Skip to main content

926 Athletes to Compete in May 30 Golden Games in Nobeoka

http://mainichi.jp/area/miyazaki/news/20090527ddlk45050694000c.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

At a press conference on May 26 Team Asahi Kasei head coach Takeshi Soh announced the start lists for the 20th Golden Games in Nobeoka time trials meet, scheduled to take place near Asahi Kasei's headquarters in Nobeoka, Kyushu on May 30. 552 men and 374 women will compete in the meet. Outside of the meet's main focus, the 5000 m, Soh and other Rikuren officials anticipate the men's and women's 800 m and 1500 m races to be particularly strong.

Berlin World Championships marathoners Satoshi Irifune (Team Kanebo), Masaya Shimizu (Team Asahi Kasei) and Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko) are entered in the men's 5000 m along with world-leading 10000 m runner Josephat Ndambiri (Team Komori Corp.).

In the men's 1500 m, national record holder Fumikazu Kobayashi (Team NTN) will face off against last year's winner and all-time Japanese #2 Kazuya Watanabe (Team Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) and former national university champion Yasunori Murakami (Team Fujitsu). Challenging this tough domestic trio will be Kenyan university star Daniel Gitau (Nihon Univ.) "It'll be the kind of race where we can look forward to a new national record," said Soh in anticipation of the 1500 m.

All three heats of the women's 5000 m will feature male pacemakers. Since last year Rikuren has allowed domestic women's races to have men setting the pace, meaning that the chance for a new national record in the women's 5000 m is also high.

The meet begins at 1:00 p.m. with an elementary school 4 x 100 m relay and will last until around 10:00 p.m. Last year over 33000 fans came to cheer on the athletes. For more information contact the meet office at 0982-21-1979.

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Morii Surprises With Second-Ever Japanese Sub-2:10 at Boston

With three sub-2:09 Japanese men in the race and good weather conditions by Boston standards the chances were decent that somebody was going to follow 1981 winner Toshihiko Seko 's 2:09:26 and score a sub-2:10 at the Boston Marathon . But nobody thought it was going to be by a 2:14 amateur. Paris Olympic team member Suguru Osako had taken 3rd in Boston in 2:10:28 in his debut seven years ago, and both he and 2:08 runners Kento Otsu and Ryoma Takeuchi were aiming for spots in the top 10, Otsu after having run a 1:01:43 half marathon PB in February and Takeuchi of a 2:08:40 marathon PB at Hofu last December. A high-level amateur with a 2:14:15 PB who scored a trip to Boston after winning a local race in Japan, Yuma Morii told JRN minutes before the start of the race, "I'm not thinking about time at all. I'm going to make top 10, whatever time it takes." Running Boston for the first time Morii took off with a 4:32 on the downhill opening mile, but after that  Sis

Saturday at Kanaguri and Nittai

Two big meets happened Saturday, one in Kumamoto and the other in Yokohama. At Kumamoto's Kanaguri Memorial Meet , Benard Koech (Kyudenko) turned in the performance of the day with a 13:13.52 meet record to win the men's 5000 m A-heat by just 0.11 seconds over Emmanuel Kipchirchir (SGH). The top four were all under 13:20, with 10000 m national record holder Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) bouncing back from a DNF at last month's The TEN to take the top Japanese spot at 7th overall in 13:24.57. The B-heat was also decently quick, Shadrack Rono (Subaru) winning in 13:21.55 and Shoya Yonei (JR Higashi Nihon) running a 10-second PB to get under 13:30 for the first time in 13:29.29 for 6th. Paris Olympics marathoner Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) was 9th in 13:30.62. South Sudan's Abraham Guem (Ami AC) also set a meet record in the men's 1500 m A-heat in 3:38.94. 3000 mSC national record holder Ryuji Miura made his debut with the Subaru corporate team, running 3:39.78 for 2n

93-Year-Old Masters Track and Field WR Holder Hiroo Tanaka: "Everyone has Unexplored Intrinsic Abilities"

  In the midst of a lot of talk about how to keep the aging population young, there are people with long lives who are showing extraordinary physical abilities. One of them is Hiroo Tanaka , 93, a multiple world champion in masters track and field. Tanaka began running when he was 60, before which he'd never competed in his adult life. "He's so fast he's world-class." "His running form is so beautiful. It's like he's flying." Tanaka trains at an indoor track in Aomori five days a week. Asked about him, that's the kind of thing the people there say. Tanaka holds multiple masters track and field world records, where age is divided into five-year groups. Last year at the World Masters Track and Field Championships in Poland he set a new world record of 38.79 for 200 m in the M90 class (men's 90-94 age group). People around the world were amazed at the time, which was almost unbelievable for a 92-year-old. After retiring from his job as an el