Koji Murofushi becomes the third all time best thrower in Prague (© TrackAndFieldPhoto.com)
Hi!
The World Championships in Paris is just around the corner.
It has been a month since my last competition (Rethimno on July 6) in Europe, which also means that it has been a month since the start of my final phase of the preparation for the World Championships in Paris. I am not doing anything different for the World Championships, however. I think I was able to train normally for the last one month.
The Hammer Throw is really picking up the steam lately. Last week, two 84m throws (84.32m by Ivan Tikhon on August 8 and 84.19m by Adrian Annus on August 10) were recorded in Europe, which makes this season the first season since 1988 with three throwers over 84m. (In 1988, Yuriy Sedykh, Sergey Litvinov and Juri Tamm all threw over 84m).
Because everyone is rounding into shape as the Worlds approach, I expect the hammer throw competition in Paris to be very exciting, perhaps it might even surpass the epic Edmonton hammer competition two years ago. Here in Japan, as the World Championships approaches, the expectation for my gold medal in Paris is really inflating. Of course, I would like to do my best in Paris.
Turning the topic to outside of training and competitions, but still within athletics, I would like to mention that I have a new task in hand. As some of you may already know, I am running for a position in the IAAF Athletes Commissions.
The reason why I am running for the position is because I would like to contribute to the further development of Track & Field, by presenting the view of athletes on various topics. I would like to be the voice of Asian athletes and also of athletes in the throwing events.
I am very much interested in the topic of rules especially with regards to the safety of throwing events. It is my desire to collect and organise voices of athletes and present them to the governing body, and by doing so it is my hope that we can compete in the best possible environment, which foster the best possible competitions.
I have a dream. It is to hold the hammer throw competition of the World Athletics Final in Japan. The World Athletics Final for the next three years is scheduled in Monaco. It is quite unfortunate that the hammer throw portion of the Final cannot be held in Monaco at the same time. It is scheduled in Szombately, Hungary (as some people call it, the Mecca of the hammer throws) a week before the event in Monaco.
Since the venue for the hammer throw portion of the Final for the next two years (2004 and 2005) are yet to be determined, I would like to see the event take place in Japan. If this dream turns into reality, many of the Japanese fans will be able to see the world-class hammer throw competition live in person, which makes me really happy.
I would also like to mention that one of the major events in Japan in the month of August is “UraBon” festival, more commonly known as “Bon” festival. It is a religious event originates in Buddhism. During this period, it is customary to construct horses and cows using cucumbers and eggplant (note that the shape of the Japanese eggplant is of an elongated shape not too different from the cucumber).
It is said that the spirits of our ancestors come back to us by riding these animals. Generally speaking, during the four days starting 13 August (the exact date on the Gregorian calendar changes from a year to year because the exact date is based on the lunar calendar, although the lunar calendar is completely forgotten in regular daily life in Japan) Japanese will visit the grave of their ancestors. I too will visit my ancestor’s grave before I leave for Paris. What I would like to do is to report to my grandfather, who I really liked, of my determination for the competition in Paris.
Koji
