Skip to main content

World Championships Medalist Chiba Gives Talk at Ichinoseki Elementary

http://mytown.asahi.com/iwate/news.php?k_id=03000001008260003

translated by Brett Larner

One of the greats of Japanese distance running, 1996 Atlanta Olympian Masako Chiba (34), gave a talk before 74 5th graders at Hagiso Elementary School in Ichinoseki, Iwate on Aug. 25. Chiba appeared at the school as part of the "Classroom of Dreams Project" sponsored by the Japan Soccer Federation. As part of the opening session with students in the school's gymnasium, Chiba talked about the techniques behind running faster, the right way to train, speedwork, making use of her experience to set an example for the children. She showed students how changing your arm carriage affects your stride, a demonstration that had many students calling out, "Wow!"

Changing venues to a classroom, Chiba talked about her 15 year-long career as one of the world's top distance runners. She told students about finishing 5th in the Atlanta Olympics 10000 m and showed them her two World Championships bronze medals, one from the 1997 World Championships 10000 m and one from the 2003 World Championships marathon. She told students that whenever a race got tough and she didn't feel like she could keep going, "It was really important to believe in myself," and that, "The hero in the story of my life is me."

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Identical Triplets Run Final Prefectural High School Champs 5000 m Together

A set of identical triplets made the final in the Niigata Prefecture High School Championships 5000 m, their last big showdown with each other. All three talked about the way they were looking at the big race at Niigata's Denka Big Swan Stadium. The Sato triplets all ran track and field in elementary school in Nagaoka, but when they went to junior high school they all opted to play basketball instead. Their sister, also a twin, was the manager of the track and field team at Chuetsu H.S. and gave them tips on training like hill repeats and running on undulating roads in their neighborhood, and while focusing on basketball they coached themselves to become better runners. Five years later they are now in their final year of high school. Yuto Sato runs for Chuetsu H.S., while Hiroto Sato and Oto Sato opted for Nippon Bunri H.S. . It was the first, and last, time for them to all face each other in the same race at the prefectural level. All three live in school dorms, their family...

Japan Dominates Half Marathon - World University Games Day 6 Japanese Results

Japan didn't quite pull off a sweep of the men's and women's half marathon at the 2025 FISU World University Games , but it was pretty close. In the men's race Waseda University 's Shinsaku Kudo , the fastest man in the race with a best of 1:00:06 from Marugame this past February, led start to finish, keeping it around 62-flat pace before finishing in a WUG record 1:02:29. Turkey's Ramazan Bastug spent most of the race in a small chase pack with Ryuto Uehara (Koku Gakuin Univ.) and Kento Baba (Rikkyo Univ.) before dropping them both for silver in 1:02:35. Uehara was just behind in 1:02:39 for bronze, with Baba missing out on the medals in 1:02:44 for 4th. In the women's race China's Xiuzhen Ma had to deal with the Japanese trio of Makoto Tsuchiya (Ritsumeikan Univ.), Mariya Noda (Daito Bunka Univ.) and Ayaka Maeda (Kansai Univ.). And she did, running a PB 1:12:48 for gold over Tsuchiya by 10 seconds. Noda scored the bronze medal in 1:13:16, with M...

Wanjiru Silver, Yanagita Bronze - World University Games Day 1-2 Japanese Results

The 2025 FISU World University Games started Monday in Rhine-Ruhr, Germany. In the Games' first final, the women's 10000 m, Daito Bunka University 's Sarah Wanjiru of Kenya shaved just over 6 seconds off her PB with a 31:41.80, but it wasn't enough for gold as Slovenian 5000 m and road 5 km and 10 km NR holder Klara Lukan dropped a 31:25.84 Games record and PB for the win. In the race for bronze Spain's Alicia Berzosa Martin outran Meijo University 1st-year Mei Hosomi by a second, 32:00.72 to 32:01.91. Ayaka Maeda (Kansai Univ.) and Wakana Hashimoto (Meijo Univ.) were far back in the field, Maeda running 33:13.83 for 15th and Hashimoto 33:49.84 for 19th. The 18-year-old Hosomi's time was good enough to crack the all-time Japanese U20 top 10 and put her 2nd in the world this year on the U20 lists. In qualifying rounds on the opening day, Shota Fuchigami (Waseda Univ.) and Ryosuke Takahashi (Hosei Univ.) took the top 2 spots in the men's 400 mH heats...