20/02/2022   Kobe (JPN): 105th Japan 20km Race Walking Championships. Sixth win for Eiki Takahashi.






 

 

 

This morning the 105th edition of the Japan 20km walk championship took place in Kobe.
Beautiful sunny day and cool temperatures are in favor of the athletes who are likely to look for good performances in anticipation of the World Team Walking Championships at the beginning of March in Muscat in Oman.
 
 

 
 
20km men
 
Among the entries the names of Toshikazu Yamanishi and Eiki Takahashi stood out, but the Sapporo 2021 Olympic bronze does not show up at the start and therefore the race loses one of its most important fight.
Immediately after the start, three of them go to lead (Eiki Takahashi, Hiroto Jusho and Yuta Koga) and set an interesting pace on the 2km Rokko Island circuit.
 
The first significant passage is that at 6km when the trio passes in 23:35.
Halfway through the race the trio is still together led by Eiki Takahashi and the passage is 39:23. Behind them in 40:09 pass Tomohiro Noda, Ryosuke Kondo and Daisuke Matsunaga.
Immediately after, Takahashi increases his pace and begins to detach a few meters from his opponents.
 
- at 12km: Takahashi (47:09) followed by Koga (47:20) and Jusho (47:29). The other chasers pass in 48:13
- at 14km: Takahashi (55:00) followed by Koga (55:23) and Jusho (55:39). Tomohiro Noda (56:20) broke off Daisuke Matsunaga (56:29)
 
Just before the 16km is the episode that practically ends the fight for medals. Yuka Koga is stopped for 2 minutes by the jury in the Penalty Area, giving the green light to the recovery of Tomohito Noda.
- at 16km: Takahashi (1:02:59) followed by Jusho (1:03:50) and Tomohiro Noda (1:04:30). Daisuke Matsunaga is fourth in 1:04:45. Yuta Koga passes in 1:05:35
- at 18km: Takahashi (1:11:03) followed by Jusho (1:12:07) and Tomohiro Noda (1:12:32) who is getting closer and closer towards a hypothetical silver. Daisuke Matsunaga follows them again (1:13:06) in turn followed by Ryosuke Kondo (1:13:38)
 
With a last lap in 8:01 Eiki Takahashi once again puts the seal of victory in what can now be defined "his Kobe" by winning with a time of 1:19:04 third world performance of the season 2022 after 1:17.:47 by Vasiliy Mizinov and 1:18:36 by Sergey Shirobokov in Sochi.
This is the sixth time that Takahashi has triumphed in Kobe, after two years of Toshikazu Yamanishi's victories.
 
Second place to Hiroto Jusho in 1:20:14
Third place to Tomohiro Noda in 1:20:24
Fourth place to Daisuke Matsunaga in 1:21:23
Fifth place to Yutaro Murayama in 1:21:47
Sixth place in Hatuki Manju in 1:21:54
Seventh place to Satoshi Maruo in 1:21:56
Eighth place to Ryosuke Kondo in 1:21:59
 
Official split times each 5km have been:

- 5km: 19:38
- 10km: 39:23 (19:45)

- 15km: 58:58 (19:35)

- last 5km in 20:06

 

Here is the updated list of the top 10 seasonal performances to date

 

 

  Mark Competitor Nat Venue Date
1  1:17:47 Vasiliy MIZINOV ANAANA Sochi (RUS) 31 JAN 2022
1:18:36 Sergey SHIROBOKOV RUSRUS Sochi (RUS) 31 JAN 2022
1:19:04 Eiki TAKAHASHI JPNJPN Kobe (JPN) 20 FEB 2022
1:20:10 Zhaozhao WANG CHNCHN Nanjing (CHN) 22 JAN 2022
1:20:12 Lihong CUI CHNCHN Nanjing (CHN) 22 JAN 2022
1:20:14 Hiroto JUSHO JPNJPN Kobe (JPN) 20 FEB 2022
1:20:17 Wenchao NIU CHNCHN Nanjing (CHN) 22 JAN 2022
1:20:18 Hao XU CHNCHN Nanjing (CHN) 22 JAN 2022
1:20:22 Subaru ISHIDA JPNJPN Tokyo (JPN) 01 JAN 2022
10  1:20:24 Tomohiro NODA JPNJPN Kobe (JPN) 20 FEB 2022

 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
20km women
 
 

 
 
The women's race was characterized by a very long solo by Kumiko Okada who took the lead from the start and held the lead for the rest of the race.
 
 
From the first lap she had distanced the second by about ten meters which then gradually increased to become 2:10 on arrival.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
These are the split times lap by lap of the winner:
- 2km: 9:02
- 4km: 18:03 (9:01)
- 6km: 27:06 (9:03)
- 8km: 36:13 (9:07)
- 10km: 45:22 (9:09)
- 12km: 54:39 ​​(9:17)
- 14km: 1:04:06 (9:27)
- 16km: 1:13:42 (9:36)
- 18km: 1:23:34 (9:52)
- last 2km in 9:54
 
Also for the silver there was almost never a race as Kaori Kawazoe was always firmly in second position passing mid-race in 46:53 with a 33sec advantage over the four pursuers: Minori Yabuta, Hitomi Shimooka, Maika Yagi and Nami Kumagai.
For the bronze medal, the battle between Minori Yabuta and Hitomi Shimooka who at 18km traveled shoulder to shoulder in 1:26:26 was then resolved in the last lap
 
Victory to Kumiko Okada in 1:33:28
Second place to Kaori Kawazoe in 1:35:38
Third place to Minori Yabuta in 1:35:56
Fourth place to Hitomi Shimooka in 1:36:02
Fifth place to Maika Yagi in 1:36:11
Sixth place to Nami Kumagai in 1:36:55
 
Official split times each 5km have been:

- 5km: 22:34
- 10km: 45:22 (22:48)

- 15km: 1:08:54 (23:32)

- last 5km in 24:34

 
 

 
 
 
 
10km U20 uomini

 

Victory to Fumiya Hoga in 42:36

Second place to Riku Ooie in 42:55

Third place to Misaki Kondo in 43:13

 

 

5km U20 donne

 

Victory to Ai Ooyama in 22:46

Second place to Aina Asano in 23:09

Third place to Ayaka Nakamura in 23:10

 

 

Marcia dal Mondo thanks Akihiro Sugimoto for the nice photo shoot.  ( click here )

 

Risultati ufficiali - Official results

 

 

Full videos of the events: click here