High Schooler Mashiko 13:34.84 - Weekend Track Roundup

The National Sports Festival was the main thing happening this weekend, but with ekiden season just kicking off there were track time trial meets everywhere as teams shift focus from summer mileage to sharpening speed. Haruki Niizuma (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) made news with a 13:35.33 win in the junior men's 5000 m Friday at the National Sports Festival, but at Sunday's Nittai University Time Trials meet, held at Keio University this time because of construction work at Nittai, Yota Mashiko (Gakuho Ishikawa H.S.) beat Niizuma's time with a 13:34.84 PB.

Mashiko ran in an all-Kenyan lead group and was right there with Victor Kipkirui (Chudenko) and Stephen Muthini (Soka Univ.) til the end, Kipkirui kicking away in the last 100 m to win in 13:33.46 and Muthini next in 13:34.47. Mashiko's time was the best this year by a Japanese-born high schooler, and with Niizuma and Sei Yoshida (Tokai Sapporo H.S.), 13:35.14 in July, right there it looks like it's going to be a great high school boys' ekiden season.

Spanning Saturday and Sunday, the Chubu Corporate Track and Field Championships' biggest race was the men's 10000 m, where Kelvin Kiplagat (Aisan Kogyo) ran 27:46.68 to lead Simon Muthio Saidimu (Chuo Hatsujo) and James Muoki (Sekino Kosan) under 28 minutes. Komazawa University grad Yusuke Nishiyama (Toyota) had the fastest Japanese time of the weekend at 28:16.47 for 6th.

The Setagaya Time Trials held in parallel with Chugoku in Tokyo Saturday saw Brian Kiptoo (Reitaku Univ.) take the 10000 m fast heat in 28:01.74, another former Komazawa member Chikara Yamano (Kraftia) running 28:18.70 for 3rd. Running his first race since his breakthrough 6th-place finish at the Sydney Marathon on Aug. 31, Masato Arao (ND Software) was 5th in the B-heat in 28:51.33, just over a second off his PB with his teammate Koichi Shoji winning in 28:47.24. Komazawa's Shintaro Kudo won the 5000 m A-heat in 13:42.22.

Things were pretty low-key in Hiroshima at Saturday's Chugoku Corporate Time Trials meet. The most notable result was a 28:33.55 win in the 10000 m fast heat by Shunya Kikuchi (Chugoku Denryoku), following up his 2:06:06 marathon PB in Osaka in February and 13:25.97 best for 5000 m in June. Even lower-key was Sunday's Kansai Distance Challenge in Nara, where the top performance was probably Hiroki Yamanaka's 13:55.01 win in the 5000 m A-heat. Yamanashi and his Osaka Gas teammates Kento Nishi and Masahiro Mekata took the top 3 spots and were separated by less than a second.

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .

Japan's Team Performance at World U20 Championships

There wasn't much surprise in the events where Japan did well at the Oregon World U20 Championships , with medals in the men's 110 mH, 400 mH and 3000 m, and top 5 finishes in the women's and men's 5000 m race walks, men's 4x100 m relay, men's pole vault and long jump, men's 200 m, women's 800 m and 3000 m, and women's javelin throw. Jeremy Koga ran a 12.95 (+0.3) Asian U20 AR in the men's 110 mH semifinals, then came back in the final with a 12.97 (+0.7) in the final to take silver behind a brilliant 12.72 U20 WR by American Le'Ezra Brown . Taiju Goto was expected to medal in the men's 400 mH, but after leading the semifinals the best he could do was silver in 49.23, gold going to the Czech Republic's Michal Rada with a 48.59 European U20 AR. Expected to do better in the 1500 m, Ojiro Honda ran a 7:48.49 U20 NR in the men's 3000 m final to score bronze, only to come in near the back of the field in the 1500 m final at 14th in...

japan running news

Search This Blog