The most powerful high school student in the Japanese athletics world right now is Rin Kubo (16, Higashiosaka Daikeiai High School), who competes in the women’s 800m. Having left her hometown of Wakayama to live in Osaka, Kubo beat Nozomi Tanaka (24, New Balance), a middle- and long-distance ace with eight Japanese records, at the Kanaguri Memorial held in Kumamoto in April (time of 2 minutes 5.35 seconds). Since then, she has won three consecutive GP series races, setting a new U18 Japanese record at the Shizuoka International on May 3rd and winning the Kinami Memorial on the 12th, beating top Japanese athletes and a Chinese athlete who placed 5th at the Tokyo Olympics. At the Inter-High Kinki Regional Championships on June 16th, she improved her own Japanese record by 0.07 seconds, marking 2 minutes 3.50 seconds.
We interviewed Kubo about his school life.

Mornings are my forte. I wake up at 4:40.

On days when there is morning practice, he wakes up at 4:40. “I’m good at getting up in the morning, and I’ve never overslept in high school. My mom woke me up and made me lunch, and this morning I had bread.” He prefers bread over rice.

When they arrive at school, they have a daily routine before starting morning practice at 7:00. They report their weight to Mr. Masatsugu Noguchi, who coaches the school, before going to bed the previous day, after waking up, and after arriving at school. The purpose is to get a firm grasp of their own condition.

After finishing his morning practice, he reports his distance and heart rate. “Distance 5.7km, time 20 minutes 0.2 seconds, average heart rate 171, maximum heart rate 188. My legs are in good condition.” Reports and reviews of his condition are also conducted on his days off.

Kubo

“Every day we exchange emails to review our training. We review what we were able to do in training and what we couldn’t do and what we need to improve. We also review how we spent our rest days and whether we were able to use that time effectively.”

She stretches every day before going to bed, and her legs can be spread almost 180 degrees. She is also the fastest in the team when it comes to ladder training, which requires quick and accurate movements.

Noguchi-sensei spoke about Kubo’s strength as follows:

“It’s been a year since she enrolled, but she never writes anything negative. She writes positively, saying, ‘Today it was like this, so next time I’d like to do it like this.’ She never complains. If she can’t set a time for herself, she thinks of how to improve it next time, so she practices continuously in order to clear that next time. The pace she runs during warm-ups is different from other athletes. She warms up at a pace that allows ordinary runners to only run 2000m at full speed once. There is no one like that. She warms up at a pace that other runners who compete in the Inter-High School Championships would run at full speed at.”

Although he may be stoic, Kubo is usually just a normal high school student and is well-liked by both his seniors and juniors.

Kubo (center)

3rd grade“Usually she’s a cheerful person, but during games and practice her expression changes and she seems different than usual.”

Sophomore“I work hard during athletics, but I’m also a fun person in my everyday life and I like to make people laugh.”

First grader“I respect everything about him. He’s really fun to work with.”