nd-year teammate Hayate Honma also cracking 8 minutes in 7:58.65 for 2nd. Kuroda was 3rd in 8:02.83, with AGU 1st-year Hikaru Ogawara 5th in 8:05.81.

Okada graduated from Kyoto's Rakunan H.S., home of national record setters like Keita Sato, Ryuji Miura, Yoshihide Kiryu and Toshinari Takaoka. His 2nd year of high school he was 12th in the 5000 m at the National High School Track and Field Championships, and that winter he represented Japan in the U20 race at the World Cross Country Championships. Last year he was 11th in the 5000 m at high school Nationals and took 5th in the 5000 m at the National Sports Festival. Since entering Chuo in April he has taken 6th in the 5000 m at Kanto Regionals and 4th in the 5000 m at the U20 National Championships. In June he ran a PB of 13:34.09 for 5000 m.

Also this weekend, South Sudan's Abraham Guem won the On Track Nights meet's men's 800 m in 1:47.41 in his last tuneup for the Paris Olympics, where he will run the 800 m on a universality place. Australian Jesse Hunt won the men's 1500 m in 3:38.98 with both Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko) and Masanori Anbai (Tokai Univ.) getting under 3:40. Chuo alum Kensuke Horio (MABP) took the men's 3000 m in 8:01.03. Australians took both women's races, Bendre Oboya winning the women's 800 m in 1:59.37 and Maudie Skyring the 1500 m in 4:07.33.

source article:
translated and edited by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee



Comments

Most-Read This Week

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...

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...

Route Inn Hotels Win National Corporate Women's Ekiden Qualifier for First Time

After Saturday's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifying race in Tokyo, 2nd-tier corporate women's teams were in Fukuoka for their own national championships qualifying race, the Princess Ekiden . With Queens Ekiden 19-placer Otsuka Seiyaku a DNS, 30 teams lined up for the 6-stage, 42.195 km race where the top 16 would go on to join the top 8 from last year's Queens Ekiden at next month's national race. Coming right in the middle of the international fall marathon season several teams had people still tired from Berlin and Chicago, with Daihatsu fielding Rika Kaseda and Natsuki Omori from Berlin, Tokyo Metro sending out its own Berlin duo of Mao Uesugi and Ayumi Morita , and Kraftia not playing its top member Yuka Akasaki after her solid run in Chicago last week. After a fast start from eventual 9th-placer Denso 's Rio Matsutani , Daihatsu took over on the Second Stage and held it until the Fifth, where a tired Omori dropped to 3rd. Mayuka Fujita from Route Inn H...