Yuta Shitara Silver, Daichi Motomura Bronze at World University XC Championships

by Brett Larner

Toyo University's Yuta Shitara has had a busy last month. After a 1:01:48 PB at the March 18 New York City Half Marathon he beat marathoner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) over ten miles on April 1 and set a meet record for 3000 m on April 8 before travelling to Lodz, Poland for the 18th World University Cross-Country Championships on April 15. Leading the first part of the race and working together with Tokai University's Daichi Motomura to control the pace, Shitara ended up going head-to-head against Algerian Abdelmajed Touil for the win but falling four seconds short as Touil outkicked him for the win, 29:11 to 29:15. Leading at halfway, Motomura hung on to 3rd in 29:22. Komazawa University's Kazuhiro Kuga placed 7th and Daito Bunka University's Hiroshi Ichida, like Shitara an identical twin, 24th to give the Japanese men the team gold medal alongside Shitara and Motomura's individual silver and bronze. The Japanese women fell short of individual hardware but took 6th, 7th, 8th and 10th to take the team gold by one point over Romania.

2012 World University Cross-Country Championships
Lodz, Poland, 4/14/12
click here for complete results

Men
1. Abdelmajed Touil (Algeria) - 29:11
2. Yuta Shitara (Japan/Toyo Univ.) - 29:15
3. Daichi Motomura (Japan/Tokai Univ.) - 29:22
4. Antonio Abadia Beci (Spain) - 29:32
5. Vedat Gunen (Turkey) - 29:32
6. Matthew Bayley (Australia) - 29:35
7. Kazuhiro Kuga (Japan/Komazawa Univ.) - 29:36
8. Christian Glatting (Germany) - 29:37
9. Dmytro Lashyn (Ukraine) - 29:43
10. Rabia Makhloufi (Algeria) - 29:45
-----
24. Hiroshi Ichida (Japan/Daito Bunka Univ.) - 30:21
29. Masaya Taguchi (Japan/Toyo Univ.) - 30:34

Women
1. Ancuta Bobocel (Romania) - 15:48
2. Carla Salome Rocha (Portugal) - 15:54
3. Roxana Birca (Romania) - 15:56
4. Emily Rose Stewart (GBR) - 16:05
5. Amina Bettiche (Algeria) - 16:08
6. Mutusmi Ikeda (Japan) - 16:10
7. Ayuko Suzuki (Japan) - 16:15
8. Toshika Tamura (Japan) - 16:19
9. Tamara Jewett (Canada) - 16:24
10. Ayame Takaki (Japan) - 16:25
-----
16. Azusa Kurusu (Japan) - 16:44

Men's Teams
1. Japan - 36
2. Ukraine - 57
3. Algeria - 61
4. Spain - 74
5. Poland - 81

Women's Teams
1. Japan - 21
2. Romania - 23
3. Poland - 45
4. Canada - 46
5. Spain - 57

(c) 2012 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

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