Skip to main content

Hakone Ekiden Releases 2009 Entry Lists

http://www.47news.jp/CN/200812/CN2008121001000909.html
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20081210-00000147-jij-spo

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On Dec. 10 the Hakone Ekiden released the 16-member entry lists for each of the 23 schools running next year's 85th edition to be held Jan. 2-3. The organizers released the information in junction with a panel discussion in Ebisu, Tokyo, featuring top teams' coaches.

Defending champion Komazawa Univ. is fielding a lineup featuring all of its big guns, including captain Soji Ikeda and aces Takuya Fukatsu and Tsuyoshi Ugachi. Komazawa head coach Hiroaki Oyagi confidently proclaimed, "We are in excellent condition. We'll be looking at the top 3 but running to win."

2008 runner-up Waseda Univ. has included Beijing 5000 m and 10000 m Olympian Kensuke Takezawa on its roster, but in view of his ongoing injury problems, most recently damage to his right Achilles tendon, it won't be known until race day whether he will start the race. The other Japanese 27-minute 10000 m runner in the field, Tokai Univ. ace Yuki Sato, is also suffering from leg injuries, throwing doubt on his chances of scoring a fourth new stage record.

2008 3rd-place finisher Chuo Gakuin University will send 2008 World Half Marathon national team member Masato Kihara. 2008 World Half Marathon Kenyan national team member Mekubo Mogusu of Yamanashi Gakuin Univ. will have a final showdown with rival Daniel Gitau of Nihon Univ. following the pair's duel in November's All-Nihon University Ekiden Championship.

Toyo Univ. will be allowed to participate despite a recent sexual assault scandal involving a 2nd-year steeplechase runner on the school's track team. Toyo head coach Shinji Kawashima resigned last week over the incident, leaving assistant coach Nao Sato to take over the team's leadership. Sato commented, "We're grateful that we were still allowed to participate. Everything was going really well when this incident happened, so perhaps it was punishment for our arrogance. We hope that the public will forgive us." Toyo's squad will feature its two aces, fourth-year Tomoya Onishi and first-year Ryuji Kashiwabara.

The 10-member starting lists for the 2009 Hakone Ekiden will be released Dec. 29.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
1 comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more