After running a debut and collegiate record of 2:06:07 at Sunday's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon as the last race of his career, Aoyama Gakuin University 4th-year Hiroki Wakabayashi said on Feb. 3 that he would consider keeping it going for the half year it would take if he is named to the Japanese team for September's Tokyo World Championships. Wakabayashi plans to retire and has already accepted a job at the Nihon Seimei insurance company. "If I'm named to the team I'll have to discuss it with the company," he said cautiously. Wakabayashi's time in Beppu-Oita was the 7th-fastest ever by a Japanese man and cleared the 2:06:30 Tokyo World Championships standard, positioning him as a candidate for the team. Having already accepted a job to start after his graduation next month, immediately post-race he said, "I ran this thinking of it as the last race of my career. I think I was able to run this kind of time because I knew it was the end of the road...
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