Skip to main content

Yuka Suzuki Leaves Daiichi Seimei to Join Husband Akira Akasaki at Kraftia


The top Japanese finisher in the 2024 Paris Olympics women's marathon at 6th, Yuka Suzuki, 26, announced this week on her social media that she has left the Daiichi Seimei corporate team to transfer to Kraftia. "I'm really grateful to everyone who's helped me get where I am, and I know it's a level not everyone can get to," she wrote.

Suzuki joined Daiichi Seimei in 2022 after graduating from Daito Bunka University. "The last few years I came to realize how incredible the fan support is in the corporate leagues and at the Olympics," she wrote. "My memories of the MGC Race and Paris Olympics really stand out. Even when the weather wasn't great or the race was far away there were always people there to cheer for me. That's not something you should take for granted, and I want to take the time to put my thanks to all of you into words."

Talking about what comes next, Suzuki wrote, "I had a lot of options, and I wanted to be in an environment where I could experience new training and coaching methods to help me reach my goal of competing globally alongside my husband. There were other things too, but I've made up my mind on this."

In June Suzuki married Akira Akasaki, 6th-placer in the men's marathon in Paris. As part of her announcement this week she said she would be changing her name to Yuka Akasaki after transferring, saying, "A lot of couples struggle with being located in different places, but I've decided that this is the time to take this step to be together. I'm fully committed to this route forward, and I will make it the right one."

Translator's note: 1991 Tokyo World Championships women's marathon silver medalist Sachiko Yamashita stepped down as head of Daiichi Seimei in October. She had played a key role in getting Suzuki, the collegiate marathon national record holder, to the team after her graduation. Daiichi Seimei was 15th of 24 teams at last month's Queens Ekiden national championship, while Kraftia finished last.


Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
This goes some way in explaining her absence at the Queen's Ekiden. I hope she has greater success than Ichiyama Mao when she moved from Wacoal to Shiseido not long after her marriage.

Also I'm curious about Kokai Haruka's absence from the Daichii Seimei team at the Queen's Ekiden. Is she injured, out of form or also on the move to a different team after Sachiko Yamashita stepped down as head?
December 19, 2025 at 5:36 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...
3 comments
Read more

Kuroda Conquers the Mountain to Give Aoyama Gakuin the Hakone Ekiden Day One CR Again

After a wild New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships yesterday that saw new CR on 6 of the race's 7 stages and a 7-second miss on the one that wasn't broken, Day One of the 102nd Hakone Ekiden more than lived up to what the pros had done 24 hours earlier. Only one runner, Chuo University 's Yamato Yoshii in 2022, had ever broken 61 minutes for the 21.3 km First Stage , but when Chuo's Daichi Shibata took it out on CR pace the entire field went with him. It took a while for Ageo City Half winner Rui Aoki of Izumo Ekiden champ Koku Gakuin University to move up to the front, but when he did it was decisive. Aoki crushed the CR in 1:00:28, 59:54 half marathon pace, and behind him the next both Shibata and the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team's So Kawasaki from Tsukuba University also went under Yoshii's old 1:00:40 record. 4th through 8th broke 61, setting the tone for the rest of the day. Chuo, KGU, last year's top 2 Aoyama...
4 comments
Read more

GMO Wins First National Title at Era-Changing 2026 New Year Ekiden

Things have really been coming up fast the last year or so in Japanese distance running, but even so this year's New Year Ekiden really felt like the era has changed. GMO took the lead on the second of the race's 7 legs and went on to take over 2 minutes off the overall course record for the 100.0 km course, winning its first national title in 4:44:00. En route 6 of the 7 legs had new CR, a lot of them with multiple people breaking them, and the only leg that didn't, the 12.3 km First Stage, saw Shunpei Tomita of Logisteed run 34:23, only 7 seconds off the CR held by sub-27 Kenyan Martin Mathathi . The level at the collegiate Hakone Ekiden keeps going up up up , and that showed here as 3 of the new stage CR were set by guys in their first season in the corporate leagues who were some of the biggest stars at Hakone last year. Aoyama Gakuin University grad Aoi Ota sneaked in 1 second ahead of Toyota 's Jin Yuasa to set a 46:00 CR on the 15.9 km Fifth Stage. Collegi...
1 comment
Read more