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News10 Jun 2001


Day Two of Japanes National Championships

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Japanese National Championships, Day Two
K. Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
9 June 2001 - Tokyo -  Two national records - at women’s heptathlon and women’s shot put were set on the second day of the Japanese national championships.  

First, Chinatsu Mori regained the national shot put record with a 16.84m throw in her fifth attempt, annihilating a previous record of 16.46m by Yoko Toyonaga.  As the shot hit the 17m mark, her shout was heard all the way across the stadium.  “It came out naturally,” said Mori after the competition.  

For 21 years old Mori, a 1998 high school champion at shot put, it was her second national shot put record, having set a national record of 16.43m in April of 2000.  Her record was since broken by Yoko Toyonaga in October of 2000, but this spring, Mori was on a roll, having recorded 16.42m in the Hyogo relay. 

After the competition, Mori said, “I am relieved to set a new personal best.”  Then she continued, “For the first three throws, I was going for the record, and that might have been the reason why I could not throw over 16m.   I changed my mindset from the fourth round. I just tried to enjoy the competition, and tried not to think about anything else.   That helped me to throw over 16m in my fourth and fifth round.”  For Mori, it was her first national title.

Second national record of the day was set by 23 years old Sayoko Sato in the heptathlon. 

Sato, a defending national heptathlon champion who recorded a score of 5637, five points short of a national record last year, was also on a roll this spring season.  She recorded 5597 in the East Asian Games in Osaka, two weeks ago. 

After six events, she had 4849 points and needed 2:22 800m to break the record.  After the first lap of 69 seconds, she moved into the front and poured it on.   She ran a negative split race and finished the 800m in 2:17.07.  She annihilated the previous record of 5642 with the new record of 5713. 

Sato said,  “I never calculate points during the competition.  Rather, I try to do my best in each event.  The points will follow.  However, before the 800m, I was told how fast I must run it to break the record.”

Unfortunately, neither athlete will be in Edmonton, for their record are still far from even the World Championship “B” standards.  However, since both athletes are quite young, the future is quite bright for both athletes.

For the last several years, two sprinters - Motoka Arai and Kaori Yoshida - stood out at the women’s 100m.   Arai won the sprint double (100m/200m) at the national championships for the last three years, while Yoshida holds national record of 11.42.  In the final of the 100m, Yoshida led most of the race, and was on the verge of winning the national championships for the first time since 1997.  However, in the last 10m, Motoka Arai closed the gap very fast and seemed to have caught Yoshida at the finish.

When asked, “Did you think you won?” at the post-race interview, Arai replied, “No, I thought I lost the race.”  Yoshida who thought she had won said, “I knew she (Arai) would close the gap at the end, but I thought I stayed ahead of her today.”   The timer stopped at 11.31, the time well under the national record as well as under the world championships “A” standard, and Arai was declared the winner by 1/100th of a second. Unfortunately, it was wind-assisted (3.7m/s), and therefore they will not be running the 100m in Edmonton.  However, they still hope to make a trip to Edmonton as a member of 4x100m relay team.

In the 3000mSC, the event ruled by Yasunori Uchitomi for a long time, Yoshitaka Iwamizu, a 1997 national high school champion at the 3000mSC, was considered a bright new hope.  On the second day of the national championships, he proved to be the force to be reckon with in the future when he won the 3000mSC with 8:26.77, a new personal best, despite the strong head wind on the back straight.

The race started with Uchitomi in the lead, but by the third lap Aziz Driouche of Morocco who now runs for a Japanese corporate track team after graduating from a university in Japan went into the lead.   The pack of three - Driouche, Uchitomi and Iwamizu broke away from the rest of the field by the fourth lap.  After following Driouche, on the final lap Iwamizu challenged him twice - first at the final water jump and then again at the final barrier. 

He revealed afterwards that it was his plan to push the pace from the final water barrier.  Perhaps feeling pressure from Iwamizu, Driouche fell over the final barrier; Iwamizu went on to win and capture the national championships.  Unfortunately, Iwamizu missed the World Championships “A” standard (8:25) by less than two seconds.  “It would have been nice if I cleared the “A” standard today, but my goal for the day was to clear the “B” standard (8:29).  Since I recorded a huge personal best (28:26.18) two weeks ago at the Golden Games in Nobeoka, I had a feeling that I can also set a personal best at the 3000mSC,” said Iwamizu after the race.

“I ran sub 53 seconds (52.95 for the 400m) at the East Asian Games and I was hoping to run another sub 53 seconds today. I was also hoping to clear the “B” standard (52.70) in the race,” said an exhausted Kakinuma after the race.  “I had to run an aggressive race from the start, because that will be the only way to set a record, for there won’t be anybody to push me on the final stage of the race.”

After passing the 200m in mid- 25 seconds despite the strong head wind down the backstraight, she paid dearly on the homestraight, and missed her goal by nearly a second.

“Yes, it was quite windy down the backstraight,” agreed both Makiko Yoshida and Miho Sugimori who finished second and third respectively. Yoshida was quite content with both her time (personal best of 54.28) as well as her second place finish, while Sugimori was content with her third place finish but was hoping for the personal best.

Results Day 2

Men

100m

Heat 1 (0.8m/s):  1)  Akihiro Yasui   10.48;  2)  Shigeyuki Kojima   10.50;

Heat 2 (-0.2m/s):  1)  Nobuharu Asahara   10.25;  2) Hiroyasu Tsuchie  10.30 Heat 3 (1.5m/s):  1) Shingo Kawabata   10.30;  2)  Tadashi Imori   10.31;  3)  Takao Kawabe   10.33

200m (0.7m/s):
  1)  Shingo Suetsugu  20.48;  2)  Yusuke Omae  20.93;   3) Ryo Matsuda  21.03; 4) Tatsuya Ito  21.04

400m
Heat 1:  1)   Jun Osakada  46.19;  2) Ryuji Muraki   46.29
Heat 2:  1)   Kenji Tabata  46.64;  2)  Osamu Matsunobe  46.84;  3) Shunji Karube   47.24; 4) Suguru Matsumoto 47.24
Heat 3:  1) Takahiko Yamamura  46.74;  2) Mitsuhiro Sato  46.87;

800m:
Heat 1:  1) Ryuji Sugawara  1:49:78;  2)  Shuichi Sato   1:50.05;  3) Takuma Masuhara  1:50.11 Heat 2:   1) Masaharu Nakano  1:50.27;  2)  Hiroshi Sasano  1:50.38;  3) Mitsuhiro Sugiura  1:50.93

1500m:
1)  Fumikazu Kobayashi  3:44.46;  2)  Tetsuya Kobayashi   3:44.80; 3) Terukazu Omori  3:44.87

10000m:
1)  Alene Emere (ETH)  27:29.53;  2)  Daniel Njenga (KEN)   28:05.79;  3) Toshinari Takaoka  28:11.85;  4) Solomon Wachira  28:18.04;  5) Naoki Mishiro   28:25.18;  6)  Koichiro Nagata   28:32.44;  7) Toshihiro Iwasa 28:38.68

110mH:
Heat 1 (-0.5m/s):  1) Kimihiro Asami  14.02;  2) Yasunori Yoshioka  14.12
Heat 2 (-0.6m/s):  1) Masato Naito  13.90;  2)  Ken-ichi Sakurai   13.95;  3) Tasuku Tanonaka  13.95
Heat 3 (0.5m/s):  1) Nobuto Watanabe 13.99; 2) Satoru Tanigawa  14.00;  3) Shinri Yamada   14.08
Final (1.2m/s):
1) Masato Naito  13.65 (Champ record);  2) Satoru Tanigawa   13.73;  3) Tasuku Tanonaka  13.82;  4) Kimihiro Asami  13.84; 5) Ken-ichi Sakurai  13.87; 6) Yasunori Yoshioka  13.89; 7) Shinri Yamada  13.94
400mH:
1) Dai Tamesue 48.66; 2) Ken Yoshizawa 49.71; 3) Hideaki Kawamura  49.77; 4) Yoshihiro Chiba  49.95; 5) Yuki Omoto 50.46;  6) Jun Iwasaki   50.69
3000mSC:
1) Yoshitaka Iwamizu  8:26.77;  2) Yasunori Uchitomi  8:29.63; 3) Aziz Driouche (MAR) 8:32.18; 4) Wataru Izumi 8:40..64
LJ:
1) Daisuke Watanabe  8.03 (1.7m/s); 2) Shin-ichi Terano  7.99m (0.8m/s); 3) Shigeru Tagawa  7.97m (2.2m/s)
SP:
1)  Yasutada Noguchi  17.99m; 2) Satoshi Hatase  16.52m; 3) Yohei Murakawa  16.43m
HT (qualifyiing):
1)  Koji Murofushi 76.01m; 2) Wataru Ebihara  63.89m
Decathlon:
1) Takuro Hirata  (11.07, 7.06m, 12.46m, 1.91m, 48.92, 15.90, 41.11m,  4.70m, 59.32m, 4:44.18)    7527
2)  Toru Yasui   (11.16, 7.28m, 11.84m, 1.91m, 50.96, 14.89, 39.30m, 4.90m, 56.01m, 4:57.40)    7443
3) Masatoshi Ishizawa  (11.36, 6.59m, 10.87m, 1.85m, 49.01, 14.61, 33.53m, 4.50m, 58.35m, 4:30.59)   7214

Women

100m (3.7m/s):  1) Motoka Arai  11.31,  2) Kaori Sakagami   11.32,  3) Hideko Nihei  11.42, 4) Ayumi Shimazaki  11.66
200m:
Heat 1 (0.3m/s):  1)  Motoka Arai  24.08,  2) Sakie Nobuoka   24.11
Heat 2 (1.2m/s):  1) Kanako Yano  24.15;  2) Ayumi Shimazaki  24.41;
400m: 1) Kazue Kakinuma  53.62;  2) Makiko Yoshida   54.28; 3) Miho Sugimori  54.38;  4) Saori Hiiro   54.85
800m:
1) Tomoko Matsushima  2:03.21;  2) Miki Nishimura   2:03.29; 3) Yukiko Fujiwara  2:06.92
5000m:
1) Haruko Okamoto 15:32.23; 2) Kayoko Fukushi  15:32.65; 3) Rie Ueno 15:33.76; 4) Yasuko Hashimoto 15:35.47; 5) Noriko Takahashi 15:36.16; 6) Mari Ozaki 15:38.04;  7) Akiko Kawashima 15:41.08; 8) Hisae Yoshimatsu 15:41.48; 9) Esther Wanjiro (KEN) 15;42.80;
100mH (-0.7m/s):
1) Kumiko Ikeda 13.38; 2) Tomoko Motegi  13.39; 3) Ayumi Fujita  13.43; 4) Akiko Morimoto 13.51; 5) Sayuri Kawakami 13;66; 6) Kairi Sugiura  13.82
400mH:
Heat 1:  1) Mie Suzuki 59..78; 2) Satomi Kubokura Satomi  61.77
Heat 2:  1) Sachiko Eguchi  61.07; 2) Kazue Nagaoka  62.33; 3) Noriko Takakura  64.25
Heat 3: 1) Makiko Yohsida  61.68;  2) Miyuki Kawabata   62.48
HJ:
1) Miki Imai  1.92m, 2) Yoko Ohta  1.86m,  3) Maiko Iwakiri 1.86m
SP:
1) Chinatsu Mori  16.84m  national record, 2) Sumi Ichioka  16.34m, 3) Yoko Toyonaga 15.99m
HT (qualifying):
1) Aya Suzuki  58.10m, 2) Yuka Murofushi  55.18m,  3) Aya Masumi  53.96m
Heptathlon:
1) Sayoko Sato  (14.05, 1.63m, 11.17m, 24.80, 6.22m, 40.57m, 2:17.07)  5713  national record
2)  Keiko Kikugawa  (14.35, 1.69m, 10.90m, 25.26, 5.82m, 44.04m, 2:22.72)  5550

Post competition interview sessions attended by Chieko Nakamura

 

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