Skip to main content

Kaori Yoshida Quits Second Wind AC

http://www.plus-blog.sportsnavi.com/kmanabu/article/167

by Manabu Kawagoe, head coach, Second Wind AC
translated by Brett Larner

Kaori Yoshida racing in Albuquerque, NM. Photo by John Schrup.

Kaori Yoshida, a member of Second Wind AC since its founding in April, 2007, has left the club following her appearance as a guest runner at the Mar. 15 Kusunoki Marathon. I would like to thank her from my heart for the help she has given SWAC over the last two years and for her competitiveness and dedication in her own running. Yoshida has taken a position with Amino Vital AC and, while working with that club, hopes to continue on as one of the top distance running women. We're all looking forward to seeing the new Kaori Yoshida!

While we're sad that Yoshida has resigned from the club, Second Wind is still looking forward toward our future goals. We remain an organization dedicated both to supporting world-class athletes capable of reaching the Olympics, World Championships, and other major international competitions, and to cultivating young, promising talent. We likewise continue to pursue our main goal of helping amateur runners to reach their own goals.

These three levels form the pyramid of our club's operations. We thank everyone who has helped us in our mission and ask for your continued support in the future.

Translator's note: Kaori Yoshida, winner of the 2006 Hokkaido Marathon and 2008 Casablanca Marathon, was one of the runners who left Team Shiseido with coach Kawagoe in 2007. Kawagoe's Second Wind AC represented a new model for Japanese runners who wanted to pursue a career outside the ekiden-oriented jitsugyodan corporate system. Following the departure of Kenyan Ruth Wanjiru in February, Yoshida is the second major runner to leave Second Wind within the past month.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Who cares about Ekiden. It's not important. What's important is the world champs and olympics. It it true all year jitsugyodan corporate system train for ekiden all year! They don't train for the 10000 meters! We all know toyota industries won the ekiden.

Most-Read This Week

Ninja Runner Yuka Ando Leads Japanese Women's Marathon Team in London: "I Want to Go For It"

Her form has been dubbed "ninja running." Both arms held straight down with almost no movement. That idiosyncratic style carried Yuka Ando , 23, to the fastest-ever marathon debut by a Japanese woman, 2:21:36, at March's Nagoya Women's Marathon to land at #4 on the all-time Japanese lists. All at once Ando found herself catapulted to the top level of women's marathoning, a candidate for Japan's next great marathoner. When she was younger Ando ran moving her arms like other runners, but she had a bad habit of moving robotically, her upper body and lower body not working in sync. The turning point came in 2014 when she joined Suzuki Hamamatsu AC . Working there with coach Masayuki Satouchi to eliminate the faults in her form, the pair arrived at the ninja running style that let her run relaxed. "Other people keep asking me, "Isn't it hard to run like that?" but for me it's comfortable," she said. The efficient form helped her mai

Yamaguchi 10th at United Airlines NYC Half - Weekend Overseas Results

2024 national cross-country champion Tomonori Yamaguchi was the top Japanese finisher in the men's race at the United Airlines NYC Half , taking 10th in 1:04:36. A 2nd-year at Waseda University , Yamaguchi was one of three collegiate runners running New York in the 11th year of JRN's development program collaboration between the Ageo City Half Marathon and the New York Road Runners, a program that has seen people like future half marathon and marathon NR breaker Yuta Shitara and Paris Olympic team member Akira Akasaki make their international debuts. Yamaguchi's Waseda teammate Taishi Ito started fast, going with the leaders through 5 km in 14:29 before losing touch. Hosei University senior Rei Matsunaga went through in 14:42 in his last race before joining the JR Higashi Nihon corporate team in April. Yamaguchi, who caught COVID after winning last month's National Cross-Country Championships, started more conservatively with a 15:11 first 5km. But where both Ito

Rui Aoki Wins National University Men's Half Marathon - Weekend Results

Yuka Ando 's win at the Nagoya Women's Marathon was the big news of the weekend, but there were other high-level races happening, even in Nagoya. Held in parallel with the marathon, the Nagoya City Half Marathon saw Australians Natalie Rule and Ed Goddard take easy wins by about 2.5 minutes each, Rule in 1:13:57 and Goddard in 1:04:01. The new Biwako Marathon also had a non-Japanese winner, China's Yousheng Guan scoring 1st in 2:14:58 with Japan's Hirohito Sugai next in 2:16:40. Mikiko Ota won the women's race in 2:50:44. The Shizuoka Marathon returned for its first running in five years, with club runner Shumpei Oda leading the top 7 men under 2:20 in 2:15:36. Women's winner Remi Tanaka ran 2:41:23, beating runner-up Ayumi Sano by exactly 7 minutes. And in Tokyo, Rui Aoki continued what has been a great season so far for Koku Gakuin University with a win at the National University Men's Half Marathon . Aoki and Hiro Konda of Chuo Gakuin Unive