japan running news

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20160227-00000015-san-l11

translated by Brett Larner

Following the major earthquake that struck southern Taiwan on Feb. 6, Kuki H.S. employee and civil servant runner Yuki Kawauchi, 28, will run the Mar. 20 Wanjinshi Marathon in New Taipei City, Taiwan to show his support for recovery and reconstruction efforts.  Saitama Governor Kiyoshi Ueda announced Kawauchi's participation during a session at the prefectural assembly.

In an interview with the Sankei Newspaper Kawauchi had spoken strongly of the considerable assistance and support Japan received from Taiwan at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011.  "I have not forgotten the kindness Japan received, and I wanted to tell the people of Taiwan that we in Japan support them too.  That's why I have decided to run," he said.  Governor Ueda proudly told the assembly, "He is an outstanding representative of our prefectural government."

Governor Ueda announced that h…

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/20150504-OYT1T50009.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Aiming for its first seeded bracket finish in three years at January's Hakone Ekiden, Yamanashi Gakuin University's track and field team welcomed the tenth Kenyan student athlete in the program's history, Dominic Nyairo, 18, at the start of the new academic year in April.  At a time trial meet on April 25 Nyairo broke 29 minutes for 10000 m, a time that puts him on the same level as the upper tier of athletes who run the Hakone Ekiden.  YGU head coach Kiyoshi Ueda is optimistic about Nyairo's prospects, saying, "he is highly adaptable."

Nyairo is 1 m 67 cm tall and weighs 48.5 kg.  Like the student athletes who preceded him at YGU, he comes from western Kenya.  After his arrival on April 11 he enrolled as a first-year in YGU's Faculty of Modern Business.  Because Nyairo can not yet speak Japanese, Ueda is coaching him in English.

Having a Kenyan on the team d…

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2013/03/30/kiji/K20130330005505240.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Like his running, Saitama's civil servant runner is set to take his moniker to the next level. Having renewed his assignment as an office worker at Kasukabe High School for the fiscal year beginning Apr. 1, at a press conference on Mar. 29 Yuki Kawauchi, 26, announced that he will run for governor of Saitama in the upcoming prefectural elections. "I want to do my best for all the people of Saitama," Kawauchi told reporters.

Although he has been courted by leaders of various political parties throughout his rise to fame as Saitama's leading citizen over the last two years, Kawauchi will run as an independent. "Political parties serve a role for people who can't think for themselves or like to follow others, but that's not who I am," Kawauchi said.  "I think there are a lot of other people like me and I want to show them that they…

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/news/20110228-OYT1T00190.htm?from=y10
http://www.daily.co.jp/general/2011/02/28/0003832907.shtml
http://mytown.asahi.com/areanews/saitama/TKY201102270461.html
"Amateur Kawauchi 3rd" by Daisuke Yamaguchi, Nikkei Newspaper 2/28/11

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Update: Reader vilagoiberia sent me a link to this video of the last 6.5 km of Kawauchi's run.



Kawauchi with his bronze medal, after regaining consciousness. Click photo to enlarge.

He did it, he's on the national team. At the Feb. 27 Tokyo Marathon, Yuki Kawauchi, 23, an administrative worker at Saitama Prefectural Kasukabe High School, ran 2:08:37 to finish as the top Japanese man and 3rd overall. In so doing he secured a place on the Japanese national team for this summer's World Championships in Daegu, Korea, earning joyful respect and praise from those connected to him.

Kawauchi began working for the Saitama Prefectural Government in April, 2009, taking a job as an adminis…