Skip to main content

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 Ichiyama (Shiseido) said that she will be fully prepared for what will be her second Olympic marathon. 8th in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics marathon, Ichiyama smiled as she said, "I never thought I'd be an Olympian two Games in a row!" Having won the women's race at the tough and hilly Ome 30 km Road Race in February, Ichiyama has yet to see the equally hard Paris course. "When I stand on the starting line, I want to be able to have the confidence of knowing my training was even harder," she said.

New national record holder Maeda already faces the Olympics with belief in herself. Only 7th in the Olympic trials last October, at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in January she ran 2:18:59 to take 13 seconds off the longstanding NR. "I had a long stretch when I wasn't running well, but breaking the NR gives me a lot of confidence." At the Tokyo Olympics she finished last among the Japanese women in a humiliating 33rd after having won the Olympic trials. "I'm very proud to get to represent Japan at two consecutive Olympics, and I want to be ready to run my absolute best," she said.

3rd at the Paris Olympic trials in October, women's team alternate Ai Hosoda (Edion) said, "As a member of the team I'll be training with the same desire to run my absolute best."

Ahead of their first Olympics, men's team members Naoki Koyama (Honda) and Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) spent time on the Paris course last fall. After seeing the difficult course full of ups and downs firsthand, both were confident. During the press conference, JAAF marathon development executive Toshihiko Seko asked, "Do you personally think the Paris course is good or bad?" Both men's first reactions were the same, saying enthusiastically, "I think it's a big plus!"

Koyama has been reliably stable in his four marathons over the last year, winning two of them and repeatedly improving his PB to the point of clocking the 10th-fastest ever time by a Japanese man at February's Osaka Marathon, where he ran 2:06:33 for 3rd. "There was a lot of attention on me whenever I raced, but that was good experience to get before the Olympics," he said. The 15-hour trip to Paris to see the course after the Olympic trials last fall was a new experience for Koyama, but while he was surprised by how hilly the course was, he said, "If you train for hills and dealing with heat then there's a lot of potential there."

Akasaki has already been focusing on hills, increasing the number of them on his regular runs at his base in Fukuoka since he earned his Olympic spot last October. In February he won the extremely hilly Ome 30 km Road Race in 1:29:46. "I'm strong on hills," he said.

Both men have already set their plans to build their base for the tough course that awaits them. Koyama plans to head to the U.S. for altitude training starting in June. Akasaki will run outdoor track season through early May to work on his speed. Asked, "What does it take to perform in the main event?" both answered, "Steady training without getting injured."

Third men's team member Suguru Osako (GMO) was absent, saying he had other plans. Before the JMC awards, where he won ¥900,000 for placing 5th, Osako tweeted, "There's these rankings I don't understand. What's this JMC??" The former national record holder's tweet expressing ignorance about his industry drew negative responses from fans.

source article:


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

World Marathon Majors Japanese Entries

We're back from a short summer break. A week and a half out from the first race of the season's four World Marathon Majors races, here's a look at Japanese athletes scheduled to run. Everything right now is about qualifying for the MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to be held in the fall of 2027 in Nagoya. The JAAF makes no mistake about wanting to keep its top people racing domestically where it can get a share of revenue from the TV broadcast and race operations, so anyone who decides to race overseas has to do it in a WA platinum label race and hit either 2:06:30 or 2:23:30, regardless of place, course or weather if they want to make the trials. At the same time concessions are make for domestic races, like for example the late-August Hokkaido Marathon where up to 3 men and 3 women can qualify if they go 2:12:00 or 2:32:00. As a result, you get things like last year where amateur runner Yudai Fukuda made the trials by finishing 3rd Jap...
1 comment
Read more

Nakajima Breaks 100 mH NR Twice, Kitaguchi Returns - August Track Roundup

Catching up on what's been happening in track and field this month during our summer break: Men's 3000 m NR holder Nagiya Mori was just off his 5000 m PB at the IFAM Oordegem meet in Belgium on Aug. 1, taking 16th in 13:15.01. Shota Nakano was 26th of 28 in 13:35.02. This year's national champion Ryoma Aoki ran the 3000 mSC but didn't finish. Naoto Hasegawa was the only Japanese athlete at Mutaz Essa Barshim 's What Gravity Tour stop at the Monaco Athletics Festival meet on Aug. 5. Having cleared 2.30 m for the first time earlier this year Hasegawa only managed 2.18 m in Monaco, taking 7th of 10. There were a lot of good performances at the Fuji Hokuriku World Trial meet in Fujiyoshida on Aug. 9, but the one that got the headlines was a 12.62 (-0.2) NR in the women's 100 mH by Hitomi Nakajima . Nakajima actually did it twice, running 12.62 (+2.0) in the heats before repeating in the final. Masumi Aoki also ran big in the heats, with a 12.68 (+2.0) for al...
1 comment
Read more

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...
Post a Comment
Read more