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Hosoda and Wambui Do the Distance Double on Final Day of Kanto Regionals

by Brett Larner


D1 10000 m champs Ai Hosoda (Nittai Univ.) and Patrick Wambui (Nihon Univ.) came back on a hot and windy final day of the 95th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships to score double titles with wins in the 5000 m.  In the women's 5000 m Hosoda ran steady in a lead group of four before holding off a strong charge from first-year Natsuki Sekiya (Daito Bunka Univ.) to win by half a second in 16:12.18.


After a 2:42 opening 1000 m Wambui went to the front to shake things down to another group of four.  Like the women's race it came down to a duel over the last lap, fourth-year Kazuma Taira (Waseda Univ.) staying with Wambui until 150 m to go before Wambui put him away for the title in 13:47.18.


D2 men's 10000 m runner-up Tadashi Isshiki (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) took the 5000 m out in 2:40, alternating the lead with Kenyan first-year Muthoni Muiru (Soka Univ.) through 3000 m before Muiru surged to open a lead of 50 m.  Over the last lap Isshiki fought back, kicking hard with 200 m to go and overtaking Muiru in the last half of the home straight for the win in 13:51.15.  AGU runners Takato Suzuki and Kazuki Tamura took 3rd and 4th, a solid team performance especially given first-year Suzuki's first sub-14 clocking, no small feat in the tough conditions.


AGU also represented in the D2 half marathon, where their defending champ Kinari Ikeda again battled with Kenyan Simon Kariuki (Nihon Yakka Univ.) throughout the race.  Where Kariuki went out unsustainably fast last year, this year he seemed controlled if still fast.  A smarter race, maybe, but still not enough to keep away from Ikeda, who pulled away on the last lap of the ~2 km circuit course for the win in 1:04:18.  On the uphill leading back into Nissan Stadium in the last kilometer Kariuki was caught by Rei Omori (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), who almost caught Ikeda on the last lap of the track as he took 2nd in 1:04:23.  Kariuki shuffled in for 3rd 10 seconds back in 1:04:33.


The D1 half marathon was slower from the start, the entire field running the first few laps together before people began to fade.  Second-year Dominic Nyairo (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.), runner-up to 5000 m winner Wambui in the 10000 m and the only man in the field with a sub-61 half marathon best, took off in the second half of the race, quickly opening a lead and winning easily in 1:05:07.  As in the 5000 m a Waseda runner was next across the line, fourth-year Koki Ido just holding off Kyota Yabushita (Meiji Univ.) for 2nd as both clocked 1:05:35.


Outside of the distance events the biggest news of the day came in the D1 men's triple jump.  With a headwind of 1.1 m/s fourth-year Kohei Yamashita (Tsukuba Univ.) hit the Rio Olympics standard dead-on with a meet record 16.85 m on his final jump.  With just one shot at outdoing him Ryoma Yamamoto (Juntendo Univ.) also cleared the old meet record on his final jump, but despite a 1.1 m/s tailwind his 16.68 m was only good enough for 2nd.  With a decent performance at next month's National Championships Yamashita is almost guaranteed to be named to the Rio team.

The final day's other meet record came in the women's heptathlon.  With six events down high school and university national record holder Meg Hemphill (Chuo Univ.) needed only a moderately good time in the 800 m to break her own university record.  Starting aggressively Hemphill led through 500 m, but on the back straight of the second lap she abruptly slowed, falling back to almost last and finishing in just 2:27.65.  Limping badly, she needed the assistance of medical staff to get off the track, but despite whatever setback she faced she still managed to break her own meet record by 10 points in 5577.  With two more years ahead of her at Chuo it's a mark she's bound to better.

In overall team scoring, Tsukuba University edged Nittai University by 7.5 points to take the title in 108.5 points.  The men's D1 and D2 titles were more clear-cut, Nihon University taking D1 by a margin of over 20 points with a score of 125 and Kokusai Budo University dominating D2 by 40 points with 120.66.

95th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships Day Four
Nissan Stadium, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 5/22/16
click here for complete results

Division 1 Men's Half Marathon
1. Dominic Nyairo (2nd yr., Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:05:07
2. Koki Ido (4th yr., Waseda Univ.) - 1:05:35
3. Kyota Yabushita (4th yr., Meiji Univ.) - 1:05:35
4. Noritoshi Hara (3rd yr., Daito Bunka Univ.) - 1:05:41
5. Kenta Ueda (3rd yr., Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:05:59

Division 2 Men's Half Marathon
1. Kinari Ikeda (4th yr., Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:04:18
2. Rei Omori (3rd yr., Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:04:23
3. Simon Kariuki (2nd yr., Nihon Yakka Univ.) - 1:04:33
4. Shohei Otsuka (4th yr., Komazawa Univ.) - 1:04:44
5. Kiyotaka Morita (4th yr., Jobu Univ.) - 1:05:14

Division 1 Women's 5000 m
1. Ai Hosoda (3rd yr., Nittai Univ.) - 16:12.18
2. Natsuki Sekiya (1st yr., Daito Bunka Univ.) - 16:12.60
3. Yuki Munehisa (1st yr., Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) - 16:17.82
4. Maki Izumida (3rd yr., Rikkyo Univ.) - 16:22.51
5. Sayaka Sato (4th yr., Toyo Univ.) - 16:26.68

Division 1 Men's 5000 m
1. Patrick Wambui (2nd yr., Nihon Univ.) - 13:47.18
2. Kazuma Taira (4th yr., Waseda Univ.) - 13:50.08
3. Ryo Kuchimachi (4th yr., Toyo Univ.) - 13:54.90
4. Shogo Hata (4th yr., Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 14:05.06
5. Hiroki Abe (1st yr., Meiji Univ.) - 14:05.70
6. Ryuichi Yoshida (3rd yr., Nittai Univ.) - 14:06.59
7. Kohei Nakajima (2nd yr., Josai Univ.) - 14:08.08
8. Makoto Mitsunobu (3rd yr., Waseda Univ.) - 14:08.63
9. Yoshiki Ito (4th yr., Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 14:08.79
10. Yuta Bando (2nd yr., Hosei Univ.) - 14:10.51

Division 2 Men's 5000 m
1. Tadashi Isshiki (4th yr., Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 13:51.15
2. Muthoni Muiru (1st yr., Soka Univ.) - 13:52.35
3. Takato Suzuki (1st yr., Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 13:58.48
4. Kazuki Tamura (3rd yr., Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 14:08.18
5. Workneh Derese (2nd yr., Takushoku Univ.) - 14:12.14
6. Yuji Serunarudo (4th yr., Soka Univ.) - 14:12.57
7. Fuma Kato (3rd yr., Asia Univ.) - 14:12.65
8. Yusuke Nishiyama (4th yr., Komazawa Univ.) - 14:14.35
9. Tatsuya Maruyama (4th yr., Senshu Univ.) - 14:17.00
10. Yuta Fujiki (3rd yr., Komazawa Univ.) - 14:24.02

Division 1 Women's 800 m Final
1. Yume Kitamura (3rd yr., Nittai Univ.) - 2:05.82
2. Hana Yamada (4th yr., Tokyo Gakugei Univ.) - 2:06.00
3. Ran Urabe (3rd yr., Tokyo Gakugei Univ.) - 2:06.03

Division 1 Men's 800 m Final
1. Tatsuya Nishikubo (1st yr, Waseda Univ.) - 1:51.60
2. Jun Mitake (4th yr., Nihon Univ.) - 1:51.60
3. Kodai Shimoda (4th yr., Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:53.29

Division 2 Men's 800 m Final
1. Manabu Oki (4th yr., Chiba Univ.) - 1:51.31
2. Miran Saito (3rd yr., Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:51.48
3. Jiro Shikai (1st yr., Asia Univ.) - 1:51.60

Division 1 Women's 200 m Final -1.2 m/s
1. Yumi Hosoya (3rd yr., Daito Bunka Univ.) - 24.55
2. Kotomi Eguchi (2nd yr., Saitama Univ.) - 24.65
3. Momoe Makino (4th yr., Nittai Univ.) - 24.87

Division 1 Men's 200 m Final +0.6 m/s
1. Kazuma Oseto (4th yr., Hosei Univ.) - 20.55
2. Yuki Koike (3rd yr., Keio Univ.) - 20.69
3. Takanori Kawase (4th yr., Nittai Univ.) - 20.70

Division 2 Men's 200 m Final -1.5 m/s
1. Akihiro Fujita (4th yr., Tokyo Univ.) - 21.39
2. Yuya Ishii (3rd yr., Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) - 21.58
3. Asuka Aoyagi (2nd yr., Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) - 21.60

Division 1 Women's 400 mH Final
1. Mako Fukube (3rd yr., Nittai Univ.) - 58.26
2. Saki Miyazaki (4th yr., Chuo Univ.) - 58.51
3. Tomomi Nono (2nd yr., Waseda Univ.) - 58.58

Division 1 Men's 400 mH Final
1. Naoya Nakano (4th yr., Waseda Univ.) - 49.60
2. Yoshiro Watanabe (2nd yr., Josai Univ.) - 49.96
3. Takahiro Matsumoto (4th yr., Keio Univ.) - 50.09

Division 2 Men's 400 mH Final
1. Mizuki Endo (Gr. 2nd yr., Gunma Univ.) - 51.80
2. Kei Sakamoto (3rd yr., Tokyo Gakugei Univ.) - 52.63
3. Nobuyuki Mukai (2nd yr., Boei Ika College) - 52.74

Division 1 Women's 4x400 m Relay Final
1. Tsukuba University - 3:43.05
2. Aoyama Gakuin University - 3:43.33
3. Surugadai University - 3:43.83

Division 1 Men's 4x400 m Relay Final
1. Waseda University - 3:05.25
2. Toyo University - 3:05.75
3. Juntendo University - 3:05.82

Division 2 Men's 4x400 m Relay Final
1. Surugadai University - 3:09.71
2. Tokyo Keizai University - 3:11.83
3. Tokyo Nogyo University - 3:12.20

Division 1 Women's High Jump
1. Haruka Nakano (2nd yr., Waseda Univ.) - 1.80 m
2. Misa Ono (2nd yr., Nihon Joshi Taiiku Univ.) - 1.73 m
3. Haruka Terui (4th yr., Seigakuin Univ.) - 1.70 m

Divison 2 Men's Pole Vault
1. Yoshiki Shinozuka (2nd yr., Seiwa Univ.) - 5.00 m
2. Hibiki Uehara (1st yr., Kanto Gakuen Univ.) - 4.90 m
3. Kazuto Takahashi (3rd yr., Seiwa Univ.) - 4.70 m

Division 1 Women's Shot Put
1. Hitomi Naganuma (3rd yr., Kokushikan Univ.) - 14.99 m
2. Saki Saito (4th yr., Tokyo Joshi Taiiku Univ.) - 14.18 m
3. Asuka Ishii (2nd yr., Tokyo Joshi Taiiku Univ.) - 14.11 m

Division 1 Men's Triple Jump
1. Kohei Yamashita (4th yr., Tsukuba Univ.) - 16.85 m -1.1 m/s - MR
2. Ryoma Yamamoto (3rd yr., Juntendo Univ.) - 16.68 m +1.1 m/s (MR)
3. Shunya Okabayashi (4th yr., Kokushikan Univ.) - 15.86 m -0.3 m/s

Division 1 Men's Discus Throw
1. Yume Ando (2nd yr., Tokai Univ.) - 54.30 m
2. Jun Yoshida (3rd yr., Tokai Univ.) - 53.14 m
3. Ren Kondo (4th yr., Juntendo Univ.) - 51.51 m

Division 1 Women's Heptathlon
1. Meg Hemphill (2nd yr., Chuo Univ.) - 5577 - MR
2. Konoka Takahashi (1st yr., Tokyo Gakugei Univ.) - 5338
3. Akiko Ito (3rd yr., Tsukuba Univ.) - 5276

Division 1 Women Overall Team Scoring
1. Tsukuba University - 108.5
2.  Nittai University - 101
3. Chuo University - 83

Division 1 Men Overall Team Scoring
1. Nihon University - 125
2. Tokai University - 103
3. Juntendo University - 99

Division 2 Men Overall Team Scoring
1. Kokusai Budo University - 120.66
2. Tokyo Gakugei University - 81
3. Aoyama Gakuin University - 68

© 2016 Brett Larner
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