Weekend Track Roundup

by Brett Larner

Four significant men's track meets took place around Tokyo over the weekend.

At the Apr. 9 Setagaya Time Trials meet, Team Kanebo's new Ethiopian ringer Asefa Fekele had a good debut with an 8:05.37 win in the 3000 m just steps ahead of Komazawa University's Wataru Ueno who clocked 8:05.96. 3rd placer Daisuke Shimizu (Team Kanebo) was far back of the pair in 8:09.67.

Nihon University's Shuto Kojima likewise had a narrow win over distance specialist Takehiro Deki (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) in the Setagaya Time Trials 5000 m, 14:05.28 to Deki's 14:05.56.

At the largest of the four meets, the Five University Meet held Apr. 10 at Heisei Kokusai University, the performance of the day came in the open Premium 3000 m, where Kenyan Bitan Karoki (Team S&B) ran 7:49.43 for the win over teammate Yusuke Hasegawa (Team S&B), who ran 8:05.36 in his pro debut. Senior Takamitsu Hashimoto (Josai Univ.) was the top university runner, 3rd in 8:09.62. Racing again just a day after making his university debut at the Kanaguri Memorial meet, first-year Takashi Ichida (Daito Bunka Univ.) was 4th in 8:12.32.

Sophomore Yuta Shitara (Toyo Univ.) won the 5000 m in 14:18.32 in a close match over senior Hayato Sonoda (Jobu Univ.).

At the Nittai-Chuo Dual Meet at Nittai University on Apr. 10, Nittai athletes won the men's 5000 m and the 3000 mSC. Junior Yutaro Fukushi took the men's 5000 m in 14:15.98 and Shunsuke Numai the steeple in 9:10.85. Mai Shinozuka (Chuo Univ.) won the women's 5000 m in 16:33.60.

The Waseda Invitational. Click here for more photos courtesy of WESC.

The 3000 mSC was the main distance event at the Apr. 10 Waseda Invitational. Takashi Sasazaki (Meiji Univ.) battled Takaaki Osako (Teikyo Univ.) for the win in 9:11.45, Osako winding up 2nd in 9:12.89. The top runner from the hosts was Masahito Aihara, 3rd in 9:15.77.

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Morii Surprises With Second-Ever Japanese Sub-2:10 at Boston

With three sub-2:09 Japanese men in the race and good weather conditions by Boston standards the chances were decent that somebody was going to follow 1981 winner Toshihiko Seko 's 2:09:26 and score a sub-2:10 at the Boston Marathon . But nobody thought it was going to be by a 2:14 amateur. Paris Olympic team member Suguru Osako had taken 3rd in Boston in 2:10:28 in his debut seven years ago, and both he and 2:08 runners Kento Otsu and Ryoma Takeuchi were aiming for spots in the top 10, Otsu after having run a 1:01:43 half marathon PB in February and Takeuchi of a 2:08:40 marathon PB at Hofu last December. A high-level amateur with a 2:14:15 PB who scored a trip to Boston after winning a local race in Japan, Yuma Morii told JRN minutes before the start of the race, "I'm not thinking about time at all. I'm going to make top 10, whatever time it takes." Running Boston for the first time Morii took off with a 4:32 on the downhill opening mile, but after that Sis

The Ivy League at the Izumo Ekiden in Review

Last week I was contacted by Will Geiken , who I'd met years ago when he was a part of the Ivy League Select Team at the Izumo Ekiden . He was looking for historical results from Izumo and lists of past team members, and I was able to put together a pretty much complete history, only missing the alternates from 1998 to 2010 and a little shaky on the reverse transliterations of some of the names from katakana back into the Western alphabet for the same years. Feel free to send corrections or additions to alternate lists. It's interesting to go back and see some names that went on to be familiar, to see the people who made an impact like Princeton's Paul Morrison , Cornell's Max King , Stanford's Brendan Gregg in one of the years the team opened up beyond the Ivy League, Cornell's Ben de Haan , Princeton's Matt McDonald , and Harvard's Hugo Milner last year, and some of the people who struggled with the format. 1998 Team: 15th of 21 overall, 2:14:10 (43

Hirabayashi Runs PB at Shanghai Half, WR Holder Nakata Dominates Fuji Five Lakes - Weekend Road Roundup

Returning to the roads after his 2:06:18 win at February's Osaka Marathon, Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Koku Gakuin University) took 5th at Sunday's Shanghai Half Marathon in a PB 1:01:23, just under a minute behind winner Roncer Kipkorir Konga (Kenya) who clocked a CR 1:00:29. After inexplicably running the equivalent of a sub-59 half marathon to win the Hakone Ekiden's Third Stage, Aoi Ota (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) was back to running performances consistent with his other PBs with a 1:02:30 for 8th. His AGU teammate Kyosuke Hiramatsu was 10th in 1:04:00. Women's winner Magdalena Shauri (Tanzania) also set a new CR in 1:09:57. Aoyama Gakuin runners took the top four spots in the men's half marathon at the Aomori Sakura Marathon , with Hakone alternate Kosei Shiraishi getting the win in 1:04:32 and B-team members Shunto Hamakawa and Kei Kitamura 2nd and 3rd in 1:04:45 and 1:04:48. Club runners took the other division titles, Hina Shinozaki winning the women's half

japan running news

Search This Blog