Skip to main content

Two Ethiopian Marathoners Training in Nagano With Support From Tokyo NPO

http://www.shinshu-liveon.jp/www/topics/node_226793

translated by Brett Larner

Two Ethiopian marathoners are training in the Iizuna highlands of Nagano for the Nov. 18 Yokohama International Women's Marathon at the invitation of former marathoner Hiroki Okuma, 53, who runs a Tokyo-based non-profit organization that supports an Ethiopian orphanage.  Okuma hopes that by giving young runners from a country with so many competitive athletes the opportunity to race overseas he will help call attention to the level of poverty within Ethiopia and garner support for charitable works.

The two athletes are Salam Mawit Almaiyo, 20, and Almarz Tilahun, 22.*  Going by Japanese nicknames Sakura and Tsubaki, the two Ethiopians are interacting with the local residents of Iizuna in their day-to-day lives.  Aiming for good results in Yokohama they are training hard everyday on the area's hills and trails.

Okuma, who ran the Hakone Ekiden and Beijing International Marathon in his time as a competitive athlete, has been working with Ethiopian athletes for ten years.  While visiting Ethiopia to attend a festival he was shocked by the level of poverty among the average citizens. "A lot of young people in Ethiopia dream of escaping that existence by finding success as a marathoner," he says.  In the hope of doing something to help the situation he formed an organization to select two promising young female athletes and invite them to Japan each year.  The athletes the group has invited so far include several who have gone on to be good enough to receive support and attention from their national federation.

The program's athletes visit the Iizuna highlands every September.  According to Okuma, "With the Togakushi Birdline roadway and lots of mountain trails there is nowhere else in Japan as good as here to train."  After focusing on cross-country training the pair will return to Tokyo later in the month.  "I'm glad to receive local support for these two athletes who have formed a unique bond with Nagano," said Okuma.

*Translator's note: Transliterated from katakana.  Actual romanizations are likely different.

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