Skip to main content

Hakone Ekiden Favorite Komazawa University Holds School Rally With One Month to Go

http://www.komaspo.com/4956

translated and edited by Brett Larner

With one month to go until the 2015 Hakone Ekiden, the Komazawa University sports department held a school rally for its 2011-2014 national champion ekiden team on Dec. 2 at the Komazawa Campus Memorial Hall.  Comments from team staff and seniors:

Hiroaki Oyagi, head coach
Our second place finish last time was disappointing and frustrating.  In our year of development since then we've looked at this as our season to be the best, and we're going in with the will to win no matter what.  The athletes share the same feeling and have been deliberate in their approach over the last two years.  This team has the ability to win the most important race, the one they absolutely must win.  For the next month we will only be thinking about bringing home our first win in seven years as we make our final preparations, and we ask for your continued support.

Shogo Nakamura, senior, captain
Personally I haven't been able to run the way I wanted this year, but I was able to do something to help put the team in position to win the National University Ekiden.  This will be my last Hakone Ekiden, so I will do everything I can to deliver my greatest performance and ask for your support in making that a reality.

Kenta Murayama, senior
I think Nakamura was really outstanding at last year's Hakone Ekiden, but inside, more than anyone else on the team I want to be the one whose running guarantees us the win.  I hope you'll all help us get there.

Shoya Kurokawa, senior
This is my last year of university, so at the Hakone Ekiden I want to have the kind of run that will let me finish with a smile.  Thank you for your support and please cheer for us.

Yoshihiro Nishizawa, senior
I want to do my absolute best in what I can do to make our Hakone Ekiden victory happen.  Thank you all for your support.

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Sprinter Shoji Tomihisa Retires From Athletics at 105

A retirement ceremony for local masters track and field legend Shoji Tomihisa , 105, was held May 13 at his usual training ground at Miyoshi Sports Park Field in Miyoshi, Hiroshima. Tomihisa began competing in athletics at age 97, setting a Japanese national record 16.98 for 60 m in the men's 100~104 age group at the 2017 Chugoku Masters Track and Field meet. Last year Tomihisa was the oldest person in Hiroshima selected to run as a torchbearer in the Tokyo Olympics torch relay. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the relay on public roads was canceled, and while he did take part in related ceremonies his run was ultimately canceled. Tomihisa recently took up the shot put, but in light of his fading physical strength he made the decision to retire from competition. Around 30 members of the Shoji Tomihisa Booster Club attended the retirement ceremony. After receiving a bouquet of flowers from them Tomihisa in turn gave them a colored paper placard on which he had written the characters