by Brett Larner The men's 10000 m rounded out the day as the only final on the first day of competition at the 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships in Eugene, U.S.A. After a slow first lap Keisuke Nakatani of 2013 National University Ekiden champion Komazawa University went to the front to get the race moving, tailed only by 2014 Hakone Ekiden winner Toyo University 's Hazuma Hattori . Ranked 6th and 7th in the field by PB, the two Japanese athletes, both stage winners at January's Hakone Ekiden, were initially ignored by the faster Africans, allowing them to open a lead that at one point maxed at around 100 m. Despite the gap, the pair's pace was never unrealistic as Nakatani held close to 29:10 pace, roughly 20 second slower than his best. His projected finishing time based on his splits through 6000 m show how steadily he ran: 1000 m: 29:18.70 2000 m: 29:15.55 3000 m: 29:13.57 4000 m: 29:09.53 5000 m: 29:10.54 6000 m: 29:11.73 The slight su...
the world's window into elite japanese distance running, since 2007