Skip to main content

Weekend Track Roundup - Fujiwara, Ito, Jeilan, Kashiwabara, Sato and More

by Brett Larner

As road season got underway, three track time trials and one regional high school meet across Japan on Oct. 1 saw competitive action.

Sato leading the Otani twins in Hiroshima. Photo by rikubaka. Click for complete photo album.

At the Chugoku Jitsugyodan Time Trials meet in Hiroshima, half-marathon national record holder Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) ran his final tuneup for next weekend's Chicago Marathon, leading the 5000 m A-heat the entire way before being outkicked.  Sato finished 3rd in 14:05.76 with Masaki Sekido (Team NTT Nishi Nihon) taking the win in 13:59.27.  Kenta Otani (Team JFE Steel) was 2nd in a PB of 14:04.13 with his identical twin brother Keita Otani (Team JFE Steel) 5th in 14:07.54.  Daegu World Championships marathoner Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) returned to action with an easy win in the women's 5000 m in 16:24.07.  Hiroki Ishida (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) took the 10000 m in 29:07.48, half a second up on teammate Taku Miyahara.

World champ Jeilan before his pacing duties. Photo by ekiden mania. Click to enlarge.

In Tokyo's western suburbs, Ethiopian Fekele Assefa (Team Kanebo) had an easy win over Aoyama Gakuin University ace Takehiro Deki, 13:56.65 to 14:04.30.  Fekele's countryman Ibrahim Jeilan (Team Honda) appeared on the track in Japan for the first time since winning the Daegu World Championships 10000 m gold medal and Africa Games 10000 m gold medal, pacing the Saitama Jitsugyodan Time Trials 10000 m A-heat for his Honda teammates.  2010 Tokyo Marathon winner Masakazu Fujiwara (Team Honda) benefited with a 28:54.29 for the win after having cancelled a planned run in last weekend's Berlin Marathon.  Along with Fujiwara, Hakone Ekiden star Ryuji Kashiwabara (Toyo University) ran his first race of the season, winning the 5000 m A-heat in 13:55.93.

Further north in Kitakami, Iwate, Kenyan Rosemary Wanjiru (Aomori Yamada H.S.) was the star of the Tohoku High School Newcomers meet as she set a new meet record of 9:12.98 to win the girls' 3000 m by more than 35 seconds.

(c) 2011 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