Beijing Olympic marathoner and former team member Atsushi Sato, 43, has been named head coach of the Chugoku Denryoku men's corporate team as of the beginning of this month. Coming back to the team after 8 years, Sato is a strong choice to succeed Yasushi Sakaguchi and return it to its previous position as a leading producer of top-level athletes. "I'm very happy to be a part of helping the team I belonged to develop," Sato said. "I want it to evolve and grow, not just make a comeback."
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Sato is a native of Fukushima. A graduate of Aizu H.S. and Waseda University, he joined Chugoku Denryoku in 2001. With his main focus on the marathon he ran 2:07:13 at the 2007 Fukuoka International Marathon, at the time the 4th-fastest ever by a Japanese man. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics he finished in last place in 76th, but a year later he came back and made 6th at the 2009 Berlin World Championships. He retired following the 2013 Fukuoka International Marathon, and coached the Kyocera corporate women's team from April, 2014 to August, 2020.
Sato was also well-known as a talented ekiden runner, winning his stage at the New Year Ekiden national championships five times. He was a member of Chugoku Denryoku's winning team in both 2004 and 2007. This year Chugoku Denryoku was only 16th at the New Year Ekiden, its 7th year in a row missing the 8-deep podium. "The initial goal is to get the team into the podium range," Sato said of his plans for the team. "In terms of an objective quantifier, that means improving each athlete's performance by 2 seconds per km. As a longer-term goal, I eventually want to put our athletes onto national teams."
Translator's note: Although this article doesn't mention it, Sato's biggest achievement as an athlete was breaking the Japanese national record in the half marathon, running 1:00:25 at the 2007 Udine World Road Running Championships. That time remains the 4th-fastest by a Japanese man even now in the supershoe era, while his marathon time has long since been knocked out of the top 10.
translated by Brett Larner
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