I don't particularly care about sprinting but I can't stop watching this video, so here it is again. Ladies and gentlemen, freshman anchor Shota Iizuka singlehandedly gives Chuo University a 1-second margin of victory over Waseda University and the Japanese national university record of 38.54 in the men's 4 x 100 m relay at the Kanto Regional University T&F Championships in Tokyo's National Stadium on May 22, 2010.
With three sub-2:09 Japanese men in the race and good weather conditions by Boston standards the chances were decent that somebody was going to follow 1981 winner Toshihiko Seko 's 2:09:26 and score a sub-2:10 at the Boston Marathon . But nobody thought it was going to be by a 2:14 amateur. Paris Olympic team member Suguru Osako had taken 3rd in Boston in 2:10:28 in his debut seven years ago, and both he and 2:08 runners Kento Otsu and Ryoma Takeuchi were aiming for spots in the top 10, Otsu after having run a 1:01:43 half marathon PB in February and Takeuchi of a 2:08:40 marathon PB at Hofu last December. A high-level amateur with a 2:14:15 PB who scored a trip to Boston after winning a local race in Japan, Yuma Morii told JRN minutes before the start of the race, "I'm not thinking about time at all. I'm going to make top 10, whatever time it takes." Running Boston for the first time Morii took off with a 4:32 on the downhill opening mile, but after that Sis
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No official splits either, but I time him at 9.25 from the time the baton touches his hand to when he crosses the finish line. Anyone with better knowledge of sprint relay split timing feel free to offer a better estimate.
One of the Japanese comments compared the video to the Beijing Olympic final. The comment says Iizuka ran 8.13 from the line on the corner, while Asahara, the anchor on Japan's bronze medal team in Beijing, ran 8.24 and Powell ran 7.80. The guy who filmed this also says that it was like watching a bunch of junior high school kids racing a pro.
He might have got a little bit taller though.
I was really impressed by him the last year when he won 100m for the National Athletic Meet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zpM2fNmHXo
He clocked his PB of 10.38 in the pretty cold and raining condition, which I thought was great.
But that run is much more impressive!
It is a shame he will avoid the Japanese national the next month in favor of the World Junior Championships.
BTW thanx for all the videos you are uploading!
Thanks for all that info. I'm sure a lot of people are grateful.
184 cm! Wow, that is big for a Japanese guy. He is taller than me.
There you go.