Skip to main content

Long Weekend Track Roundup

by Brett Larner

Japan's fall track season is well underway, a transition period designed to sharpen the summer base as the focus shifts to the ekiden season. The Monday, Oct. 11 national holiday saw two major track meets alongside the Izumo Ekiden.

The Niigata Big Athletics Festa focused on 10000 m for the distance runners. Former Sendai Ikuei H.S. standout Paul Kuira (Kenya/Team Konica Minolta) led the way with a 27:50.64 to move into the 2010 worldwide top 30. In second came Naoki Okamoto (Team Chugoku Denryoku) in a PB of 28:07.99, just clearing the 2011 World Championships B-standard. The women's 10000 m added two more Japanese women to the 2010 worldwide top 30, with veteran Kayo Sugihara (Team Denso) clearing the World Championships A-standard in 31:44.93 and Remi Nakazato (Team Daihatsu) the B-standard in 31:53.22.

In other Niigata events, Miwa Yokoyama (Niigata Meikun H.S.) broke the prefectural high school girls' 5000 m record with a solo 15:58.81, winning by over a minute. Steepler Aoi Matsumoto (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) ran the fastest Japanese men's time of the year, 8:30.49 in a 5-second PB. Men's 800 m national record holder Masato Yokota was just 0.02 off his own record, winning in 1:46.18. Second placer Takanori Matsumoto (SDF Academy) was also under 1:47 and the top four all broke 1:48, the first time this has ever happened in a domestic Japanese 800 m.

Across the country at the Chubu Jitsugyodan Track and Field Championships, Kenyan Micah Njeru (Team Toyota Boshoku) set a meet record of 13:37.07 in the men's 5000 m. Sugihara's teammate, Ethiopian ace Betelhem Moges (Team Denso),had an easy win in the women's 3000 m, winning in 9:03.43 by a margin of nearly 45 seconds. Meet records also came in the women's 100 m, men's 110 mH, men's and women's triple jump and men's discus.

For complete Niigata Big Athletics Festa results, click here.

For complete Chubu Jitsugyodan Track and Field Championships results, click here.

(c) 2010 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

Sprinter Shoji Tomihisa Retires From Athletics at 105

A retirement ceremony for local masters track and field legend Shoji Tomihisa , 105, was held May 13 at his usual training ground at Miyoshi Sports Park Field in Miyoshi, Hiroshima. Tomihisa began competing in athletics at age 97, setting a Japanese national record 16.98 for 60 m in the men's 100~104 age group at the 2017 Chugoku Masters Track and Field meet. Last year Tomihisa was the oldest person in Hiroshima selected to run as a torchbearer in the Tokyo Olympics torch relay. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the relay on public roads was canceled, and while he did take part in related ceremonies his run was ultimately canceled. Tomihisa recently took up the shot put, but in light of his fading physical strength he made the decision to retire from competition. Around 30 members of the Shoji Tomihisa Booster Club attended the retirement ceremony. After receiving a bouquet of flowers from them Tomihisa in turn gave them a colored paper placard on which he had written the characters