Japanese champ has eye on record
THE fastest 10km runner in Japan is being tipped as the one to watch at this weekend’s 10km Classic as part of the 20th annual Townsville Running Festival.
Japan’s 10km national record- holder, Kota Murayama, has been slated as a favourite on Sunday even though he will be treating the run as “training”.
Murayama’s personal best time of 27 min 29 sec is almost three minutes faster than the current Townsville 10km course record set by Australian Olympian Craig Mottram in 2015 ( 30 min 2 sec).
Murayama was joined in Townsville by eight other elite Japanese runners, including Olympians Kenta Murayama and Satoru Sasaki, for a three- week training camp ahead of the Sydney and Chicago mara- thons and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Japan’s running coach, Masayuki Nishi, said his team was looking forward to running the 10km event and hinted at the possibility of a record- beating run.
“The weather in Townsville is favourable. It’s an ideal environment so they can come over, take cover and be discrete here in Townsville and just be part of the community while they are training for their running,” Nishi said.
“The record is 30 minutes and there’s people that can run quicker than that. It will be very difficult ( to beat) obviously in a training environment but you never know what to expect on Sunday when they turn up for the race.”
For more information about the McDonald’s Townsville Running Festival, go to townsvillerunningfestival. com.