Skip to main content

Yamamoto Leads Top Six Under 5000 m Race Walk Meet Record - National High School Championships Day Three Results

click here for five-channel live streaming of the 69th Japanese National High School Track and Field Championships

by Brett Larner

The highlight of day three of the Japanese National High School Track and Field Championships came in an unexpectedly fast and furious boys' 5000 m race walk.  After a relatively benign first qualifying heat on day two won by Ryutaro Yamamoto (Toyama Shogyo H.S.) in 21:08.49, heat two exploded with action, Hiroto Jusho (Shikama Kogyo H.S.) led the top eight under the old National High School Championships record in 20:49.39.  The bar set high, qualifiers returned a day later for the final, and again the field delivered en masse.  Yamamoto fought off Taiki Naruoka (Iga Hakuho H.S.) and Masatora Kawano (Gotemba Minami H.S.) for the win in a close race, taking 35 seconds off Jusho's short-lived national record with a new mark of 20:14.63.  The top six all beat Jusho's record, with Jusho himself almost equalling it in 20:52.94 but coming only 8th.

Another highlight came in the girls' 4x100 m relay.  Chukyo H.S. and Kurashiki Chuo H.S. led from the start, Chukyo gaining a slight edge by the time anchor Aiki Hasegawa took over.  Facing Kurashiki's newly crowned 100 m champion Ami Saito Hasegawa needed all the lead she could get, but what she inherited proved insufficient.  Saito blew by easily for the win in 45.49, Hasegawa bringing Chukyo home 2nd in 45.78.  Tokyo H.S. anchor Mai Fukuda almost caught her as well, taking 3rd in 45.80.

The boys' 4x100 m was relatively conservative by comparison, several poor exchanges meaning slower times than in the heats and semifinals.  Rakunan H.S., alma mater of Japanese Olympian Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.), took the win in 40.10 over rivals Miyazaki Kogyo H.S. and Sendai Ikuei H.S.  Teen sprint sensation Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, out this season with injury, watched from the sidelines as his Josai H.S. teammates were only 6th in the final in 40.80.

69th National High School Track and Field Championships 
Day Three Highlights
City Lights Stadium, Okayama, 7/31/16
click here for complete results

Girls' 400 m Hurdles Final
1. Moeka Sekimoto (Odate Homei H.S.) - 59.14
2. Kana Koyama (Kawasaki Municipal Tachibana H.S.) - 59.18
3. Natsumi Murakami (Narita H.S.) - 59.19

Boys' 400 m Hurdles Final
1. Yusuke Shirao (Tonodai Prep Daini H.S.) - 51.40
2. Tomoki Arisaka (Niigata Gakuen H.S.) - 51.81
3. Takuya Michishita (Takigawa Daini H.S.) - 52.60

Boys' 5000 m Race Walk Final
1. Shinjiro Yamamoto (Toyama Shogyo H.S.) - 20:14.63 - MR
2. Taiki Naruoka (Iga Hakuho H.S.) - 20:17.36 (MR)
3. Masatora Kawano (Gotemba Minami H.S.) - 20:18.92 (MR)
4. Sho Sakazaki (Iga Hakuho H.S.) - 20:24.30 (MR)
5. Koki Ikeda (Hamamatsu Nittai Prep H.S.) - 20:27.55 (MR)
6. Yutaro Murayama (Kawanishi Midoridai H.S.) - 20:37.26 (MR)

Girls' 4 x 100 m Relay Final
1. Kurashiki Chuo H.S. - 45.49
2. Chukyo Prep Chukyo H.S. - 45.78
3. Tokyo H.S. - 45.80

Boys' 4 x 100 m Relay Final
1. Rakunan H.S. - 40.10
2. Miyazaki Kogyo H.S. - 40.30
3. Sendai Ikuei H.S. - 40.43

Boys' Long Jump Final
1. Yuki Hashioka (Hachioji H.S.) - 7.75 m -1.6 m/s
2. Yuta Takenouchi (Kagoshima Minami H.S.) - 7.42 m +0.6 m/s
3. Taiga Oda (Toin Gakuen H.S.) - 7.40 m -0.6 m/s

Boys' Shot Put Final
1. Ryuji Iwasa (Hokuriku H.S.) - 17.27 m
2. Kiyoharu Shirafuji (Anjo Gakuen H.S.) - 16.58 m
3. Hiroshi Ikegawa (Takigawa Daini H.S.) - 16.43 m

Girls' Discus Throw Final
1. Azusa Okawara (Tsuchiura Kohoku H.S.) - 46.50 m
2. Maki Saito (Tsuruoka Kogyo H.S.) - 46.14 m
3. Chiho Takaki (Naruto Uzushio H.S.) - 43.84 m

© 2016 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