Skip to main content

A Dream Born in Tokushima as Otsuka Seiyaku Launches Women's Team

http://osaka.yomiuri.co.jp/sp_others/20090421ks06.htm

translated by Brett Larner

Based in Fukushima Prefecture's Naruto, beverage maker Otsuka Seiyaku is helping a select crew of young women to achieve their dreams through sports. This month the company announced the formation of a new professional women's track and field team. 2009 Berlin World Championships national team member and world-class race walker Masumi Fuchise leads the initial lineup of five middle and long distance athletes, with additional spots expected to be filled to allow Otsuka Seiyaku to field a women's ekiden team. The new Otsuka Seiyaku team's approval by the Jitsugyodan Track and Field Association is pending, and head coach Tadasu Kono is optimistic about the future as he says, "Especially in times of recession such as these it's important to do something to help inspire the community through sports."

Otsuka Seiyaku founded its men's team in 1990. Athletes who have run under Kono's leadership at Otsuka Seiyaku include Takayuki Inubushi, the first Japanese man to run 2:06 for the marathon. Tokushima is known for the strength of its male runners, but the prefecture's women's team is typically one of the weakest at the National Interprefectural Women's Ekiden. Kono received the OK to go ahead with the foundation of a women's team partially out of hopes that it will help to strengthen the overall level of athletics in the prefecture.

Transferring to the team alongside Fuchise are Miho Noguchi, formerly of Team Hitachi, Ritsumeikan University graduate Rei Miura, and two new high school graduates. Joining Kono on the team's coaching staff is former Team Tenmaya assistant coach Eri Amo, making for a strong base from which to build.

Along with helping to promote its corporate sponsor in ekidens and other races, this new jitsugyodan team aims to help its members reach their individual goals. Coach Kono is aware of his responsibilities, saying, "Through sports I want to show our supporters in the company who might not have been able to achieve their own dreams that there is still hope." "It's so interesting to be part of a group writing its name in history," added Fuchise. Noguchi closed by saying, "I hope this will be a team where everyone can make their dreams come true."

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

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