Skip to main content

Kaori Yoshida Quits Second Wind AC

http://www.plus-blog.sportsnavi.com/kmanabu/article/167

by Manabu Kawagoe, head coach, Second Wind AC
translated by Brett Larner

Kaori Yoshida racing in Albuquerque, NM. Photo by John Schrup.

Kaori Yoshida, a member of Second Wind AC since its founding in April, 2007, has left the club following her appearance as a guest runner at the Mar. 15 Kusunoki Marathon. I would like to thank her from my heart for the help she has given SWAC over the last two years and for her competitiveness and dedication in her own running. Yoshida has taken a position with Amino Vital AC and, while working with that club, hopes to continue on as one of the top distance running women. We're all looking forward to seeing the new Kaori Yoshida!

While we're sad that Yoshida has resigned from the club, Second Wind is still looking forward toward our future goals. We remain an organization dedicated both to supporting world-class athletes capable of reaching the Olympics, World Championships, and other major international competitions, and to cultivating young, promising talent. We likewise continue to pursue our main goal of helping amateur runners to reach their own goals.

These three levels form the pyramid of our club's operations. We thank everyone who has helped us in our mission and ask for your continued support in the future.

Translator's note: Kaori Yoshida, winner of the 2006 Hokkaido Marathon and 2008 Casablanca Marathon, was one of the runners who left Team Shiseido with coach Kawagoe in 2007. Kawagoe's Second Wind AC represented a new model for Japanese runners who wanted to pursue a career outside the ekiden-oriented jitsugyodan corporate system. Following the departure of Kenyan Ruth Wanjiru in February, Yoshida is the second major runner to leave Second Wind within the past month.
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Who cares about Ekiden. It's not important. What's important is the world champs and olympics. It it true all year jitsugyodan corporate system train for ekiden all year! They don't train for the 10000 meters! We all know toyota industries won the ekiden.
March 17, 2009 at 7:49 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

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

Kipyegon Repeats, Toyo Wins Hakone Ekiden Qualifier in First Appearance in 21 Years

Back for the first time in 21 years after a disastrous 14th-place finish at the 102nd Hakone Ekiden this past January, Toyo University hit one out of western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park with a solid win at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, the half marathon that serves as the official qualifying race for the 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The top 10 teams in the Hakone auto-qualify for the following year, with the rest having to run the Yosenkai in October with a squad of 10 to 16 runners out of which the top 10 score on aggregate time, with the 10 fastest schools joining the Hakone field and top individuals from non-qualifying teams names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team to make up the complete Hakone field of 21. Driven in large part by an aggressive run from 3rd-year Yu Miyazaki , one of only 2 Japanese athletes to go with the big African contingent up front, Toyo won in 10:31:30, 1:03:09 or 2:59.6/km per athlete. As the first team to have broken the 3:00/km average pace barrie...
1 comment
Read more

Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...
2 comments
Read more