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

Fukuoka International Marathon Elite Field

The Dec. 1 Fukuoka International Marathon is the first of this winter season's big selection races for the home soil team for next year's Tokyo World Championships, and the domestic field is a great one. Kenya Sonota , 2:05:59 in Tokyo last year, and 2:06 men Yusuke Nishiyama , Yuya Yoshida , Kazuya Nishiyama and Daisuke Doi make up the main contenders to get a spot, with internationals Lemeck Too , Jie He , Bethwel Yegon , Vincent Raimoi , last year's winner Michael Githae , and Shaohui Yang perfectly positioned to add momentum to the shot at the 2:06:30 Worlds standard that they'll all be taking. 8 other Japanese men in the 2:07 to 2:09 range make it one of the most competitive Fukuoka editions in a long, long time. Last year Githae outkicked Yang by 1 second to win 2:07:08 to 2:07:09, Yang with a Chinese NR that was broken a few months later by He in Wuxi. Chinese men's marathoning has momentum right now too, and it wouldn't be surprising to see either He

Koku Gakuin Wins National University Ekiden for First Time in Anchor Stage Turnaround

Last month's Izumo Ekiden season opener was unusually action-packed with turnovers in the lead on every stage and a dramatic showdown between anchors Kotaro Shinohara (Komazawa Univ,), Aoi Ota (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) and Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Koku Gakuin Univ.). All three schools were expected to be up front again at today's National University Men's Ekiden , and race-morning lineup changes unexpectedly put Shinohara, Ota and Hirabayashi against each other again on the 2nd-to-last stage of the day. Komazawa was immediately in trouble when its first two runners Kosuke Shimako and Shunsuke Kuwata tanked, falling to 16th. AGU was out front after two of the eight legs, with Hibiki Yoshida from Izumo 4th-placer Soka University giving him a run for it and both just missing the 2nd leg CR. AGU led the rest of the way, with a 33:03 CR for the 11.8 km 4th leg by Asahi Kuroda giving it a lead of almost 1:30 that it took another CR from KGU's Ayumu Yamamoto to cut back down

High School Runner Hit by Car During Ekiden in Oita

On Oct. 27 in Kunisaki, Oita at a regional qualifying race for the prefectural high school ekiden, a male 2nd-year high school runner was struck by a car and injured. Although the athlete did not suffer career-ending injuries, the incident has raised questions about how it could have happened. A spokesperson from the prefectural high school athletics association said that there had been "a lack of adequate consideration" in the event's planning and that the association intends to consider its options for preventing the same thing from happening again. According to officials, the accident occurred along a narrow section of road which was closed in both directions for 320 m near the first exchange zone. A car driven by a local 86-year-old woman entered the course within the closed-off section from a parking lot reserved for race officials. When the runner tripped and fell after handing off the tasuki at the first exchange zone, his left leg was run over by the car which was

japan running news

Search This Blog