Kayoko Fukushi of Japan (© Rikujyo Kyogi Magazine)
The Japanese team for the 34th IAAF World Cross Country Championships, 1 – 2 April 2006, was announced yesterday. Historically the junior teams have done much better than their senior counterparts. In fact, the junior women’s team won the team medal for ten consecutive years until 2002, and then took began again in 2004 and also took third place last year. Significantly, the glitch in 2003 was down to Japan not fielding a team on that occasion.
Fukushi on a high
However, the best Japanese individual runner who will be on show in Fukuoka is from the senior women’s division. Kayoko Fukushi, is the national record holder on the track at 3000m and 5000m, and recently, dominated both the Marugame Half Marathon (5 Feb) and the Fukuoka International Cross Country (5 Mar). She won the 6Km race by 33 seconds in Fukuoka and set an Asian Half Marathon record, 1:07:26, in Marugame. Last year Fukushi was 12th at 5000m and 11th at 10,000m in the World Championships in Helsinki, and when she last ran the World Cross Country Championships, she finished 15th in the long race in 2002.
Kobayashi is in awesome shape
Yuriko Kobayashi is the best junior on the team, but in Fukuoka she will be running the senior women’s short course. A silver medallist at 1500m in the 2005 World Youth Championships, Kobayashi is the most promising young distance runner in Japan at the moment. Last year, the 16 years-old won the 1500m in the national championships and finished third in the Asian Championships. She also won both the 800m and 1500m in the national inter-high school championships and the 800m in the national junior championships. She has also set records. She recorded the national junior record, 4:12.85, for 1500m and the national high school record, 8:52.33, at 3000m. Kobayashi is in awesome shape this winter, having set stage records at both the national inter-high school ekiden and inter-prefectural ekiden.
More junior talent
So the best runner actually competing in the junior women’s team is Hitomi Niiya. A bronze medallist at 3000m in the 2005 World Youth Championships, Niiya was 19th and 13th respectively in the junior races at the last two World Cross Country Championships. Last year, Niiya won the junior race at both the Fukuoka and Chiba Cross Country. In addition, she won the 3000m in the inter-high school championships and set the second fastest high school 5000m time, 15:28.70. Niiya recorded stage best sat both the national inter-high school ekiden and inter-prefectural ekiden.
In addition to the aforementioned juniors, new star may also have emerged. First in the Fukuoka Cross Country, Megumi Kinukawa was second in the Chiba Cross Country race. Sixteen years old Kinukawa, who has the 3000m personal best of 9:21.45, was the third fastest in the second stage of the 2005 national inter-high school ekiden. In the process, she passed 12 runners. She was also third at 1500m in the 2005 national inter-high school championships in what was her first year, and second at 1500m in the 2004 national inter-junior high school championships.
Senior surprise
Kazuyoshi Tokumoto, who was 5th at 5000m and 3rd at 10,000m in the 2001 World University Games, leads the men's senior line-up. Tokumoto was the surprise winner of the 10km race at the Fukuoka Cross (5 March), will contest the long race at the World Cross.
Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
List of the team members:
Men’s long race
Kazuyoshi Tokumoto
Masato Imai
Kensuke Takezawa
Tomoyuki Sato
Hideaki Date
Terukazu Omori
Men’s short race
Yuichiro Ueno
Kazuhiro Maeda
Makoto Tobimatsu
Koichiro Nagata
Kazuki Ikenaga
Yoshitaka Iwamizu
Men’s junior race
Tsuyoshi Ugachi:
Takuya Fukatsu:
Yuta Takahashi:
Kodai Matsumoto:
Takafumi Yanase:
Harutomo Kawano:
Women’s long race
Kayoko Fukushi
Yumi Sato
Kayo Sugihara
Yoshimi Ozaki
Megumi Oshima
Michiko Ogawa
Women’s short race
Yuriko Kobayashi
Mika Yoshikawa:
Ayumi Hashimoto:
Tomoko Ishii:
Minori Hayakari:
Rie Takayoshi:
Women’s junior race
Hitomi Niiya
Megumi Kinukawa:
Yuko Nohara:
Aimi Horikoshi .
Kazue Kojima
Chisato Osaki
