Skip to main content

Jeilan 27:09.02 at Hokuren Distance Challenge Kitami Meet

by Brett Larner

The first meet of the 2011 Hokuren Distance Challenge series took place June 19 in Kitami, Hokkaido. With cooler than usual temperatures 2006 world 10000 m junior champion and 2008 world junior XC champion Ibrahim Jeilan (Ethiopia/Team Honda) delivered the biggest result of the evening, a solo 27:09.02 nearly a minute ahead of runner-up Alex Mwangi (Kenya/Team YKK). Jeilan's time was the third-fastest of the year by an Ethiopian, putting him into consideration for the Ethiopian team for August's Daegu World Championships. In 5th, third-year Yuki Maeda (Waseda Univ.), whose excellent run on the first day of this year's Hakone Ekiden was instrumental in keeping Waseda in contention for the win, became the latest Waseda runner to break 29 minutes as he clocked a PB of 28:54.34. Ten men on the roster of Waseda's 2010-2011 squad held PBs under 29 minutes.

In the women's 5000 m, 2011 East Japan Corporate T&F 10000 m champion Hiroko Shoi (Team Nihon ChemiCon) ran a strong 15:32.13, the third-best so far this year by a Japanese woman. The meet's other most notable result came in the men's 1500 m A-heat, where Kenyan Edward Waweru (Team NTN) ran a PB of 3:38.90, the fastest time of the year so far on Japanese soil.

The Hokuren Distance Challenge continues June 22 in Abashiri, Hokkaido.

2011 Hokuren Distance Challenge Kitami Meet
Kitami, Hokkaido, 6/19/11
Men's 10000 m
1. Ibrahim Jeilan (Ethiopia/Team Honda) - 27:09.02
2. Alex Mwangi (Kenya/Team YKK) - 28:01.50
3. Assefa Fekele (Ethiopia/Team Kanebo) - 28:32.86
4. Takehiro Arakawa (Team Asahi Kasei) - 28:52.60
5. Yuki Maeda (Waseda Univ.) - 28:54.34
6. Kazuki Onishi (Team Kanebo) - 28:55.90
7. Ryotaro Nitta (Team Konica Minolta) - 28:58.31
8. Naoto Yoneda (Team Konica Minolta) - 29:07.93
9. Fumihiro Maruyama (Team Asahi Kasei) - 29:09.11
10. Shota Hiraga (Waseda Univ.) - 29:09.75

Women's 5000 m
1. Hiroko Shoi (Team Nihon ChemiCon) - 15:32.13
2. Misako Onishi (Team Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:46.64
3. Risa Kikuchi (Team Hitachi) - 15:48.61
4. Chieko Kido (Canon AC Kyushu) - 15:58.42
5. Korei Omata (Team Sekisui Kagaku) - 16:03.06
6. Eri Watanabe (Team Panasonic) - 16:06.54
7. Haruka Igarashi (Team Nihon ChemiCon) - 16:08.62
8. Miku Yamamoto (Team Sekisui Kagaku) - 16:09.31
9. Risa Nakamura (Team Hitachi) - 16:09.61
10. Yuri Umemura (Team Panasonic) - 16:10.29

Men's 3000 m
1. Kosuke Murasashi (Team YKK) - 8:13.89
2. Wataru Yamaguchi (Team Hitachi Cable) - 8:16.24
3. Makoto Hasegawa (Team Hitachi Cable) - 8:17.51

Women's 3000 m
1. Rose Maranga (Kenya/Team Toto) - 9:14.17
2. Rei Ohara (Team Tenmaya) - 9:16.42
3. Kazumi Hashimoto (Team Hokuren) - 9:27.42

Men's 1500 m A-Heat
1. Edward Waweru (Kenya/Team NTN) - 3:38.90
2. Sang-Min Sin (Korea) - 3:42.38
3. Kazunari Murakami (Team Fujitsu) - 3:43.70

(c) 2011 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