Skip to main content

Yoshihide Kiryu Named Captain of Japanese Men's World Juniors Team

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2014/07/18/kiji/K20140718008583590.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

A 9-second time would give Japan a jolt of momentum.  100 m sprinter Yoshihide Kiryu (18, Toyo Univ.) left Narita Airport for the World Junior Track and Field Championships starting July 22nd in Eugene, Oregon, U.S.A.  Based on his experience at last summer's World Track and Field Championships and other accomplishments, Kiryu was named captain of the Japanese men's team at World Juniors.  His first time playing such a big role, Kiryu was hopeful for the team's chances, saying, "I've never been captain before so I don't know how reliable I'll be, but I want everyone to have a great time racing." 

Kiryu has fully recovered from the pain in his right foot that was bothering him before last month's National Track and Field Championships and has set his sights on both Japan's first sub-10 clocking and the 100 m gold medal.  With the men's 100 m getting underway on the first day of competition Kiryu will be butting heads with 9.97 American Travyon Bromell right from go.  "I just want to enjoy competing," he said.  "I'd love to drop the time but either way I'm aiming for the top.  I want to bring the results and get into a good flow I can ride all the way."  Along with the 100 m, Kiryu is scheduled to run second on the 4x100 m relay team.

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Multiple National Records This Weekend

Olympic and World champion Haruka Kitaguchi got the biggest headlines among Japanese athletes this weekend, overcoming a rough last year and a half that included injury and a coaching change to break her own javelin throw NR by over a meter and a half to win the inaugural WA Ultimate Championship in Budapest. U20 WR and Asian AR holder Ziyi Yan opened with a big 68.05, 0.67 m further than Kitaguchi's best-ever from back in 2023. That could have been the end, but Kitaguchi came back from a 61.15 m first attempt to throw a massive 68.92 m NR on her next one, ultimately enough for the win. She still has a long way to go to match the 18-year-old Yan's 71.74 m from May, but it was a clear statement that Kitaguchi is back. Back home at the National Corporate Track and Field Championships in Kyoto, women's pole vault NR holder Misaki Morota continued a solid comeback season of her own, bettering her NR from May by 1 cm with a 4.51 m on her first attempt. Morota took another 3...

On the Loss of the ARRS Database

At some point in the last few months I discovered that both versions of the ARRS database, the static one and the searchable version , are gone. Last week David Monti posted a link to the ARRS history of an event he covered in Race Results Weekly, I guess copying and pasting a link from last year without looking at it, and that reminded me to write something about the loss of the database. The Association of Road Racing Statisticians was basically a one-man show operated from the remote Northern California shores by Ken Young . When the site existed its intro read: The Association of Road Racing Statisticians (ARRS) is an independent, non-profit organization that collects, analyses and publishes results and statistics regarding elite distance running at distances 3000m and longer...The data of ARRS is stored in the ARRS database, which has more than 1.3 million performances from more than 240,000 races by more than 95,000 elite and sub-elite distance runners worldwide...This website ...

Keita Satoh Running New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile

1500 m U20 NR holder Keita Satoh (Nike Swoosh TC) is running this weekend's New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile , the first time that a Japanese man has been invited in the race's 45-year history. In university Sato had to change focus away from middle distance to the half marathon-scale lengths of the Hakone Ekiden stages, but since graduating in March and relocating to Flagstaff he has refocused on the 1500 m, going from 3:43.19 in April in his first 1500 m in almost 4 years to 3:38.30 over the course of 5 races. Fifth Avenue will be his last race before heading back to Japan for one more track 1500 m and some down time. Men's entries with best 1500 m times in last 3 years: Stefan Nillessen (NED) - 3:29.23 (2025) Flavien Szot (FRA) - 3:30.74 (2025) Oliver Hoare (AUS) - 3:31.07 (2024) Jake Heyward (GBR) - 3:31.18 (2026) Titouan Le Grix (FRA) - 3:31.46 (2026) Romain Mornet (FRA) - 3:31.62 (2025) Adam Spencer (AUS) - 3:31.83 (2026) Pieter Sisk (BEL) - 3:31.85 (2025) Gary Martin (...