Skip to main content

Nakao Hits World Championships B-Standard in Heusden (updated)

by Brett Larner



Yusei Nakao (Team Toyota Boshoku) continued his strong season, heading the Japanese contingent at this year's KBC-Nacht meet in Heusden, Belgium. Nakao, running the men's 5000 m at the same meet where Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica-Minolta) set the Japanese national record two years ago, ran a PB of 13:28.16 to finish 7th in the B-heat.

With 2009 national champion Yuichiro Ueno (Team S&B) already named to the national team with a B-standard mark, Nakao, Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) and Yuki Matsuoka (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) needed to break the World Championships A-standard of 13:20.00 to join him. Sato took up the challenge, running among the leaders in the early stages of the race and going through the kilometer right on pace in 2:39 with Matsuoka also in the pack. Nakao sat back and waited, moving up as the race evolved.

Sato, who holds a PB of 13:23.57 and earlier in the season ran the all-time 3rd-best Japanese mark of 27:38.25 for 10000 m before suffering a recurrence of injury, moved up behind the pacemaker at 1800 m and then took the lead at 2000 m. He led through 3200 m but was clearly not back to 100% as he abruptly faded at that point. Nakao simultaneously stepped up to join the leaders who broke away from Sato, hanging on to the back of the pack and landing 7th. His mark just cleared the World Championships B-standard of 13:29.00, but having missed the A-standard he earned himself only a place as a reserve. Sato and Matsuoka were 13th and 15th.



Women's 3000 m steeplechase national record holder Minori Hayakari (Kyoto Koka AC) returned to Heusden having broken the national record there the last two years but could only muster a 9:57.37, nearly 30 seconds off her record time from last year.



Men's 1500 m Fumikazu Kobayashi (Team NTN) was a no-show, while Takeshi Kuchino's 1:48.78 in the men's 800 m fell well short of the World Championships B-standard mark he needed to make it to Berlin.

Complete results from this year's meet are available here.

2009 KBC-Nacht - Top Finishers
Men's 5000 m B-heat
1. Jonay Miguel Gonzalez (Spain) - 13:21.65 - PB
2. Moses Kibet (Uganda) - 13:24.87
3. Tim Nelson (U.S.A.) - 13:24.94 - PB
-----
7. Yusei Nakao (Team Toyota Boshoku) - 13:28.16 - PB
13. Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 13:36.17
15. Yuki Matsuoka (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 13:36.66

Women's 3000 m SC
1. Hanane Ouhaddou (Morocco) - 9:24.29 - NR
2. Sofia Assefa (Ethiopia) - 9:24.40
3. Milcah Chemos (Kenya) - 9:24.50 - PB
-----
11. Minori Hayakari (Kyoto Koka AC) - 9:57.37

Men's 800 m
1. Ali Bilal Mansour (Bahrain) - 1:45.26
2. Reuben Bett (Kenya) - 1:45.77
3. Leonel Manzano (U.S.A.) - 1:46.20 - PB
-----
9. Takeshi Kuchino (Japan) - 1:48.78

(c) 2009 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Kevin said…
Hey what time Mari Ozaki got in Sapporo half marathon? I thought she would run fast after finishing 4th at Hiroshima. When will she retire?
Kevin said…
Is Mari Ozaki scared of running marathons because its so tough? She keep losing to Yoshimi Ozaki. Yoshimi Ozaki is better. She beated Mari Ozaki by 28 seconds in Marugame. Mari Ozaki is scared of her competition. That's why she withdrew from osaka. Can she just retire already? There won't be anymore world champs for her to compete in for 2 years. That is bad. And she only run races in Japan. She made no impact on the world champs at all.
Brett Larner said…
Dennis--

What does this have to do with Heusden?
Unknown said…
Brett, I hope you had an enjoyable event today.

I need to translate '繰り上げ一斉スタート' (kuriage issei start) and have found no standard English version. Any suggestions on the best way to convey this Hakone Ekiden concept to a non-runner? 'Boosted Start' was used in Japan Times, but perhaps there is something better...

Thanks,
Paul

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