IAAF Silver Order of Merit for Hiraoki Chosa
There can hardly be a person on the planet that would be unaware of the strides regarding marathons and other long distance races which took place a few days ago in Athens, Greece. Just after thirty years of the marathon boom took off, there has emerged
a new wave of long distance run mania, culminating in new marathons being launched along with vastly increased number of contestants applying for the established ones.
Sports reporters around the globe are the witnesses of the above mentioned trend. From far flung events like Sahara Marathon which is run through the refugee camps of Sahara in Western Algeria to the soon-to-be launched Singapore Marathon where around 60,000
runners would participate into three different races on 5th of December, the spectators of the running sports have increased many folds.
The consecration of this spirit was depicted this week at Athens where 2500th anniversary of the Classic Marathon was celebrated. There had been media personnel from around the world to report the event and to telecast it live.
Starting from the Sunday’s Marathon inaugural at Athens which took place in 1896, the AIMS (Association of International Marathons and Distance Races) used the event to celebrate their 18th world congress. Taking the opportunity, it also held
the fourth AIMS-IAAF Marathon Symposium.
Following the tradition of passing on the traditional lightening of the Marathon Flame, while standing at the burial mound of the fallen from the Battle which took place in 490 BC, eventually there took place another remarkable ceremony where Lamine Diack,
the president of the IAAF presented the IAAF Silver Award of Merit to Hiraoki Chosa from Japan, who happens to be the outgoing president of the AIMS.
Going through his 80 year, Chosa, the former middle distance runner has been a part of AIMS for around two decades. During this time, AIMS has witnessed unprecedented growth in its membership. The association which had made its start in 1982 with only 28
members has now been extended to 303. While addressing the farewell party organized to acknowledge his efforts, Chosa predicted that by the year 2015, the membership of AIMS would exceed 500 members.
Throughout his life, Chosa had been an active member of several IAAF and Japanese Federations commissions and committees which also include his current position as a member of the IAAF Road Running commission. Recently he had also started taking hands on
experiences about the popular influx for long distance runs.
Tokyo Marathon, which at a time was considered as the elite-only race, opened its entries for all the people. Being president of the Tokyo Marathon Foundation, this was a memorable moment for Chosa. Carrying on with the efforts to promote the race further,
this week he had announced that from 35,000, the number of the entries for the next year had increased to 335,000. This was truly a remarkable achievement in terms of invoking interest of people into a healthy sport and to encourage them to take part into
that.
While receiving his award from IAAF President Diack after the ceremony, Chosa revealed that the recipient and donator both shared the same date of Birth i.e. June 7.
Relying upon the skills of his long-time interpreter Yutaka Sasi, Chosa said that even ten thousand words were not enough to express the feelings of surprise and pleasure which he had after receiving the award from President Lamine Diack.
While expressing his thoughts and sharing his feelings Chosa further said that every morning when he would get up from his bed, the prestigious award would be the first thing he would like to see. He revealed that throughout his life he had been refusing
to accept that type of awards offered by the Japanese government, however, for the award given by the IAAF President, he could not simply say no to it. This was perhaps the true acknowledgement of his efforts for the promotion of marathon around the world.
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