10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance

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 getting there ahead of their teammate has a real impact on their futures.

A lot of the top Japanese people will be targeting 27:50 in Heat 7 at 18:30, but the main event is Heat 8 at 19:05. It's being set up to try to deliver Tokyo World Championships standard performances, Japan's first sub-27, or at least a new NR. The withdrawal of current 27:09.80 NR holder Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu), all-time #4 Jun Kasai (Asahi Kasei) and #6 Ren Tazawa (Toyota) doesn't help the chances of that happening, leaving Mebuki Suzuki (Toyota), #8 at 27:26.67, Takuya Hanyu (Toyota Boshoku), #9 at 27:27.49, and Ayumu Kobayashi (NTT Nishi Nihon), #10 at 27:28.13, as the top people on the list. Kotaro Shinohara (Komazawa University), 27:35.05, Yusuke Tamura (Kurosaki Harima), 27:43.11, and Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko), 13:10.69 for 5000 m, are the only other Japanese men in the race, getting a boost from another seven Japan-based Kenyans led by 26:54.76 man Richard Kimunyan Yator (Logisteed).

A special addition is Indian record holder Gulveer Singh, who beat Suzuki and Shinohara while setting a new 5000 m NR of 13:11.82 in Niigata in September. Hiroaki Oyagi, coach of both Suzuki and Shinohara, told JRN, "Suzuki's training in the U.S. went well, and he's ready to do something special. Shinohara is interesting too." In the Niigata 5000 m Shinohara ran a PB of 13:15.70, the fastest outdoor time ever by a Japanese-born collegiate runner that matched his 1:00:11 half marathon best, also the fastest time ever by a Japanese-born collegian. 27:21.51 or better would be enough to add the 10000 m to that list, giving him a solid case for the title of Japan's best-ever collegiate runner.

The entire meet will be streamed live on Youtube. A link hasn't been posted yet, but check the meet website and the East Japan Corporate Federation Youtube channel on Saturday. We'll add streaming to the top of this article once it's posted. Full meet schedule and entries are here. JRN will be on-site to cover the meet live.

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

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

Shiojiri, Kasai and Tazawa Scratch from Hachioji Long Distance, 5000 m Dropped from Program (updated)

On Nov. 15 the East Japan Corporate Federation announced that 10000 m national champion and Paris Olympian Jun Kasai (Asahi Kasei) and Budapest World Championships team member Ren Tazawa (Toyota) have both withdrawn from the 10000 m at the Nov. 23 Hachioji Long Distance meet. This year's Hachioji Long Distance features a special heat set up to target the 27:00.00 qualifying standard for next year's Tokyo World Championships. Along with Kasai and Tazawa, national record holder Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) and other top-level Japanese talent are scheduled to compete. After last January's New Year Ekiden , Tazawa sustained an injury that forced him to miss May's National Championships 10000 m and other races including the Paris Olympics. At the end of September he ran 13:36.99 for 5th at the Yogibo Athletics Challenge Cup meet, but, he said, "My balance felt off and the back of my left knee hurt." In Kasai's case, after winning the national title in M

japan running news

Search This Blog