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1500 m National Record Holder Yuriko Kobayashi Gives Birth to First Child

https://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/sports/201705/0010198888.shtml

translated by Brett Larner

Women's 1500 m national record holder and 2008 Beijing Olympian Yuriko Kobayashi, 28, a resident of Kakogawa, Hyogo and born in Ono, Hyogo, gave birth to her first child, a boy, the morning of May 18. Kobayashi retired from competition in December, 2014. In December, 2015 she married a man the same age as her involved in the landscaping business who had run in the National High School Ekiden Championships while attending Hyogo's Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. In addition to giving lectures and making appearances at amateur races, Kobayashi has been teaching mathematics at a prison for juvenile offenders in Kakogawa. About three and a half hours after giving birth she commented, "That gave me a taste of a whole different kind of suffering and excitement from athletics. I hope that he grows up a healthy boy."

Translator's note: Kobayashi holds a total of four youth, junior and open national records over 1500 m and 3000 m. Late in her career she relocated to the U.S.A. to train with coach James Li but returned when she was unable to alter her career trajectory.

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