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Showing posts with the label Hitomi Suzuki

Kanto Regionals Lead Five Championship Meets This Weekend

by Brett Larner This weekend is one of the busiest on the Japanese calendar, with no less than five regional track and field championship meets. Leading the way is the first half of Japan’s toughest university meet, the Kanto Regional University Track and Field Championships . Bumped from its traditional place at Tokyo’s National Stadium by a two-night stand of Paul McCartney concerts , this weekend’s half of the Kanto Regionals meet takes place far out in the wilds of Saitama in Kumagaya. The big news of the meet is the return of 2013 triple 1500 m, 5000 m and 10000 m D1 champion Enock Omwamba (Kenya/Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) from a stress fracture that forced him to drop out of the Second Stage of the Hakone Ekiden in January, eliminating YGU from Japan’s most prestigious race. It’s a sign that he is taking the comeback easy that Omwamba is skipping the 10000 m, racing only the 1500 m, where he set a meet record 3:39.16 last year, this weekend and the 5000 m next weekend in Ka...

Omwamba Dominates First Weekend of Kanto Regionals With 1500 m and 10000 m Double

by Brett Larner For the second-straight year, Kenyan Enock Omwamba (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) pulled off the 1500 m - 10000 m double on the first weekend of the Kanto Regional University Track and Field Championships, May 18-19 in Tokyo's National Stadium.  Despite high winds in Saturday's Division I 1500 m final, Omwamba went out hard with a 55-second opening lap, holding on alone to take a full 4 seconds off the meet record with a new best of 3:39.16.  Runner-up  Hiroki Matsueda  (Juntendo Univ.) was more than 10 seconds behind, narrowly beating Kazuki Miyake  (Chuo Univ.) for 2nd with both cracking 3:50.  Division II winner Masaki Toda  (Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) also got under 3:50 with the fastest Japanese time of the day, 3:49.52. A day later, Omwamba won again against a tough field in the Division I 10000 m.  Facing Nihon University's new Kenyan ace Daniel Kitonyi , 2013 Hakone Ekiden Fifth Stage winner Shota Hattori  (Nittai Univ.), Meiji...