Skip to main content

Women's 1500 m Meet Record Caps National University Individual Track and Field Championships

by Brett Larner

The 2009 National University Individual Track and Field Championships took place June 12-14 in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture just south of Tokyo. An elective meet in which student athletes can choose to compete as opposed to September's team-oriented National University Track and Field Championships, the National Individual Championships offer a rare chance to see athletes from other parts of the country take on those from the powerful, Tokyo-centric Kanto Region.

Coached by Keiichi Murai, the husband of two-time World Championships marathon medalist Reiko Tosa, Matsuyama University's Mami Sogabe and Toshika Tamura both broke the year-old women's 1500 m meet record. Sogabe clocked 4:29.03 and Tamura 4:29.10, with Ritsumeikan University's Hanae Tanaka getting under the old record as well in 4:29.12.

New meet records also came on the track in the men's 3000 mSC, with Masamori Kabuki of Tohoku Fukushi University running 8:58.79 to mark the meet's first-ever sub-9 time, and in the women's 100 mH, where Rena Joshita of Aoyama Gakuin University ran 13.42. Field events saw new meet records in both the men's and women's high jump, the men's shot put, the women's pole vault and the women's triple jump.

Click here for complete results from the 2009 National University Individual Track and Field Championships.

2009 National University Individual Track and Field Championships - Top Results
Women's 5000 m: Kaori Koriki (Kanaya Sports Univ.) - 16:32.52
Women's 1500 m:
1. Mami Sogabe (Matsuyama Univ.) - 4:29.03 - MR
2. Toshika Tamura (Matsuyama Univ.) - 4:29.10 - (MR)
3. Hanae Tanaka (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 4:29.12 - (MR)
Women's 800 m: Yukari Nomura (Chuo Univ.) - 2:07.84
Women's 100 mH: Rena Joshita (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 13.42 - MR
Women's High Jump: Yuki Mimura (Kansai Univ.) - 1.81 - MR
Women's Pole Vault: Tomomi Abiko (Doshisha Univ.) - 4.00 - MR
Women's Triple Jump:
1. Waka Maeda (Tsukuba Univ.) - 12.82 - MR
2. Aguri Osaka (Tsukuba Univ.) - 12.61 - (MR)

Men's 5000 m: Takuro Nakanishi (Fukuoka Univ.) - 14:23.57
Men's 3000 mSC: Masamori Kabuki (Tohoku Fukushi Univ.) - 8:58.79 - MR
Men's 1500 m: Takuro Nakanishi (Fukuoka Univ.) - 3:53.25
Men's 800 m: Akihiro Katsumada (Hosei Univ.) - 1:52.05
Men's High Jump: Hiromi Takahari (Tokai Univ.) - 2.20 - MR
Men's Shot Put: Sotaro Yamada (Hosei Univ.) - 17.52 - MR

(c) 2009 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Takeuchi Wins Niigata Half in Boston Tune-Up

Running in cold, windy and rainy conditions, Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Software) warmed up for April's Boston Marathon with a win at Wednesday's Niigata Half Marathon . Takeuchi sat behind Nittai University duo Susumu Yamazaki and Ryuga Ishikawa in the early stages, then made a series of pushes to pick up the pace. Each time he tucked in behind whoever went to the front, while behind them others dropped off. Before 15 km only Yamazaki and Riki Koike of Soka University were left, and when Takeuchi went to the front the last time after 15 km only Koike followed. By 16 he was gone too, leaving Takeuchi to solo it in to the win in 1:03:13 with a 17-second negative split. "This was my last fitness check before the Boston Marathon next month, and my time was right on-target," he said post-race. "Everything went as planned. I'm looking forward to racing some of the world's best in Boston, and my goal there is to place in the single digits." Just back from tr