Skip to main content

Saitama's Kawauchi Battles With the Best at the Tokyo Marathon

http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/news/20100302k0000e050065000c.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

At the Tokyo Marathon on Feb. 28, a Saitama Prefectural Government employee showed that he is able to battle with the best of the invited elites. His name is Yuki Kawauchi, age 22. Fitting in his training while working regular hours in the department overseeing prefectural high school administration, Kawauchi finished 4th in a PB of 2:12:36.

As a student at Saitama's Kasukabe East H.S. Kawauchi was frequently troubled by injury. He became the elite Gakushuin University's first-ever runner to make the Hakone Ekiden, running twice on the Kanto Regional University Select Team and finishing a strong 3rd on the downhill 6th Stage as a senior last year. He received invitations from many jitsugyodan teams but instead focused on studying for the examinations for entering public service.

Kawauchi currently does most of his training before his office opens at 1:00 p.m., going to a nearby park where he trains "while dodging pigeons." He ran his first two marathons as a university senior, running 2:19 at the 2009 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon and following up just over a month later with a small PB at the Tokyo Marathon. In December he ran a PB of 2:17:33 at the Fukuoka International Marathon, 13th overall and the 3rd-place Japanese finisher. For Tokyo this time he used his days off on the weekends to increase his overall mileage.

In the race he ran up front in the lead pack the entire way. He was unaffected by the cold rain and wind, saying, "This kind of cold felt just right." After 35 km he led for part of the way, and over the final stretch he pushed 2009 World Championships marathon 6th place finisher and half marathon national record holder Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denyoku) to the breaking point.

"That was the best running of my entire life," said Kawauchi after the race. "There are a lot of people who quit running after graduating from university, but today I wanted to show them that you can still make it as an amateur." Of the 1,000,000 yen prize money he won by placing 4th Kawauchi says, "It'll probably all be gone soon paying for shoes and travel to races. But it'll help me get to my next target: a sub-2:10."

Comments

Most-Read This Week

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

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

Takeuchi Wins Niigata Half in Boston Tune-Up

Running in cold, windy and rainy conditions, Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Software) warmed up for April's Boston Marathon with a win at Wednesday's Niigata Half Marathon . Takeuchi sat behind Nittai University duo Susumu Yamazaki and Ryuga Ishikawa in the early stages, then made a series of pushes to pick up the pace. Each time he tucked in behind whoever went to the front, while behind them others dropped off. Before 15 km only Yamazaki and Riki Koike of Soka University were left, and when Takeuchi went to the front the last time after 15 km only Koike followed. By 16 he was gone too, leaving Takeuchi to solo it in to the win in 1:03:13 with a 17-second negative split. "This was my last fitness check before the Boston Marathon next month, and my time was right on-target," he said post-race. "Everything went as planned. I'm looking forward to racing some of the world's best in Boston, and my goal there is to place in the single digits." Just back from tr