Fukushi and Takezawa Win 10000 m at National Championships

by Brett Larner

The 2010 Japanese National Track and Field Championships got underway June 4 in Marugame, Kagawa prefecture. At stake for competitors this year are places on the Japanese national team for November's Asian Games. The first day of competition saw the women's and men's 10000 m.

In the women's 10000 m, multiple past national champion Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) returned to the top for the first time in three years. Fukushi ran the entire race alone and unchallenged, taking it out in 3:06 for the first km with no one even near. Fukushi finished in 31:47.56, her closest competition over half a lap behind as Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu) came 2nd in 32:31.64. Defending champion Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren), still working her way back from a marathon PB in London at the end of April, was 3rd in 32:36.32.

The men's 10000 m was more dramatic if slower. Young pro Naoki Okamoto (Team Chugoku Denryoku) and university star Ryuji Kashiwabara (Toyo Univ.) alternated the lead for the first four km, with Okamoto eventually dropping out. First-year corporate runner and former Komazawa University ace Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Team Konica Minolta) took over next and led through 9000 m, briefly challenged by Daisuke Shimizu (Team Kanebo) with a thick pack just behind. Hitting 9000 m in 26:04, Ugachi finished 8th in 28:48.37. Emerging on top of the chaotic last km was the talented Kensuke Takezawa (Team S&B), whose impressive finishing speed gave him a 2:38 final km for the win in 28:43.08. Teammates Satoru Kitamura and Yuki Sato (both Team Nissin Shokuhin) were just behind, Kitamura suprisingly outlasting 27:38 man Sato for 2nd in 28:44.16. Defending national champion Yuki Iwai (Team Asahi Kasei) was only 11th in 29:12.02.

2010 National T&F Championships - Top Finishers
click here for complete results
Men's 10000 m
1. Kensuke Takezawa (Team S&B) - 28:43.08
2. Satoru Kitamura (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 28:44.16
3. Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 28:44.59
4. Ryo Yamamoto (Team Sagawa Express) - 28:45.94
5. Tomoya Onishi (Team Asahi Kasei) - 28:46.23
6. Daisuke Shimizu (Team Kanebo) - 28:46.34
7. Takeshi Makabe (Team Kanebo) - 28:47.11
8. Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Team Konica Minolta) - 28:48.37
9. Atsushi Ikawa (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 29:05.27
10. Yoshinori Oda (Team Toyota) - 29:07.58

Women's 10000 m
1. Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) - 31:47.56
2. Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu) - 32:31.64
3. Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) - 32:36.32
4. Hiroko Miyauchi (Team Kyocera) - 32:38.43
5. Doricah Obare (Kenya/Team Hitachi) - 32:39.98
6. Noriko Matsuoka (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 32:56.44
7. Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 33:08.38
8. Hikari Yoshimoto (Bukkyo Univ.) - 33:19.59
9. Mari Ozaki (Team Noritz) - 33:23.60
10. Yurika Nakamura (Team Tenmaya) - 34:14.23

(c) 2010 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

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