Running News Daily

Japanese national 10,000m championship sees 17 men break 28 minutes

The Olympic qualification window reopened on December 1, which means that this will be the biggest weekend of running we’ve seen in months. Over the next three days, there’s the Valencia half and full marathon, Track Meet and the Japanese National Distance Finale. In Japan, races have already gotten underway and seen some stellar results. Last night the men’s race saw 17 men go under 28 minutes in the 10,000m, with the first three all breaking the Japanese national record and the top two running Olympic standard. In 2019, over the course of an entire year, only one Canadian man broke 28 minutes (Mohammed Ahmed‘s national record of 26:59). 

The winner of the race, Akira Aizawa, set a new national record of 27:18.75. Second place went to Bernard Koech in 27:19.42 and third to Tatsuhiko Ito in 27:25.73. Nike’s Suguru Osako (who holds the national record in the marathon at 2:05:29) finished sixth in a personal best of 27:36.93. Full results can be found here. 

In the women’s race, national half-marathon record holder, Hitomi Niiya, ran a killer race to finish in 30:20.44. For context, in 2019 only 17 Canadian men ran faster. It’s nearly a minute and a half faster than our women’s national record.

Niiya broke an 18-year-old record of 30:48.89, which was held by Yoko Shibui. Women-only marathon NR holder Mao Ichiyama finished second, under the Olympic standard, in 31:11.56.