Skip to main content

Takushoku University Names Ethiopian Derese Captain of Ekiden Team



It's been a month since the 94th Hakone Ekiden wrapped up. Every university is busy piecing together its new team. After making the seeded top ten for the first time in four years, Takushoku University, alma mater of Olympic marathoners Kentaro Nakamoto (Yasukawa Denki) and Arata Fujiwara (Arata Project) has named third-year Derese Workneh its team captain for the 2018-19 season. Under the leadership of this exceptional foreign student athlete the team aims to beat its best-ever Hakone placing, 7th. The clock is already ticking to the 95th running.

Veteran head coach Masahiro Okada, 72, is confident in his choice of captain. "The only one who can lead the new Takushoku is Derese," said Okada. He informed the team of his decision at its first meeting on Jan. 4, a day after Takushoku returned to the seeded bracket with an 8th place finish at this year's Hakone.


It has only been three years since Derese came to Japan from Ethiopia. His initial reaction to the announcement was, "I think my language ability will be too much of a problem," but his teammates all overruled him with a warm round of applause. Accepting the position, he already showed the dignity of a true leader as he told them, "There are things I can't say with words, but those things I will try to communicate by leading the team from the heart."

It's unheard of for a non-Japanese student to be named captain. Coach Okada again showed confidence in his decision as he explained, "I've been thinking about who I would name as the next captain since last summer. Derese always led the team in the hard workouts, and sometimes he would drop back to give encouragement to teammates who had fallen behind. Sometimes he would bring donuts for the others when they worked hard at a session. He is the man on the team who best understands the meaning of teamwork. All he needs to do as captain is what he has already done naturally."


Leading the team on the track, Derese always wants to enter the world of the marathon. From Jan. 9 to 14 he took part in a marathon training camp in Okinawa doing 35 km and 40 km training runs. At the time he planned to run the Feb. 25 Tokyo Marathon, but after getting sick upon his return to Tokyo he decided to shift his debut to the Apr. 15 Nagano Marathon. "My goal in my first marathon is 2:08 to 2:10," Derese said. "There are a lot of very strong athletes in Ethiopia, but I am aiming to make the 2020 Tokyo Olympic team. I think I have a chance."

Heading into his final Hakone season, the targets are already in place, both for Takushoku as a team and for Derese as an individual. Takushoku's best-ever 7th-place Hakone finish came in 2011. For the last three years Derese ran Hakone's most competitive stage, its 23.1 km Second Stage. Now, he says, "I want us to leave our best-ever result as a team. To help make that happen, I'm going to run 66 minutes on the Second Stage."


"My hobby is learning," Derese says. Like a true student, this 22-year-old has had a dream since the beginning. "I want to invite my mother Wanda to my graduation ceremony." To show his mother how much he has grown during his four years in Japan, as both Takushoku University's star runner and captain, the coming year will be the biggest of Derese's life so far.

Derese Workneh - born July 23, 1995 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 22 years old. Began running in elementary school. Entered Takushoku University in 2015 after graduating from Medhani Alem H.S. Has run the Hakone Ekiden Second Stage three times, finishing 11th as a 1st-yr, 2nd as a 2nd-yr, and 5th as a 3rd-yr. 10000 m PB: 28:19.16. 169 km, 51 kg.


source article: 
http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/feature/hakone/20180130-OHT1T50157.html
translated and edited by Brett Larner
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Saku Chosei H.S. Makes It 2 In a Row - National High School Ekiden Boys' Race

While the girls' race was a blowout by 2022 champ Nagano Higashi H.S. , the boys' race at Sunday's National High School Ekiden was a tense battle of turnover that saw all of the final top four teams take a stab at leading. 2023 3rd-placer Yachiyo Shoin H.S. handled the first 2 of the 7 stages in the 42.195 km race, with lead runner Rui Suzuki delivering a bold run on the 10.0 km First Stage that produced the fastest-ever time by a Japanese runner on the stage, 28:43, and put Yachiyo Shoin 29 seconds out front. Last year's Fifth Stage CR breaker Tetsu Suzuki ran Yachiyo Shoin down to put 2023 champ Saku Chosei H.S. into 1st on the 8.1075 km Third Stage, but Genta Sugano of last year's 8th-placer Sendai Ikuei H.S. had other plans and took the lead on the 8.0875 km Fourth Stage. Smiling and fist pumping to the crowd almost the entire way, Taketo Tsukada of last year's 6th-placer Omuta H.S. moved up from 3rd to 1st by 2 seconds over Saku Chosei on the 3.0 k...
Post a Comment
Read more

Japan Post Holds Off Sekisui Kagaku to Win Queens Ekiden National Title

  Japan Post  was back on top at the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championships Sunday in Sendai, holding off last year's winner Sekisui Kagaku  over the second half of a race that came as close as 1 second to take 1st with a final margin of victory of 27 seconds. Sekisui Kagaku was out fast with a win on the 7.0 km opening leg by Erika Tanoura  and a new CR for the 12:56 second leg by Yuma Yamamoto , 17 seconds better than her own CR from last year. Last year's 4th-placer Shiseido  briefly led on the 10.6 km third leg with an excellent 33:17 stage win from Rino Goshima , but behind her Japan Post's Ririka Hironaka  returned from her latest injury problems to pass Sekisui Kagaku's Sayaka Sato  and hand off 6 seconds ahead. New recruit Caroline Kariba  ran Shiseido down on the 3.6 km fourth leg and put Japan Post 22 seconds ahead of Sekisui Kagaku, but a duel of marathoners between JP's  Ayuko Suzuki  and Sekisui's Hitomi Niiy...
1 comment
Read more

Nagano Higashi Girls Lead Start to Finish to Win National High School Ekiden

2022 National High School Ekiden girls' champion Nagano Higashi H.S. was back in force after a 5th-place finish last year, leading start to finish to win this year's national title Sunday in Kyoto. Lead runner Airi Mashiba kicked it off with a 19:30 stage win on the 6.0 km opening leg, something that head coach Fumio Yokouchi said later that he hadn't been expecting. That ended up being Nagano Higashi's only individual stage win in the 5-leg, 21.0975 km race, but the rest of its team ran well enough to hold a lead that was never less than 11 seconds but never more than 21. Last year's 4th-placer Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. spent most of the race in 2nd, but over the second half of the race Sendai Ikuei H.S. , 2nd last year by just 1 second, came from further back to run Kunei down on the anchor stage thanks in big part to a critical stage win on the 4th leg by Tsubomi Tezuka that put anchor Aoi Hosokawa in position to catch Kunei's Mizuki Oda . Nagano Higashi ...
Post a Comment
Read more