The starting lineups for the top five-placing teams at the university men's 2012 Hakone Ekiden and 2011 NCAA Division I Cross-Country Championships listed by 5000 m PB. American's men's data is based upon what was available through their schools' websites and elsewhere. In three cases where 5000 m PBs were not available times were calculated from other best marks using IAAF scoring tables. Please feel free to contact me with any corrections. It's worth noting that although redshirting, delaying competing with a university team to allow for increased growth and training time, is common in the NCAA, it is not practiced in Japan and none of the top five Hakone teams includes a single runner over age 22. Neither do any of the top five teams in Hakone include any foreign runners in their lineups.
After 54 years at the Asahi Kasei corporate team, first as athlete and then as coach, Takeshi Soh will retire at the end of this month. Together with his twin brother Shigeru Soh they formed a duo who were icons of the Japanese marathoning world and went all the way to the Olympics. After retiring from competition Takeshi devoted himself to coaching young athletes and came to play a primary role in the leadership of Japanese long distance. His list of achievements is long, and so is the list of those he influenced and inspired. His twin Shigeru was chosen for three Olympic teams in the marathon, Montreal in 1976, Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984. Takeshi was named to the Moscow and Los Angeles teams, placing 4th in L.A. to confirm his position as one of the greatest names in the sport in that era. After becoming a coach the twins helped lead Hiromi Taniguchi to gold at the 1991 Tokyo World Championships, Koichi Morishita to silver a year later at the Barcelona Olympics, and o...
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