The 53rd annual Hyogo Relays were held on April 23 and 24 in the Universiade stadium in Kobe. The meeting is famous for its 10,000m race, and this year’s meet was no exception.
In the women’s GP 10,000m, Yumiko Hara, who won the Nagoya Women’s Marathon in March, surged at 7000m to reduce the lead pack from 10 runners to four - Hara, Lucy Wangui, Terumi Asoshina and Mari Ozaki.
1 kilometre later Ozaki started to struggle, and another 1000m later, Ozaki permanently lost contact with the lead pack. Thus three runners – Wangui, Asoshina and Hara came into the homestraight together.
At the end Wangui, who was ninth in the Olympic 10,000m, outkicked Hara and Asoshina to win in 31:22.37. However, both Asoshina and Hara, teammate at Kyocera track team, improved their personal bests by more than 25 seconds.
In the men’s GP 10,000m six runners passed 4000m. By 6000m into the race the lead pack was reduced to four runners. Two laps later, Martin Mathathi, a Kenyan who lives in Japan, surged away at 6800m and ran the rest of the race alone to win in 27:08.42.
It was a Japanese all-comers record breaking the record, 27:11.17, by Julius Gitahi, which was set in the 1998 Hyogo Relays.
Later Mathathi said, “Because I passed 10km in 26:48 at the New Year’s Ekiden, I think I can crack the 27 minutes barrier for the 10,000m. I hope to run in Helsinki. If I do, then I plan to surge away from the pack between 5000m to 7000m, because I am not confident of my kick.”
There were two other 10,000m races, which took place on Saturday. In the faster section, by 2000m into the race, the lead pack was reduced to only two Kenyan runners who live in Japan - Samuel Wanjiru and Mekubo Mogusu. Three laps later Wanjiru surged away and ran the rest of the race alone to win in 27:32.43. Wanjiru who won Chiba and Fukuoka Cross Country races, is now coached by Koichi Morishita, an Olympic marathon silver medalist.
The other highlights of the meeting were women’s 800m and men’s Pole Vault. In the women’s 800m, triple middle distance record holder Miho Sugimori, who set the 1500m record two weeks ago, won the 800m in 2:03.71. In the men’s Pole Vault, Daichi Sawano, Olympic and World Championships finalist, won with 5.70m.
Ken Nakamura with the assistance of Akihiro Onishi from Kobe for the IAAF
Results
Men
10,000m
race 1
1) Yoshinori Suzuki 28:41.33
2) Yoshikazu Kubo 28:41.35
3) Kenji Noguchi 28:43.49
race 2
1) Samuel Wanjiru (KEN) 27:32.43
2) Mekubo Mogusu (KEN) 27:54.75
3) Cyrus Njui (KEN) 28:08.45
4) Koji Watanabe 28:34.34
5) Ryoji Matsushita 28:39.52
Splits:
1000m 2:45
2000m 5:27 2:42
3000m 8:11 2:44
4000m 10:54 2:43
5000m 13:37 2:43
6000m 16:24 2:47
7000m 19:12 2:48
8000m 22:01 2:49
9000m 24:50 2:49
10000m 27:32 2:42
GP 10,000m race
1) Martin Mathathi (KEN) 27:08.42 All Comers Record
2) Josphat Muchiri Ndambiri (KEN) 27:19.19
3) Charles Kamathi (KEN) 27:28.35
4) John Kariuki (KEN) 27:28.69
5) Samuel Muturi (KEN) 27:35.55
6) Asefa Girma (ETH) 27:57.21
7) Tomohiro Seto 28:00.29
8) Ryuji Ono 28:02.18
9) Toshinari Takaoka 28:04.80
10) John Kanyi (KEN) 28:07.06
11) Terukazu Omori 28:12.83
12) Toshihiro Iwasa 28:19.89
13) Tsuyoshi Ogata 28:20.52
14) Toshihide Kato 28:20.53
15) Yuki Sato 28:27.50 College Freshman
Splits (as announced in the PA system):
1000m 2:44
2000m 5:31 2:47
3000m 8:16 2:45
4000m 11:01 2:45
5000m 13:47 2:46
6000m 16:28 2:41
7000m 19:04 2:36
8000m 21:44 2:40
9000m 24:29 2:45
10000m 27:08 2:39
3000mSC
1) Yoshitaka Iwamizu 8:40.74
2) Yasunori Uchitomi 8:46.53
PV
1) Daichi Sawano 5.70m
SP
1) Satoshi Hatase 17.98m
DT
1) Shigeo Hatakeyama 55.80m
JT
1) Yukifumi Murakami 76.35m
Women
800m
1) Miho Sugimori 2:03.71
1500m
1) Yukari Soh 4:17.07
5000m
1) Yurika Nakamura 15:54.13
10,000m
1) Lucy Wangui (KEN) 31:22.37
2) Terumi Asoshina 31:23.55
3) Yumiko Hara 31:24.33
4) Mari Ozaki 31:34.15
5) Mary Wangari (KEN) 31:41.25
6) Hitomi Miyai 31:41.60
7) Julia Mombi (KEN) 31:42.67
8) Miki Ohira 31:43.02
9) Yoshimi Ozaki 31:47.23
10) Yumi Sato 31:54.41
Splits (as announced in a PA system):
1000m 3:08
2000m 6:17 3:09
3000m 9:27 3:10
4000m 12:39 3:12
5000m 15:48 3:09
6000m 19:02 3:14
7000m 22:13 3:11
8000m 25:16 3:03
9000m 28:24 3:08
10000m 31:22 2:58
HJ
1) Miyuki Aoyama 1.83m
2) Miki Imai 1.80m
DT
1) Ikumi Kikuchi 40.87m
JT
1) Misa Nakano 54.01m
