Koji Murofushi wins 11th straight national title (© Kazutaka Eguchi)
Two super stars, Koji Murofushi and Dai Tamesue, competed on the day 3 of the national championships. Murofushi, still a prohibitive favourite, won as predicted, while Tamesue, had to hold off strong challenge from Kenji Narisako.
Koji Murofushi, who missed the Osaka GP due to lingering cold, opened his season at the national championships. It was an unusually late season opener for the reigning Olympic champion, who usually opens the season in the small meet in April. His first throw at the nationals was 74.99m, while his second was 76.47m, which turned out to be his winning throw. Then the rain started to come down hard and competition had to be suspended for a while.
“The sudden rain surprised me. This sort of thing does not happen very often,” said Murofushi after the competition.
Rain prevents Murofushi from throwing far
Even when the competition resumed, it was no longer conductive for a good throw. Despite slick throwing surface Murofushi concluded the competition with the sixth throw of 75.68m. These were not the throws expected from Murofushi but he still won the nationals for the record eleventh straight year.
Previously, Murofushi shared ten straight national championships with his father Shigenobu, who won from 1974 to 1983. However, it should be noted that Shigenobu Murofushi also won the nationals in 1970 and 1986.
“I like to do my best in the search for the best possible performance,” said Murofushi after the competition.
Closest ever win for Tamesue
The 400m Hurdles was expected to be a showdown between four-time champion Dai Tamesue and his young challenger Kenji Narisako who handed Tamesue his first defeat by Japanese in three years.
“It has been a long time since I approached the nationals with such intensity. I had to concentrate hard to keep my focus,” recalled Tamesue after the race.
Tamesue, an Edmonton bronze medallist, started out fast as expected. After the tenth hurdle, however, Narisako started to close the gap. In the final 10 metres Narisako cut the gap in half, but the room ran out for him. Tamesue won in 49.27, with Narisako only 17/100th seconds behind.
“It was the closest of my five victories at the nationals. The purpose of the race was to qualify for the World Championships. Since I have accomplished it, I am happy and relieved,” said the five-time national champion.
Dead heat in men's 110m Hurdles
The race was even closer in the high hurdles. The national record holder Satoru Tanigawa came out of the block like a bullet, and thus the former national record holder Masato Naito had to chase Tanigawa from the start.
“I had a pretty bad start. So I had to concentrate on my own movement. Although I made several mistakes over the hurdles, I was able to make appropriate corrections,” said Naito, who slowly closed the gap.
By the ninth hurdle he was even with Tanigawa, and they finished together with 13.61. The race was declared to be a dead heat.
“Because of the change in the training environment, my training did not go as planned. I was able to figure out what I need to work on from today’s race,” said Tanigawa. “I would like to make the final in Helsinki, so I hope I can do good training in the next two month,” said Naito, who is automatically qualified for the Helsinki team because he already has cleared the “A” standard this year.
PV record holder no heights
Daichi Sawano, national record holder at Pole Vault, started vaulting at 5.55m after all other vaulters were eliminated from the competition. However, in each of his three vaults at his opening height, Sawano lacked penetration, apparently because he lacked the speed in his run up to the bar. He had a required height, but his maximal height came in front of the bar. Thus he missed all three attempts at his opening height and ended up with no height. He was apparently not in best of health in the last few days, but he did not use it as excuse.
With Sawano no heighting, Satoru Yasuda, the 2002 national champion, won with 5.40m. Incidentally, in 2002 the year Sawano also no heighted at the national championships, Yasuda was a national champion.
And elsewhere...
Because of the heavy downpour, women’s 400m Hurdles was delayed by some 15 minutes from the original schedule. During the delay, it was not easy for athletes to keep warm. The race came down to a mad sprint after the final hurdle, for both Makiko Yoshida and Rika Sakurai cleared the tenth hurdle almost together. Sakurai, who said, “I was only hoping for the personal best. Winning the race never even crossed my mind,” prevailed at the end and won by 5/100th of the second.
“I am ecstatic with my new personal best,” said Sakurai who finished in 57.99, and thus improved the personal best she set in the heat a day before.
Kayoko Fukushi won the national championships at the women’s 5000m thus accomplished another distance double, as she has done in 2002 and 2004. (Note: Actually Ongori Philes of Kenya who runs for the Japanese corporate team, Hokuren, was actually the first to cross the finish line. However, because she is not a Japanese citizen, Fukushi who finished second, but first Japanese is considered to be a national champion).
Ongori Philes led from the start towing Yumi Sato and Lucy Wangui, while Fukushi was several metres behind the three runners. Sato lost contact with the leaders at 2200m, followed by Wangui 200m later, thus leaving Ongori Philes alone at the front. Fukushi caught faltering Sato at 2600m, joined Wangui at the second place 500m later. Wangui and Fukushi ran together for the next 1100m before Fukushi pulled ahead of Wangui at 4200m. Philes, who was five seconds ahead of Fukushi at 3000m was never threatened and won by nearly five seconds in 15:10.58.
Ken Nakamura with the assistance of Akihiro Onishi
Results
JPN NC Day 3
Men
1500m
1) Fumikazu Kobayashi 3:40.15
2) Yasunori Murakami 3:40.59
3) Yasuhiro Tago 3:41.39
Kenyans
James Mwangi (KEN) 3:40.29
110mH 1.0m/s
1) Satoru Tanigawa 13.61
1) Masato Naito 13.61
3) Tasuku Tanonaka 13.70
4) Yuji Ohashi 13.75
400mH
1) Dai Tamesue 49.27
2) Kenji Narisako 49.44
3) Naohiro Kawakita 50.66
PV
1) Satoru Yasuda 5.40m
2) Takuro Mori 5.30m
3) Takehito Ariki 5.20m
...
Daichi Sawano NH
TJ
1) Kazuyoshi Ishikawa 16.92m (0.4m/s)
2) Takanori Sugibayashi 16.27m (1.5m/s)
3) Daiki Deguchi 16.23m (1.5m/s)
SP
1) Satoshi Hatase 17.93m
2) Yohei Murakawa 17.43m
3) Tadashi Ohashi 16.84m
HT
1) Koji Murofushi 76.47m
2) Hiroaki Doi 68.77m
3) Masayuki Yakuwa 65.74m
Women
5000m
1) Kayoko Fukushi 15:15.27
2) Hiromi Ominami 15:25.59
3) Yumi Sato 15:25.89
4) Kayo Sugihara 15:27.60
5) Megumi Yoshino 15:28.93
6) Yoshiko Fujinaga 15:29.96
7) Hitomi Miyai 15:30.92
Kenyans
Ongori Philes (KEN) 15:10.58
Lucy Wangui (KEN) 15:23.56
W400mH
1) Rika Sakurai 57.99
2) Makiko Yoshida 58.04
3) Satomi Kubokura 58.92
WHJ
1) Yoko Hannicutt 1.86m
2) Miyuki Aoyama 1.83m
3) Mai Yonezu 1.75m
TJ
1) Fumiyo Yoshida 13.28m (0.2m/s)
2) Hiroko Imamura 13.07m (0.6m/s)
3) Fukuyo Ihara 12.74m (-0.5m/s)
SP
1) Yoko Toyonaga 16.69m
2) Kaoru Yamanobe 14.66m
3) Yukiko Shirai 14.66m
