Kenji Narisako of Japan advances to the 400m Hurdles semi-final (© Getty Images)
World Student Games champion and World Championships semi-finalist, Kenji Narisako of Japan, provided the headlines at the 60th annual national sports festival (23 – 27 October) in Okayama, Japan, a city halfway between Osaka and Hiroshima.
Narisako won the 400m Hurdles Final (24) in a personal best (PB) of 48.09, which moved him up to be the second fastest Japanese one lap hurdler of all-time. Only Dai Tamesue, with a PB of 47.89, is ahead of him. It was also the fastest time of the season by a Japanese runner, surpassing the time (48.10) recorded by Tamesue at the World Championships in Helsinki when he won the bronze medal.
The 21-year-old Narisako is on a roll this season. Having started the season with the personal best of 48.54 from the 2004 national sports festival, Narisako defeated Tamesue by 1/100th second in the Osaka Grand Prix in May of 2005. For the youngster, it was his first victory against the soon to be two-time World bronze medallist. In July, he won the national inter-collegiate championships with the personal best of 48.35. In the same championships, Narisako also won the flat 400m with the personal best of 46.16. Narisako was only third in his semi-final in Helsinki, but then won the 2005 World University Games in Izmir. In his heat (23) at the Okayama national sports festival, Narisako ran 49.19.
“I was hoping to break the national record (47.89),”confirmed Narisako. “Calculating from the time and the way I ran my heat, I felt I can run another 1.2-1.3 seconds faster in the final. I am planning to run 13 steps through the 8th hurdle next year. If everything goes well, 47.5 is not out of reach.” Currently Narisako, who is 1.85m tall, runs 13 steps through the 6th hurdle.
Other highlights of the meet were victories by Daichi Sawano, Yuzo Kanemaru and Yuriko Kobayashi in PV, boy’s 400m and girl’s 1500m respectively...
Daichi Sawano, Helsinki finalist and the 2005 Asian champion, won the men’s Pole Vault with 5.60m. Yuzo Kanemaru, the 2005 Asian champion at 400m, succeeded in both the 100m (10.32) and 400m (46.45) in the boy’s division. Kanemaru has two fastest and three of the four fastest times in Japan this season. Yuriko Kobayashi, a silver medallist at the 2005 World Youth Championships, won the girl’s 1500m in 4:14.09. Sixteen years old Kobayashi, who set the national junior record, 4:12.85, in the Super Meet last month also finished third at the 16th Asian Championships also last month.
Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
with assistance from Tatsuo Terada
Results:
Men
100m Oct 24
1) Shingo Kawabata 10.44
Boys 100m Oct 23
1) Yuzo Kanemaru 10.32
Boys 400m Oct 26
1) Yuzo Kanemaru 46.45
1500m Oct 26
1) Yasuhiro Tago 3:42.74
Boys 5000m Oct 24
1) Takahiro Mori 13:51.25
110mH Oct 26
1) Yuji Ohashi 14.00
3000mSC Oct 26
1) Yasunori Uchitomi 8:41.13
400mH Oct 24
1) Kenji Narisako 48.09
2) Masahira Yoshikata 49.24
3) Naohiro Kawakita 49.43
4) Kazuya Shogata 49.64
LJ Oct 26
1) Hiroyuki Oishi 7.77m
2) Kenji Fujikawa 7.76m
PV Oct 25
1) Daichi Sawano 5.60m
2) Satoru Yasuda 5.40m
HT Oct 25
1) Hiroaki Doi 70.71m
10,000mWalk Oct 26
1) Yusuke Yachi 40:47.53
2) Koichiro Morioka 41:00.62
Women
100m Oct 24
1) Motoka Kojima 11.75
400m Oct 25
1) Sayaka Aoki 54.20
800m Oct 24
1) Asami Tanno 2:04.60
Girls 1500m Oct 24
1) Yuriko Kobayashi 4:14.09
Girls 3000m Oct 26
1) Hitomi Niiya 9:12.61
5000m Oct 23
1) Kayo Sugihara 15:36.27
2) Tomoko Ishii 15:36.72
3) Eri Sato 15:37.59
4) Takako Kotorida 15:38.84
5) Mari Ozaki 15:39.26
100mH Oct 26
1) Mami Ishino 13.56
LJ Oct 26
1) Maho Hanaoka 6.29m
SP Oct 23
1) Yoko Toyonaga 16.61m
JT Oct 26
1) Emika Yoshida 54.48m
10,000m Oct 26
1) Mayumi Kawasaki 46:19.05
