Skip to main content

Hakone Ekiden Anchor Stage Record Breaker Yudai Shimazu Taking Leave of Absence From Soka University



On July 21 it was learned that Soka University third-year Yudai Shimazu, who at January's Hakone Ekiden broke the 13-year-old anchor stage course record to give Soka its first-ever top ten finish, first return trip to Hakone 2021, and first invitation to the Izumo Ekiden, has taken a leave of absence from the university. Shimazu started the Hakone anchor stage in 11th but succeeded in running down two teams to put Soka into 9th. He earnied special attention for having done it while being one of only 33 runners in the Hakone field of 210 not to wear Nike's Zoom X Vaporfly Next %, instead wearing a white pair of Mizunos.

On the 21st, the Inter-University Athletic Union of Kanto (KGRR) announced the seven teams it will send to the Nov. 1 National University Men's Ekiden Championships. In a normal year these teams would earn their places at June's Yosenkai qualifying race, each team fielding two runners in each of four heats of 10000 m on the track with teams scored by the total of their men's times. This year the Yosenkai was canceled due to coronavirus crisis. Instead, the KGRR totaled each team's eight fastest 10000 m bests in 2019 to determine the seven teams it would send.

Soka would have been ranked 6th, earning a place at Nationals, but Shimazu ranking as its fifth-best man at 29:15.71 meant that with his absence the team dropped to 9th and failed to qualify. A team spokesperson commented, "Shimazu wanted to take some time off from school. We sincerely hope he comes back. He's a crucial part of the team and we want to be part of it as we make our Izumo Ekiden debut and first time running Hakone as a seeded school."

The qualifiers for Nationals were Nihon University, Chuo Gakuin University, Meiji University, Juntendo University, Yamanashi Gakuin University, Nittai University and Josai University. Chuo University was 7 seconds from qualifying, with Soka University another second behind. Eight other Kanto Region programs already had seeded places at Nationals by finishing in the top 8 at last year's race.

Translator's note: It is very unusual in Japan for university students to take a leave of absence, especially an athlete in a top-level program.

source article:
https://hochi.news/articles/20200721-OHT1T50119.html
translated by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

World Marathon Majors Japanese Entries

We're back from a short summer break. A week and a half out from the first race of the season's four World Marathon Majors races, here's a look at Japanese athletes scheduled to run. Everything right now is about qualifying for the MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to be held in the fall of 2027 in Nagoya. The JAAF makes no mistake about wanting to keep its top people racing domestically where it can get a share of revenue from the TV broadcast and race operations, so anyone who decides to race overseas has to do it in a WA platinum label race and hit either 2:06:30 or 2:23:30, regardless of place, course or weather if they want to make the trials. At the same time concessions are make for domestic races, like for example the late-August Hokkaido Marathon where up to 3 men and 3 women can qualify if they go 2:12:00 or 2:32:00. As a result, you get things like last year where amateur runner Yudai Fukuda made the trials by finishing 3rd Jap...
1 comment
Read more

Nakajima Breaks 100 mH NR Twice, Kitaguchi Returns - August Track Roundup

Catching up on what's been happening in track and field this month during our summer break: Men's 3000 m NR holder Nagiya Mori was just off his 5000 m PB at the IFAM Oordegem meet in Belgium on Aug. 1, taking 16th in 13:15.01. Shota Nakano was 26th of 28 in 13:35.02. This year's national champion Ryoma Aoki ran the 3000 mSC but didn't finish. Naoto Hasegawa was the only Japanese athlete at Mutaz Essa Barshim 's What Gravity Tour stop at the Monaco Athletics Festival meet on Aug. 5. Having cleared 2.30 m for the first time earlier this year Hasegawa only managed 2.18 m in Monaco, taking 7th of 10. There were a lot of good performances at the Fuji Hokuriku World Trial meet in Fujiyoshida on Aug. 9, but the one that got the headlines was a 12.62 (-0.2) NR in the women's 100 mH by Hitomi Nakajima . Nakajima actually did it twice, running 12.62 (+2.0) in the heats before repeating in the final. Masumi Aoki also ran big in the heats, with a 12.68 (+2.0) for al...
1 comment
Read more

Asian Games Competition Schedule

The daily athletics event schedule for September's Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games . Wednesday, Sept. 23 7:30 - Women's / Men's Half Marathon Race Walk Final Thursday, Sept. 24 10:00 - Women's Heptathlon 100 mH 10:20 - Mixed 4x400 m Relay Heats 10:30 - Men's Triple Jump Heats 10:40 - Women's Heptathlon High Jump 19:05 - Men's High Jump Heats 19:13 - Women's Heptathlon Shot Put 19:33 - Women's 100 m Heats 19:44 - Women's Triple Jump Final 20:08 - Men's 100 m Heats 20:55 - Men's Discus Throw Final 21:00 - Women's Heptathlon 200 m 21:25 - Women's 10000 m Final 22:15 - Mixed 4x400 m Relay Final Friday, Sept. 25 10:00 - Women's Heptathlon Long Jump 10:30 - Men's 400 m Heats 11:25 - Women's Heptathlon Javelin Throw 19:05 - Women's Shot Put Final 19:13 - Women's 100 m Semifinal 19:33 - Men's 100 m Semifinal 20:03 - Women's Pole Vault Final 20:11 - Women's Heptathlon 800 m 20:32 - Men's 10000 m Final 20:40 - M...
Post a Comment
Read more