translated by Brett Larner
Kitaoka, Oda, Kawauchi, Nakamoto and Horibata with their team silver medals, Japan's eighth-straight World Championships finishing on the men's team podium. Click photo to enlarge.
Hiroyuki Horibata (Team Asahi Kasei) - 7th, 2:11:52
"I came down with a fever before the race. It didn't hold me back and I ran with my full strength, but now I can't breathe through my nose. It was cloudy on race day and felt very cool so I thought it was going to go out fast, but it started a little slow. After 5 km the pace started going back and forth, something I've never experienced before. It was my first time running Worlds, and up until 15 km I had some margin to enjoy it, but after 20 km things picked way up and I could feel the margin disappearing from my legs. I figured the pace would slow down again so I thought I would try to stick with them, but things never slowed down and I drifted back from the top pack. This time my training was solid all the way until the end, so even once I was all alone I had confidence that I'd be able to keep going like I did in practice. Finishing 7th met my pre-race goals, so I'm very happy about that."
Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 10th, 2:13:10
"It was good that I was able to hang on through the second half but I'm disappointed at not making the top eight. I feel disappointment and a sense of accomplishment about fifty-fifty. I couldn't roll with [the Africans] when they started shaking things up."
Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) - 18th, 2:16:11
"Personally speaking it was a failure, but I'm glad I was able to help win a [team] medal. I achieved my minimum goal. I had trouble sleeping because of stress, but once I started running it was like normal. After I finished my hands, feet, lips, thighs and shoulders were all shaking. I'm glad I could do something for Japan. In the winter I'm going to run Fukuoka and Tokyo. I'll be shooting for 2:07 there, or at least Seko and Nakayama's best times"
Yoshinori Oda (Team Toyota) - 29th, 2:18:05
"I couldn't handle the speed all the international runners brought. In my training before the race I focused on building my stamina, but I can see now that I should have worked on my speed more as well. The left leg injury I've had before felt like it was on the edge of coming back, so I tried to just maintain a steady pace but it was hard and I had to just run by feel. It was a good experience. It'll be a bitter memory but I hope to learn from it for my next marathon."
Yukihiro Kitaoka (Team NTN) - 38th, 2:23:11
"I'd had injury problems and was just barely ready. After the beginning of August I felt a lot lighter but I didn't have nearly enough training under my belt. It was hard after 5 km and there was no way around that, but since I was running for the Japanese national team I'm glad I was able to finish."
Update 9/7/11: Click here for a screenshot of American track fansite Letsrun.com's strangely bigoted response to Japan's silver medal.
source articles:
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/seriku/2011/news/p-sp-tp0-20110905-830600.html
http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/osaka/sports/article/news/20110905-OHO1T00079.htm
http://www.chunichi.co.jp/chuspo/article/sports/news/CK2011090502000071.html
http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/110905/spg1109050506002-n2.htm
http://www.asahi-kasei.co.jp/asahi/jp/csr/sports/rikujo/result/2011/110904.html
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/seriku/2011/news/f-sp-tp0-20110904-830294.html
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/seriku/2011/news/f-sp-tp0-20110904-830298.html
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/seriku/2011/news/f-sp-tp0-20110904-830299.html
Hiroyuki Horibata (Team Asahi Kasei) - 7th, 2:11:52
"I came down with a fever before the race. It didn't hold me back and I ran with my full strength, but now I can't breathe through my nose. It was cloudy on race day and felt very cool so I thought it was going to go out fast, but it started a little slow. After 5 km the pace started going back and forth, something I've never experienced before. It was my first time running Worlds, and up until 15 km I had some margin to enjoy it, but after 20 km things picked way up and I could feel the margin disappearing from my legs. I figured the pace would slow down again so I thought I would try to stick with them, but things never slowed down and I drifted back from the top pack. This time my training was solid all the way until the end, so even once I was all alone I had confidence that I'd be able to keep going like I did in practice. Finishing 7th met my pre-race goals, so I'm very happy about that."
Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 10th, 2:13:10
"It was good that I was able to hang on through the second half but I'm disappointed at not making the top eight. I feel disappointment and a sense of accomplishment about fifty-fifty. I couldn't roll with [the Africans] when they started shaking things up."
Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) - 18th, 2:16:11
"Personally speaking it was a failure, but I'm glad I was able to help win a [team] medal. I achieved my minimum goal. I had trouble sleeping because of stress, but once I started running it was like normal. After I finished my hands, feet, lips, thighs and shoulders were all shaking. I'm glad I could do something for Japan. In the winter I'm going to run Fukuoka and Tokyo. I'll be shooting for 2:07 there, or at least Seko and Nakayama's best times"
Yoshinori Oda (Team Toyota) - 29th, 2:18:05
"I couldn't handle the speed all the international runners brought. In my training before the race I focused on building my stamina, but I can see now that I should have worked on my speed more as well. The left leg injury I've had before felt like it was on the edge of coming back, so I tried to just maintain a steady pace but it was hard and I had to just run by feel. It was a good experience. It'll be a bitter memory but I hope to learn from it for my next marathon."
Yukihiro Kitaoka (Team NTN) - 38th, 2:23:11
"I'd had injury problems and was just barely ready. After the beginning of August I felt a lot lighter but I didn't have nearly enough training under my belt. It was hard after 5 km and there was no way around that, but since I was running for the Japanese national team I'm glad I was able to finish."
Update 9/7/11: Click here for a screenshot of American track fansite Letsrun.com's strangely bigoted response to Japan's silver medal.
source articles:
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/seriku/2011/news/p-sp-tp0-20110905-830600.html
http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/osaka/sports/article/news/20110905-OHO1T00079.htm
http://www.chunichi.co.jp/chuspo/article/sports/news/CK2011090502000071.html
http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/110905/spg1109050506002-n2.htm
http://www.asahi-kasei.co.jp/asahi/jp/csr/sports/rikujo/result/2011/110904.html
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/seriku/2011/news/f-sp-tp0-20110904-830294.html
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/seriku/2011/news/f-sp-tp0-20110904-830298.html
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/seriku/2011/news/f-sp-tp0-20110904-830299.html
Comments
Not sure what to make of letsrun's seeming dismissal of the Japanese team's accomplishment as only due to "some other countries screw[ing] up." Japan had the third-best team on paper and, while it's true that they got silver rather than bronze thanks to three Ethiopians dropping out, Japan would have had to be the one screwing up not to finish in the medals.
I have also been a little bit baffled by some of Letsrun's comments of late. Anything achieved by a non American is in danger of being downplayed or undervalued at the moment it seems.
Congrats Japan - I think anyone with the slightest knowledge of world marathoning knows that Japan is an incredibly strong country in terms of depth!
Marathon World Cup:
(Score there men per nation on total time):
1. KEN, 6:29:23 USD 20,000
2. JPN, 6:41:13 15,000
3. MAR, 6:42:18 12,000
4. ESP, 6:53:41 10,000
5. CHN, 6:54:32 8,000
6. KOR, 6:57:03 6,000
7. USA, 7:04:52
[7 teams total]