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Kawauchi Turns Down JAAF New Zealand Marathon Training Camp

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/1785576.html

translated by Brett Larner

A candidate to make the men's marathon team for August's London World Championships, Yuki Kawauchi (29, Saitama Pref. Gov't) has turned down an offer from the JAAF to join its three-week marathon training camp in New Zealand in the second half of March.

In 2015 Kawauchi quit the JAAF's National Team project, saying, "There's more value in not part of it than in being in it."  According to an involved person, Kawauchi had considered joining the training camp for a short time, but as a full-time employee at a school in Kuki, Saitama he is extremely busy at the end of the fiscal year and the start of the new academic semester and, considering the time involved in travelling overseas, opted not to take part.

With an overall theme of development to this year's New Zealand marathon training camp, the JAAF has invited former Hakone Ekiden uphill star Daichi Kamino (Team Konica Minolta), 2017 Hakone Ekiden Second Stage winner Kengo Suzuki (Kanagawa Univ.), 2017 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon 3rd-placer Ryo Kiname (Team MHPS), and three other high-potential young candidates for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic team.

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