Skip to main content

Rikuren Sponsors First High School Boys' National Training Camp

http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/general/track/news/20090805k0000m050078000c.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Targeting high school students, the Rikuren-sponsored Junior Men's Long Distance Training Camp took place Aug. 3-7 in Nagano's Fujimitakahara area. In the past Rikuren has organized summer training camps only for junior women, but in an effort to strengthen Japanese men's distance running from the ground up by giving young runners from different schools a chance to train together and learn from different coaches, this year Rikuren added the junior men's camp.

Local students from last year's National High School Ekiden champions Saku Chosei (Nagano) attended the camp as well as runners from powerhouses Nishiwaki Kogyo (Hyogo), Omuta (Fukuoka), and 22 other schools from across the country. 270 runners signed up for the camp to have a chance to train under former Nishiwaki Kogyo coach Koji Watanabe, former Sendai Ikuei coach Takahiro Watanabe and others. The camp's training menu included two sessions a day, one each morning and one each afternon. Koji Watanabe commented, "We want the young athletes at this camp to see that the top runners, even the prodigies, get that way through hard work and dedicated training, and that all the runners from other schools share the same kind of lifestyle and struggles."

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Arao Becomes 1st Man in 40 Years to Score Back-to-Back Ome Road Race Wins

30 km is an under-appreciated distance, and both of Japan's big races at that distance happened Sunday. At the Ome Road Race in western Tokyo's mountains, Sydney Marathon 6th-placer Masato Arao (ND Software) became the first man since the great Kunimitsu Ito in 1985-1986 to win back-to-back years. Arao, who finished 39th of 40 on his leg at the New Year Ekiden last month, stayed in the pack through 20 km before going on the attack, putting over a minute on New Year Ekiden Sixth Stage CR breaker Yudai Shimazu (GMO). Sub-1:31 winning times are rare on the tough and hilly Ome course, but Arao's 1:30:54 almost equaled his 1:30:50 from last year, making him the first Japanese man ever to do it twice and second only to CR holder Ezekiel Cheboitibin . Next up Arao races the Tokyo Marathon, where he is targeting sub-2:06. Shimazu was 2nd in 1:31:58 and Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:32:07. Cheboitibin was only 9th, running almost 8 minutes off his CR in 1:36:42. Shi...

Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field

Last year's top 3 Sheila Chepkirui , Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba are back for this year's Nagoya Women's Marathon on Mar. 8, but things are being set up more for it to be a race between Chepkirui, 2:17:49 in Berlin 2023, Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda , 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024. Aynalem has the freshest sub-2:20 of the 3, with neither Chepkirui nor Maeda having done it in 2 years. Maeda's only recent result is a 1:10:07 from Houston last month, but when she ran her NR she didn't have any kind of tuneup race to indicate her fitness so it's probably best not to read too much into that. If it goes out as a 2:18 race those are the only 3 who can probably hang with it. If it turns out to be more of a 2:20 race like when Chepkirui won in 2:20:40 last year then there's a group of 7 at the 2:20-2:22 level who will be in the picture, including Chumba, Selly Chep...

'Kobe 2024: Aitchison, Athmani Lead Record-Breaking Thursday'

  https://www.paralympic.org/news/kobe-2024-para-athletics-world-championships-aitchison-athmani-lead-record-breaking-thursday Complete results and daily schedule from the Kobe World Para Athletics Championships are here .