Skip to main content

Satoshi Osaki Out of Olympic Marathon With Hip Injury (updated)

http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/NewsPack/CN2008082301000765_Sports.html
http://www.daily.co.jp/general/2008/08/23/0001366258.shtml
NHK News broadcast, 8:55 p.m., 8/23/08

translated and edited by Brett Larner

The JOC announced on the evening of Aug. 23 that Beijing Olympics men's marathon team member Satoshi Osaki, 32, of Team NTT Nishi Nihon, has suffered an injury to his left hip and has withdrawn from the Aug. 24 competition. Osaki began to experience discomfort in his left hip during his final training session on Aug. 20, the day before he travelled to Beijing. The pain became progressively worse, and while jogging on Aug. 22 it developed to the point at which he could no longer run. Osaki made the decision to withdraw early in the day on Aug. 23.

In the women's marathon, defending gold medalist Mizuki Noguchi of Team Sysmex withdrew from the race shortly beforehand leaving only two team members to compete. Osaki's withdrawal leaves the men in the same position, with only Tsuyoshi Ogata and Atsushi Sato of Team Chugoku Denryoku remaining.

Osaki was 6th at last year's Osaka World Championships marathon, then ran 2:08:36 to finish 3rd at March's Biwako Mainichi Marathon and qualify for his first Olympic team.

Osaki appeared with Ogata and Sato at an official press conference in Beijing on Aug. 22 but did not give any indication of his injured status. Sato, on the other hand, was surprisingly subdued and evasive in his answers to reporters questions, showing an uncharacteristic lack of confidence leading to speculation that he is not at peak fitness. Team Chugoku Denryoku coach Yasushi Sakaguchi also spoke at the press conference about his two Olympic marathoners, saying, "Everything is good with Ogata, but Sato had a failure in Hokkaido [June's Sapporo International Half Marathon]. We planned to have him train in St. Moritz (Switzerland) after that, but...."*

*Translator's note: Sato ran very poorly in Sapporo. Shortly afterwards Sakaguchi cancelled the planned training camp in St. Moritz over concern that Sato was overtraining.

Comments

Roberto said…
That's three (or four) Japanese marathon runners (not to mention Paula Radcliffe and Liu Xiang) who concealed injuries/poor fitness in the run-up to their Beijing competition dates, preventing their federations from replacing them ...

Nice.

Most-Read This Week

World Championships Medalist Racewalking Coach Mizuho Sakai Recognized With Highest Coaching Honor

The 2023 Mizuno Sports Mentor Awards recognizing excellence in coaching were held Apr. 23 in Tokyo. Toyo University assistant coach and race walking coach Mizuho Sakai was given a gold award, the program's highest honor, and expressed her thanks and joy in a speech at the award ceremony. The coach of 2023 Budapest World Championships men's 35 km race walk bronze medalist Masatora Kawano , Sakai said, "This is an incredible honor and I'm truly grateful. As a child I wanted to be in the sporting world and I've spent my life in that world. My end goal was always to play a supporting role for other athletes, so I'm honored to be recognized in this way." Sakai's husband Toshiyuki Sakai , head coach of Toyo's three-time Hakone Ekiden champion team, attended the awards gala with her and was also introduced to the audience. After bowing he took a seat in front of her and watched with warmth as she received recognition for her outstanding work. The Mizun

Hirabayashi Runs PB at Shanghai Half, WR Holder Nakata Dominates Fuji Five Lakes - Weekend Road Roundup

Returning to the roads after his 2:06:18 win at February's Osaka Marathon, Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Koku Gakuin University) took 5th at Sunday's Shanghai Half Marathon in a PB 1:01:23, just under a minute behind winner Roncer Kipkorir Konga (Kenya) who clocked a CR 1:00:29. After inexplicably running the equivalent of a sub-59 half marathon to win the Hakone Ekiden's Third Stage, Aoi Ota (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) was back to running performances consistent with his other PBs with a 1:02:30 for 8th. His AGU teammate Kyosuke Hiramatsu was 10th in 1:04:00. Women's winner Magdalena Shauri (Tanzania) also set a new CR in 1:09:57. Aoyama Gakuin runners took the top four spots in the men's half marathon at the Aomori Sakura Marathon , with Hakone alternate Kosei Shiraishi getting the win in 1:04:32 and B-team members Shunto Hamakawa and Kei Kitamura 2nd and 3rd in 1:04:45 and 1:04:48. Club runners took the other division titles, Hina Shinozaki winning the women's half

The Ivy League at the Izumo Ekiden in Review

Last week I was contacted by Will Geiken , who I'd met years ago when he was a part of the Ivy League Select Team at the Izumo Ekiden . He was looking for historical results from Izumo and lists of past team members, and I was able to put together a pretty much complete history, only missing the alternates from 1998 to 2010 and a little shaky on the reverse transliterations of some of the names from katakana back into the Western alphabet for the same years. Feel free to send corrections or additions to alternate lists. It's interesting to go back and see some names that went on to be familiar, to see the people who made an impact like Princeton's Paul Morrison , Cornell's Max King , Stanford's Brendan Gregg in one of the years the team opened up beyond the Ivy League, Cornell's Ben de Haan , Princeton's Matt McDonald , and Harvard's Hugo Milner last year, and some of the people who struggled with the format. 1998 Team: 15th of 21 overall, 2:14:10 (43