Appearing on the news23 program on May 9, former women's marathon world record holder and Sydney Olympics marathon gold medalist Naoko Takahashi commented on 19-year-old Takushoku University 2nd-year Seira Fuwa's withdrawal from the May 7 10000 m National Championships, the qualifying event for this summer's Oregon World Championships. "There's no need to overdue it," Takahashi said. "She's someone with the talent and ability to run 30:45.21, the 2nd-fastest time in Japanese history, in her first time running the 10000 m, an extremely high-potential athlete. The most important thing for her right now is to take it easy and fully recover from her injury. She's just 19 and has only just started on the road to realizing her dreams, and I'd like to ask everyone out there to support her in the longterm. Let's all take good care of her."
Last month Takahashi interviewed Fuwa for the program, telling her, "If I had to say one thing about you, it's that there's no telling how much potential you have."
Fuwa injured her right Achilles tendon at January's National Women's Ekiden and spent over two months getting rehabilitation treatment. Having cleared the 31:25.00 World Championships qualifying standard in December she only needed to finish in the top 3 at the National Championships to be named to the Oregon team. But on the day of the race Takushoku University women's head coach Toshiharu Igarashi announced Fuwa's withdrawal, citing a lack of adequate progress in her recovery.
source article:translated by Brett Larner
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