Koki Ikeda wins in Kobe (© JAAF)
Koki Ikeda not only won the 107th Japan Athletics Championships – he came agonisingly close to breaking the world 20km race walk record set nine years ago.
The fact that compatriot Yusuke Suzuki’s 1:16:36 remains intact has much to do with a lack of opposition Ikeda encountered from 8km in Kobe on Sunday (18).
The winner in 1:16:51 also had to navigate his way through human traffic from halfway.
Add the two together, and that missing 15 seconds has an obvious explanation. Even so, it was only the second time a Japanese race walker has gone under 77 minutes.
The consolation for the 25-year-old is a seat on the plane to Paris for the Olympics and a PB by 34 seconds.
With no Asian Championships this year because long-time host Nomi City is close to the affected earthquake area, it was a case of winner takes all in what the organisers dubbed the ‘world's fiercest competition’.
In this case, it should be winners, with Ryo Hamanishi, second in 1:17:42, just pipping Yuta Koga, with 1:17:47 – and both notching huge PBs.
Masatora Kawano, who has claimed silver and bronze in the last two World Athletics Championships at 35km, gamely hung on to dip a second under 78 minutes, with the first four comfortably under the 1:19:30 set by their own federation for Olympic inclusion.
It helped that racing conditions were favourable.
Overcast in the southern port city of Kobe at the start, it was mild in comparison to last year’s rain: somewhat ideal for a train of favourites to take off in a loose group of 12.
That became nine with two-time world champion Toshikazu Yamanishi and Ikeda pushing it at the front for 11:32 minutes at 3km.
Kazuki Takahashi was trying to outdo his more illustrious brother, Eiki, by treading on the heels of the front two.
But the leaders shed two more on lap five; which was hardly a surprise with 19:14 for quarter distance.
Back markers were already being lapped; no mean feat considering the entry list of 60 showed a mere 11 with PBs over 1:30:00 – and then by just a few seconds.
On 30 minutes, hot favourite Ikeda took off leaving Yamanishi and Kawano gamely trying to hang on, with Koga, Hamanishi and the younger Takahashi trailing in their wake.
Up front, Ikeda blazed through 10km in 38:16, and was a clear 10 seconds ahead of Kawano, who in turn had seven seconds on Yamanishi towing Hamanishi and Koga.
One lap further on, and it was 15 seconds for the leader on anyone else. That anyone happened to be Kawano with eight seconds on the chasers.
And as if to greet the man with the gold No.1 on his bib, the sun came out with 5km to go, which by then was a race done and dusted.
Ikeda hit his watch at 57:23 with the on-course announcer upping the decibels as he sensed a world record.
The intriguing battle was for the other two podium places. Kawano slowed badly to allow Koga and Hamanishi to draw level.
Nothing could separate the trio until the last 1km circuit when the big surprise that was Hamanishi went for broke.
His eventual 1:17:42 wasn’t just a breakthrough: it was a chasm to his previous 1:21:55 – close to a kilometre difference.
Koga was five seconds in arrears, but still 55 seconds inside his previous best, and a shattered Kawano still dipped under 78 minutes.
Spare a thought for former world champion Yamanishi. He’s not enjoyed the last 10 months.
A distant 24th in Budapest’s World Championships was his biggest disappointment - and at 12km the man with a 1:17:15 PB suffered a rare disqualification.
Stepping off the course, his 28th birthday on Thursday long forgotten, the walker who seemed unbeatable heading into the last Olympics will almost certainly miss these.
The women’s race likewise went to form with Nanako Fujii setting a meeting record, a PB and a comfortable clocking under the 1:28:30 demanded by her federation for automatic Olympic qualification.
Nanako Fujii wins in Kobe (© JAAF)
Like Ikeda before her, she was never troubled from halfway and with the sun rising and getting warmer, the national record held by eventual second place Kumiko Okada slipped from her grasp.
Even so, a 1:27:59 finish was 59 seconds inside her previous best.
Okada came home in 1:29:03 and is likely to join the winner in Paris, while third-place finisher Ayane Yanai lost her bearings over the final lap, drifted into what she thought was the finishing zone, came back out; stopped a few yards shy of the real finish, and then realised her error to stumble on and record a distant 1:31:25.
On the start line, the first three all wore caps and sunglasses and walked in sequence; bibs 201, 202 and 203 took the race by the scruff of the neck to reach 3km in 13:18, with Serena Sonoda lying fourth in 13:21 and wearing bib 204, of course.
By 5km in 22:03, it was going to take something spectacular to catch the leading trio.
However, new kid on the block Yanai, just 20 on 24 December, was uncoupled from the other two at halfway clocked at 44:02 by leader Fujii, who in turn had two seconds over Okada.
That two became a further 10 seconds a lap on, with Yanai going backwards already 31 seconds behind Fujii.
Thereafter, it was something of a procession with the leader’s advantage stretching to 64 seconds by the tape, and her chasers likewise spread out.
Okada looked more pleased than Fujii on the finish line.
The latter folded her arms in a manner suggesting the slightest disappointment at missing Okada’s national record set in 2019 by 18 seconds, but Fujii’s sixth and seventh places at the last two World Championships have every chance of improvement in the French capital.
Sonoda crossed in 1:33:01 for a distant fourth.
Paul Warburton for World Athletics
