Morning of records today in Kumagaya in Saitama prefecture, about seventy kilometers north-west of Tokyo.
On a cloudy day, but with a cool temperature, we witnessed two great performances by athletes from Japan over the distance of 5,000 meters on track ai 61st Eastern Japan Athletics Championships for Employees.
5.000m women's track walk
Victory and big mark for Kumiko Okada (JPN) in 20:42.25
New personal best for the athlete who had a previous time on the distance equal to 21:08.97 established in Fukui (JPN) on 8.10.2018.
But today Kumiko Okada not only celebrates the personal best, but also Japan's new record on distance having broken the 20:43.95 which belonged to Kumi Otoshi (JPN) who had established it in Chiba (JPN) on the far Apr. 22, 2012.
Split times by Kumiko Okada:
- 1.000m: 4:08
- 2.000m: 8:19 (4:11)
- 3.000m: 12:29 (4:10)
- 4.000m: 16:38 (4:09)
- last 1.000m in 4:04.25
Second place for Ai Michiguchi (JPN) in 21:55.22
Third place for Kaori Kawazoe (JPN) in 22:10.73
5.000m men track walk
Also in this case a great time together with the victory of Yusuke Suzuki (JPN) in 18:41.71
The world record holder on the distance of 20km has a personal best (18:37.22) on the distance of 5.000m on the track very close to today's result that was established in Kitami (JPN) on July 12, 2015.
Second place to Hirooki Arai (JPN) in 19:19.41 celebrating his 31st birthday in the race. Many good wishes Hirooki.
Third place to Isamu Fujisawa (JPN) in 19:45.62
Fourth place to Daisuke Matsunaga (JPN) in 19:52.28
Rewritten with these results the world ranking of the 2019 season over this distance.