First-Years Dominate 1500 m Finals - Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships Day Two Highlights
Day Two of Kanto Regionals dawned windy, bringing loads of performances that exceeded the meet records but missed the books thanks to a tailwind over the limit. The D1 men's 1500 m wasn't one of them. A slow 72 second first lap led to a 2:22 split at 800 m, a full 5 seconds slower than what the women's final went through it in. Yudai Noguchi (Juntendo Univ.) made a break for it from around 700 m out, but it wasn't until just into the last lap that former indoor mile national record holder and captain of 2019 Hakone Ekiden champion Tokai University's Ryoji Tatezaw a went after him with rookie first-year teammate Kazuto Iizawa in tow. In the home straight Tatezawa reeled Noguchi in and looked to have a senior year title sealed up, but at the last second Iizawa pulled even with him. Both throwing their arms straight forward at the line and Tatezawa going into full dive mode, when the results came up on the screen Iizawa had taken his team captain down by the t...