JAPANESE ATHLETES ON THEIR WAY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20639, 30 January 1937, Page 16

JAPANESE ATHLETES ON THEIR WAY

“Accepted; sailing Kitano Maru.” The receipt of the cable from Tokio

last week ended a long series of negotiations with American and Japanese athletes for a tour of New Zealand (says the ‘Dominion’). Delays and misunderstandings, some of them avoidable and some not to be foreseen, have marked the proceedings, and the council of the N.Z.A.A.A. can breathe a sigh of relief that things are now settled. Kohei Murakoso, Olympic distance runner, and Kenshi Togami, hurdler, should arrive at Sydney on February 11. the Kitano Maru being scheduled to leave Tokio on January 11. Boats leaving Sydney for New Zealand about then will be the Wanganella for Wellington, arriving February 14, and the Awatea for Auckland, arriving February 15. No decision has been made about a tour of New South Wales, although the association there is anxious to stage it, nor has any itinerary yet been drawn up for New Zealand. The New Zealand council's decision, to go ahead and accept the Japanese offer is proved to have been wise by the belated arrival of a letter from the New South Wales body with definite advice that the Americans Draper and Mackey would not be coming, because of the shipping strike. There is no information to hana about the hurdler Togami. Kohei Murakoso was fourth in the 10,000 metres at the Berlin Olympic Games last August, the first three places being filled by Finns. The reports stated that the speedy running of the diminutive Japanese caused a sensation. In the 5000 metres he was second in his heat, and fourth in the final. His time was 14min 30sec, equalling the Olympic record, against the winner’s 14min 22sec, a record.