Marathoner Takenouchi Hoping for Tokyo 2020 Team

After finishing among the top three Japanese men at last month's Fukuoka International Marathon to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Trials race, NTT Nishi Nihon corporate men's team member Yoshiki Takenouchi, 25, appeared at an event at Kyotanabe city hall in Kyoto where the NTT team is based. "I want to do everything I can to make that Olympic dream come even just one step closer," he said with determination.

Takenouchi is originally from Osaka. After graduating from Kandai Daiichi H.S. he attended Nihon University before joining NTT Nishi Nihon in 2015. In Fukuoka he ran a dramatic 2:10:01 PB to finish 7th overall as the 3rd Japanese man, earning a place at the Marathon Grand Championship race to be held in or after September, 2019.

Takenouchi lives in a company dormitory in the Kyotanabe and often runs along Yamate Kansen Strett during morning practice. "There's a lot of greenery and the air is clear, so it feels good to run there, "he said with a smile. "It has a lot of hills too so it's one of my favorite places to run."

Looking back on Fukuoka he said, "I'm pretty close to 100% satisfied." Looking toward the Olympics he said, "I just want to avoid injury, improve my training step by step, and clear my immediate goals one by one." Takenouchi plans to run March's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon.

source article: http://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/sports/article/20180106000077
translated by Brett Larner

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Rui Aoki and Shunsuke Kuwata Making U.S. Debut at United Airlines NYC Half

When the National University Half Marathon was canceled in 2011 after the massive earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan 2 days before the race, JRN talked to the New York Road Runners about bringing 2 collegiate runners to the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon the next weekend as a show of support. It wasn't possible to pull it together in the immediate aftermath of the disasters, but a year later we brought 2 young 2nd-years from Hakone Ekiden CR breaker Toyo University , Kento Otsu and Yuta Shitara , who had been the top 2 Japanese collegiate finishers at the Ageo City Half Marathon in November before Hakone. Shitara ran 1:01:48, at the time the fastest-ever by a Japanese man on U.S. soil, with Otsu running a solid 1:03:15. Thanks to that great start the Ageo-NYC partnership became a regular thing, and except for the pandemic it's continued every year since, expanding this year to June's New York Mini 10 km when 2 runners from Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden runne...

Chepkirui Over Sato Again to Win 2nd-Straight Nagoya Women's Marathon, Chen Breaks Malaysian NR (updated)

This year's Nagoya Women's Marathon felt like a changing of the guard, with some the bigger domestic names over the last few years fading early and a lot of newer faces stepping up with quality debuts or second marathons. The front group was set to be paced for 2:20 flat with the 2nd group at 2:23:30 to hit the auto-qualifying time for the 2027 MGC Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials race in Nagoya. Up front things went out OK, but after a 33:10 split at 10 km Ayuko Suzuki , 2:21:22 here 2 years ago, lost touch, ultimately finishing 23rd in 2:33:28. Windy conditions started to play with pacers' ability to keep things steady and the pace slowed majorly over the next 10 km, but even with a 34:05 second 10 km there were big-name casualties. 2024 Nagoya winner Yuka Ando was next to drop, ending up 17th in 2:30:32. NR holder Honami Maeda was next, followed quickly by Bahraini Kenyan Eunice Chumba and debuting Wakana Kabasawa . Maeda faded to 21st in 2:31:21, whil...

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

japan running news

Search This Blog