News29 Jun 2009

Sprinters excel at the Japanese Champs

23.00 Japanese national record for Chisato Fukushima in Hiroshima (© PHOTO KISHIMOTO Keisuke KOITO)

The young up and coming sprinters were the stars at the 93rd Japanese national championships, held in Hiroshima Big Arch, the venue of 1994 Asian Games, from 25 to 28 June.

The Championships doubled as a selection meet for 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Berlin, Germany (15 – 23 August). The winner of each event is automatically selected for the Berlin team provided he/she has cleared the IAAF Standard.

National record in women’s 200m

Chisato Fukushima won the 200m with the national record of 23.00sec thus improving her recently set national record from 23.14, while her arch rival Momoko Takahashi was second with 23.19.

Fukushima tied national 100m record (11.36) last year and competed in the Olympic Games as 20 years old. However, that was only the beginning for Fukushima. This year, Fukushima set 100m national record (11.28 & 11.24) twice and 200m national record (23.14) once.

“I am happy to crack the ‘A’ standard. I was concentrating on making smooth acceleration from the start,” said Fukushima after the 200m final. When asked about her rivalry with Takahashi, Fukushima said, “I hope that friendly rivalry, not just with Takahashi, but also with other sprinters, will improved our performances.”

Momoko Takahashi won the 100m in Fukushima’s absence. Fukushima, the defending champion, pulled out of the 100m final due to an injury she picked up during the semi, where she recorded 11.36. Takahashi is 20 years old while Fukushima turned 21 a day after setting 200m national record. Takahashi known for her great closing speed came from behind to win with 11.34.

“I was hoping for a personal best (11.32). I was also hoping to race against Fukushima in the final, so I have a mixed feeling about the win,” said Takahashi after the 100m final.

In the men’s sprints, Shinji Takahira won the 200m with a personal best of 20.22, cutting 0.09 seconds from his previous best of 20.31, recorded in Osaka GP. “I was secretly hoping for Suetsugu’s (national) record,” said Takahira.

The defending champion Naoki Tsukahara recorded 10.09 in both the first round heat and the semi, while Masashi Eriguchi recorded 10.07 in the semi, thus setting up for the showdown in the final. However, like women’s 100m, the showdown never materialized. Eriguchi won the 100m in the absence of Tsukahara, because Tsukahara pulled out of the final due to an injury he picked up in the semi. Eriguchi’s winning time at the final was 10.15.

“I am happy to win. But the race itself was not a very good one. My start was not good because my legs were hurting, but I am satisfied with the middle part of the race. I expected to break 10.2 but not 10.1. This is a good confidence builder,” said Eriguchi.

Asuka Terada is the hottest sprint hurdler in Japan. In the national championships, Terada set a national junior record for the 110m Hurdles in the first round heat (13.29), in the semi final (13.12) and then in the final (13.05), where she won by tenth of the second. She is now only 0.05 seconds away from the national record.

Distance races – below par

On the other hand, the distance races at the nationals were bit disappointing. The hot weather approaching 30C, was partly responsible, but more importantly, the big name athletes did not perform to the expectation.

Kayoko Fukushi, the premier women’s distance runner in Japan finished second in 5000m and third in 10,000m, while Yuriko Kobayashi, a Beijing Olympian and the World Youth and Junior medalist, was also disappointing third at 5000m. Instead the marathon runners won women’s distance races. Yukiko Akaba, who is selected to run the marathon in Berlin, won the women’s 10000m with a strong kick in the last 200m, while Yurika Nakamura, who was 13th at the marathon in the Beijing Olympic Games, held off challenges from Fukushi and Kobayashi to win the 5000m.

The men’s distance races were even worse. Yuki Sato, who recently ran third fastest 10,000m by Japanese, was disappointing 8th, while three-time defending champion and 30Km world record holder Takayuki Matsumiya was 12th, both at 10,000m. The race was won by Yuki Iwai, who was described by his manager as “he ran better than expectation in the important race.”

The lone bright spot in the distance scene was a successful 1500m – 5000m double by Yuichiro Ueno. In the 1500m, Ueno took off after 300m and stayed in the front all the way to the end holding off national record holder Fumiaki Kobayashi and broke his national championships winning streak at four. Other long standing winning streak that came to an end was that of Hiromasa Tanaka at the Decathlon. Daisuke Ikeda won the Decathlon with 7753 points, thus clearing the “B” standard.

Run of national titles is extended to 15 by Murofushi

Although some of the winning streak came to an end, many of the long standing winning streaks at the national championships stayed intact. At the men’s Hammer Throw, Koji Murofushi won fifteenth straight national title. However, because Murofushi missed much of his training recently, his winning mark was only 73.26m, lowest since 1996.

“I am happy to be competing again,” said Murofushi after his first competition of the season. When asked about his recent lower back problem, Murofushi said, “I am relieved that I was able to compete at the national championships. In the men’s javelin throw, Yukifumi Murakami won the tenth straight title, which is the second longest winning streak after Murofushi at the national championships.

Other long streaks that stayed intact are eight straight by Yuki Nakata at Heptathlon and Yuka Murofushi at women’s Discus Throw, five straight by Yuzo Kanemaru at men’s 400m and Fumiyo Yoshida at women’s Triple Jump, four straight by Minori Hayakari at women’s 3000m Steeplechase, Mika Yoshikawa at women’s 1500m and Miyuki Fukumoto at women’s High Jump. Incidentally, Hayakari is the only ever national champion at women’s 3000m Steeplechase.

The Pole Vault scene has been quite active recently with the emerging young vaulters, who broke Daichi Sawano’s high school record (Hiroki Sasase) and collegiate record (Takafumi Suzuki and then Daiki Ogita). However, when it came to the most important domestic meet of the year, Sawano was still supreme. He won the Pole Vault for the four straight year, when he cleared both 5.50m and 5.70m on his first attempt.

“I knew the condition will be good in the Big Arch, so I was pointing to this meet with the personal best (national record) in mind. I was bit disappointed for not making it,” said Sawano, who missed three times at 5.85m.

Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
Assisted by Akihiro Onishi and Tatsuya Yamada in Hiroshima

Results:

Men

100m 1.9m/.s
1) Masashi Eriguchi 10.14
2) Shintaro Kimura 10.22
3) Shogo Arao 10.23

200m 1.3m/s
1) Shinji Takahira 20.22
2) Hitoshi Saito 20.42
3) Kenji Fujimitsu 20.55

400m
1) Yuzo Kanemaru 45.45
2) Hideyuki Hirose 45.84
3) Yusuke Ishitsuka 46.02
4) Yoshihiro Horigome 46.02

800m
1) Masato Yokota 1:48.53
2) Hisato Suzuki 1:49.92
3) Takeshi Kuchino 1:49.94

1500m
1) Yuichiro Ueno 3:42.51 (59.4, 1:58.8, 2:58.8)
2) Fumikazu Kobayashi 3:44.34
3) Masahiro Takaya 3:45.00

5000m
1) Yuichiro Ueno 13:41.04
2) Kensuke Takezawa 13:43.77
3) Satoru Kitamura 13:45.25

Guest runners (non-Japanese)
Bedan Karoki (KEN) 13:35.39
Nahom Mesfin (ETH) 13:43.07

10000m
1) Yuki Iwai 28:19.25
2) Yusei Nakao 28:30.39
3) Yoshinori Oda 28:40.30
4) Ryuji Ohno 28:41.09
5) Takeshi Hamano 28:53.74
6) Satoru Kitamura 28:57.40
7) Takeshi Makabe 28:57.51
8) Yuki Sato 28:58.56

Guest runners
Yakob Jarso (ETH) 28:04.20
Micah Njeru (KEN) 28:17.31

3000mSC
1) Yoshitaka Iwamizu 8:36.17
2) Takayuki Matsuura 8:37.08
3) Tsuyoshi Takeda 8:37.48

110mH
Final 1.6m/s
1) Tasuku Tanonaka 13.57
2) Shuto Takayuki 13.77
3) Masato Naito 13.81

400mH
1) Kenji Narisako 49.53
2) Kazuaki Yoshida 49.61
3) Naohiro Kawakita 49.74

HJ
1) Naoyuki Daigo 2.24m
2) Hikaru Tsuchiya 2.20m
3) Hiromi Takahari 2.20m

PV
1) Daichi Sawano 5.70m (missed thrice at 5.85m (national record))
2) Takafumi Suzuki 5.50m
3) Hiroki Ogita 5.40m
4) Hiroki Sasase 5.40m

LJ
1) Daisuke Arakawa 8.00m (1.5m/s) (second best 7.96m)
2) Yohei Sugai 8.00m (0.6m/s) (second best 7.89m)
3) Rikiya Saruyama 7.91m (1.5m/s)

TJ
1) Takanori Sugibayashi 16.45m   (2.2m/s)
2) Yohei Kajiwara 16.36m   (1.5m/s)
3) Kazuyoshi Ishikawa 16.19m   (1.0m/s)
4) Yoshihiro Suzuki   16.02m (2.3m/s)

SP
1)   Sotaro Yamada 18.47m
2)   Yohei Murakawa 18.11m
3)   Satoshi Hatase 17.80m

DT
1) Shiro Kobayashi 57.18m
2) Shigeo Hatakeyama 56.88m
3) Masaru Miyauchi 53.07m

HT
1) Koji Murofushi 73.26m (71.33, 71.66, 72.02, 73.16, 73.26, 72.94) 15th straight national title
2) Hiroaki Doi 69.90m
3) Hiroshi Noguchi 67.84m

JT
1) Yukifumi Murakami     78.25m
2) Yasuo Ikeda     75.15m
3) Yutaro Tanemoto   75.07m

Decathlon
1)   Daisuke Ikeda 7753
2)   Hiromasa Tanaka 7575
3)   Koki Someya 7301

Women

100m 1.0m/s
1) Momoko Takahashi 11.34
2) Mayumi Watanabe 11.50
3) Maki Wada 11.76

200m 1.7m/s
1) Chisato Fukushima 23.00 national record
2) Momoko Takahashi 23.19
3) Kaoru Matsuda 24.03

400m
1) Asami Tanno 52.96
2) Sayaka Aoki 53.87
3) Mayu Sato 54.05

800m
1) Ayako Jinnouchi 2:04.76
2) Ruriko Kubo 2:04.88
3) Akari Kishikawa 2:05.42

1500m
1) Mika Yoshikawa 4:15.89 (64.6, 2:13.3, 3:24.2)
2) Nami Tani 4:20.66
3) Maki Arai 4:21.39

5000m
1) Yurika Nakamura 15:25.31
2) Kayoko Fukushi 15:25.49
3) Yuriko Kobayashi 15:26.84
Guest runners
Felista Macharia Wanjugu (KEN) 15:25.00
Doricah Obare (KEN) 15:28.22

10000m
1) Yukiko Akaba 31:57.44
2) Yukari Sahaku 32:01.80
3) Kayoko Fukushi 32:04.06
4) Mari Ozaki 32:04.26
5) Noriko Matsuoka 32:13.04
6) Yurika Nakamura 32:21.07
7) Ryoko Kizaki 32:24.69
8) Yuri Kano 32:34.87

3000mSC
1) Minori Hayakari 9:45.05 (3:08.7, 6:26.3)
2) Yoshika Tatsumi 9:58.64
3) Chisa Nishio 10:13.96

100mH 1.9m/s
1) Asuka Terada 13.05 Junior National Record
2) Mami Ishino 13.15
3) Rena Joshita 13.26

400mH
1) Satomi Kubokura 56.70
2) Sayaka Aoki 57.56
3) Miyabi Tago 58.03

HJ
1) Miyuki Fukumoto 1.85m
2) Yuki Mimura 1.82m
3) Kiyoka Fujisawa 1.75m

PV
1) Takayo Kondo 4.35m
2) Tomomi Abiko 4.20m
3) Mami Nakano 4.10m

LJ
1) Sachiko Masumi 6.65m (1.4m/s)
2) Kumiko Imura (formerly Ikeda) 6.46m (1.3m/s)
3) Saeko Okayama 6.39m (2.0m/s)

TJ
1) Fumiyo Yoshida 13.43m (1.2m/s)
2) Sayuri Takeda 13.16m (0.5m/s)
3) Waka Maeda 12.95m (1.9m/s)

SP
1) Yukiko Shirai 15.44m
2) Yoko Toyonaga 14.52m
3) Reina Hiruta 14.40m

DT
1) Yuka Murofushi 54.80m
2) Tsuruyo Suzuki 49.89m
3) Miya Itoman 49.48m national high school record

HT
1) Yuka Murofushi   63.46m
2) Masumi Aya     60.28m
3) Mika Takekawa   57.82m

JT
1) Yuki Ebihara 55.16m
2) Emika Yoshida 54.31m
3) Momoko Matsumoto 53.70m

Heptathlon
1) Yuki Nakata     5802
2) Minori Ito   5350
3) Chinami Yasuda 5241

Team for Berlin (as announced on Monday):

Men:
Sprints:
Masashi Eriguchi
Shintaro Kimura
Naoki Tsuakahara
Shiji Takahira
Hitoshi Saito
Kenji Fujimitsu
Yuzo Kanemaru
Hideyuki Hirose

Distance:
Yuichiro Ueno
Yuki Iwai

Steeple Chase:
Yoshitaka Iwamizu

Hurdle:
Tasuku Tanonaka
Kenji Narisako
Kazuaki Yoshida

Jumps:
Naoyuki Daigo
Daichi Sawano
Takafumi Suzuki
Daisuke Arakawa