http://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/shakai/201502/0007744581.shtml translated by Brett Larner At the first edition of the Himeji Castle World Heritage Site Marathon on Feb. 22, senior patrol officer Makoto Yukitomo , 33, of Suma Police Station Department 3 will run as an invited elite athlete. In his student days at Senshu University Officer Yukitomo ran the most competitive stage at the prestigious Hakone Ekiden, the Second Stage, two years in a row. As a rookie police officer living in the Himeji police dormitory his regular running course was around Himeji Castle. "It's fun to run on familiar old ground," he said in anticipation of the starting gun. Officer Yukitomo was born in Yanai, Yamaguchi. A member of his junior high school's kendo club, at a school sports day running event he caught the eye of the track coach who convinced him to become a long distance runner. With a good track record of results in hard training he was recommended to and accepted...
the world's window into elite japanese distance running, since 2007