Skip to main content

Team Chugoku Denryoku's Umeki 'Running for Beijing' in Tokyo Marathon

http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/sports/Sp200802160125.html

translated by Brett Larner

The invited domestic elites who will try for a spot on the Beijing Olympic team at this year's Tokyo Marathon assembled in Tokyo for a press conference on Feb. 15. Among the well-known runners is Kurao Umeki of Team Chugoku Denryoku. "First of all," commented Umeki, "I want to run strong. The ticket to Beijing is going to be settled in the 2nd half of this race."

Umeki has worked hard this season, running the Berlin Marathon in September, the Nagoya Half Marathon in November, and the New Year Ekiden and Yamaguchi Ekiden in January, along with training camps in Okinawa and Kunming, China. "I've done a lot of long, slow, careful preparation," Umeki said with confidence. "I'll be coming to the start line well-prepared."

At age 32, Umeki has run 14 marathons and is one of the veterans in the domestic field. He holds a PB of 2:09:52, but the fastest of his domestic marathons was only 2:14:50. "A fast time in a domestic race means more. I'll be relaxed but looking for it this time."

Athens Olympics marathoner Toshinari Suwa (Team Nissin Shokuhin) and Helsinki World Championships marathon entrant Satoshi Irifune (Team Kanebo) also weighed in with their hopes for Tokyo. "I will run a fast race," predicted Suwa. Irifune, who was 3rd in last year's inaugural Tokyo Marathon, commented, "I will be aiming to race the hilly section after 35 km. I'm only thinking about the win."
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...
Post a Comment
Read more

Restaurant Owner Selected as Olympic Torchbearer Dies in Fire After Becoming Despondent Over Impact of Coronavirus Crisis (updated)

On the evening of Apr. 30, the 54-year-old male owner of a restaurant in Tokyo's Nerima ward specializing in tonkatsu deep fried pork cutlets died from full-body burns in a fire at the restaurant. The man had been one of the people chosen as a torchbearer for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics torch relay. With the coronavirus crisis causing both the postponement of the Olympics and a loss of business at the restaurant, the man had recently started talking pessimistically about the future to those around him. With evidence of the man's body having been doused in tonkatsu cooking oil, metropolitan police from the Hikarigaoka Police Station are carefully examining the cause of the fire. At around 10:00 p.m. on the 30th, the fire broke out in the tonkatsu restaurant on the first floor of a three-story building. A neighborhood resident who noticed smoke called the fire department. Firefighters found the floor and part of a wall burning, with the man lying on the floor in the customer seat...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kawauchi Wins Inaugural Kawauchi Half Marathon

http://www.minyu-net.com/sports/running/FM20160501-070419.php translated by Brett Larner 川内優輝ロード pic.twitter.com/rEJk7CQPFV — みとっぽ (黒) (@mitoppo_tmyk) April 30, 2016 Yuki Kawauchi Road in Kawauchi, Fukushima Held to inspire former residents to return to the area after the nearby TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident five years ago, the village of Kawauchi held the first " Kawauchi no Sato Kaeru Half Marathon - From Reconstruction to Creation " on April 30.  The course started and finished at the village heliport.  1188 runners from across the country gathered to celebrate the village's revival as they ran through its springtime streets. The event's organizing committee was made up of local government and board of education members with support from the Fukushima Minyu Newspaper and other sponsors.  The race's purpose was to transmit the vitality and charm of the reconstructing Kawauchi village to the rest of the nation in hopes of helpin...
Post a Comment
Read more