Yuko Shimizu winning the Chiba Cross Country (© Kazutaka Eguchi/Agence SHOT)
The 45th Chiba International Cross Country Meet, which doubles as a qualifying meet for the upcoming IAAF World Cross Country Championships, is scheduled to be held on Sunday February 14 in “Showa Woods” in the city of Chiba.
Besides two 3km races for junior high school runners, six other races – men’s 12km, men’s 4km, women’s 6km, junior men’s 8km, junior men’s 4km, and junior women’s 5km – will be held. Four of them – men’s 12km, women’s 6km, junior men’s 8km and junior women’s 5km – will be selection races for the upcoming World Cross Country Championships.
Three runners from abroad – Ricardo Ribas of Portugal, Shin Hyun-Soo of Korea and Sam Crowther of Australia - are invited in the men’s 12km. Ribas is arguably the best foreign runner with a 46th place finish at the 2009 European Cross Country Championships in Dublin last December. He was 27th in Chiba Cross Country in 2007.
The best Japanese in the field is Yuki Sato, the fastest active 10,000m runner in Japan. Twenty-three years old Sato, who has the best of 27:38.25 at 10,000m, is considered to be the most promising young distance runner in Japan. He competed in the World Cross Country Championships three times and finished 4th at 10,000m at the 2005 World University Games.
His rival since high school days, Hidekazu Sato (no relation) is also entered. However, the runner who will attract most attention is twenty years old Ryuji Kashiwabara, for he recorded the stage best at famed Hakone Ekiden (Collegiate Ekiden) for the last two years.
Because of his fantastic run in the Hakone Ekiden, Kashiwabara was featured in the front cover of the February issue of Track and Field Magazine of Japan as well as Monthly Track and Field. He is known for his tenacity, and very good uphill runner. Kashiwabara was 34th in the junior race at the 2008 World Cross Country Championships, 7th at 10,000m in the 2008 World Junior Championships, and 8th at 10,000m in 2009 World University Games.
But the favorite at 12km is Bedan Karoki, a Kenyan student at Sera high school in Hiroshima. Although Karoki is still a junior runner, he has been running many races with older runners, and in fact, Karoki is the defending champion at men’s 12km in Chiba Cross Country. In 2008, Karoki finished second in Fukuoka Cross Country, and in 2009, not only Karoki won the Chiba Cross Country, he also won the 5000m in the JPN national championships, the race he ran as a guest.
The prohibitive favourite in the men’s 4km is Martin Mathathi of Kenya who runs for Suzuki Motors. As attested by progression of his personal best at 10,000m, Mathathi is getting faster; he has improved his personal best twice in the last two years. Although Mathathi only cracked 27 minutes barrier at 10,000m for the first time in 2009, he is a superb championships runner. Mathathi was fifth in 2005 World Championships, third in 2007 World Championships, and seventh in 2008 Olympics all at 10,000m. He can run fast cross country race also, for Mathathi was third at the 2006 World Cross Country Championships.
Women’s race
Two runners – Choi Bo-Ra and Anna Thompson – are invited from abroad in the women’s 6km, but the race is likely to be dominated by Japanese. Kiyoko Shimahara, a marathon runner, may be the biggest name, but the performances of young and upcoming runners – Megumi Kinukawa, Hitomi Niiya and Kazue Kojima – should hold more interest.
Both Kinukawa and Niiya were high school sensation a few years ago. After finishing 14th in the junior division of the 2006 World Cross Country Championships, in 2007, on her 10,000m debut when she was still a high school student, Kinukawa recorded a national junior 10,000m record of 31:35.27. Later in the same year, she finished 14th at the 2007 World Championships.
A year later she improved the national junior record to 31:23.21. However, she has since been plagued with injury problems and hardly raced in 2009. Her return to competition is awaited with much anticipation.
Niiya, who finished third at 3000m in 2005 World Youth Championships, ran the World Cross Country Championships in 2004, 2005 and 2006, and finished 19th, 13th, 13th, respectively in the junior division. Although Niiya’s progress after graduation from high school has been slow, since she is being coached by legendary Yoshio Koide, her transformation to higher level runner is imminent.
Kojima, who was 5th in 2007 World University Games and 7th in 2009 World University Games, both at 5000m, is the best collegiate runner in Japan. Kojima was 17th in 2005 and 15th in 2006 World Cross Country Championships, both in junior division. However, her best event is on the road. She is a queen of Ekiden, having recorded stage best in all her collegiate ekiden competitions.
The runner in best shape is Misaki Katsumata. She won the Miyazaki road race and recorded second best 10km stage in the Inter-Prefectural Women’s Ekiden, both in January.
Junior races
Akinobu Murasawa, two-time defending champion at the junior race is back to defend his title again. Without any Kenyan in the field, Murasawa should be a prohibitive favorite in the junior 8km race.
The race to determine the junior women’s team for the World Cross Country Championships is quite important, for women’s junior team has won a team bronze in the last two years. The best among them is Nanaka Izawa, who recorded the stage best in the national high school ekiden championships, and won the 3000m in the national inter-high school championships. Izawa won Fukuoka Cross Country last year and finished 17th, fastest among Japanese, in the World Cross Country Championships.
Erika Ikeda, who was 18th in Amman, is also in the race, as well as Aika Tsutsumi, Mahiro Akamatsu, and Akane Sueyoshi, who were second, third, and fourth, respectively at 3000m in the national inter-high school championships.
However, the most intriguing runner of them all may be Moe Kyuma, a freshman who pushed the pace at the 3000m in the national inter-high school championships before finishing fifth. Kyuma was a junior high school sensation, who won everything there is to win as a junior high school runner in 2008. Furthermore, she was fifth at 3000m in 2009 World Youth Championships.
Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
Invited Runners & the best of the rest
Men's 12km
Ricardo Ribas (POR)
Shin Hyun-Soo (KOR)
Sam Crowther (AUS)
Yuki Sato
Hiroyoshi Umegae
Yuta Takahashi
Ryuji Kashiwabara
Tetsuya Yoroizaka
Yuki Yagi
Yukiyoshi Kino
Yuki Nakamura
Charles Nyandarua (KEN)
Bedan Karoki (KEN)
Martin Mukule (KEN)
Hidekazu Sato
Men's 4km
Fumikazu Kobayashi
Tsuyoshi Takeda
Yasunori Murakami
Yasuhiro Tago
Martin Mathathi (KEN)
Junior men's 8km
Akinobu Murasawa
Kazuto Nishiike
Shota Hattori
Ikuto Yufu
Keita Shitara
Kenta Matsumoto
Hirotaka Tamura
Women's 6km
Choi Bo-Ra (KOR)
Anna Thompson (AUS)
Kiyoko Shimahara
Noriko Matsuoka
Megumi Kinukawa
Hitomi Niiya
Misaki Katsumata
Kazue Kojima
Misaki Katsumata
Seika Nishikawa
Sayo Nomura
Michi Numata
Tomoka Inadomi
Junior Women's 5km
Nanaka Izawa
Erika Ikeda
Aika Tsutsumi
Mahiro Akamatsu
Akane Sueyoshi
Moe Kyuma
