Skip to main content

Collegiate Record Holder Fuwa Withdraws from National XC Champs and Mixed Ekiden


10000 m collegiate record holder and all-time Japanese #2 at 30:45.21, 18-year-old Seira Fuwa (Takushoku Univ.) has withdrawn from plans to run this Sunday's National University Mixed Team Invitational Ekiden in Osaka and next weekend's National Cross Country Championships in Fukuoka. The Takushoku University women's team made the announcement on its official Twitter feed on Feb. 14.

At the Jan. 16 National Women's Ekiden Fuwa broke 5000 m national record holder Ririka Hironaka's course record for the 4.0 km Fourth Stage, running 12:29 and passing 13 people en route. Post-race she was excited about running the Mixed Ekiden, saying, "There aren't that many chances for men and women to run on the same team, and I'm really looking forward to running in a new ekiden!" 

But in the team's announcement it said, "Everything going forward is for one thing: winning the May 7 National Championships 10000 m and competing at Worlds!" The announcement also said Fuwa was not running the National Cross Country Championships, in which she had been entered. The National Championships 10000 m will be held May 7 at Tokyo's National Stadium. As one of only three Japanese women to currently have the Oregon World Championships 10000 m standard, a win at Nationals would guarantee Fuwa a place on the National Team. This appears to be her new priority.

source article:
translated by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

RigaJags said…
Bummer,she likely would have won fairly easily (already did last year).

Smart choice to focus on the middle part of the year from her though.

I wonder if Miura will do something similar. I hope his training on longer distances won't affect his 3000 SC. I think he should really focus on that until the national and then world championship.
RigaJags said…
I know it's not the most appropriate article to comment on this again but since I left the comment above there's an update in case there won't be an article previewing the race:

Miura appears on the starting list at the official webpage of the 10km senior who he won last year. The exciting part is that in addition to Matsueda (last year second) there will be Akira Aizawa (at least he is on the starting list) and Kosuke Ishida (who beat Miura 2-3 years ago in the u20 XC nationals).
Furthermore Keita Sato is listed in the senior race as well (he won the u20 last year) before going to Komazawa.
Add in Ayumu Yamamoto (with a great 20km corporate marathon), Tamaki Fujimoto, Ken Tansho among others and this weekend's race could be amazing.

I hope there will be a live streaming available somewhere.

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