Skip to main content

"I Can Still Progress" - Kasumi Nishihara Makes it 10 Years at Yamada Denki



One of the central support pillars for Gunma's top women's long distance team Yamada Denki, Kasumi Nishihara has begun her tenth year with the team. With two 10000 m national titles and representation of Japan at the World Championships to her name, Nishihara has led the team on the road in the ekiden as well. A veteran at age 31, Nishihara is still full of motivation, saying, "People talk about age, but I can still progress. More than anything else, I still think running is fun." She is excited to try to make the Tokyo Olympic team on the track, and to finally make a long-awaited marathon debut.

Nishihara joined Yamada Denki in 2011 after graduating from Bukkyo University. She won the 10000 m national title twice, in 2014 and 2015. In 2014 she was 8th in the 10000 m at the Incheon Asian Games, and a year later ran at the Beijing World Championships. From 2014 through 2016 she also won the National Sports Festival 5000 m three years in a row. She also had her share of injuries. "Good times and bad times, I've been through it all," she says.

Through that experience Nishihara has changed. When she first came to Yamada Denki she was focused on herself, not the sort of person who would lead those around her through her words. At last year's National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships Yamada Denki had missed out on a seventh-straight podium finish, underlining the need for them to get more serious about their training. With her teammates' morale was at its lowest, she stepped up to turn them back around. At this year's end of season team meeting she had changed visibly, taking the initiative in encouraging the younger runners on the team and telling them, "If you've truly got the motivation, then let's do it for real."

Kasumi Nishihara - born Mar. 1, 1989 in Kyoto. 5000 m PB of 15:20.20, 10000 m PB of 31:53.69. Winner of the final running of the Kyoto Half Marathon.

source articles:
https://www.jomo-news.co.jp/sports/gunma/211096
translated by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

'CAS Clears Japan’s Olympic Silver Medallist Ikeda of Doping, Overturns Ban'

https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/10/23/cas-clears-japans-olympic-silver-medallist-ikeda-of-doping-overturns-ban The AIU's missteps in this case cost Tokyo Olympics and Oregon World Championships 20 km race walk silver medalist Koki Ikeda , a Toyo University graduate who competes for the Asahi Kasei corporate team, the chance to represent Japan at a home soil World Championships last year. It is almost unheard of for an athlete to successfully fight a biological passport suspension as Ikeda did, making this a highly significant case. The CAS' press release about its decision stated: "The Panel stressed that the Athlete did not merely assert his position on the ABP abnormalities but adduced very extensive evidence in support of his explanations. In this highly complex case, the evidence brought during the CAS proceedings was far more abundant and specific than during the first instance proceedings with the WA Disciplinary Tribunal, implying the CAS Panel had further ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meijo Back With Morinomiyako Ekiden CR for National University Title

The last big dynasty school in Japanese women's distance running with 7-straight wins at October's Morinomiyako Ekiden from 2017 to 2023 and 6-straight titles at the season-ending Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden from 2018 to 2023, Meijo University came back from a 3rd-place finish last year to win the 44th Morinomiyako Ekiden again, leading almost start-to-finish to set a 2:02:21 CR for the 6-stage, 38.0 km course in Sendai. 12 second back in 2nd after the opening leg, collegiate 3000 mSC champ Nozomi Kondo put Meijo out front with a 12:36 CR for the 4.0 km Second Stage, and the rest of the team never looked back. The biggest threat to a Meijo win was on the 9.2 m Fifth Stage, where this year's collegiate 10000 m winner Sarah Wanjiru from last year's runner-up Daito Bunka University started 50 seconds back from Meijo 1st-year Mao Kimura . In taking the 10000 m title Wanjiru had outrun Kimura by over a minute, but today Kimura was a revelation, strong and smooth out fr...
1 comment
Read more

Morinomiyako Ekiden Preview

The university men's ekiden circuit is 100% dominated by schools from the Tokyo-area Kanto Region, but for women it's more geographically diverse, the last two big dynasty schools being the Tokai Region's Meijo University and the Kansai Region's Ritsumeikan University with Kanto's Daito Bunka University a perpetual close 2nd at both of the main races, Sunday's Morinomiyako Ekiden and December's Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden . Last year Kanto's Josai University scored upset wins at both Morinomiyako and Mt. Fuji , to make it a rare Kanto sweep. At Morinomiyako DBU was 2nd yet again with Meijo 3rd and Tohoku region local Tohoku Fukushi University a surprise 4th to hold 2024 winner and top Kansai team Ritsumeikan back to 5th. At Mt. Fuji Tohoku Fukushi almost pulled off a shock win on the anchor stage before Josai came back on the final climb, bumping DBU down to 3rd and Meijo to 4th, with Ritsumeikan 5th there too. Fresh names at the top of the list a...
1 comment
Read more