Japanese Marathon Warriors to test Copenhagen Marathon

[Newsroom]

The Land of the Rising Sun, Japan, has long been known for its strong interest in the marathon and have over the years produced champions in the event.

Current hot marathon property Sammy Wanjiru lives and trains in Japan and it is with this strong presence of the marathon culture that both Toyokazu Yoshimura and Chihiro Tanaka travel from Osaka, Japan to test the streets of the Copenhagen Marathon on the 24th May 2009.

However, these are no ordinary Elite Athletes who have the luxury of resting up to recover from their heavy workload, as Toyokazu Yoshimura works a full-time job and is a father of two children. Yoshimura runs to and from work each day and trains alone but has brought himself to a level of which even the runners on Japan's legendary corporate professional running teams are envious.

In junior high school Yoshimura was the best in his hometown of Osaka and a nationally competitive student runner. He was expected to do great things in high school and beyond, but undiagnosed anaemia from training 30 to 40 km a day stalled his performances. Iron treatments helped him recover but it was too late for Yoshimura to find a place on a professional team or a good university squad. He quit running and went to vocational school to become a physical therapist.

Some time later, a former high school team-mate asked Yoshimura to join a training group he was putting together. Yoshimura agreed, and he soon found himself doing his first marathon. It was a failure. He started far too fast, broke down at 30 km, and failed to crack 3 hours. He improved to the 2:40’s in his subsequent attempts and stayed at that level for several years.

Yoshimura turns 35 in July this year and has previously won Australia’s prestigious Gold Coast Marathon in 2007 and this year recorded a Personal Best of 2:16:58 at the Lake Biwa Marathon, which was won by the legendary Paul Tergat.

Toyokazu should appeal to every runner out on the streets of Copenhagen as an example of persistence and the will to achieve.

The Copenhagen Marathon will be Yoshimura’s first time racing in Europe. “My goal is to win,” he says. “Everyone cheering along the course will give me the energy I need to run as hard as I can all the way to the finish. I can’t wait.”

Chihiro Tanaka turns 40 in November this year and has a 2:29:30 achieved in Nagoya in 2002. Tanaka has been transformed from a 3:19:49 debut at the 1994 Honolulu Marathon to a 2:33:30 victory at the 1997 Hokkaido Marathon and comes to Copenhagen in 2:36 shape and the will to win in Copenhagen.

Tanaka is now the mother of two children and still juggles her daily routine with her appetite for training and racing and this year has already achieved 2:38:08 in March at the Nagoya International Women’s Marathon as well as a preparation marathon of 2:41:21 for 8th place at the Nagano Marathon on Apr. 19.

The streets of Copenhagen welcomes the Land of the Rising Sun