The 20km Road Racing Championships in Kobe took place in the morning in Japan.
Fresh but sunny day.
20km men
Immediately go to lead the race the group of three favorites: Eiki Takahashi, Toshikazu Yamanishi and Daisuke Matsunaga.
They pass together with the 5km in 19:36.
They are followed by Isamu Fujisawa and more distantly Koki Ikeda, and a group of other athletes, among them Hirooki Arai.
The trio is joined by Isamu Fujisawa and in four pass to 10km in 39:00 (seconds 5km in 19:24).
At about 15km the turn of the race.
Toshikazu Yamanishi and Isamu Fujisawa are the first to take a slight margin over Eiki Takahashi and Daisuke Matsunaga.
The split time to the 15km is 58:22 for the first, followed by two meters from Takahashi and 10 seconds from Matsunaga.
Fujisawa fails to keep pace and loses ground, while Takahashi recovers on Yamanishi.
The last 5 km see a solo of Eiki Takahashi who goes to win the fourth consecutive title with a time of 1:17:26 (new best seasonal world performance on the distance) as well as the athlete's new personal best.
Second place for Toshikazu Yamanishi in 1:17:41
Third place for Daisuke Matsunaga in 1:17:46
Three athletes under 1:18:00 is not something you see every day.
Kobe is definitely the fastest race at the start of the season for at least five years.
A total of 104 athletes started, of which 90 finished the race, 3 DNF and 11 DQ.
Today's result of Eiki Takahashi places him at the eighth place in the world ranking all-times of 20km. Japan with two athletes in the top ten is the second nation after Russia.
20km women
Three athletes go immediately to lead: Kumiko Okada (JPN), Ai Michiguchi (JPN) and Kaori Kawazoe (JPN). who will not be catched again.
Kumiko Okada and Ai Michiguchi lead at 5km in 22:45, followed three seconds by Kaori Kawazoe.
The others are already almost 20" late.
At 10km the race has already been resolved with regard to the victory. Kumiko Okada (45:43) takes the lead followed by the couple Michiguchi and Kawazoe (45:56).
Behind them in fourth position is Nami Kumagai detached of 40" (46:36).
Kumiko Okada still increases the advantage at 15km (1:08:48) on Kaori Kawazoe (1:09:37) who managed to came off Ai Michiguchi (1:09:52). Nami Kumagai is behind by 1:13.
The advantage of Kumiko Okada expands again. The title is won in 1:32:22
Second place to Kaori Kawazoe in 1:33:44
Third place to Ai Michiguchi in 1:33:52
A total of 44 athletes started, 41 of which finished the race, 1 DNF and 1 DQ.
10km U20 men
Dizzying numbers at the start of this race. They are in 127 to challenge each other along the beautiful course of Rokko Island.
If we still need to measure the investment made by Japan in the march in recent years, this number is proof of this.
In this race too, three are immediately in the lead: Hiroto Jusyo (JPN), Takumi Suzuki (JPN) and Motohumi Suwa (JPN) who will no longer be taken back.
They spend together with the 5km in 20:13.
Soon after, Hiroto Jusyo and Takumi Suzuki forced the pace and the victory was played.
Vince Hiroto Jusyo in 40:14
Second place for Takumi Suzuki in 40:21
Third place for Motohumi Suwa in 40:50.
Three athletes under 41.00, another five under 42.00 and a further seven under 43.00 are numbers that should make thinking on; the choices of Fumio Imamura, Head Coach of race walk in Japan, certainly do not suffer from difficulties due to lack of results, but we do not imagine that this will be easier.
But it is better to be rich in than lack of results.
5km U20 women
Also in this race high number at the start: 63 athletes.
Three athletes immediately in the lead and will be those who will fight for the victory.
With a force in the last 1,000m wins Murakami Ai (JPN) in 22:32
Second place to Kitakohji Sae (JPN) in 22:35
Third place to Minori Yabuta (JPN) in 22:53
The race ends with 61 athletes on arrival, 1 DNF and 1 DQ.
(thanks for the co-operation to Tomoya Ishii - JPN and Akihiro Sugimoto - JPN)
(photos by Akihiro Sugimoto - JPN)