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Takahashi, Seko and Asahara Join Welcoming Committee for IOC Task Force

http://sports.nikkei.co.jp/index.aspx?n=SSXKD0679%2015042009

translated by Brett Larner

The International Olympic Committee's task force charged with evaluating Tokyo's bid for the 2016 summer Olympic Games will tour the proposed marathon course on Apr. 17 as part of its four-day examination of the city. On Apr. 15 it was announced that Sydney Olympics women's marathon gold medalist Naoko Takahashi will be part of the delegation greeting IOC members at the marathon course's starting point, the 1964 Olympic Games' National Stadium. Takahashi, Japan's first Olympic women's [sic] marathon gold medalist, will join Toshihiko Seko, the architect of an era of Japanese men's marathoning, in greeting IOC task force head and first African women's Olympic gold medalist Nawal El Moutawakel. Together the two greatest assets of Japanese marathoning will help to illustrate the strong appeal of Tokyo's Olympic bid. The proposed marathon course will travel from the 1964 Olympic stadium to the new Olympic stadium to be built in the Harumi neighborhood of Tokyo's Chuo Ward. Greeting the IOC task force at the intended site for the new Olympic stadium will be Beijing Olympics 4 x 100m relay bronze medalist Nobuharu Asahara.
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