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Toyo University's Summer Training Base Unveils Monument

A monument has been erected at Todoroki Sanso Lodge in Higashiagatsuma, Gunma where four-time Hakone Ekiden winner Toyo University does its summer training every August. In 1991 former alumni association president Tsuneyoshi Kosuge proposed Todoroki Sanso as a training base, and it was built with the support of Mitsutake Todoroki. Ever since then summer training camps in the lush nature surrounding Higashiagatsuma have become a regular feature of Toyo's calendar. Students at the Japan Women's University of Nutrition provide meals to the Toyo athletes under the supervision of professor Kazuhiro Uenishi as part of their practical training, creating an optimal training camp in terms of both nutrition and accommodations.

The monument at Todoroki Sanno was erected to commemorate the 100th running of the Hakone Ekiden in January this year and is engraved with the Toyo slogan "shave off another second." Head coach Toshiyuki Sakai, 48, a Toyo alum who has trained at Todoroki Sanno every year since his own student days, said, "We would like to express our sincerest thanks to Mr. Todoroki and his family for their tireless work in organizing the Toyo University team's summer training camp annually for over 30 years. The foundation laid every summer in Higashiagatsuma and Todoroki Sanno becomes the base for Hakone Ekiden victory and future Olympians."

Currently, star 4th-year Kosuke Ishida and 3rd-year Ryotaro Kishimoto who won the anchor stage at the 100th Hakone Ekiden this year, are training in Higashiagatsuma alongside coach Sakai. Every day they run the area's tough, hilly roads, and after workouts ice their legs in the clear stream that flows next to Todoroki Sanno. "This is a place where students form lifelong bonds with their teammates and create memories that they will look back fondly on for years," said coach Sakai. Waiting for them just weeks away at the end of summer is the start of the fall and winter ekiden season.

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