Two top international meets over the weekend featured some of Japan's best track athletes. Women's 10000 m year leader Yuka Takashima (Team Shiseido) ran in the Netherlands' FBK Games on Saturday. Far off the 31:33.33 PB she set last month at the Payton Jordan meet in California, Takashima managed only 33:08.76 for 12th of 13 finishers nearly two and a half minutes behind Ethiopian winner Gelete Burka 's world-leading 30:40.87. Racing for the first time since his debut at April's Boston Marathon , Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project) ran the 5000 m Sunday at the Portland Track Festival. Clearing 13:30 for the first time since his Japanese national record two years ago, Osako was 3rd in 13:25.56 just over two seconds behind Kirubel Erassa (U.S.A.) and Morgan McDonald (Australia). Still three seconds shy of the 13:22.60 qualifying standard for August's London World Championships, Osako's performance means that at the time of writing the only Japanese ma...
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