by Brett Larner videos by naoki620 Train-stopping winds tore at what was left of the roof of the neighboring snow-damaged Kumagaya Dome, but the first day of Japan's biggest university meet, the Kanto Regional University Track and Field Championships , plowed ahead as scheduled on Friday, May 16 northwest of Tokyo in Kumagaya, Saitama. Because Kanto is home to Japan's biggest sporting event, the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden university men's road relay championships, the region is a national magnet for men's distance running talent to the extent that the Kanto Regionals meet is much more competitive than its national counterpart where Kanto distance men race others from weaker regions from across the country. That being the case, it was no surprise that the highlight of the day came in its final two events, the D2 and D1 men's 10000 m. A school's D1 or D2 standing depends on the combined scoring of its overall track and field team, meaning that distance sp...
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