Skip to main content

Seko-Led S&B Team Moves to Game Maker DeNA

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/news/20130107-OYT1T00153.htm
http://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXNZO50328070X00C13A1UU8000/

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On Dec. 6 the management of the S&B Foods men's athletics team, scheduled to lose its decades-long sponsorship at the end of March, announced that the team has signed a new deal with Tokyo-based mobile phone video game maker DeNA, owner of the Yokohama Baystars pro baseball team.  The new DeNA team, led by current S&B sports promotions director and former marathon great Toshihiko Seko, 56, will be made up of twelve members including six athletes and six support staff. Seko will serve as the supervisory head coach, with current S&B coach Hiroshi Tako handling regular coaching duties.

The S&B team includes the likes of 5000 m and 10000 m Beijing Olympian Kensuke Takezawa, but in August last year came the sudden announcement of S&B's termination of its sponsorship.  Seko's primary goal in finding a new sponsor was that the entire team be able to move together.  The team will use the same area Seko used during his day, Tokyo's Jingu Gaien, for its primary training ground.  The veteran Seko plans to have the newborn team make a return to ekiden competition.

Translator's note: Waseda University's Suguru Osako was to have joined the S&B team following his graduation in 2014 but has instead signed with the Nissin Shokuhin team. Takezawa is said to be leaving the rest of the team in its move to DeNA.  The New Year Ekiden national championships require seven members, so the DeNA team will have to sign additional members in order to follow through on Seko's plans to return to the ekiden circuit.

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