Skip to main content

Kawauchi Tells Crowd of 1000 at High School World Championships Sendoff Ceremony: "I Will Make Top Six"

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20130710/ath13071011260000-n1.html

translated by Brett Larner

On July 10, Moscow World Championships marathon team member Yuki Kawauchi (26, Saitama Pref. Gov't) appeared at a sendoff ceremony at his alma mater Kasukabe Higashi H.S.  Speaking to the entire school body of 1000 in the school gymnasium, Kawauchi told them confidently, "I will make top six, so please continue to give me your support as I prepare to achieve that goal."  He smiled as he received a bouquet of flowers from student representatives and an enthusiastic round of applause from the entire crowd.

On the commemorative placard he signed for students at the ceremony Kawauchi wrote to them the message "Overthrow the status quo."  In interviews after the ceremony Kawauchi was earnest and determined as he said, "I will never give up and will run people down one by one to keep moving up in the standings at the World Championships.  I want to give the students here something worth remembering."

Kawauchi was a valuable member of the Kasukabe Higashi H.S. track and field team before his graduation in 2005.  He is currently an employee of the Saitama Prefectural Government, working in the office of the nearby Kasukabe Continuing Education H.S.  On July 7th he tied the course record at Australia's Gold Coast Airport Marathon, his tenth marathon win in twenty-five marathons to date, showing that he is in good shape.  The Moscow World Championships will be his second-straight appearance on a World Championships marathon national team.

Comments

simonfranklin said…
would love him to medal! the slower the race the more chance!

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...

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...

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...