The 2021 Hokuren Distance Challenge series wrapped up Saturday in Chitose with a big day for Japanese middle distance. Hiroki Minamoto (Kantai Heiyo Univ.) started things off with a 1:45.75 to win the men's 800 m, exactly tying the national and collegiate records. The holder of both records, Sho Kawamoto (Suzuki), was 2nd in 1:45.83, with Mikuto Kaneko (Chuo Univ.) right there in 1:45.85 to come in at 3rd in the race and the all-time JPN lists. Kazuki Kawamura (Toenec) kept it going in the men's 1500 m, taking over 1.5 sec off Nanami Arai 's 7-week-old NR in 3:35.42. U18 NR holder Keita Sato (Rakunan H.S.) was 2nd in 3:37.18, breaking the U20, U18 and H.S. national records and moving up to all-time JPN #3. Tokyo Olympics 5000 m team member Yuta Bando (Fujitsu) was 3rd in 3:37.99, good for all-time JPN #6, with his teammate in both Fujitsu and the Olympic 5000 m Hiroki Matsueda last in 3:52.01. Although they're listed as DNS in the official results,...
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