Three weeks after running a 59:22 half marathon equivalent at the Hakone Ekiden, Komazawa University 2nd-year Keita Sato became only the second Japanese man ever to break 13:10 for 5000, taking over 18 seconds off the indoor 5000 m NR with a 13:09.45 for 10th at Boston University's John Thomas Terrier Classic . After Hakone on Jan. 2 Sato took a week off to recover from what had been his first race longer than 11 km. Phasing back into training the week after that during exams, on Jan. 18 he flew to Boulder, Colorado for six weeks of training with OAC . On Jan. 22 he celebrated his 20th birthday, and on Jan. 24 the group flew to Boston. Throughout the race he stayed near the middle of the front pack, splitting 2:38.24-2:37:17-2:38.76-2:38.01-2:37.28 en route. His 3000 m split of 7:54.16 was 2 seconds faster than the only other indoor race he had ever run, a 7:56.41 for silver at last spring's Asian Indoor Championships. Sato had been totally focused on building volume for his ...
the world's window into elite japanese distance running, since 2007