Skip to main content

Yu Mitsuya Announces Retirement

http://gazoo.com/my/sites/0001453813/toyokyu/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=2116

translated and edited by Brett Larner
click here for these and more photos from hosts Life Style Running and the Toyota Kyushu Booster Club

Toyota Kyushu member Samuel Wanjiru pacing training partner Mitsuya in June, 2005

There was a major announcement at the post-race reception at a hotel in Takasaki following the New Year Ekiden.  After a 12-year career at the Koichi Morishita-coached Toyota Kyushu corporate team where he leaves a record of achievement including two World Championships teams and numerous track and ekiden records, Yu Mitsuya announced that he will retire from competition at the end of this season.  Other athletes quickly surrounded Mitsuya to throw him into the air in premature celebration.

Wanjiru and Mitsuya on the way to Mitsuya's 27:41.10 Japanese-soil record in June, 2005

Mitsuya currently plans for his final race to be the Feb. 21 Fukuoka International Cross Country Meet at Uminonakamichi Kaihin Park.  The Toyota Kyushu team plans to hold a retirement ceremony for Mitsuya following the race, so to all Toyota fans, please do not leave after the race but stay around for the ceremony.

Wanjiru and Mitsuya in Wanjiru's home in Kenya in May, 2010

Yu Mitsuya's Major Career Achievements
10000 m: 27:41.10 - all-time Japanese #7, at the time all-time #3 and fastest-ever by a Japanese man on Japanese soil
5000 m: 13:18.32 - all-time Japanese #4, at the time all-time #2, still the fastest-ever by a Japanese man on Japanese soil
2012 Asian Cross-Country Championships - 7th
2009 Kumanichi 30 km Road Race - 1st
2009 National Men's Ekiden Third Stage - 1st
2007 Osaka World Championships
2005 Helsinki World Championships
2005 Japanese 10000 m national champion
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Khishigsaikhan and Kuira Break Ageo City Half Marathon CRs (updated)

Stellar conditions and a solid fields meant times were going to be fast at the Ageo City Half Marathon , and in both the women's and men's races the front end took full advantage of the day. In the midst of the super-deep men's field Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh , the top Mongolian in this summer's Budapest World Championships marathon and in last month's Hangzhou Asian Games marathon, ran steady and strong, splitting 33:29 at 10 km, 1:10:38 pace, before pushing the 2nd half. Khishigsaikhan crossed the finish line 1:10:32, 1:22 under the old course record, 3:35 ahead of 2nd-place Kana Kobayashi , and a massive 4:16 off the Mongolian women's national record. Khishigsaikhan is currently training in Japan and ran Ageo in prep for next month's Taipei City Marathon, where she was 3rd last year. The men's race went out hard, with Kenyan Brian Kipyegon (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.), NR holder Yusuke Ogura (Yakult) and the ambitious Rei Matsunaga (Hosei) leading the ...
1 comment
Read more

A Few Words on Chicago

by Brett Larner photos by Dr. Helmut Winter Chicago comes at a tough time for Japan's corporate leagues, just before the start of the fall ekiden season's regional qualifiers.  Although just about every team has more than enough people to fill their lineups for these relatively minor events, head coaches will usually not let their better athletes do an October marathon, whether because of the limited recovery time in the event that they decide a big gun has to run in a qualifier, or because it would give them the hassle of explaining to the parent corporation why a star is off doing his or her own thing instead of being there for the team.  As a result you typically only see Japanese runners at Chicago when they are looking to drop something big, as with Yukiko Akaba  (Team Hokuren) and Yoshinori Oda  (Team Toyota) this year, or, like the block of  Japanese men at 2:12~2:13 , as part of a corporate federation junket for promising third-tier men to get the exp...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tanaka and Hashioka Win Gold - World U20 Championships Day Two Japanese Results

Working together to execute an aggressive frontrunning team strategy born from failure two years ago in Bydgoszcz , 2018 Asian U20 3000 m gold medalist Nozomi Tanaka and 2018 Asian Junior Cross Country gold medalist Yuna Wada opened a massive lead over the African Junior Cross Country medalist Ethiopian duo of Meselu Berhe and Tsige Gebreselama in the early going of the Tampere World U20 Championships women's 3000 m. Tanaka took the lead from the gun before Wada went out front at 200 m to set a fast pace. Through splits of 3:00 and 3:03 for the first 2000 m, Tanaka kicked hard from 300 m out to close with a 2:51 for Japan's first-ever gold medal in the event, winning in a PB of 8:54.01. Berhe and Gebreselama caught Wada on the back corner but weren't even close to matching Tanaka, taking 2nd and 3rd in PBs just under the 9-minute mark. Wada just held off Kenyan Jenali Jemutai Yego for 4th in 9:00.50, seeming happy in post-race interviews to have helped a teammate ...
Post a Comment
Read more