Skip to main content

Niiya Outdoes Nakamura at Oda Memorial Meet

by Brett Larner

Aspiring marathoner Hitomi Niiya (Team Toyota Jidoshoki) bounced back from her failed attempt to win March's Nagoya International Women's Marathon by running a 5-second PB to beat Beijing Olympics marathoner Yurika Nakamura (Team Tenmaya), Kenyans Felista Wanjugu (Team Aruze) and Doricah Obare (Team Hitachi) and several other top Japanese women in the competitive 5000 m at the Apr. 29 Oda Memorial Track and Field Meet. Niiya clocked a strong 15:23.27, the second-best time in the world so far this year, to break her nearly four-year old PB of 15:28.70. Nakamura came in in 15:23.99 with the two Kenyans another second back; all three were less than 3 seconds off their best times. A moderate gap separated the lead quartet from the rest of the field. Niiya's win signals that she has moved on from this spring's big disappointment and is ready to retarget this summer's World Championships on the track.

In another of the Oda Memorial Meet's highlights, women's 3000 m SC national record holder Minori Hayakari (Kyoto Koka AC) suffered a rare domestic loss, coming in second to Yoshika Tatsumi (Team Deodeo) as both runners broke the meet record of 10:05.43. Tatsumi took the lead in the second kilometer after an early lead by Hayakari, clocking 10:03.23 with Hayakari close behind in 10:04.99. Previous meet record holder Chisa Nishio (Team Starts) barely missed joining the pair under her old mark as she finished 3rd in 10:05.52.

In the men's events, Kenyans took six of the top seven spots in the men's 5000 m. Nicholas Makau (Team JAL Ground Service) ran a narrow PB of 13:27.49 to beat out the popular and newly-pro Mekubo Mogusu who is still showing the effects of time off following a car crash in Kenya in February which left his coach hospitalized. 2009 Fukuoka International Cross Country Meet winner and High school student Bitan Karoki (Sera H.S.) was a close 3rd. Like Niiya in the women's 5000 m, Yusei Nakao (Team Toyota Boshoku) came back from a disappointing Tokyo Marathon to break up the Kenyan sweep with an a 13:34.67 5th place finish, a PB by over 8 seconds.

In the men's 1500 m, former university champion Yasunori Murakami (Team Fujitsu) broke the fifteen-year old Oda Memorial meet record to take the win in 3:43.30. The hapless Yasuhiro Tago (Team Chugoku Denryoku) was a distant 2nd in 3:46.62 while Murakami's teammate Hiroshi Ino (Team Fujitsu) was 3rd in 3:48.16.

In other noteworthy results:

・Beijing Olympics men's 4 x 100 m relay bronze medalist Naoki Tsukahara (Team Fujitsu) won the men's 100 m in 10.17 over his Beijing teammate Shinji Takahira (Team Fujitsu), who clocked 10.20.
・Beijing Olympian Chisato Fukushima (Hokkaido Hi-Tec AC) ran a wind-aided 11.23 in both the semi and final to win the women's 100 m. Runner-up Momoko Takahashi (Heisei Kokusai Univ.) likewise ran a wind-aided 11.24 in both rounds. The Japanese national record in the women's 100 m is 11.36.
・China's Yin Jing set a meet record of 13.40 in the men's 110 m HH.
・Akane Watanabe (Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S.) set a national high school record of 49.10 m in the women's discus.

Complete results from this year's Oda Memorial are available here.

2009 Oda Memorial Track and Field Meet - Top Finishers
Women's 5000 m
1. Hitomi Niiya (Team Toyota Jidoshoki) - 15:23.27 - PB
2. Yurika Nakamura (Team Tenmaya) - 15:23.99
3. Felista Wanjugu (Team Aruze) - 15:24.48
4. Doricah Obare (Team Hitachi) - 15:25.60
5. Yuko Shimizu (Team Sekisui) - 15:31.82
6. Mari Ozaki (Team Noritz) - 15:33.95
7. Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu) - 15:35.12
8. Shoko Mori (Team Acom) - 15:38.27
9. Mika Yoshikawa (Team Panasonic) - 15:49.32
10. Takako Yamada (Team Deodeo) - 15:57.26

Men's 5000 m
1. Nicholas Makau (Team JAL Ground Service) - 13:27.49
2. Mekubo Mogusu (Team Aidem) - 13:29.34
3. Bitan Karoki (Sera H.S.) - 13:32.79
4. Jonathan Ndiku (Team Hitachi Cable) - 13:34.51
5. Yusei Nakao (Team Toyota Boshoku) - 13:34.67 - PB
6. Samuel Ndungu (Team Aichi Steel) - 13:36.69
7. Micah Njeru (Team Toyota Boshoku) - 13:40.09
8. Naoki Okamoto (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 13:44.00
9. Kazuharu Takai (Team Kyudenko) - 13:52.36
10. Mitsuyoshi Shirahama (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 13:54.63

Women's 3000 m SC
1. Yoshika Tatsumi (Team Deodeo) - 10:03.23 - CR
2. Minori Hayakari (Kyoto Koka AC) - 10:04.99 - (CR)
3. Chisa Nishio (Team Starts) - 10:05.52
4. Miho Notagashira (Team Wacoal) - 10:44.58
5. Mayu Hitomi (Team Sekisui) - 10:50.31

Men's 1500 m
1. Yasunori Murakami (Team Fujitsu) - 3:43.30 - CR
2. Yasuhiro Tago (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 3:46.62
3. Hiroshi Ino (Team Fujitsu) - 3:48.16
4. Masaharu Nakano (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 3:58.04
5. Yunari Yamaguchi (Team Aisan Kogyo Nagasaki) - 4:00.34

(c) 2009 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Takeuchi Wins Niigata Half in Boston Tune-Up

Running in cold, windy and rainy conditions, Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Software) warmed up for April's Boston Marathon with a win at Wednesday's Niigata Half Marathon . Takeuchi sat behind Nittai University duo Susumu Yamazaki and Ryuga Ishikawa in the early stages, then made a series of pushes to pick up the pace. Each time he tucked in behind whoever went to the front, while behind them others dropped off. Before 15 km only Yamazaki and Riki Koike of Soka University were left, and when Takeuchi went to the front the last time after 15 km only Koike followed. By 16 he was gone too, leaving Takeuchi to solo it in to the win in 1:03:13 with a 17-second negative split. "This was my last fitness check before the Boston Marathon next month, and my time was right on-target," he said post-race. "Everything went as planned. I'm looking forward to racing some of the world's best in Boston, and my goal there is to place in the single digits." Just back from tr