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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.

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translated by Brett Larner

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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
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