There were 2 decently competitive meets in the Tokyo area this weekend. Saturday saw the new year's first edition of the Setagaya Time Trials meet. Takuma Akiyoshi took the men's 3000 m A-heat over his MABP Maverick teammate Festus Kiprono Cheruiyot with a 7:58.32 PB. Cheruiyot just held off 3rd-placer Nao Kurihara 7:59.92 to 8:00.02, with MABP runners taking the top 5 spots.
The top 7 in the men's 5000 m A-heat all cleared 14 minutes. Still a 6-way race with 400 m to go, Tatsuya Maruyama of Komori Corp. came out on top in 13:48.49, with 5th-placer Kazuki Ishii of Yakult just over a second behind in 13:49.63. Lacking the gear to stay with them, new American marathon sensation Ethan Shuley fell back to 6th in 13:57.12 in his first-ever track 5000 m, holding off 7th-placer Daiki Nomimura of NTT Nishi Nihon who came up from behind to finish in 13:58.30.
Sunday was the 59th edition of the Tokyo Big 6 meet between Waseda University, Meiji University, Hosei University, Rikkyo University, Tokyo University and hosts Keio University. Ojiro Honda got off to a good start at Waseda with a 3:40.25 meet record in the men's 1500 m, hitting the A-standard for June's National Championships. Haruki Niizuma backed that up with a 13:54.91 win in the men's 5000 m, a solid pair of performances from 2 of Waseda's best incoming 1st-years. 3rd-year Shunpei Yamaguchi turned in a 13:59.02 to win the fast heat in the non-team scoring 5000 m.
Waseda also broke the meet record in the men's 4x100 m, with Futo Takasu, Ryunosuke Mizuno, Hibiki Yui and Kei Wakana running 39.49. Another Waseda athlete, Chikako Ueshima, also took the women's 200 m MR with a 24.50 (-0.6), 0.54 under the old record. 2nd-placer Ayu Miyata (Rikkyo Univ.) made it under the old record in 24.89. Running into a -1.8 m/s headwind, Shoki Kawatsu (Meiji Univ.) just missed the men's 200 m MR by 0.08, running 21.38 for the win. Waseda domination continued in the women's 1500 m, where Chihana Shiseki set a 4:38.44 MR, and the women's high jump, where Natsuki Yano better the MR by 10 cm at 1.80 m. Keio's Sayuka Kurata was the only non-Waseda athlete to break a MR, throwing 52.01 m for the win in the women's javelin throw.
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