Skip to main content

Hokkaido's Asahikawa Ryukoku H.S. Builds 330 m Greenhouse Indoor Track



Targeting its sixth-straight win at the Oct. 23 Hokkaido Prefecture High School Girls Ekiden, Asahikawa Ryukoku H.S. has complete construction of the Asahikawa Ryukoku Indoor Track, at 330 m in length the nation's largest running-specific circuit course entirelyely enclosed in vinyl greenhouse material. The ceremony marking the track's official completion is scheduled for Oct. 28th. In a part of the country known for heavy snowfall, the hope is that Asahikawa Ryukoku's new year-round training ground will help it make the jump to becoming a factor at the national level.

The indoor track was built on the 1650 square meter campus of the former Asahikawa Toei H.S., where Asahikawa Ryukoku H.S. will relocate next summer. Coated in durable vinyl, the massive white torus of the track stands out from its surroundings. Ranging from 5.4 m to 7.2 m in width, the track's housing is wide enough to accommodate four lanes. In the future, two lanes will be covered with artificial turf and one lane will have a 100 m segment coated with standard all-weather track surface material. The enclosure's ceiling is 4 m high at its maximum point, creating a spacious area inside. The facility is equipped with a heating system and can be used throughout the year.

Head coach Fumihito Abe, 45, commented, "From what I hear this is the first greenhouse track of this scale in Japan. I want to take advantage of it to overcome the handicap we face by being in a snowy part of the country. We can't lose at the Hokkaido Prefecture High School Ekiden."

Asahikawa can be more than 20˚C below freezing in the winter, but in years past the school's ekiden team has continued to train outdoors even in that kind of bitter cold. For serious runs the ekiden team had to travel to Sapporo to train inside domed stadiums. Coach Abe asked the school administration to build an indoor track as part of its campus relocation. Construction begin in August through the support of Yukio Tanaka, 72, a senior director of the Northern Hokkaido Athletics Association, head of a building company that handles greenhouse construction and civil engineering work, and friend of the school. 

Team members who did test runs on the track were impressed. Senior captain Sakura Ishibashi said, ”This will be a great place to train without having to worry about wind or snow. We're all super grateful and want to show our thanks by succeeding." Star senior Kanan Tarisawa was also excited about the track, saying, "It feels bright an open inside, and that makes it easy to run in. After we win the Hokkaido race we'll be training here to break our school record of 19th at Nationals." 

Response to the new track has been great. When coach Abe posted a video of the new track on the team's official Twitter account it got likes from Tokyo Olympians Yuki Koike and Haruka Kitaguchi, as well as two-time Olympic marathon medalist Yuko Arimori. In the future the track will be opened to other school sports teams, area clubs and local residents. In a land of deep snowfall it is sure to become an important community-based sports facility.

© 2021 Fumihito Abe, all rights reserved

source article:
translated by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Nationally-Ranked Gakuho Ishikawa H.S. Withdraws From Region Championships Due to Bear Attacks

5th at last year's National High School Ekiden boys' race, Fukushima's Gakuho Ishikawa H.S. has withdrawn its boys' and girls' team from the Nov. 6 Tohoku Region Ekiden Championships in Fukushima. A school spokesperson commented, "We made this decision based on the likelihood of our students coming into contact with bears in the city when out running in the morning." The Akita Athletics Association had already made an announcement on its website on Oct. 31 that due to the high number of bear encounters within the city of Akita this year , the ekiden would be held on a track instead of as a road race. Organizers said that they are leaving it up to each individual school whether to participate, and that they will accept schools choosing not to participate due to safety concerns. The Gakuho Ishikawa boys and girls both won the Fukushima Prefecture High School Ekiden in October, earning them places at the Tohoku regional meet and December's National High...
Post a Comment
Read more

'Kobe 2024: Monday Sees Shocking Wins on the Track and the Field'

  https://www.paralympic.org/news/kobe-2024-para-athletics-world-championships-monday-sees-shocking-wins-track-and-field Complete results and daily schedule from the Kobe World Para Athletics Championships  are here .
Post a Comment
Read more

Hofu Yomiuri Marathon Elite Field

Everything in Japanese marathoning is already about qualifying for the MGC Race, Japan's trials race for the L.A. Olympics. Scheduled the same day as the Fukuoka International Marathon, the Dec. 7 Hofu Yomiuri Marathon counts the same weight as Fukuoka, Tokyo and Osaka in men's qualification, with trials spots up to be had by the first 6 Japanese men under 2:09:00 and the first Japanese woman under 2:27:00. The only real contender to do that among the women is Mizuki Nishimura , running her first marathon off a 1:41:42 CR at the Kumanichi 30k in February. Given the Tenmaya corporate team's track record of success in the marathon, including the current women's NR of 2:18:59, her chances are pretty good. Ayumi Morita ran a 2:31:38 PB in Tokyo last year, but it's a big jump for her to get down to 2:26 and it'll mostly be a question of whether Nishimura executes the same way she did at Kumanichi. For men there are 6 under 2:09:00 in the last 3 years, with Ryoma T...
Post a Comment
Read more