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

Poster,” a turning point in her life

He went on to NITSUTSUDAI and competed in the Kanto Intercollegiate Athletic Meet from his freshman year, but was unable to achieve the results he had hoped for. An unexpected turning point came in the summer of his junior year. The “Bobsleigh Athlete Discovery Project” was posted at the university’s sports center. Masuhiko Mizuno, then general manager of the track and field team, suggested that he take the test because of his power and speed. He had no connection to winter sports and had no intention of competing in them, but he said, “I thought that if I didn’t try, I wouldn’t be able to draw out my potential. I thought, “It would be better for me to draw out more from myself,” so I decided to try out. The result was a pass. He immediately went to Germany, where the training camp of the Japanese national team was being held.

The speed of bobsledding, which he saw for the first time, was beyond his imagination. While overcoming his fear, he practiced hard, and in his first competition, the Europa Cup, he suddenly won the championship. He also placed 7th at the World Championships, becoming the first Japanese male and female bobsledder to win a prize. In her senior year of college, she was aiming to compete in the Pyeongchang Olympics, but was unable to gain the necessary points to do so.

When thinking about his career path, he decided to go to graduate school to study coaching and conditioning in order to balance his desire to become a leader, which he had long envisioned, with his desire to still achieve results in track and field. At this time, he also tried his hand at skeleton, drawing on his experience in bobsledding in winter competitions. Although his track and field results were poor, he did not feel the need to “call it quits” after graduating from graduate school.

I was out of high school, I was still competing for a short time compared to other people, and I had no reason to believe that I could do it,” he said.　I thought I could do it.

Using JOC’s athlete employment support program “Asnavi,” he joined the Civil Engineering Management Testing Laboratory as an athlete employee. He wanted to become a “three-sport athlete” (track and field, bobsledding, and skeleton), but due to the COVID-19 crisis, he was almost out of competitions and overseas tours for the two winter sports, so he decided to concentrate on track and field first.

In his first year as an adult in 2020, he lost in the semifinals of the Japan Championships in the 100 m. In his second year, he won the Mikio Oda Memorial in April 2009 with a time of 11.64, his best in four years; in the Japan Championships in June, he set a personal best of 11.51 in the preliminary round but finished fifth in the final.

He said, “I was finally getting in shape to run, but my engine was running so thin that my body and my senses were not up to the task.

This year was his third year as an employee. He has been training steadily since winter without injury, and won the 100m final of the Japan Championships in 11.36 seconds, the fourth fastest time in Japan’s history.

At the moment I crossed the finish line, I was in a state of blankness, so I didn’t know if I had won or not. When I saw my reflection on the screen, I thought, ‘Yay! ‘” he said.

He was also selected to represent Japan in the World Championships in Athletics, the first time he had worn the national team uniform in an athletics event.

I thought, “I finally made it this far!　I thought. I knew that in order to go to a new stage, I needed to become the best in Japan, and I also needed to become a representative of Japan. It took a long time, but I finally achieved it.