by Brett Larner Niiya, Yoshikawa and Fukushi set the tone of the women's 10000 m. Photo courtesy Martin Lever, www.one-man-running-club.com The highlights of the first day of track and field competition at the London Olympics on the Japanese team came courtesy of two of the best people returning from the Daegu World Championships team. In the women's 10000 m, Japanese runners Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal), Hitomi Niiya (Team Univ. Ent.) and Mika Yoshikawa (Team Panasonic) would have none of the slow pace the rest of the field set, breaking away as a trio to lead a 3:06 opening km, joined by Ireland's Fionnuala Britton . Niiya, the 5000 m national champion and the greatest credit to the Japanese track contingent in Daegu, took over the lead from Fukushi after 1000 m and, showing no signs of it being only her second track 10000 m, held position until nearly 5000 m even after the Kenyan and Ethiopian contingents took the Japanese challenge seriously an...
the world's window into elite japanese distance running, since 2007