Skip to main content

Post-Race Quotes From the Japanese Men's World Championships Marathon Team

translated by Brett Larner

Kitaoka, Oda, Kawauchi, Nakamoto and Horibata with their team silver medals, Japan's eighth-straight World Championships finishing on the men's team podium. Click photo to enlarge.

Hiroyuki Horibata (Team Asahi Kasei) - 7th, 2:11:52

"I came down with a fever before the race.  It didn't hold me back and I ran with my full strength, but now I can't breathe through my nose.  It was cloudy on race day and felt very cool so I thought it was going to go out fast, but it started a little slow.  After 5 km the pace started going back and forth, something I've never experienced before.  It was my first time running Worlds, and up until 15 km I had some margin to enjoy it, but after 20 km things picked way up and I could feel the margin disappearing from my legs.  I figured the pace would slow down again so I thought I would try to stick with them, but things never slowed down and I drifted back from the top pack.  This time my training was solid all the way until the end, so even once I was all alone I had confidence that I'd be able to keep going like I did in practice.  Finishing 7th met my pre-race goals, so I'm very happy about that."

Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 10th, 2:13:10

"It was good that I was able to hang on through the second half but I'm disappointed at not making the top eight.  I feel disappointment and a sense of accomplishment about fifty-fifty.  I couldn't roll with [the Africans] when they started shaking things up."

Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) - 18th, 2:16:11

"Personally speaking it was a failure, but I'm glad I was able to help win a [team] medal.  I achieved my minimum goal.  I had trouble sleeping because of stress, but once I started running it was like normal.  After I finished my hands, feet, lips, thighs and shoulders were all shaking.  I'm glad I could do something for Japan.  In the winter I'm going to run Fukuoka and Tokyo.  I'll be shooting for 2:07 there, or at least Seko and Nakayama's best times"

Yoshinori Oda (Team Toyota) - 29th, 2:18:05

"I couldn't handle the speed all the international runners brought.  In my training before the race I focused on building my stamina, but I can see now that I should have worked on my speed more as well.  The left leg injury I've had before felt like it was on the edge of coming back, so I tried to just maintain a steady pace but it was hard and I had to just run by feel.  It was a good experience.  It'll be a bitter memory but I hope to learn from it for my next marathon."

Yukihiro Kitaoka (Team NTN) - 38th, 2:23:11

"I'd had injury problems and was just barely ready.  After the beginning of August I felt a lot lighter but I didn't have nearly enough training under my belt.  It was hard after 5 km and there was no way around that, but since I was running for the Japanese national team I'm glad I was able to finish."

Update 9/7/11: Click here for a screenshot of American track fansite Letsrun.com's strangely bigoted response to Japan's silver medal.

source articles:
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/seriku/2011/news/p-sp-tp0-20110905-830600.html
http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/osaka/sports/article/news/20110905-OHO1T00079.htm
http://www.chunichi.co.jp/chuspo/article/sports/news/CK2011090502000071.html
http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/110905/spg1109050506002-n2.htm
http://www.asahi-kasei.co.jp/asahi/jp/csr/sports/rikujo/result/2011/110904.html
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/seriku/2011/news/f-sp-tp0-20110904-830294.html
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/seriku/2011/news/f-sp-tp0-20110904-830298.html
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/seriku/2011/news/f-sp-tp0-20110904-830299.html

Comments

Brett Larner said…
The letsrun link to this article erroneously says Japan won bronze, not silver, and its author apparently believes team scoring is based on top three placing rather than combined time.

Not sure what to make of letsrun's seeming dismissal of the Japanese team's accomplishment as only due to "some other countries screw[ing] up." Japan had the third-best team on paper and, while it's true that they got silver rather than bronze thanks to three Ethiopians dropping out, Japan would have had to be the one screwing up not to finish in the medals.
Kenyan Runner said…
Hi Bret,

I have also been a little bit baffled by some of Letsrun's comments of late. Anything achieved by a non American is in danger of being downplayed or undervalued at the moment it seems.

Congrats Japan - I think anyone with the slightest knowledge of world marathoning knows that Japan is an incredibly strong country in terms of depth!
Anonymous said…
Awesome running in difficult conditions.
Brett Larner said…
Via Race Results Weekly:

Marathon World Cup:
(Score there men per nation on total time):

1. KEN, 6:29:23 USD 20,000
2. JPN, 6:41:13 15,000
3. MAR, 6:42:18 12,000
4. ESP, 6:53:41 10,000
5. CHN, 6:54:32 8,000
6. KOR, 6:57:03 6,000
7. USA, 7:04:52
[7 teams total]

Most-Read This Week

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and