japan running news

In June Yuko Arimori , a native of Okayama, was named head of the JAAF . We talked to her about her vision as the new leader of the JAAF, her outlook for the future, and her plans for developing the next generation. "Through my work in athletics I want to help reiterate that sport is a necessity for both individuals and society, that it inspires people, brings them together, and helps them grow from the ground up," she says. Now 58, Arimori is not only the first woman to take the top position in the JAAF bureaucracy but also its first Olympian to do so. "Honestly, I never thought I'd be in a position to take on a role like this." Arimori won medals in the marathon at both the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and 1996 Atlanta Olympics. She hopes that her own experience at that level can help inform the next generation. "It's going to take a lot of hard work to help the next generation achieve the dreams and goals that we weren't able to," she says. ...

On June 25 the JAAF announced that director Mitsuki Ogata is stepping down and will be replaced by vice-chair Yuko Arimori . A two-time Olympic marathon medalist, Arimori will be both the first woman and first Olympian to lead the JAAF. Arimori was born in 1966 in Okayama. In 1985 she graduated from Shujitsu H.S. and entered Nittai University . After graduating in 1989 she joined the Recruit corporate team under the leadership of head coach Yoshio Koide . In January, 1990 she ran 2:32:51 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon, at the time a debut marathon national record. The next year she placed 4th at the Tokyo World Championships, then took the silver medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Four years later Arimori followed that up with a bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. She retired from competition in 2007. After retiring, Arimori became active in a wide range of area, including as chair of Special Olympics Japan, a sports organization for intellectually-challen...

On Mar. 19 a Japan Olympic Committee (JOC) spokesperson said in an interview that the position of team captain will be eliminated from the Japanese Olympic team at this summer's Paris Olympics, which begin July 26. The move is intended to reduce the burden placed upon the athlete chosen. It will be discussed at the JOC Board of Directors meeting on Mar. 21 and, if approved, will make Paris the first summer Olympics without a Japanese team captain since the position was created at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, Japan's first post-war participation. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) currently requires each country to nominate one man and one woman to serve as flag bearers, but it has no rules specifically regarding team captains. Japan has traditionally named a team captain, but the JOC is reviewing the practice as the pressure it places on the athlete chosen and the requirement for them to participate in pre-Games events makes selecting candidates difficult. On a trial bas...

Today's the 25th anniversary of when I first moved to Japan. It's been interesting. If I had to pick one highlight, this pic was probably it. Glad as always I decided to move somewhere guns aren't part of day-to-day life. Re: the pic, it's of Barcelona '92 Olympic silver medalist Koichi Morishita , me, and Spanish '92 Olympian Jose Esteban Montiel running the 2017 Barcelona Marathon. I started running marathons in '93 after watching Morishita vs. Hwang Young-cho at the Barcelona Olympics. Somehow, 25 years later Barcelona hired me to bring Morishita, Hwang and Yuko Arimori to the marathon for the 25th anniversary celebration of the Olympic marathon with the other three medalists. I was going to run, and Morishita, who doesn't really run any more, decided the night before to jump in and run the first 11.5 km with me . I tend to be a pretty lucky person and have had a lot of good things happen these 25 years, and some not so good, but of all of them t...

In a world where slander and abuse run freely on the Internet, words have become a deadly weapon that can end someone's life. 1991 marathon world champion Hiromi Taniguchi , 60, saw his own life change dramatically when he uttered a single phrase after finishing 8th in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics men's marathon. The words he said right after finishing, "I had a little whoopsie-daisy!" have become part of folklore as the good-natured reaction of someone who simply lost their race, but in the years since then they've become in their own way a cross that Taniguchi has had to bear. We talked directly with Taniguchi, now a professor at Miyazaki University, to find out what impact those Olympic Games now 28 years distant had upon his life and fate. Taniguchi teaches at Miyazaki University three times a week. His classes and appearances at marathon-related events have been heavily impacted by the coronavirus crisis. "Everything on the schedule this year has been...

Yuko Arimori wins Japan's first Olympic women's marathon medal, with Sachiko Yamashita 4th at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

All three Japanese men make the top 8 at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics marathon.

Hiromi Taniguchi wins gold at the 1991 Tokyo World Championships, scoring a place on the 1992 Barcelona Olympic team.

Takeyuki Nakayama and Koichi Morishita duel for places on the Barcelona Olympic team at the 1992 Tokyo International Marathon.

an editorial by Serika Ito As the figure on the screen grew larger, I could feel myself unintentionally getting energy from it. Just past 31 km, the oldest man in the race, 36-year-old Kentaro Nakamoto (Yasukawa Denki) took the lead in the chase pack behind breakaway frontrunner Yuta Shitara (Honda). It was one of the memorable scenes in last September's Marathon Grand Championship (MGC) Tokyo Olympics marathon trial race. At one point Nakamoto was more than 20 seconds behind the chase group, but he had already proven himself in heat and excelled at race tactics and catching up. "Maybe there's going to be a Tokyo Olympics for him," I thought. I couldn't help starting to get excited. Nakamoto was 6th in the 2012 London Olympics marathon and made three World Championships teams in the marathon, finishing as high as 5th and always in the top 10. I interviewed him many times over the years as he quietly build a track record of anonymous quality. Although he ...

An event looking back at the life of Japan's first female Olympian and first female Olympic medalist Kinue Hitomi , winner of the silver medal in the 800 m at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, took place at Tokyo's Mainichi Hall on Aug. 2. Two-time Olympic marathon medalist Yuko Arimori and judo Olympic medalist Kaori Yamaguchi discussed the achievements of the pioneer of women's sports and the hardships she faced. Aug. 2 is the anniversary of the day Hitomi won her medal in Amsterdam. It is also the anniversary of her death three years later at just 24 years old. Like Hitomi a native of Okayama prefecture, Arimori also won her first marathon medal, a silver at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, on Aug. 2, the first Japanese woman in the 64 years since Hitomi to medal in track and field at the Olympics. "It was thanks to Hitomi having led the way that I had the courage to do what I did at the Olympics and later as a pro," Arimori reflected. "Everyone involved in s...

Double women's marathon Olympic medalist and longtime executive member of a variety of sports organizations Yuko Arimori , 52, bas been tapped to become head of the Japanese National Para-Sports Association according to comments by an involved party on June 6. The nomination was set to be discussed by the association's executive board later the same day. Arimori's experience with handicapped sports includes chairing the Special Olympics Japan, an organization aimed at those with intellectual disabilities, since 2008. source article: https://this.kiji.is/509216344132371553?c=39546741839462401 translated by Brett Larner photo © 2017 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Yoshio Koide , coach of the first woman to ever break 2:20 in the marathon and Olympic marathon gold, silver and bronze medalists Naoko Takahashi and Yuko Arimori , passed away Apr. 24. He was 80 years old. Koide had just announced his retirement from coaching at the end of March. Koide became coach at Recruit through a teacher. Saying, "The age of our women is coming," he foresaw the rise of Japanese women's marathoning and actively made his dream of producing an Olympic gold medalist come true. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics where Takahashi won gold he produced a precise, aggressive winning strategy that seemed to go against character. According to the Sept. 25, 2000 issue of Daily Sports covering Takahashi's gold, Takahashi's move came at 35 km near the apartment she had been at near the 32 km point on a section of road she had been running every day. Meeting with Takahashi the day before the race Koide confirmed the plan for the attack, telling her, ...

Yoshio Koide , 79, coach of 2000 Sydney Olympics women's marathon gold medalist and former world record holder Naoko Takahashi , retired from his position as head of the Sakura AC at the end of March. Koide's coaching contract with the Universal Entertainment corporate team likewise ran out at the end of March, and he did not renew it. Koide commented, "On the 15th I turn 80. This is a good time to step down and let someone younger take over." In the summer of 2015 Koide underwent heart surgery while at a training camp in the United States, and since then he has been in and out of the hospital. His age was also simply starting to have an effect. "I love the race more than anything else," he said. "I'm sorry to leave, but taking care of my body is simply more important." Koide graduated from Juntendo University. As a high school coach he led the Funabashi Municipal H.S. team to the National High School Ekiden Championships title in 19...

19-year-old me watched Young-cho Hwang and Koichi Morishita race up Montjuic at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and said, "That's what I want to do." A year later I did my first marathon. Today I ran up Montjuic with them over the same 4 km that changed my life 25 years ago.  They were my original inspiration in wanting to run marathons and Morishita in particular was the person who first sparked my interest in and respect for Japanese distance running. I'll always be grateful to them for what they showed me as a teenager and for sharing the day with me today. Postscript: At dinner that night Morishita decided he wanted to run the first 11.5 km loop of the Barcelona Marathon the next morning.  We ran it together with Jose Esteban Montiel , a Spanish Olympian who finished 32nd in '92 and was doing his last marathon.  Morishita set the pace, going through 10 km in 44:49 before surging for the last km and a half.  Montiel and I stayed together on sub-3:10 p...

(l to r) Koichi Morishita (Japan), Yuko Arimori (Japan), Valentina Yegorova (Russia), Young-cho Hwang (South Korea), Lorraine Moller (New Zealand) and Stephan Freigang (Germany) In the 25th anniversary year of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the organizers of the Zurich Barcelona Marathon invited all six marathon medalists back as guests of honor for Sunday's race.  JRN travelled to Barcelona with men's gold medalist Young-cho Hwang (South Korea), men's silver medalist Koichi Morishita (Japan) and women's silver medalist Yuko Arimori (Japan). Bronze medalist Moller, gold medalist Yegorova, and silver medalist Arimori in the Olympic Stadium. Gold medalist Hwang, silver medalist Morishita and bronze medalist Freigang at the Hwang monument in front of the Olympic Stadium. Yegorova and Arimori watch themselves battle to gold and silver 25 years removed. Hwang reflects on becoming one of his country's legends. The six medalists reunited, Hwa...

text and photos by Brett Larner A day after running in South Africa’s Sanlam Cape Town Marathon and 10 km road race , 1996 Atlanta Olympics marathon gold medalist Josiah Thugwane and Japan’s iconoclastic civil servant runner Yuki Kawauchi traveled to the Kayamandi township outside Stellenbosch to speak to local children taking part in the songo.info program.  A community with over 100 years of history, the 33,000 residents of Kayamandi live in extreme conditions of poverty in the hills overlooking the wealthy winery town of Stellenbosch.  Thugwane and Kawauchi were taken on a walking tour of the community to see with their own eyes the situation in which the songo.info program's children live and the challenges they face. Created in 2008 by Songo Fipaza , a Kayamandi resident who became a national-level cross-country runner through the support of 1992 Barcelona Olympics silver medalist Elana Meyer when as a youth he sought her out in Stellenbosch after watching ...

http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/general/news/20110202dde035050042000c.html translated by Brett Larner It was the race that made him famous. He wanted to show everyone in the world what he could do. That meant one thing: making the Olympics and getting a medal. "I think that was the moment that changed my life," says Koichi Morishita , now 43 and head coach of Team Toyota Kyushu, of his marathon debut at age 23 at the 1991 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon. The race went out at nearly 3:00 / km. By 30 km Morishita's face showed the strain of the fast pace, but still he desperately clung to the leader, the best marathoner of his day, Takeyuki Nakayama . By 35 km they were back side by side. Then, at 38 km, Nakayama turned and said, "Go on! Leave me behind! You can do it!" with an encouraging pat on Morishita's shoulder. It was the changing of the guard, the moment when one era passed on to another. Morishita surged away to a 2:08:53 finish, the Japanese debut marath...

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/flash/KFullFlash20100120153.html http://kyushu.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/spomain/detail/20100121-OYS1T00215.htm http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/nsp/item/147512 translated and edited by Brett Larner Click photo for full-sized image. 2005 and 2007 World Championships track runner Yu Mitsuya (Team Toyota Jidoshoki) held a press conference in Fukuoka on Jan. 20 to formally announce that he will run his debut marathon at the Feb. 7 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon . He was unambigious about his plans for his debut. "Ever since I went pro my goal has been the marathon. I'm running this to win it." Ranked #3 for 5000 m and #4 for 10000 m on the all-time Japanese lists, Mitsuya made a big step toward the marathon a year ago with a 1:29:55 win at the Kumanichi 30 km, his first time racing such a long distance. Now looking toward the example of double 10000 m and marathon national record holder Toshinari Takaoka, Mitusya is attacking with two swords. Since last...

http://sankei.jp.msn.com/sports/other/090217/oth0902170859002-n1.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner "I came to Kyushu because I want to run the marathon. Now we're getting close," says Yu Mitsuya (Team Toyota Kyushu). A runner with 5000 m and 10000 m World Championships experience, at age 24 Mitsuya has begun his move up to the marathon. Mitsuya is scheduled to run the Feb. 22 Kumanichi 30 km Road Race in Kumamoto, Kyushu. "If I run well then the marathon is next," he says, hoping that the 30 km race will give him insight into the marathon's 42.195 km. Giving him added motivation is the fact that Athens Olympics 5000 m runner Ryuji Ono (Team Asahi Kasei), also 24, will likewise run Kumanichi. Mitsuya is coached by Barcelona Olympics silver medalist Koichi Morishita, who guided Beijing Olympics marathon gold medalist Samuel Wanjiru through his transition to the marathon. Morishita looked towards their plans for the next three years, saying, "Yu do...