Skip to main content

High School 5000 m NR Holder Kosuke Ishida Enters Toyo University


Toyo University's entrance ceremonies for the 2021-22 academic year took place Apr. 6 in Tokyo. Kosuke Ishida, the 5000 m high school boys' national record holder with a best of 13:34.74, was among the incoming first-years. He will be guided by head coach Toshiyuki Sakai, 44, who at Toyo previously coached 10000 m national record holder Akira Aizawa, former half marathon and marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara, Tokyo Olympics marathon team member Yuma Hattori, 2:06:45 marathoner Ryu Takaku and many other top-level talents. Through a statement issued by the university, Ishida said that he is aiming to make to the 5000 m at the 2024 Paris Olympics during his senior year.

"This spring I've entered Toyo University," Ishida wrote. "The reason I chose Toyo University is that I want to become a world-class athlete, and I wanted head coach Toshiyuki Sakai to help me get there. My goals while a student at Toyo are to make the 5000 m at the 2024 Olympics and to help Toyo win all three of the Big Three University Ekidens. I'm proud to wear the Iron Blue uniform so many great alumni have worn before me, and I will take the team slogan "Prove the Iron Blue" to heart and become the best I can be."

The very top of his generation, Ishida is still just 18. In an online interview on Apr. 2 he expanded on his written comments, saying, "When I heard Coach Sakai say, 'My goal is to develop world-class athletes,' it really resonated with me." Discussing his plans he was already focused on becoming internationally competitive, saying, "My first year will be about laying the groundwork for the main goal, the 2024 Paris Olympics. For the team, it's winning all three ekidens. My third year especially it'll be the 100th Hakone Ekiden, and I want to be there in the winners' circle to throw coach into the air in celebration."

While at Fukuoka's Asakawa J.H.S. Ishida set junior high school national records for 1500 m, 3000 m and 5000 m. His third year at Tokyo Nogyo Daini H.S. he broke the 5000 m high school national record twice. Coach Sakai commented, "He's an athlete who can establish his own plans and achieve records. He's coming to us with very big goals, and I want to give him the maximum support and guidance in achieving them." Ishida is scheduled to make his debut in the Toyo uniform in May.

source article: 
translated and edited by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Anonymous said…
Very few Japanese fast high school distance runners become world class in the 1500m, 5k, or 10k. They work hard when young but don't have the talent to get to a higher level. So they move to the marathon.
Brett Larner said…
I think you're both confusing cause and effect here, and thinking in terms of where things were, not where they're going.
Anonymous said…
There seems to be more interest in the marathon for Japanese runners, at least based on the amazing depth, but 13:34 is faster than Galen Rupp ran in high school. Now, I think the spike technology would account for a few seconds but nonetheless he is a going to be a contender in any event he chooses and will probably have the range to run good marathons and track times.

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Sprinter Shoji Tomihisa Retires From Athletics at 105

A retirement ceremony for local masters track and field legend Shoji Tomihisa , 105, was held May 13 at his usual training ground at Miyoshi Sports Park Field in Miyoshi, Hiroshima. Tomihisa began competing in athletics at age 97, setting a Japanese national record 16.98 for 60 m in the men's 100~104 age group at the 2017 Chugoku Masters Track and Field meet. Last year Tomihisa was the oldest person in Hiroshima selected to run as a torchbearer in the Tokyo Olympics torch relay. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the relay on public roads was canceled, and while he did take part in related ceremonies his run was ultimately canceled. Tomihisa recently took up the shot put, but in light of his fading physical strength he made the decision to retire from competition. Around 30 members of the Shoji Tomihisa Booster Club attended the retirement ceremony. After receiving a bouquet of flowers from them Tomihisa in turn gave them a colored paper placard on which he had written the characters