Shingo Suetsugu of Japan celebrates winning bronze in the 200m final (© Getty Images)
The 39th annual Oda memorial meet, the meeting that commemorates a local hero Mikio Oda, the 1928 Olympic gold medallist at Triple Jump, was held in Hiroshima on 29 April.
The meet was held in the stadium known as the Big Arch, the venue of the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima. Under sunny sky the temperature raised to 25C.
The biggest attraction of the meet was Shingo Suetsugu, a bronze medallist at 200m in the 2003 World Championships. After a less than ideal 2004 season, where Suetsugu failed to make the Olympic final at 100m, he has been working systematically with weight during the winter.
Suetsugu takes 100m in 10.15
Suetsugu ran 10.19 in his heat (1.0m/s) and in the final he took the command of the race from the half way and won comfortably with 10.15. It was Suetsugu’s first serious race of the season. Although he competed in Willy William Classic in Arizona on 18 and March 19 recording 20.63 for 200m with 0.1m/s wind and 10.32 for 100m with 0.3m/s wind, they were part of training.
Suetsugu plans to run many races this season. He will run a 200m in Shizuoka on 3 May and then run another 100m in the Osaka GP on 7 May.
A newly crowned 300m national record holder Jun Osakada won race 3 of the 400m in 46.26, while Dai Tamesue, Edmonton bronze medallist at 400m Hurdles, was second in race 1 with 46.92.
The men’s 5000m was dominated by Kenyans running for Japanese corporate teams. Six Kenyans - Josphat Ndambiri, Charles Kamathi, John Kariuki, Samuel Wanjiru, Mwangi Murigi and Daniel Mwangi - broke away early, while Toshinari Takaoka, Yuki Nakamura, Tomohiro Seto and Atsushi Sato fought out for the honour of being the first Japanese behind them.
In the final lap, Ndambiri’s kick proved superior and he won with 13:11.03. Ndambiri finished ahead of Kamathi with five more Kenyans following. The first Japanese in the race was Toshinari Takaoka, a national record holder.
From the outset, Jane Wanjiku took the lead taking Terumi Asoshina, and Mary Wangari with her. In the final two laps, all three took turn in front in their attempt to surge away to victory.
In the end Wangari’s kick proved superior and she won the women’s 5000m, while Terumi Asoshina, who finished second to Lucy Wangui at 10,000m in Hyogo Relays five days ago, again finished second. However, Asoshina has now attained the World Championships “B” standard at 5000m as well as the World Championships “A” standard at 10,000m recorded five days ago.
A young 400m runner Asami Tanno won her specialty with 53.09, which is the fourth fastest time in the Japanese all-time list.
Other world class athletes in the meet were Dudley Dorival of Haiti, 2001 World bronze medallist, who won the 110m Hurdles, and Sevatheda Fynes of Bahamas, 1997 World bronze medallist, who won the women’s 100m.
Ken Nakamura for the IAAF with the assistance of Tatsuya Yamada in Hiroshima
Results
100m 1.5m/s
1) Shingo Suetsugu 10.15
2) Shigeyuki Kojima 10.30
3) Nobuharu Asahara 10.31
400m
race 1
1) Hideo Togashi 46.73
2) Dai Tamesue 46.92
race 3
1) Jun Osakada 46.26
2) Tomohiro Ito 46.60
3) Mitsuhiro Sato 46.89
5000m
1) Josphat Ndambiri (KEN) 13:11.03
2) Charles Kamathi (KEN) 13:11.98
3) John Kariuki (KEN) 13:12.12
4) Samuel Wanjiru (KEN) 13:12.40
5) James Murigi (KEN) 13:14.00
6) Daniel Mwangi (KEN) 13:18.21
7) James Ndungu (KEN) 13:18.21
8) Toshinari Takaoka 13:37.70
Splits
1000m 2:37.4 Samuel Wanjiru
2000m 5:16.6 Josphat Ndambiri
3000m 7:57.2 Mwangi Murigi
4000m 10:38.1 Josphat Ndambiri
110mH (1.2m/s)
1) Dudley Dorival (HAI) 13.58
2) Masato Naito 13.59
3) Yuji Ohashi 13.65
4) Satoru Tanigawa 13.77
LJ
1) John Thornell (AUS) 7.98 (2.4m/s)
2) Daisuke Arakawa 7.88m (2.8m/s)
3) Masaki Morinaga 7.72m (1.7m/s)
4) Naohiro Shinada 7.67m (3.0m/s)
TJ
1) Takanori Sugibayashi 16.16m (1.4m/s)
2) Yuichi Sonoda 16.03m (1.0m/s)
HT
1) Hiroaki Doi 70.50m
2) Takashi Usui 64.41m
W100m (0.1m/s)
1) Savatheda Fynes (BAH) 11.52
2) Sakie Nobuoka 11.61
3) Tomoko Ishida 11.69
W400m
1) Asami Tanno 53.09
2) Satomi Kubokura 54.02
3) Makiko Yoshida 54.35
W5000m
1) Mary Wangari (KEN) 15:18.37
2) Terumi Asoshina 15:23.61
3) Jane Wanjiku (KEN) 15:31.46
4) Yoshimi Ozaki 15:31.91
5) Kiyomi Ogawa 15:32.38
Splits:
1000m 2:59.2 Jane Wanjiku
2000m 6:04.5 Jane Wanjiku
3000m 9:09.5 Jane Wanjiku
4000m 12.21.7 Jane Wanjiku
W100mH
1) Nadine Faustin (HAI) 13.21
2) Kumiko Ikeda 13.32
WPV
1) Ikuko Nishikiori 4.10m
2) Takayo Kondo 4.00m
TJ
1) Fumiyo Yoshida 13.10m (1.0m/s)
2) Yuka Sato 13.08m (1.5m/s)
HT
1) Kazuho Maki 57.96m
2) Kumiko Kotake 56.67m
