Skip to main content

Akaba Reports All Members of Japanese Women's Christchurch Marathon Training Camp Safe and Unharmed

http://ameblo.jp/redwing36/

translated by Brett Larner and Mika Tokairin

Shuhei Akaba, coach and husband of 2011 Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Yukiko Akaba, is in Christchurch, New Zealand with Akaba and eight other top Japanese women distance runners on a Rikuren-sponsored training camp. He just posted the following report on today's earthquake a few minutes ago on his blog. Runners at the camp include Akaba, Kayoko Fukushi, Mai Ito, Yuko Machida, Yoko Miyauchi, Yurika Nakamura, Azusa Nojiri, Risa Shigetomo and Kaori Urata.

Today there was a magnitude 6.3 earthquake here in Christchurch, New Zealand. It hit after lunch just as we were getting ready for afternoon practice. The shaking was so strong that we couldn't stand up in our rooms, and the ground outside was like a liquid. There was a big crack in the road surface just outside our hotel, too. In the hotel rooms the dishes and glass were all broken, and the electricity and water stopped. The main roads are flooded and full of muddy water and there are big traffic jams everywhere.

There have been a lot of aftershocks, two or three of them almost as big as the first one. Another one just hit right now.

It's been seven hours since the earthquake hit but the staff at the hotel where we've all been staying didn't know when the electricity was going to be back on. We were nervous about our security there, so we've moved to a part of town that was relatively less damaged and where the power is back on.

Thank you for all of your concern, but the athletes and staff on the training camp are all safe and unharmed. But, the damage in town is massive and I heard that there are still people trapped in buildings and vehicles. Safety is our number one concern so we're going replan our schedule. I hope that there won't be any more big aftershocks.

To repeat, all of us, athletes and staff, are safe and sound. The phone lines here are really overloaded so please don't try to call us or anyone else in Christchurch. Thank you all for your concern.

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Takeuchi Wins Niigata Half in Boston Tune-Up

Running in cold, windy and rainy conditions, Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Software) warmed up for April's Boston Marathon with a win at Wednesday's Niigata Half Marathon . Takeuchi sat behind Nittai University duo Susumu Yamazaki and Ryuga Ishikawa in the early stages, then made a series of pushes to pick up the pace. Each time he tucked in behind whoever went to the front, while behind them others dropped off. Before 15 km only Yamazaki and Riki Koike of Soka University were left, and when Takeuchi went to the front the last time after 15 km only Koike followed. By 16 he was gone too, leaving Takeuchi to solo it in to the win in 1:03:13 with a 17-second negative split. "This was my last fitness check before the Boston Marathon next month, and my time was right on-target," he said post-race. "Everything went as planned. I'm looking forward to racing some of the world's best in Boston, and my goal there is to place in the single digits." Just back from tr