Skip to main content

Tanui and Suzuki Win Corporate 10000 m Titles

by Brett Larner
click here for Day Two results and report

The last major track meet of the year on the Japanese calendar, the National Corporate Track and Field Championships kicked off in near-secrecy on Sept. 25 at Gifu's Nagaragawa Field with the men's and women's 10000 m races.  Organizers hit back at the increasing number of fans turning up at their meets and sharing pictures and videos on social media with a ban on use of all cameras including phones unless owners registered with them in advance and paid a fee.  Most fans gave the meet a miss as a result, with relatively empty stands and lack of online chatter seeming to indicate success in organizers' attempts to prevent their work from becoming popular among the general public.

Beijing World Championships 10000 m bronze medalist Paul Tanui (Team Kyudenko) outran a solid field of Japan-resident Africans to win the men's A-heat in 27:37.13 six seconds ahead of runner-up James Mwangi (Team NTN).  Bernard Kimanyi (Team Yakult) rounded out the podium in 27:54.30.  Former 1500 m and 5000 m national champion Yuichiro Ueno (DeNA RC) was the top Japanese man at 7th in 28:12.95, his best time this year.

In just the third 10000 m of her career a few weeks after a frontrunning 5000 m PB in the Beijing World Championships final, 2013 World University Games 10000 m gold medalist Ayuko Suzuki (Team Japan Post Group) took more than a minute off her best to win the A-heat in 31:48.18, over fifteen seconds ahead of 2014 World Half Marathon Championships bronze medalist Sally Chepyego (Team Kyudenko) and easily clearing the Rio de Janeiro Olympics standard.  Shiho Takechi (Team Yamada Denki) was far back in 3rd, running 32:26.38.

The National Corporate Track and Field Championships continue throughout the weekend.

63rd National Corporate Track and Field Championships Day One
Nagaragawa Field, Gifu, 9/25/15
click here for complete results

Men's 10000 m Heat 3
1. Paul Tanui (Kyudenko) - 27:37.13
2. James Mwangi (NTN) - 27:43.25
3. Bernard Kimanyi (Yakult) - 27:54.30
4. Melaku Abera (Kurosaki Harima) - 27:55.19
5. Charles Ndungu (Komori Corp.) - 28:1014
6. Patrick Muwaka (Aisan Kogyo) - 28:11.39
7. Yuichiro Ueno (DeNA) - 28:12.95
8. Joseph Kamathi (Toyota) - 28:20.85
9. Johana Maina (Fujitsu) - 28:22.61
10. Shuho Dairokuno (Asahi Kasei) - 28:26.72

Women's 10000 m Heat 2
1. Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post Group) - 31:48.18
2. Sally Chepyego (Kyudenko) - 32:03.96
3. Shiho Takechi (Yamada Denki) - 32:26.38
4. Hanae Tanaka (Daiichi Seimei) - 32:28.29
5. Reia Iwade (Noritz) - 32:28.76
6. Michi Numata (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 32:28.91
7. Rina Yamazaki (Panasonic) - 32:34.25
8. Misaki Kato (Kyudenko) - 32:35.04
9. Sayaka Kuwahara (Sekisui Kagaku) - 32:37.09
10. Yukari Ishizawa (Edion) - 32:57.39

Men's 10000 m Heat 2
1. Mitsunori Asaoka (Hitachi Butsuryu) - 28:51.59
2. Takuya Noguchi (Konica Minolta) - 28:53.05
3. Chiharu Nakagawa (Toenec) - 28:53.30
4. Shota Kai (Yachiyo Kogyo) - 28:54.08
5. Shinji Yoshimoto (Kurosaki Harima) - 28:54.88

Women's 10000 m Heat 1
1. Rika Toguchi (Route Inn Hotels) - 33:02.37
2. Ai Utsunomiya (Miyazaki Ginko) - 33:13.31
3. Hiroko Miyauchi (Hokuren) - 33:25.25
4. Manami Kamitanida (Hitachi) - 33:31.41
5. Yurie Doi (Starts) - 33:31.42

Men's 10000 m Heat 1
1. Daiki Taguchi (Hitachi Butsuryu) - 28:51.82
2. Hayato Sonoda (Kurosaki Harima) - 29:00.11
3. Masatoshi Kikuchi (Fujitsu) - 29:00.72

(c) 2015 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