Hirohiro Arai, who won the bronze medal in the men's 50km race walk at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, has announced his retirement.
Arai is 34 years old from Nagano prefecture.
He has good form and tenacious race walking, and won a bronze medal in the men's 50km race walk at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and a silver medal at the World Championships the following year.
After that, he was aiming to participate in the Tokyo Olympics, but he could not enter the national team, and on the 24th, he announced his retirement after participating in the 10,000-meter race walk of the All Japan Business Team Championship held in Gifu City.
Arai said frankly, "I haven't had any results in the past few years, and I was thinking of ending it at some point. I decided long ago that this tournament would end, so I feel like I've been liberated." I spoke my mind.
On top of that, he said with a smile, "There were many things that didn't go well, but I was able to do my best, so I had almost no regrets in my competitive life. I am very much looking forward to the future because there are many young and good players." I was.
He said that he would like to contribute to race walking and track and field, although his future has not been decided yet.