Great morning of walk in Kobe on the classic 1km Rokko Island course.
Sunshine, ideal temperature (14°C at the start of the race and 16°C at the end), perfect humidity (67% at the start of the race and 55% at the end) and a slight variable ventilation of 1.5-2 , 3m/s.
In short, the ideal conditions for an interesting walking event.
20km men
The group of favorites made up of about ten athletes immediately takes the lead to set the pace.
They are: Toshikazu Yamanishi, Eiki Takahashi, Koki Ikeda, Satoshi Maruo, Isamu Fujisawa, Subaru Ishida, Hiroto Jusho, Tomohiro Noda, Yuta Koga; a few meters away Ryo Hamanishi, Hirooki Arai and Kai Kobayashi.
It comes to mind to see this group, that good person who is Fumio Imamura (and his main collaborators Koji Hoga Miura and Shigeyuki Shimizu), the Head Coach of race walk in Japan, who has been able to prepare and forge a group of athletes that today can be defined as a school.
- 5km: 19:22
Three go in front of the group of favorites: Eiki Takahashi, Koki Ikeda and Toshikazu Yamanishi who take the lead.
They already have an advantage of almost 30 seconds over Satoshi Maruo, Isamu Fujisawa, Subaru Ishida, Hiroto Jusho, Tomohiro Noda, Yuta Koga.
Ryo Hamanishi, Hirooki Arai and Kai Kobayashi follow with 50 seconds.
Competitions in Japan are now governed, if not precisely by mathematics, certainly by a high statistical rate that makes them seem apparently similar in the strategy adopted by the main players.
- 10km: 38:38 (19:16)
The pace has increased slightly, but the three treads are still together.
Their advantage, however, decreased to 15 seconds on the most immediate of the pursuers Yuta Koga (38:53 with the second 5km in 19:30).
The group stabilized at around 25 seconds.
- 15km: 58:00 (19:22)
In the third 5km the first three think about controlling themselves and nobody wants to take the initiative.
The pace slows down a little, but the three cannot be said to be worried. In fact, Satoshi Maruo passes in fourth position in 59:51 (with the third 5km in 19:51). Behind Maruo, there is Fujisawa, and then Ishida, Noda, Jusho and Koga.
The others with Kobayashi, Hamanishi and Arai are more distant.
- last 5km (19:20)
Toshikazu Yamanishi definitely takes the lead even if his pace is not exactly an incredible increase in speed.
More than anything else, Eiki Takahashi and Koki Ikeda feel the weight of fatigue.
Soon Yamanishi's advantage over Takahashi exceeds 30 seconds while that over Ikeda goes beyond one minute
- Order of arrival
Victory to Toshikazu Yamanishi (JPN) in 1:17:20 just 5 seconds from the personal best (obtained in Nomi, JPN on 17.3.2019) but still the sixth fastest time ever in the history of 20km.
Second place to Eiki Takahashi (JPN) in 1:18:04
Third place to Koki Ikeda (JPN) in 1:18:45
They follow:
Fourth Satoshi Maruo (JPN) in 1:20:02
Fifth Isamu Fujisawa (JPN) in 1:20:29
Sixth Subaru Ishida (JPN) in 1:20:39
Seventh Tomohiro Noda (JPN) in 1:20:57
Eighth Hiroto Jusho (JPN) in 1:21:53
20km women
The three favorites immediately led the race: Nanako Fujii, Kumiko Okada and Masumi Fuchise.
Already at 5km their advantage over the first of the chasers (Nami Kumagai) is more than one minute.
The split times every 5km are as follows:
- 5km: 22:26 (with Nanako Fujii in the lead)
- 10km: 45:11 (22:45) with Kumiko Okada in the lead. Masumi Fuchise, however, has lost ground and is now over a minute behind
- 15km: The leading pair passes in 1:08:30 (23:16), while Masumi Fuchise passes in 1:11:00
In the last 5km Nanako Fujii forces the pace (22:15) and goes on to win with 1:06 ahead of the second.
Victory to Nanako Fujii (JPN) in 1:30:45
Second place to Kumiko Okada (JPN) in 1:31:51
Third place to Masumi Fichise (JPN) in 1:36:49
Fourth place to Nami Kumagai (JPN) in 1:38:11
10km U20 men
Victory to Yuhei Hattori (JPN) in 42:30 (21:05 - 21:25)
Second place to Tomohiro Nakatani (JPN) in 42:54 (21:05 - 21:49)
Third place to Shinya Nakao (JPN) in 42:55 (21:05 - 21:50)
5km U20 donne
Victory to Yukiko Umeno (JPN) in 22:28
Second place to Ayane Yanai (JPN) in 23:02
Third place to Kana Koide (JPN) in 23:13
(Photos by JAAF - Twitter)