japan running news

After 54 years at the Asahi Kasei corporate team, first as athlete and then as coach, Takeshi Soh will retire at the end of this month. Together with his twin brother Shigeru Soh they formed a duo who were icons of the Japanese marathoning world and went all the way to the Olympics. After retiring from competition Takeshi devoted himself to coaching young athletes and came to play a primary role in the leadership of Japanese long distance. His list of achievements is long, and so is the list of those he influenced and inspired. His twin Shigeru was chosen for three Olympic teams in the marathon, Montreal in 1976, Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984. Takeshi was named to the Moscow and Los Angeles teams, placing 4th in L.A. to confirm his position as one of the greatest names in the sport in that era. After becoming a coach the twins helped lead Hiromi Taniguchi to gold at the 1991 Tokyo World Championships, Koichi Morishita to silver a year later at the Barcelona Olympics, and o...

http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/nsp/item/153712 translated by Brett Larner Veteran Seiji Kobayashi (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) has set himself an ambitious goal for the Feb. 28 Tokyo Marathon . Last year Kobayashi celebrated his 33rd birthday. His objective now is to join the sub-2:10 club. Accomplishing this after age 30 is an extremely tough task, and only one Japanese runner over age 33 has ever broken 2:10 for the first time, Sydney Olympian Shinji Kawashima (Team Asahi Kasei) at the 2003 Biwako Mainichi Marathon at age 33 and 9 months. In February last year Kobayashi ran a PB of 2:10:38 at the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon. Now this 30-something runner is ready to break the magic barrier in the heart of the big city. At heart Kobayashi feels free and pure. With 13 marathons to his name he has straightforward feelings about Sunday's race. "I haven't thought about it in terms of my age. I want to run the World Championships next year [in Daegu, Korea]. In order to get ...

http://mainichi.jp/select/jiken/news/20081206ddm035040061000c.html http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2008/12/06/06.html translated and edited by Mika Tokairin and Brett Larner The Kanto Regional University Track and Field Association announced its decision following a closed meeting in Tokyo on Dec. 5 that Toyo University will still be allowed to compete in the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden in the wake of a sexual assault scandal involving a member of the university's track and field team. Sophomore Kazuki Kobayashi, 20, a steeplechase runner on Toyo's track team who was not a member of the school's elite ekiden team, was arrested on Dec. 1 for allegedly molesting a female high school student on a Tokyo commuter train the same morning. Toyo head coach Shinji Kawashima and track and field team administrator Yuji Kawano resigned in the wake of the incident , with Kawashima apologizing for the failure of his leadership. Kawashima and three other representatives from Toyo met wit...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/news/p-sp-tp0-20081204-436496.html http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/ekiden/2009/news/20081203-OYT1T00535.htm?from=main4 http://www.chunichi.co.jp/chuspo/article/sports/news/CK2008120402000170.html http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2008/12/04/03.html http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20081203-OHT1T00064.htm translated and edited by Mika Tokairin and Brett Larner Less than one month before the Hakone Ekiden at which Toyo University was expected to be a contender for the overall win, Sydney Olympics marathoner and Toyo track and field team head coach Shinji Kawashima, 42, along with Toyo's track and field administrative head Yuji Kawano, 32, resigned after the Dec. 1 arrest of 2nd-year team member Kazuki Kobayashi, 20, for the alleged fondling of a female high school student on a commuter train. Assistant coaches Hisashi Sato and Kazuhiro Uemura have taken over the team's leadership for the time being. The incident in question occure...

http://mainichi.jp/area/akita/news/20080918ddlk05050105000c.html Takahashi's comments broadcast on NHK TV 9/18/08 translated and edited by Brett Larner Yuichi Takahashi, 43, originally of Yokote, Akita Prefecture, ran the Beijing Paralympics men's marathon on Sept. 17. Takahashi, the gold medalist in the T11 blind division at the Athens Paralympics, was seeking to win his second straight gold medal and had trained to run a world record 2:30 pace. After running 1:15 for the first half of the Beijing marathon he experienced difficulties and began to slow. Takahashi finished in 2:43:38, faster than his Athens winning time of 2:44:24. He was 2nd in the T11 completely blind division behind Italian Andrea Cionna's 2:36:43 but did not receive a silver medal. While in past Paralympics the T11 class has been scored separately from the T12 visually impaired division, the Beijing Paralympics chose to combine the two classes in the scoring for medals, forcing Cionna, Takahashi and othe...

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20080831-00000058-san-spo translated by Brett Larner The 2008 Beijing Paralympics take place in Beijing, China from Sept. 9 through 17. Competing for his second consecutive gold medal in the final day's men's marathon is Yuichi Takahashi, 43. His guide runner in Beijing will be Sydney Olympics men's marathon competitor and Toyo University head track and field coach Shinji Kawashima, 42. Motivated by Takahashi's passion, it is an Olympic rebirth for Kawashima. "In Beijing if I can recover what I lost in Sydney then maybe the Rising Sun will be raised high on the center pole." The two runners share and Olympic dream of a gold medal. Takahashi was stricken with the degenerative retinal condition retinitis punctata albescens at the age of 16 and was completely blind by 33. Having run track and field in junior high school, Takahashi became interested in running and made the marathon his main target when he was 30. He rapidl...

http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/nsp/local/20080221/20080221_001.shtml translated by Brett Larner His heart races when he thinks about his long-delayed first time at 42.195 km. "I've got nothing to lose. I'm going to run aggressively." Fumiyuki Watanabe is finally set for his big run. With this decision, the strength of the rivalries inside Team Asahi Kasei has weakened. At 24 it has been 2 years since Watanabe entered Team Asahi Kasei, but this month he has lost out to his juniors. On Feb. 3, Tomoya Adachi, 2 years Watanabe's junior, won the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon in 2:11:59. On Feb. 17, Hiroyuki Horibata, 3 years younger than Watanabe, ran 2:11:47 to finish 9th at the Tokyo Marathon. Both were debut marathons. "I can't give in either," he says. Watanabe was scheduled to run Nobeoka last year but had to withdraw 1 month before the race due to injuries to his left leg. Nevertheless, his motivation remained. "I really underestimated what mara...

http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/nsp/local/20080208/20080208_001.shtml translated by Brett Larner On Feb. 7 the organizing committee of the 46th Nobeoka Nishi Nihon Marathon, sponsored by Kyushu Rikuren, Nobeoka City and the Nishi Nihon Newspaper Group, held a press conference at Nobeoka City Hall in Miyazaki Prefecture to announce the elite field for this year's race, to be held on Feb. 24. The invited field includes 24 athletes, 7 more than last year, with total entries standing at 356 runners, also up from last year. The elite field includes several members of local team Asahi Kasei. Muneyuki Ojima, the fastest man in the field with a PB of 2:08:43, will be running his final race before retiring. Also appearing from Asahi Kasei are Fumiyuki Watanabe, who was injured and had to withdraw from last year's race, and Masaya Shimizu. These athletes will all be spurred on by the extra motivation of having watched their teammate Tomoya Adachi win the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon on Feb....