Japanese National Championships round up
K. Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
12 June 2001 - Ken Nakamura wraps up his
reports from the Japanese National Championships.
Both Alene Emere of Ethiopia and Haruko Okamoto of Japan completed distance doubles in the Japanese National Championships.
The men’s 10,000m started with a steady 66-67 second pace with Yuko Matsumiya in the lead. On the sixth lap Alene Emere of Ethiopia, who runs for Araco track team, took the lead and picked up the tempo, which stretched out the field. Eventually by 3000m, the group of five runners - Emere, Njenga, Takaoka, Wachira and Seto - broke away from the rest. On the tenth lap, the lead pack split into two groups. Emere from Ethiopia and Njenga, a former junior record holder at 3000mSC from Kenya, who live in Japan and compete for the corporate sponsored track team were in front. Emere continued to push the pace and he broke away from Njenga by the half way point, which was passed in 13:42. With each lap Emere moved further away from the rest of the field.
Meanwhile, out of the huge chase pack, four Japanese runners broke away to compete for the coveted spots for the Edmonton team. Eventually, Naoki Mishiro and Koichiro Nagata moved into fifth and sixth place. Emere won the race easily with 27:29.53. Second placed Njenga was more than 30 seconds behind in 28:05.79.
Takaoka, as expected, was the first Japanese, and clinched a spot on the World Championships team. The second and third Japanese were Naoki Mishiro and Koichiro Nagata respectively. After the race, both Mishiro and Nagata revealed that their preparation for this race was far from ideal.
“I missed all of January. Even when I started running in early February, I could only jog,” said Mishiro who was the 1998 collegiate champion at both 5000m and 10000m.
Nagata who was sixth in the 1999 World University Games 5000m was also plagued with injury.
After Kyoto half marathon in March, he spent next two-months battling injury. “I knew I can be in decent shape in a month. But I came into the national championships with only three weeks of training under my belt. I did not know what to expect,” said Nagata in the mixed zone.
Alene Emere who won the race said, “With this performance, I qualified for the World Championships team. I am the fourth man on the team, but Haile (Gebrselassie) is the defending World Champion, so we can send four men to the championships.”
The second place Daniel Njenga has no plan to run the Kenyan Championships to qualify for the Worlds. “My next major race will be the Sapporo half marathon,” said Njenga who speaks good Japanese and acted as a translator for Emere in the post race interview.
The third place finisher Toshinari Takaoka, the Asian record holder at both 5000m and 10000m said, “I would like to further improve the national 10000m record in the upcoming 10000m in Prague. Then in the World Championships, I would like to run even faster.”
Alene Emere came back on the final day of the championships to compete at the 5000m. The race started with James Wainaina of Kenya, another Kenyan who lives in Japan, in the lead, and Emere followed closely. Unlike the10000m, Emere waited until four laps to go to take the lead. As Emere started to push the pace, Wainaina was dropped and Emere won the race rather convincingly, thus completing a successful double.
In the women’s 5000m which was contested first, Akiko Kawashima and Yoshiko Ichikawa took turn leading for the first 3500m. Then it was Noriko Takahashi and Kayoko Fukushi (4th in the world junior championships) who took turns leading the race until there was one lap to go. At this point it was the relatively unknown Haruko Okamoto who kicked and won the race.
A day later, the women’s 10000m race was contested in the rain. As expected Chiemi Takahashi who was fifth in the 1999 World Championships led the race for nearly 3000m. Then, it was Kazue Ogoshi, a junior road 20Km record holder who took the lead for a while before Takako Kotorida took over.
From the half way point, Mizuki Noguchi who was second in the 1999 world half marathon championships started to push the pace. As rain intensified, it was turning into the race of attrition. Ikumi Nagayama who is one of the most versatile runner in Japan with the 800m best of 2:10 and the marathon best of 2:27:44 briefly took the lead before Noguchi took it back. With 1000m to go, three runners - Mari Ozaki, Mizuki Noguchi and Haruko Okamoto – looked on schedule for Edmonton.
When Mari Ozaki started to push the pace, Okamoto was falling behind and with a lap to go, she was some 15m behind. At the bell, Noguchi surged, and Ozaki went with her. However, down the backstraight, just as when everyone thought that Okamoto was out of it, she made an amazing comeback. Within 110m, Okamoto who started competing in the sport as a hurdler/long jumper in junior high school went from third to first. She won the race in 31:50.39, thus completing a distance double. Okamoto improved her personal best by more than 20 seconds. After the race, Okamoto said, “I am very surprised with both (5000m & 10000m) of my win. My goal was to run a sub-32 minutes 10000m, so I just went with the flow.” The third place Noguchi who is generally thought as a road racer said, “I want to run well on both track and road.”
Emere and Okamoto were not the only athletes who won two events at the national championships. Motoka Arai who won the 100m on Saturday won the 200m on Sunday.
In this championships, a few young up and coming athletes confirmed their position as future stars. Twenty year old Masato Naito has improved his personal best at 110mH from 13.85 in 2000 to 13.69 this spring. On the second day of the national championships, Naito further improved his personal best to 13.65 in winning the national championships.
“My primary goal in the championships was to win the race. I knew that if I won, then I will be selected for the World Championships team.
“My coach Shunji Karube (one of the top 400m hurdler in Japan) told me to concentrate on the start. I was still behind everyone at the start, but I am quite content. I could sense that I was ahead by eighth and ninth hurdle,” said Naito who defeated Satoru Tanigawa who is generally considered as the best high hurdler in Japan.
Twenty-one-year-old Shingo Suetsugu, heir apparent to the Asian sprint king Koji Ito won the 200m easily in 20.48 despite aslight hamstring injury he sustained in the East Asian Games in Osaka two weeks ago. He won by nearly a half second from nineteen-year-old Yusuke Omae. At the post-race interview, Suetsugu said, “Yesterday in the heat, I was still able to run 20.49 with 70% effort. So I thought I can run even faster today, but when I lined up at the start of the race, I could feel the head wind.”
Another young prospect, twenty-three years old Dai Tamesue, who was fourth at the 400m in the 1996 world junior championships, won the 400mH with 48.66. Because Tamesue fell in Sydney at the Olympics, it was one of the topics of the conversation in the post-race interview. “Today, I ran the race the same way I did in Sydney. The race condition was similar as well. It was windy in Sydney and it was also windy today. When I finished the race, I was able to convince myself that I can do it. I was relieved when I went over the final hurdle”
Post competition interview sessions attended by Chieko Nakamura
