Skip to main content

Incehon Asian Games Silver Medalist Kohei Matsumura Retires


On Mar. 16 the Mitsubishi Juko corporate team announced that 2014 Incheon Asian Games men's marathon silver medalist Kohei Matsumura, 34, has retired. Last year he became part of the team's coaching staff while continuing to compete as an athlete, but he will now shift focus to coaching full-time. His final race was last month's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, where he was 156th in 2:18:44.

Head coach Jun Kuroki commented, "He was the first athlete on our team to make a national team and the first to go sub-2:10 in the marathon. I hope he will help shape our next generation of marathoners and help them to become even stronger." 

A native of Takatsuki, Osaka, he was captain of Yamanashi Gakuin University's ekiden team, running the Hakone Ekiden's First Stage his 3rd and 4th years. He joined Mitsubishi Juko after graduating. At the 2014 Tokyo Marathon he ran his PB of 2:08:09. Later the same year he won the silver medal in the matathon at the Incheon Asian Games in a thrilling track sprint finish against Bahraini Ali Hassan Mahboob. After that race he struggled with injury and was never able to return to the same kind of form.

source article: 
translated by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Metts said…
How many of the coaches in the HS, university, or pro ranks continue to run races after the officially retire?

Or just continue to run?

I know you've posted here or on twitter a few coaches every now and then who run some races, such as a university coach in Tokyo who ran a 10K around 40 minutes or so.

Most-Read This Week

World Championships Medalist Racewalking Coach Mizuho Sakai Recognized With Highest Coaching Honor

The 2023 Mizuno Sports Mentor Awards recognizing excellence in coaching were held Apr. 23 in Tokyo. Toyo University assistant coach and race walking coach Mizuho Sakai was given a gold award, the program's highest honor, and expressed her thanks and joy in a speech at the award ceremony. The coach of 2023 Budapest World Championships men's 35 km race walk bronze medalist Masatora Kawano , Sakai said, "This is an incredible honor and I'm truly grateful. As a child I wanted to be in the sporting world and I've spent my life in that world. My end goal was always to play a supporting role for other athletes, so I'm honored to be recognized in this way." Sakai's husband Toshiyuki Sakai , head coach of Toyo's three-time Hakone Ekiden champion team, attended the awards gala with her and was also introduced to the audience. After bowing he took a seat in front of her and watched with warmth as she received recognition for her outstanding work. The Mizun

Hirabayashi Runs PB at Shanghai Half, WR Holder Nakata Dominates Fuji Five Lakes - Weekend Road Roundup

Returning to the roads after his 2:06:18 win at February's Osaka Marathon, Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Koku Gakuin University) took 5th at Sunday's Shanghai Half Marathon in a PB 1:01:23, just under a minute behind winner Roncer Kipkorir Konga (Kenya) who clocked a CR 1:00:29. After inexplicably running the equivalent of a sub-59 half marathon to win the Hakone Ekiden's Third Stage, Aoi Ota (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) was back to running performances consistent with his other PBs with a 1:02:30 for 8th. His AGU teammate Kyosuke Hiramatsu was 10th in 1:04:00. Women's winner Magdalena Shauri (Tanzania) also set a new CR in 1:09:57. Aoyama Gakuin runners took the top four spots in the men's half marathon at the Aomori Sakura Marathon , with Hakone alternate Kosei Shiraishi getting the win in 1:04:32 and B-team members Shunto Hamakawa and Kei Kitamura 2nd and 3rd in 1:04:45 and 1:04:48. Club runners took the other division titles, Hina Shinozaki winning the women's half

The Ivy League at the Izumo Ekiden in Review

Last week I was contacted by Will Geiken , who I'd met years ago when he was a part of the Ivy League Select Team at the Izumo Ekiden . He was looking for historical results from Izumo and lists of past team members, and I was able to put together a pretty much complete history, only missing the alternates from 1998 to 2010 and a little shaky on the reverse transliterations of some of the names from katakana back into the Western alphabet for the same years. Feel free to send corrections or additions to alternate lists. It's interesting to go back and see some names that went on to be familiar, to see the people who made an impact like Princeton's Paul Morrison , Cornell's Max King , Stanford's Brendan Gregg in one of the years the team opened up beyond the Ivy League, Cornell's Ben de Haan , Princeton's Matt McDonald , and Harvard's Hugo Milner last year, and some of the people who struggled with the format. 1998 Team: 15th of 21 overall, 2:14:10 (43