Skip to main content

Double Half Marathon Gold - Taipei Universiade Athletics Day Five Japanese Results



For the second Universiade in a row Japan pulled off a near-sweep of the half marathon medals, taking all three men's individual medals, women's gold and bronze and both team golds. Komazawa University's Kei Katanishi and Naoki Kudo went 1-2, leaving national university half marathon champion Kengo Suzuki over 30 seconds behind to hold off Uganda's John Kateregga for bronze. Wataru Tochigi took 6th to make it 4 Japanese men in the top 6, the only misstep coming from Takato Suzuki of national champion Aoyama Gakuin University who finished only 12th after scratching in the 10000 m.

Not so for women's gold medalist Yuki Munehisa. Munehisa had led most of the women's 10000 m only to get dropped in the last kilometer and wind up outside the medals in 4th. In the half marathon she was bound and determined not to end up the same way again, doing all the heavy lifting to drop Turkey's Esma Aydemir with teammate Saki Fukui in a supporting role. Munehisa finally pulled away in the last quarter of the race, opening 40 seconds on Aydemir to take gold. Fukui couldn't manage to stay in contact and slipped 9 seconds back from Aydemir for bronze. Japan's Kanade Furuya and Maki Izumida went 4-5 to make it 4 Japanese women in the top 5, mirroring the men's team performance with the last team member, Kasumi Yamaguchi, landing 11th.

With this year's performance, all three individual men's medals and women's silver and bronze last time around at the Gwangju Universiade, a sweep of the women's medals at the Belgrade Universiade and other accomplishments behind it Japan's hegemony over the World University Games half marathon is well-established. But with no Japanese athletes running in middle distance events, the steeplechase or event he men's 5000 m despite times in those distances being within range of Japanese student runners' abilities Japan could stand to diversify. It's nice to pad the medal count with easy hardware but it's also worth working on areas that could use development sometimes, especially at the collegiate level.

The women's 5000 m did feature two top-level Japanese women, top-ranked Natsuki Sekiya and 10000 m bronze medalist Ai Hosoda, but neither was able to make much impact. As in the 10000 m Sekiya was obviously nowhere near peak form, finishing almost a minute slower than her best at 16:26.36 for 14th. Hosoda lasted longer up front but showed lingering fatigue from the 10000 m as she was unable to follow the move initiated by Great Britain's Jessica Judd and dropped to 10th in 16:05.66.

The day's other three finalists came close to the medals but couldn't quite close on the deal. In the men's 110 m hurdles both Taio Kanai and Shusei Nomoto made the final after good runs in both the heats and semis, but with weak starts they finished 4th and 5th, Kanai 0.13 from bronze. 18-year-old Masaki Ejima showed a lot of promise in the men's pole vault, taking 4th in a PB 5.40 m against men up to a decade older.

In qualifying rounds, both the Japanese women's and men's 4x100 m relay squads made it to the final, the women winning their heat in 44.71 and the men taking 2nd behind Taiwan in theirs in 39.26. In the men's long jump Natsuki Yamakawa finished 8th in his qualifying group with a jump of 7.53 m (+1.0 m/s), missing out on the final.

Taipei 2017 Summer Universiade Day Five Japanese Results

Taipei, Taiwan, 8/27/17
click here for complete results

Women's 5000 m Final
1. Hanna Klein (Germany) - 15:45.28
2. Jessica O'Connell (Canada) - 15:50.96
3. Jessica Judd (Great Britain) - 15:51.19
-----
10. Ai Hosoda (Japan) - 16:05.66
14. Natsuki Sekiya (Japan) - 16:26.36

Women's Half Marathon Final
1. Yuki Munehisa (Japan) - 1:13:48
2. Esma Aydemir (Turkey) - 1:14:28
3. Saki Fukui (Japan) - 1:14:37
-----
4. Kanade Furuya (Japan) - 1:15:10
5. Maki Izumida (Japan) - 1:16:24
11. Kasumi Yamaguchi (Japan) - 1:21:55

Men's Half Marathon Final
1. Kei Katanishi (Japan) - 1:06:09
2. Naoki Kudo (Japan) - 1:06:23
3. Kengo Suzuki (Japan) - 1:06:56
-----
6. Wataru Tochigi (Japan) - 1:08:59
12. Takato Suzuki (Japan) - 1:10:23

Men's 110 m Hurdles Final (-0.5 m/s)
1. Balazs Baji (Hungary) - 13.35
2. Kuei-Ru Chen (Taiwan) - 13.55
3. Damian Czykier (Poland) - 13.56
-----
4. Taio Kanai (Japan) - 13.69
5. Shusei Nomoto (Japan) - 13.71

Men's Pole Vault Final
1. Diogo Ferreira (Portugal) - 5.55 m
2. Sergey Grigoryev (Kazakhstan) - 5.50 m
3. Claudio Stecchi (Italy) - 5.40 m
-----
4. Masaki Ejima (Japan) - 5.40 m

Men's 110 m Hurdles Semifinal One (+0.9 m/s)
1. Damian Czykier (Poland) - 13.57 - Q
2. Kuei-Ru Chen (Taiwan) - 13.63 - Q
3. Taio Kanai (Japan) - 13.66 - Q

Men's 110 m Hurdles Semifinal Two (-2.0 m/s)
1. Balazs Baji (Hungary) - 13.67 - Q
2. Shusei Nomoto (Japan) - 13.79 - Q
3. Gabriel Oliveira Constantino (Brazil) - 13.94 - Q

Women's 4x100 m Relay Heat Three
1. Japan - 44.71 - Q
2. Mexico - 44.87 - Q
3. Canada - 45.25

Men's 4x100 m Relay Heat Four
1. Taiwan - 39.23 - Q
2. Japan - 39.26 - q
3. Finland - 39.67 - q

Men's Long Jump Qualification Group B
1. Marcel Mayak II (Cameroon) - 7.69 m (-0.3 m/s) - q - PB
2. Christopher Mitrevski (Australia) - 7.66 m (+1.1 m/s) - q
3. Filippo Randazzo (Italy) - 7.64 m (+2.3 m/s) - q
-----
8. Natsuki Yamakawa (Japan) - 7.53 m (+1.0 m/s)

© 2017 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Morii Surprises With Second-Ever Japanese Sub-2:10 at Boston

With three sub-2:09 Japanese men in the race and good weather conditions by Boston standards the chances were decent that somebody was going to follow 1981 winner Toshihiko Seko 's 2:09:26 and score a sub-2:10 at the Boston Marathon . But nobody thought it was going to be by a 2:14 amateur. Paris Olympic team member Suguru Osako had taken 3rd in Boston in 2:10:28 in his debut seven years ago, and both he and 2:08 runners Kento Otsu and Ryoma Takeuchi were aiming for spots in the top 10, Otsu after having run a 1:01:43 half marathon PB in February and Takeuchi of a 2:08:40 marathon PB at Hofu last December. A high-level amateur with a 2:14:15 PB who scored a trip to Boston after winning a local race in Japan, Yuma Morii told JRN minutes before the start of the race, "I'm not thinking about time at all. I'm going to make top 10, whatever time it takes." Running Boston for the first time Morii took off with a 4:32 on the downhill opening mile, but after that  Sis
Post a Comment
Read more

Fujitsu and Toyoda Issue Statement on Circumstances of His Two-Year Suspension for Trenbolone

  Following 400 m hurdler Masaki Toyoda 's suspension for a violation of anti-doping regulations , the Fujitsu corporate team published a statement on its website, including comments from Toyoda's legal team , explaining the ruling and the circumstances surrounding the case. Toyoda was a member of the 2019 Doha World Championships team and holds a best of 48.87. Early in the morning of May 19, 2022, the Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA) conducted a doping test of Toyoda. The prohibited substance trenbolone was detected in urine taken during the test, resulting in a two-year suspension that began May 21, 2022. He did not compete at the National Track and Field Championships the next month. The amount of trenbolone detected in Toyoda's urine sample was 1.4 ng/ml, well below the minimum analytical precision of 2.5 ng/ml required by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for analytical equipment. As a general rule, if a non-specified prohibited substance such as trenbolone is dete
Post a Comment
Read more

“The Miracle in Fukuoka” - Real Talk From Yuki Kawauchi on “Taking on the World” (part 1)

http://sports.yahoo.co.jp/column/detail/201701120002-spnavi translated by Brett Larner Ahead of his nomination to the London World Championships Marathon team, Sportsnavi published a three-part series of writings by Yuki Kawauchi on what it took for him to make the team, his hopes for London, and his views on the future of Japanese marathoning.  With his place on the London team announced on Mar. 17 , JRN will publish an English translation of the complete series over the next three days. See Sportsnavi's original version linked above for more photos. Click here for part two, " Bringing All My Experience Into Play in London ," or here for part three, " The Lessons of the Past Are Not 'Outdated.' " The Fukuoka International Marathon was held on Dec. 4 last year. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov’t) took part despite nursing injuries he had sustained in training. Falling rain contributed to less than ideal conditions during the race, but from th
6 comments
Read more