Skip to main content

20 km Race Walk WR Holder Suzuki and 400 m National Champ Walsh Retire


On July 23 the Fujitsu corporate team announced that men's 20 km race walk world record holder and 2019 50 km world champion Yusuke Suzuki, 36, and three-time men's 400 m national champion Julian Walsh, 27, are retiring at the end of the month.

Suzuki competed in the 2012 London Olympics in the 20 km race walk. In 2015 he set a world record of 1:16:36 for 20 km at the National Race Walk Championships in Nomi. At the 2019 Doha World Championships he won the 50 km race walk, the first time a Japanese athlete won gold at an international championships including the Olympics. After that, he suffered setbacks from overtraining and other issues and did not try to make the Tokyo Olympic team in 2021.

After leaving Fujitsu Suzuki will become a coach at Niigata University of Food and Agriculture. "I want to give the next generation of athletes the same kind of support that I received in my time as an athlete," he said.


A member of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro and 2021 Tokyo Olympic teams, Walsh was part of Japan's 4th-place 4x400 m relay team at the 2022 Oregon World Championships, where he also made the semifinals in the individual 400 m. After his retirement Walsh plans to become a pro Keirin bicycle racer.

source article:

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Chinese Influencer Intrudes on Hakone Ekiden Fifth Stage to Shoot Video of Himself Running with AGU's Wakabayashi

A Chinese influencer ignored restrictions and race officials' directions and ran on the Hakone Ekiden course to shoot video during the race's uphill Fifth Stage on Jan. 2. He later apologized. The influencer, Shen Haoze , posts about running and marathons, and on the Chinese social media site Weibo has nearly 5 million followers. A clip of him running on the closed road course of the Hakone Ekiden's Fifth Stage alongside course record setter Hiroki Wakabayashi of defending champion Aoyama Gakuin University and shooting video went viral on social media. Race officials can be heard warning him to get off the course due to the danger to the competing athletes, but Shen ignored them, setting off a firestorm of criticism from users in both Japan and China. Comments included, "These athletes are putting their whole lives into the race. What the hell does he think he's doing?" and "He has no regard for the danger to them." Shen later posted an apology on...
Post a Comment
Read more

February's National XC Named as Selection Race for 2026 World XC Team

The JAAF has announced that the 2025 National Cross Country Championships on Feb. 22 will act as the selection race for the senior teams for the 2026 World Cross Country Championships to be held Jan. 10 in Tallahassee, U.S.A. for both the senior men's and women's 10 km, up to 8 athletes will be selected, with 6 ultimately running. Team scoring is based upon each team's first 4 finishers. Member of the 10000 m team at September's Tokyo World Championships will be given priority in World XC team selection. The JAAF is planning a separate selection race in November for the U20 teams. Nominations to the 8 km mixed relay will be based on results in the 2 km race at the 2025 National Cross Country Championships, to be held at Fukuoka's Umi no Naka Michi Kaihin Park. source article: https://www.rikujyokyogi.co.jp/archives/158822 translated by Brett Larner
Post a Comment
Read more

The 2025 Hakone Ekiden by the Numbers

It was another record-breaking year at the Hakone Ekiden . All 13 of the course records, the 10 individual stages, the Day One and Day Two courses and the overall course, have been set since 2019, and out of those 6 fell this time, 2 of them broken by multiple athletes or teams. All of them had performances in at least their all-time top 6, and 9 of them in their all-time top 3. First Stage (21.3 km) - all-time #4 Second Stage (23.1 km) - CR, all-time #2, all-time #3, all-time #9 Third Stage (21.4 km) - all-time #4, all-time #5, all-time #7 Fourth Stage (20.9 km) - all-time #2, all-time #7, all-time #8, all-time #9 Fifth Stage (20.8 km uphill) - CR, all-time #3 Sixth Stage (20.8 km downhill) - CR, all-time #5, all-time #9 Seventh Stage (21.3 km) - CR, all-time #4 (x2), all-time #7 Eighth Stage (21.4 km) - all-time #6, all-time #9, all-time #10 Ninth Stage (23.1 km) - all-time #6, all-time #10 Tenth Stage (23.0 km) - all-time #2, all-time #7 Day One (107.5 km) - all-time #2...
2 comments
Read more