Team Nissin on the Track

by Brett Larner

Christmas came early this year.

For this morning`s Harriers practice we went over to Oda Field to do 4 x 5000 m with 5 min. recovery rather than training in Yoyogi Park as usual. Oda is the main public track in central Tokyo and there are usually some interesting people there working out. Today Keio University and Gakushuin University were both there along with a few high schools, clubs and individuals. One serious-looking woman I didn`t recognize was doing easy laps in a national team warmup uniform. About halfway through our workout one of the best professional teams in Japan, Nissin Shokuhin, showed up for some hard training.

Team Nissin includes some stellar talent on its roster. Toshinari Suwa is a 2:07 marathoner, was 6th in the Athens Olympics marathon and 7th in the Osaka World Championships marathon, and is a favorite to make the Beijing Olympics marathon team . Kazuyoshi Tokumoto was a legendary university runner and is considered one of the future stars of Japanese marathoning. Julius Gitahi ran the 5000 m for Kenya at the Sydney Olympics. Ngatuny Gideon was 4th at this year`s World Cross Country Championships. All of these runners plus the rest of Nissin`s squad and at least 4 coaches, several with video cameras, came to Oda Field. It seemed like a pretty serious day since the annual pro championship All-Japan Jitsugyodan Men`s Ekiden is just over 2 weeks away.

The team probably warmed up by running from Nissin`s headquarters in nearby Shinjuku, 15-20 min at a comfortable pace. After some easy individual strides, the 10 Japanese Nissin runners ran 3 x 2000 m with 400 m continuous recovery. Team captain Tokumoto led the first repeat in 70 seconds per lap, 2:55 / km pace, with the other members running single file behind. Suwa ran near the end of the line. The following two repeats were slightly faster, about 69 and 68 seconds per lap, making for about 2:50 / km pace on the final rep. After this the pack broke up and people did individual work.

While the Japanese team members were running together, Gideon ran his own workout. First he did 5 x 1000 m with 200 m continuous recovery. I heard a coach call off 2:43 for the first repeat; subsequent reps got faster, as low as 2:35. After a short recovery following the last rep, Gideon moved to 700 m repeats with 100 m recovery. I couldn`t clock or count these since I was still running but the pace seemed quite a bit faster. While he was doing his workout other people on the track were gradually forgetting their own as they stopped or slowed down to watch. A junior high school coach stopped filming her team to film Gideon. I heard many people admiring the pure beauty of his form.

After this part of the workout the Nissin team gathered together and seemed to be finished. Just before I left, though, Julius Gitahi appeared and started warming up, so it`s likely the team were in a rest period and were going to continue the workout. Nissin will run the All-Japan Jitsugyodan Men`s Ekiden on Jan. 1. Suwa will run the Biwako Mainichi Marathon in March to try to qualify for the Beijing Olympics.

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...

Keita Sato on Training with OAC, Breaking NR in the USA, and the Road Ahead

Translator's note: Over his 2nd year at four-time national champion Komazawa University , 1500 m, 3000 m, indoor 3000 m and 5000 m U20 NR holder Keita Sato spent a total of three months training with OAC with support from JRN, one week in Boulder last spring, three weeks in St. Moritz during the summer, and the last two months back in Boulder. During that time he ran the equivalent of a 27:57 road 10 km and 59:22 half marathon in ekidens and U20 Asian area best 27:28.50 for 10000 m, all at age 19, and since turning 20 in January an indoor 5000 m NR of 13:09.45, an indoor 3000 m NR of 7:42.56, and an Asian area best 8:14.71 for 2 miles indoor. This interview by journalist Tatsuo Terada took place in late February before The TEN, where Sato ran 27:34.66. Komazawa University 2nd-year Keita Sato had a great indoor track season. On January 26 in Boston just after his 20th birthday he ran a 13:09.45 indoor 5000 m national record, the 2nd-fastest time ever by a Japanese man behind o...

Restaurant Owner Selected as Olympic Torchbearer Dies in Fire After Becoming Despondent Over Impact of Coronavirus Crisis (updated)

On the evening of Apr. 30, the 54-year-old male owner of a restaurant in Tokyo's Nerima ward specializing in tonkatsu deep fried pork cutlets died from full-body burns in a fire at the restaurant. The man had been one of the people chosen as a torchbearer for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics torch relay. With the coronavirus crisis causing both the postponement of the Olympics and a loss of business at the restaurant, the man had recently started talking pessimistically about the future to those around him. With evidence of the man's body having been doused in tonkatsu cooking oil, metropolitan police from the Hikarigaoka Police Station are carefully examining the cause of the fire. At around 10:00 p.m. on the 30th, the fire broke out in the tonkatsu restaurant on the first floor of a three-story building. A neighborhood resident who noticed smoke called the fire department. Firefighters found the floor and part of a wall burning, with the man lying on the floor in the customer seat...

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