Japanese sprinters

[mastermulti]

Hi all,
we've often mentioned how there are/have been some top notch Japanese sprinters. I stumbled upon this youtube (in Japanese) showing most of their top performances over the years.
Patrick Johnson also features in two races near the beginning.

Poor Koji Ito... in 1998 he clocked 9.99 which was subsequently rounded up to 10.00. What a disappointment for him after seeing the clock stop at sub 10!

Japanese sprinting momentsEdited by: mastermulti

 

[StarWars]

I personally think Nobuharu Asahara is the fastest Japanese man to ever live, with PBs of 6.55, 10.02 and 20.39. Amazingly, he can also long jump over 8 meters, and won a bronze medal in the 4x100 in Beijing.

 

[StarWars]

Koji Ito had a 2 m/s wind behind him by the way, much like Marian Woronin. The fastest times by any pure white or Asian belong to Christophe Lemaitre and Matt Shrivington over 100 meters (which are well under 10, maybe even 9.90 with a 2 m/s conversion). I think Asahara is up there for one of the fastest non-blacks ever.

 

[white is right]

I recall that Ito race like it was yesterday. He was running in the Asian semi-finals and eased up with about 10 meters to go as he only needed to qualify for the finals. He would have had a sub 10 if runs through the line. Some times the best races of individual sprinters are in semi-finals when they are totally relaxed. I recall Mike Marsh running a 19.73 in a semi-final while doing the same thing.

 

[white lightning]

The only strange thing that I have always said is that the majority of Asian Sprinters do not sprint well outside of Japan. There are a few that have run ok on occasion but the majority only run good on the fast Japanese Tracks. Their Relay Teams are very good however as they are technically almost flawless. They always seem to make the finals. I agree that Asahara is the best asian sprinter that I have ever seen. Edited by: white lightning

 

[white is right]

Yes I think we talked about this on other posts. Japanese and to a lesser extent Chinese runners have run world class times at domestic meets and under perform internationally. This could be a psychological thing.

 

[freedom1]

What struck me about the vids was how slight they are built.