Skip to main content

Hakone CR Holder Toyo University Celebrates Opening of New Four-Story Ekiden Team Building

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/feature/sports/hakone/news/20130328-OHT1T00091.htm

translated and edited by Brett Larner
click here for a photo of the new running-dedicated Toyo University Kawagoe Training Center

Hakone Ekiden course record holder Toyo University is celebrating the opening of its new running program building at the school's Kawagoe campus.  The four-story reinforced concrete building takes up a spacious 2540 square meters and features dorm rooms for 100 team members, a weight room, training facilities and study rooms.  Until now the running team shared quarters with Toyo's rugby team, but with a 400 m track right outside their new building the school's runners are now in a perfect environment. This year rival Nittai University made off with the Hakone title, but from its state-of-the-art new home Toyo is poised to reclaim its position as Japan's #1 running university.

The new building contains 28 dorm rooms for either 2 or 4 students each.  Altogether 100 people can live in the facility.  Having been involved in every step of the design process, head coach Toshiyuki Sakai, 36, explained how the building's windows all face a nearby park, saying, "If you can see the track all day long it keeps you from relaxing properly."  Of the dining room's pink curtains he said, "We wanted an environment with a warm atmosphere for meals."  The weight room is equipped with a specialized flooring material. The bath facility, which can accomodate 30 people at a time, includes an ice bath for effective recovery. Overall, the building is more than capable of hosting visiting groups.

All of this is part of coach Sakai's plan to reform and shape his athletes' awarenesses.  For the lucky few who will spend their university years in this environment, he hopes it will be an opportunity to look beyond themselves to something higher.  "If you want to grow you have to change," he said.  "I hope that here our runners will learn a feeling of gratitude for those who support them, develop strong interpersonal relationships, and cultivate a desire to take on the best in the world."  The building's new walls hold not only the team but the highest of ideals.

Following an official opening ceremony, Toyo's men moved into the new facility after practice on Mar. 21. In a display case directly inside the front entrance where the team's athletes cannot avoid seeing them are Toyo's trophies and memorabilia from its 2009, 2010 and 2012 Hakone Ekiden victories.  The shoes that "God of the Mountain" Ryuji Kashiwabara wore in powering those victories occupy a central place in the display.

The disappointment at having lost to Nittai University by a wide margin this year has not faded, but the team has a cheerful outlook.  First-year Yuma Hattori, who finished 3rd on this year's Ninth Stage, said, "We can approach our training now with feeling fresh."  First Stage winner Masaya Taguchi, second-year, said, "We have the obligation to repay what they've invested in us."  With Mt. Fuji in sight from their new home, Toyo's eyes are looking toward reclaiming the Hakone title and to what lies above and beyond.

Toyo University Kawagoe Training Center
Grounds: 400 m track, warmup area, field area

First Floor: Head Coach's office, reception, weight room, training room, kitchen, dining room, equipment storage room, display area

Second Floor: eight two-person dorm rooms, bath facility, dressing room

Third and Fourth Floors: twenty four-person dorm rooms, study rooms, laundry room, staff meeting room, physiotherapy room, veranda

Comments

Brett Larner said…
JRN associate editor Mika Tokairin's comment on this story: "It's pretty safe to say that Kashiwabara was responsible for this building being built."

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