Skip to main content

Naoko Takahashi's Statement From Her Retirement Press Conference

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20081028-00000509-sanspo-spo
and NHK 6:00 News broadcast, 10/28/08

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On the afternoon of Oct. 28, Sydney Olympic marathon gold medalist and former world record holder Takahashi gave a press conference at Tokyo's Grand Prince Hotel to announce her retirement. A portion of Takahashi's statement follows.
"Hello, I am Naoko Takahashi. I planned to run the Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka International Women's Marathons but have to give it up. To the fans, staff and sponsors who supported me I offer my sincerest apologies. I had this goal to run these three races as a thank you or goodbye to everyone but now I find that I've spent everything my body has, that I've done all I can and am left with just a peaceful feeling. It's not that something happened, I just can't do the kind of training I need in order to stand in front of you all as the Pro Naoko Takahashi, the kind of running I can be proud of, anymore. I don't want to just show up and run badly anymore either. The years when I won the Olympics and set the world record were
like a typhoon, and now the typhoon has passed and there is just a gentle breeze blowing. I love running and will keep going into my 50's and 60's, but from now on it'll be as the 'Jogger' Naoko Takahashi."

Asked whether leaving her coach Yoshio Koide at her peak had been a mistake, Takahashi replied, "It wasn't that big a deal. I thought about retiring when I left him, but I would have retired earlier if I hadn't left."
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Esta noticia es una decepcion , es muy triste ver que Naoko Takahashi ,se retire de esta forma acabada , y no triunfal , por que?? retirarse , podria haber esperado hasta nagoya en marzo de 2009 y llegar en mejor forma, saltandose Tokio y Osaka , o correr Londres o bOSTON, ES MUY TRISTE LA NOTICIA , PIENSO QUE ELLA ESTA SOMETIDA A UNA GRAN PRESIÓN , DEBERIA EJECUTAR UN MARATON MÁS Y GANARLO y entonces retirarse.
Q-CHAN AUN PUEDE GANAR.
Marcoshashi CHILE
October 29, 2008 at 12:13 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

'CAS Clears Japan’s Olympic Silver Medallist Ikeda of Doping, Overturns Ban'

https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/10/23/cas-clears-japans-olympic-silver-medallist-ikeda-of-doping-overturns-ban The AIU's missteps in this case cost Tokyo Olympics and Oregon World Championships 20 km race walk silver medalist Koki Ikeda , a Toyo University graduate who competes for the Asahi Kasei corporate team, the chance to represent Japan at a home soil World Championships last year. It is almost unheard of for an athlete to successfully fight a biological passport suspension as Ikeda did, making this a highly significant case. The CAS' press release about its decision stated: "The Panel stressed that the Athlete did not merely assert his position on the ABP abnormalities but adduced very extensive evidence in support of his explanations. In this highly complex case, the evidence brought during the CAS proceedings was far more abundant and specific than during the first instance proceedings with the WA Disciplinary Tribunal, implying the CAS Panel had further ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meijo Back With Morinomiyako Ekiden CR for National University Title

The last big dynasty school in Japanese women's distance running with 7-straight wins at October's Morinomiyako Ekiden from 2017 to 2023 and 6-straight titles at the season-ending Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden from 2018 to 2023, Meijo University came back from a 3rd-place finish last year to win the 44th Morinomiyako Ekiden again, leading almost start-to-finish to set a 2:02:21 CR for the 6-stage, 38.0 km course in Sendai. 12 second back in 2nd after the opening leg, collegiate 3000 mSC champ Nozomi Kondo put Meijo out front with a 12:36 CR for the 4.0 km Second Stage, and the rest of the team never looked back. The biggest threat to a Meijo win was on the 9.2 m Fifth Stage, where this year's collegiate 10000 m winner Sarah Wanjiru from last year's runner-up Daito Bunka University started 50 seconds back from Meijo 1st-year Mao Kimura . In taking the 10000 m title Wanjiru had outrun Kimura by over a minute, but today Kimura was a revelation, strong and smooth out fr...
1 comment
Read more

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...
8 comments
Read more