Skip to main content

100 m NR Holder Ito: Japan Has Entered the Ranks of the World's True Relay Powerhouse Nations

an editorial by Koji Ito 
men's 100 m national record holder
JAAF Development Committee Chair

In London Japan won the men's 4x100 m relay bronze, its first-ever World Championships 4x100 m medal. I'm glad that they were able to win a medal. My honest impression was that they have done well to come this far. Before the race started sprint coach Shunji Karube was saying, "They're totally going to medal," but a key part of Japan's strength is in fact the rich experience he and Coach Hiroyasu Tsuchie bring to the picture. I think their tactics are amazing. During the heats they could make an assessment of Aska Cambridge's situation in just half a day and replace him with Kenji Fujimitsu, who delivered a solid run.

Japan has entered the ranks of the world's true relay powerhouse nations. Apart from leading man Shuhei Tada, the other three members were talking before the race in a totally relaxed way that would have been unthinkable in my era. The final makeup of the team, its color, was important too, the mix of youth, mid-career and veteran runners and the depth that has emerged at each level. For the future we have to develop greater depth to be able to put together two 37-second teams like this year's world champion Great Britain.

Japanese Men's 4x100 m Relay World Championships and Olympic Games History

2017 London World Championships - bronze - 38.04
2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games - silver - 37.60 - AR
2015 Beijing World Championships - 4th, Heat 1 - 38.60
2013 Moscow World Championships - 6th - 38.39
2012 London Olympic Games - 4th - 38.35
2011 Daegu World Championships - 4th, Heat 2 - 38.66
2009 Berlin World Championships - 4th - 38.30
2008 Beijing Olympic Games - bronze - 38.15
2007 Osaka World Championships - 5th - 38.03 - AR
2005 Helsinki World Championships - 8th - 38.77
2004 Athens Olympic Games - 4th - 38.49
2003 Paris World Championships - 6th - 39.05
2001 Edmonton World Championships - 4th - 38.96
2000 Sydney Olympic Games - 5th - 38.31 - AR tie
1999 Seville World Championships - did not qualify
1997 Athens World Championships - 5th, Semifinal 2 - 38.31 - AR
1996 Atlanta Olympic Games - DQ, Heat 2
1995 Gothenburg World Championships - 5th - 39.33
1993 Stuttgart World Championships - 7th, Semifinal 1 - 39.01
1992 Barcelona Olympic Games - 6th - 38.77
1991 Tokyo World Championships - 6th, Heat 2 - 39.19
1988 Seoul Olympic Games - 5th, Semifinal 1 - 38.90
1987 Rome World Championships - 5th, Semifinal 1 - 39.71
1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games - did not qualify
1983 Helsinki World Championships - did not qualify

source article: https://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/1871951.html
translated by Brett Larner
photo by Ekiden Mania, © 2017 Kazuyuki Sugimatsu, all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

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...
8 comments
Read more

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...
1 comment
Read more

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...
2 comments
Read more