Olympic finalist Rachid Muratake improved the Japanese 110m hurdles record to 12.92 (0.6m/s), achieving the second-fastest time of the season at the Athlete Night Games in Fukui on Saturday (16).
Making a statement as his nation prepares to host the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 from 13-21 September, the 23-year-old Asian champion launched himself to joint 11th on the world all-time list. Only USA’s Cordell Tinch, with his world lead of 12.87 from May, has gone faster this year.
Breaking 13 seconds for the first time, Muratake is now the sole Japanese record-holder, having previously shared the national record of 13.04 with Shunsuke Izumiya. That means he now sits alone at second on the Asian all-time list, behind only Liu Xiang of China, who clocked the Asian record of 12.88 in 2006.
In Fukui, Muratake won the race clear ahead of Tatsuki Abe (13.12 PB) and Shunya Takayama (13.36).
In other action, two-time Asian champion Hiroki Yanagita won the men’s 100m in a PB of 10.00 (0.3m/s) ahead of Yuki Koike (10.08) and Shuhei Tada (10.14), while Midori Mikase ran a PB of 11.33 (1.0m/s) to win the women’s event.
Towa Uzawa topped the 200m in a PB of 20.11 (0.9m/s) and national record-holder Mako Fukube won the 100m hurdles in 12.73 (1.4m/s).
AloJapan.com