The Alfee to End 31-Year Run of Osaka International Women's Marathon Theme Songs

At a Jan. 19 press conference in Osaka, Kansai Television CEO Sumio Fukui announced that rock band The Alfee, who for over 30 years have written and recorded a theme song for each edition of the Osaka International Women's Marathon, will sing for the final time at this year's 37th running on Jan. 28.

The Alfee began their string of marathon anthems with Osaka's 6th edition in 1987, producing memorable hits like "You Get to Run," "One Step," and the classic "Shining Run." Fukui expressed his gratitude to the band, commenting, "We cannot thank all the members of The Alfee enough for the 31 songs they have written for us."

At the same, Fukui looked to the future, saying, "In the marathon as well, as the Tokyo Olympics approach the selection process has changed and we have entered the days of a new generation. I hope to change our broadcast step by step as well and explore new ways to bring its excitement to the public. This step marks a clean break with the past in order to make that move forward."

Kansai Television will broadcast a special "The Alfee's 42.195 km Melody" program on Jan. 22. The three members of The Alfee will look back on their legacy and talk about the thoughts and feelings underlying each of the marathon theme songs they wrote for Osaka.

source article: https://www.daily.co.jp/gossip/2018/01/19/0010911931.shtml
translated by Brett Larner

Comments

Brett Larner said…

Not an Alfee fan but you've got to respect them for holding that gig down for 31 years. Not many bands could pull that off.

January 20, 2018 at 11:13 AM

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

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

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

japan running news

Search This Blog