Skip to main content

New Rules to Stop Struggling Athletes Applied at Princess Ekiden

The qualifying race for the Nov. 22 National Corporate Women's Ekiden took place Oct. 18 in Munakata, Fukuoka, with Sekisui Kagaku winning the six-stage, 42.195 km race for the second year in a row in 2:17:03 and the top fourteen teams qualifying. Two-time national champion Daiichi Seimei's 21-year qualification streak was broken as it finished 15th. As the first national-level road race to take place since the start of the coronavirus crisis, teams were asked not to have their cheering squads along the course and other COVID countermeasures were put in place.

On the ekiden's 7.0 km opening stage, Kako Okada, an athlete with the Kyocera team, collapsed less than 100 m from the first exchange zone and was unable to continue. Okada went into full-body convulsions and on-site medical staff called an ambulance. Hearing the news from the First Stage supervisor, the race's chief referee quickly made the decision to officially stop Okada.

Two years ago another athlete suffered a fracture during the same ekiden and crawled to the exchange zone on her hands and knees. Following that incident, the JAAF moved to stipulate in the rules the criteria and procedure for stopping athletes under duress who try to continue. The chief referee and race medical staff can now stop such athletes regardless of what the athlete's coach says. The new rule was applied in this situation. 

According to race officials, Okada seemed to be suffering from dehydration and was taken to the hospital. She was later discharged and returned to her team.

source article:
translated by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Stefan said…
I find it disturbing that an athlete that is 'coached' could suffer dehydration in these circumstances. To think this was a 7km leg and this happened! And it's not the first time I've seen this sort of thing occur which makes you wonder what sort of coaching and stress these athletes are being placed under... And the medical care on hand seemed very insufficient and slow?

The cynical part of me wants to know if gambling on these events occurs too?
October 21, 2020 at 11:50 AM
Brett Larner said…
TBH, "dehydration" is likely a polite code word for something else.
October 21, 2020 at 9:15 PM
Stefan said…
Thank you Brett. That makes more sense. I guess if an athlete has an underlying illness or experiences a medical episode then they probably want to maintain some level of privacy for the athlete, so yes, that would make more sense saying it is "dehydration". I had no idea they did that so thank you for clarifying this for me.
October 22, 2020 at 3:22 AM
Metts said…
I'm all for doing ones best and even competition that is fair and honest. But it seems in this day and age, in some or many circles, the only thing that matters still is winning. I'm sure these coaches and whomever are under tremendous stress to win, even if it means, subtly putting athletes at risk. So they push athletes and the coaches jobs are always on the line. Forget the idea of bushido and the fighting spirit. In many respects it has gone far beyond that, and not just in running but many areas. Its unfortunate, in this day and age, that there might still be some leaders who are stressed to the point that they feel they need to put athletes at risk Not just in Japan but everywhere in the world.
October 25, 2020 at 10:52 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Murayama and Sasaki Making U.S. Debut at New York Mini 10 km

Every year since 2012 that there's been a United Airlines NYC Half , JRN has partnered with the NYRR and November's Ageo City Half Marathon to bring two top-tier collegiate Japanese men to the NYC Half for what's usually been their international debuts. For years we've wanted to extend that program to include top collegiate women, but that has always faced 2 problems. For one, while the half marathon distance is the main focus for Japanese collegiate men due to the stage lengths at the Hakone Ekiden, few collegiate women run it. Those that do run the National University Women's Half Marathon in Matsue, held the same day as the NYC Half. This year, though, we're finally making it happen in a slightly different way. Amisa Murayama and Nazuki Sasaki of 2025 Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden national collegiate championship runner-up Tohoku Fukushi University are joining the field for the NYRR's Mastercard New York Mini 10 km on June 6. After running an 18:14 CR ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Some Reflections on the Ekiden

by Brett Larner This ekiden season I've had a few thoughts kicking around, and watching this week's Hakone Ekiden a few of them became clearer.  These are still in progress, but at the moment this is what I'm thinking in terms of running as a spectator sport and about the quality of Japanese men's distance running right now. Quality: Japanese men's running is coming up very, very quickly.  I was in the lead car at November's Ageo City Half Marathon , where 18 men, 17 of them university runners, broke 63 minutes.  As it was going on we all thought it was a slow race because there were so many people running that pace all the way, no separation at all in the mass of the pack. See the JRN header photo above, taken just past halfway.  That's pretty unusual in Japan, especially at the university level; generally you'll get a handful of guys who run an aggressive pace and a mass running dead on a safe pace, 3:00/km in a half marathon, for example. Th...
18 comments
Read more

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...
82 comments
Read more