Skip to main content

Ueno, World Championships Marathoners Maeda and Fujinaga Run Well at Hokuren Distance Challenge Kitami Meet

by Brett Larner

The fifth meet in the 2009 Hokuren Distance Challenge series took place July 15 in Kitami, Hokkaido, producing three significant results.

1500 m and 5000 m national champion Yuichiro Ueno (Team S&B) continued his winning streak, taking the men's 3000 m. His time of 8:09.03 was 12 seconds off his best but the win showed that Ueno is maintaining his competitive edge as he trains in Hokkaido for the World Championships 5000 m.

In the women's 5000 m Kenyans Doricah Obare (Team Hitachi) and Christine Muyanga (Team Panasonic) went 1-2 with Obare on top in 15:42.36. The surprise came in 3rd place, as World Championships marathon team member Yoshiko Fujinaga (Team Shiseido) came in just a step behind Muyanga. Earlier in the season Fujinaga had said she wanted to focus on her speed during the track season. While her earlier results had been unimpressive, her run in Kitami suggests she is rounding into form in time to peak in Berlin.

The men's 5000 m featured three of Japan's most promising younger distance runners, Yu Mitsuya (Team Toyota Kyushu), Ryuji Ono (Team Asahi Kasei) and Berlin World Championships marathoner Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko). Mitsuya and Ono have been dealing with injury problems, while Maeda has been all but invisible since finishing 2nd in March's Tokyo Marathon, Kitami being his first race since then. Mitsuya took the top position, winning by 8 seconds in 13:38.01 and looking as though he is back to form. Maeda, who along with Ueno is one of only two Japanese men to hold a valid World Championships 5000 m qualifying mark, was 4th in 13:49.81, credible considering his training is currently focused on the marathon. Ono was only 5th in 13:57.55 and looks to have some work still to do on his way to recovery.

Click here for complete results from the Kitami meet. The final meet in this year's Hokuren Distance Challenge takes place on Monday, July 20.

2009 Hokuren Distance Challenge Kitami Meet - Top Finishers
Men's 5000 m
1. Yu Mitsuya (Team Toyota Kyushu) - 13:38.01
2. Yoshinori Oda (Team Toyota) - 13:46.47
3. Tsuyoshi Makabe (Team Kanebo) - 13:47.58
4. Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko) - 13:49.81
5. Ryuji Ono (Team Asahi Kasei) - 13:57.55
-----
13. Joseph Mwaniki (Team Konica Minolta) - 14:05.31
18. Martin Waweru (Team Fujitsu) - 14:14.82
19. Yuki Yagi (Waseda Univ.) - 14:17.22

Women's 5000 m
1. Doricah Obare (Team Hitachi) - 15:42.36
2. Christine Muyanga (Team Panasonic) - 15:53.35
3. Yoshiko Fujinaga (Team Shiseido) - 15:53.54
4. Kaoru Nagao (Team Aruze) - 15:54.66
5. Yuka Tokuda (Team Yamada Denki) - 15:55.10
-----
7. Hiromi Ominami (Team Toyota Shatai) - 15:56.89
14. Kiyoko Shimahara (Second Wind AC) - 16:06.11
20. Mika Yoshikawa (Team Panasonic) - 16:15.82

Men's 3000 m
1. Yuichiro Ueno (Team S&B) - 8:09.03
2. Takayuki Matsuura (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 8:13.91
3. Kazuya Watanabe (Team Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) - 8:16.21

Women's 3000 m
1. Yuko Shimizu (Team Sekisui) - 9:12.35
2. Yoshika Tatsumi (Team Deodeo) - 9:20.71
3. Kaoru Sekino (Team Hokuren) - 9:21.40

Men's 1000 m
1. Daisuke Tamura (SDF Sports Academy) - 2:21.26
2. Aruto Anzai (Team S&B) - 2:24.44
3. Yoshito Suzuki (Sapporo Gakuin Univ.) - 2:25.04

Women's 1000 m
1. Misako Suguro (Team Shiseido) - 2:51.21
2. Saki Nakamichi (Team Shiseido) - 2:51.65
3. Yuka Hashimoto (Nittai Univ.) - 2:51.77

Men's 600 m
1. Kang Sok Ei (Koyan City Hall) - 1:17.26
2. Yoshihiro Shimadaira (Team Fujitsu) - 1:17.85
3. Nao Hattori (Tokai Univ.) - 1:18.03

Women's 600 m
1. Ruriko Kubo (Team Deodeo) - 1:28.63
2. Mayu Horie (Team M&K) - 1:29.64
3. Akari Kishikawa (NPO STCI) - 1:30.36

(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

Sprinter Shoji Tomihisa Retires From Athletics at 105

A retirement ceremony for local masters track and field legend Shoji Tomihisa , 105, was held May 13 at his usual training ground at Miyoshi Sports Park Field in Miyoshi, Hiroshima. Tomihisa began competing in athletics at age 97, setting a Japanese national record 16.98 for 60 m in the men's 100~104 age group at the 2017 Chugoku Masters Track and Field meet. Last year Tomihisa was the oldest person in Hiroshima selected to run as a torchbearer in the Tokyo Olympics torch relay. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the relay on public roads was canceled, and while he did take part in related ceremonies his run was ultimately canceled. Tomihisa recently took up the shot put, but in light of his fading physical strength he made the decision to retire from competition. Around 30 members of the Shoji Tomihisa Booster Club attended the retirement ceremony. After receiving a bouquet of flowers from them Tomihisa in turn gave them a colored paper placard on which he had written the characters