Skip to main content

Yamamoto's Coach and Mother Surprised at Likelihood of Olympic Team

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20120304-912749.html

translated by Brett Larner
photo by Dr. Helmut Winter


At the 67 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, 27-year-old Ryo Yamamoto (Team Sagawa Express) was the top Japanese finisher and 4th overall, surprising all those around him.  Passing Daegu World Championships marathon team members Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) and Hiroyuki Horibata (Team Asahi Kasei) in the final part of the race, Yamamoto finished in 2:08:44.  Having run a strong time in bad weather conditions to put himself into an unquestionable position for the London Olympics team, Yamamoto smiled as he said, "I was tough over the second half.  I kept thinking, 'Olympics!  Olympics!' as a I ran."

This was Yamamoto's fourth marathon.  His best time up to now came in his debut at the hot and humid 2009 Hokkaido Marathon where he was 2nd in 2:12:10.  Sagawa Express head coach Tsuyoshi Nakano, 38, commented, "To be honest, the goal this time was just to try to finish up among some of the top-ranked guys in order to get his name out there for Moscow [World Championships] next near."  Yamamoto's mother Sachiko, 54, said, "This morning Ryo sent me an email that just said, 'Good morning.  Here goes!'  When he was little he had asthma and allergies.  It's cedar pollen allergy season so I was worried whether he would be OK today."

photo (c) 2012 Dr. Helmut Winter
all rights reserved

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