Sasaki Breaks 49-Yr-Old Steeple MR, Wanjiru Undefeated Over 5000 m - Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships Highlights

Japan's best university track meet happened the last 4 days in Tochigi at the 105th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships. The race of the meet was without a doubt the D1 men's 3000 mSC, where Japanese U20 all-time #2 Tetsu Sasaki (Waseda University) and Sanetada Ono (Tokai Univ.) pushed each other to both break one of the oldest records in Japanese athletics, 10-mile NR holder Masanari Shintaku's 8:35.2 Kanto Regionals meet record from 1977. Just starting his 2nd year at Waseda, Sasaki got the win and record in 8:24.96, landing just outside the all-time Japanese top 10. Ono took just over a second off his PB to go under Shintaku's old record too in 8:31.41 for 2nd.

On the women's side the race of the meet was the D1 women's 5000 m. Undefeated in the 5000 m and 10000 m at Kanto Regionals her first 3 years, Daito Bunka University 4th-year Sarah Wanjiru lost her shot at a perfect scorecard when she got taken down over the last lap in Thursday's 10000 m by Daisy Jerop (Josai Kokusai Univ.), finishing 2nd in 32:15.41 to Jerop's winning 32:08.75. Back for a rematch in Sunday's 5000 m, Wanjiru and Jerop hammered each other all the way to the line. Both broke the meet record, but Wanjiru got payback by the tiniest of margins, beating Jerop 15:17.01 to 15:17.02. You can't always get everything you want, but at the very least Wanjiru now walks away with 4-straight 5000 m titles.

Other highlights:

Collegiate 5000 m and 10000 m record holder Richard Etir (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) rounded out his 4th year at Kanto Regionals with a double win. First he won a competitive D2 10000 m on Thursday, running 27:43.53 in a race where the top 7, including Japanese athletes Riki Koike (Soka Univ.) and Yoshihiro Kusuoka (Teikyo Univ.) broke 28 minutes. Sunday he set a D2 MR of 13:24.76 to win the 5000 m over teammate Amos Bett, 2nd in 13:28.33, and Stephen Muthini (Soka Univ.), 3rd in 13:28.45.
Sora Murata (Tsukuba Univ.) and Mitsuki Kobayashi (Nittai Univ.) both broke Kobayashi's MR in the D1 women's pole vault, Murata clearing 4.17 m on her 1st attempt but Kobayashi only getting as high as 4.12 m.
The D1 men's 5000 m was good too, with Kaisei Okada (Chuo Univ.) continuing to deliver great run after great run with a 13:31.43 to win over Rui Suzuki (Waseda Univ.), 2nd in 13:33.73.
Chuo University also beat Waseda to win the D1 men's 4x100 m in 39.10. After fast heats where Chuo led the way in 39.05, all 7 teams that finished the final broke 39.7. The winner in Heat 2 in 39.29, Toyo University was DQd in the final but was sure to have gone under 39.7 too, very solid results overall for a regional meet. By comparison, not a single team in the D2 final got under 40.

In overall scoring, Juntendo University took the D1 men's team title with 135 points, Tokai University distantly 2nd with 91 points. Tsukuba University narrowly won the D1 women's title over Nittai University, Tsukuba scoring 139.5 and Nittai 130. Kokusai Budo University was the D2 men's team champ with 95 points. In the graduate school division, Tsukuba won the men's title with 26 points and the women's title with 11 points. Complete individual results across all divisions here.

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...

Kipyegon Repeats, Toyo Wins Hakone Ekiden Qualifier in First Appearance in 21 Years

Back for the first time in 21 years after a disastrous 14th-place finish at the 102nd Hakone Ekiden this past January, Toyo University hit one out of western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park with a solid win at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, the half marathon that serves as the official qualifying race for the 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The top 10 teams in the Hakone auto-qualify for the following year, with the rest having to run the Yosenkai in October with a squad of 10 to 16 runners out of which the top 10 score on aggregate time, with the 10 fastest schools joining the Hakone field and top individuals from non-qualifying teams names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team to make up the complete Hakone field of 21. Driven in large part by an aggressive run from 3rd-year Yu Miyazaki , one of only 2 Japanese athletes to go with the big African contingent up front, Toyo won in 10:31:30, 1:03:09 or 2:59.6/km per athlete. As the first team to have broken the 3:00/km average pace barrie...

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...

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