Miyazaki Yasuko won first place at the ULTRAMAN WORLD SHAMPIONSHIPS 2014, in Hawaii.In the women’s field, Yasuko Miyazaki, 37, of Saitama, Japan, ran a new course record time of 6:54:57.She became the first woman to go under 7 hours on the 52.4 mile course at the Ultraman World Championships. The previous record was 7:12:07, set by Ann Heaslett in 2009.This performance rocketed Miyazaki into first place woman overall with at total time of 25:40:49.
Women’s world champion Yasuko Miyazaki (second from left) and her crew, sporting the T-shirts she sold to raise funds to race. (Hawaii 24/7 photo by Karin Stanton) The office worker had competed in Ultraman just once before, in 2012 when she finished sixth overall in a time of 26:21:28. “Today was the hardest day,” she said through a translator. “But I had the determination to be champion and I knew I had to push for it from the beginning. I wanted to win from Day 1 and beat the run record.” Miyazaki said she had set a goal of 7:20 for the run and was pleased to crack the 7 hour mark. “I did so well for one reason – my team. This is a team race. I’ve done Ironman races for 19 years and that feels like a short race, a speed race. I like the long distances best, so this is why I was so happy to discover Ultraman,” she said. “This was the 30th year and I wanted to do something special,” Miyazaki said. “And I did it.” She said she sold Team Miyazaki T-shirts to raise funds to compete this weekend and thanked the 100 friends who contributed. “They are my team too,” she said. Miyazaki’s crew included Weston Kile, Aya Hasegawa, Toshi Mochizuki and Atsushi Ohkawa. |
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Yasuko Miyazaki supplements with Oxyshot |
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