Skip to main content

Sato Runs All-Time Japanese #3 5000 m in Heusden

by Brett Larner

A large Japanese men's contingent returned this year to Heusden, the site of Takayuki Matsumiya's 13:13.20 national record for 5000 m, for the July 13 KBC Nacht meet. Moscow World Championships 10000 m team members and Saku Chosei H.S. graduates Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) and Suguru Osako (Waseda Univ.) ran the 5000 m A-heat in pursuit of A or B-standard times that would allow them the option of doubling in Moscow.  Sato, already all-time Japanese #2 over 3000 m and #3 over 10000 m, surprised by chopping ten seconds off his best to finish 8th just off the national record in 13:13.60 for another all-time Japanese #3 ranking.  Osako, who recently turned 22, came up short of the B-standard but went under 13:30 for the first time, finishing 17th in a new PB of 13:27.54.  Having cleared the World Championships A-standard, Sato is now the only Japanese man with the 5000 m A or B and could line up in both the 5 and 10, something that would have been hard to imagine just six months ago when he ran a halfhearted 2:16:31 marathon debut in Tokyo.

2012 national champion Komazawa University-related athletes featured heavily in the 5000 m B-heat.  2013 graduate Hiromitsu Kakuage (Team Konica Minolta) ran a PB of 13:32.22 for 4th with fellow alum Takuya Fukatsu (Team Asahi Kasei) 9th in 13:42.54. Current Komazawa ace Shinobu Kubota scored a new PB of 13:45.50 in his first solid performance since a failed marathon debut at Lake Biwa in March, while 2013 5000 m national champion Sota Hoshi (Team Fujitsu) was far off peak form in 14:28.99.  Among non-Komazawa men in the field, former Toyo University star Tomoya Onishi (Team Asahi Kasei) was just short of his best in 13:43.73, while Minato Oishi (Team Toyota) was just behind him in a new best of 13:45.10 and the three other Japanese athletes in the B-heat all cleared 14 minutes.  After the midsummer track tour Oishi will be back in Europe for the Aug. 31 Lille Half Marathon in France.

2013 KBC Nacht
Heusden-Zolder, Belgium, 7/13/13
click here for complete results

Men's 5000 m A-Heat
1. Albert Rop (Bahrain) - 12:59.43 - PB
2. Ben St. Lawrence (Australia) - 13:10.83
3. Ben True (U.S.A.) - 13:11.59 - PB
4. Hassan Mead (U.S.A.) - 13:11.80 - PB
5. Andrew Bumbalough (U.S.A.) - 13:12.01 - PB
6. Arne Gabius (Germany) - 13:12.50 - PB
7. Dame Tasama (Ethiopia) - 13:12.64 - PB
8. Yuki Sato (Japan/Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 13:13.60 - PB
9. Zane Robertson (New Zealand) - 13:13.83 - PB
10. Ryan Hill (U.S.A.) - 13:14.22 - PB
-----
17. Suguru Osako (Japan/Waseda Univ.) - 13:27.54 - PB

Men's 5000 m B-Heat
1. Meshack Letim (Kenya) - 13:27.33 - PB
2. Elliott Heath (U.S.A.) - 13:27.60
3. Maverick Darling (U.S.A.) - 13:27.93 - PB
4. Hiromitsu Kakuage (Japan/Team Konica Minolta) - 13:32.22 - PB
5. Joe Stilin (U.S.A.) - 13:34.19
6. Philipp Pflieger (Germany) - 13:34.54
7. Brenton Rower (Austria) - 13:38.18
8. Morten Munkholm (Denmark) - 13:41.81 - PB
9. Takuya Fukatsu (Japan/Team Asahi Kasei) - 13:42.54
10. Ababa Lama (Ethiopia) - 13:43.25
-----
12. Tomoya Onishi (Japan/Team Asahi Kasei) - 13:43.73
14. Minato Oishi (Japan/Team Toyota) - 13:45.10 - PB
15. Shinobu Kubota (Japan/Komazawa Univ.) - 13:45.50 - PB
16. Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Japan/Team Asahi Kasei) - 13:50.27
17. Ryo Kiname (Japan/Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) - 13:50.72
18. Yohei Nishiyama (Japan/Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 13:55.18
20. Sota Hoshi (Japan/Team Fujitsu) - 14:28.99

(c) 2013 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

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

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

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