Three athletes, including Hitomi Niiya, who was appointed as the representative of the Tokyo Olympics at the Japan Championships in Athletics, held a meeting on the 5th day after the race and talked about their enthusiasm for the Olympics.
At the tournament held in Osaka City on the 4th, three athletes, including Shintani, who is 10,000 meters for women, Nozomi Tanaka, who is 5,000 meters for women, and Akira Aizawa, who is 10,000 meters for men, have been nominated as representatives of the Tokyo Olympics.
The three of them held a press conference in Osaka City on the 5th, and Shintani, who broke the Japanese record for the first time in 18 years and was appointed as the representative, revealed that he had been contacted for blessing immediately after the race and said, "It was the most surprising. I just received a message from my mother saying "Congratulations". It was the slowest than anyone else, "he said with a laugh.
On top of that, he expressed his intention to aim for the representative at 5000 meters for the Tokyo Olympics, which will be his first appearance in two tournaments, and he said, "I want to prepare well so that I can show the best performance if it is held safely."
21-year-old Tanaka, who will be the first representative, said, "Since fear, anxiety and suffering continued for a long time until yesterday's race, there is a part that I do not feel. However, the people who contacted me" tears " I was happy to hear that and feel something. I still have mental weakness, so I want to raise my mental level. "
Aizawa, who broke the Japanese record and grabbed the national team ticket, said, "I'm very excited and thrilled with the feeling that I really won the championship after one night."
Aizawa is from Sukagawa City, Fukushima Prefecture, the same as Kokichi Tsuburaya, who won the bronze medal at the last men's marathon in Tokyo.
Regarding participating in the same Tokyo tournament after 1957, "I feel a connection. I felt that the Olympics were postponed for one year and I was lucky. One more step, two steps, so that I could win a prize. I want to improve myself, "he said with enthusiasm.