Senior’s First Japan Win at Age 26: Twists and Turns of a Short-Distance Queen Regenerated by the Trifecta

She set a new record in junior high school, but cried over an injury in high school.

She wears a sequined hat and black boots and shows her white teeth. Who would recognize this woman, who for a moment reminds one of a singer, as the queen of short-distance track and field? The woman’s name is Airisa Kimishima. Yes, she is a super top athlete who won her first Japan Championships in the women’s 100m in June and participated in the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, USA, in July as a member of the 4x100m relay, helping to break the Japanese relay record.

I’ve finally made it this far,” he said. It would be ideal to be at the top all the time, but that is not the case for me. But I think the good thing about me is that I have many stories that are different from others.
　If I can break the Japanese record, if I can make it to the world stage, I think many girls will think that if I represent Japan, I might be able to compete in the finals. I want to show the many athletes who will follow in my footsteps that it is possible.”

This year, at the age of 26, was the first time for a senior athlete to win the coveted title of “Japan’s number one. He is one of the late bloomers in the track and field world to become Japan’s No. 1 at this age for the first time. Right now, the Japanese sports world is focused daily on Shohei Otani, who plays a dual role in Major League Baseball, but in Kimishima’s case, he took three paths to surpass Otani in grabbing the crown.

Born to an American father and Japanese mother, Kimishima grew up in Iwakuni City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, from the age of three. He began running track in junior high school and came in third place at his first prefectural competition, and won the Chugoku Championships in his freshman year. In his second year of junior high school, he competed in the All-Japan Junior High School Track and Field Championships in the 200m and set a new junior high school record (at the time) of 24.36 seconds.

To be honest, I wasn’t aiming for it at all, so I didn’t even know what the new junior high school record meant. I was just surprised.

After his freshman season, he underwent a medical examination, which revealed a fatigue fracture of the navicular bone. He continued his rehabilitation until the summer of his junior year in high school.

I left my hometown because I wanted to compete, but I couldn’t compete,” he said. I wondered, ‘Was there any point in going?’ It was the toughest time for me emotionally,” he recalls.