Happy New Year to you all!  How did you spend Christmas and New Year?  
 
As you might expect, my New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day activities were sports related.  First of all, on New Year’s Eve, I went to see “K-1” a hugely popular combat sport based, mainly, on kick boxing.  In the last few years, with its increasing popularity here in Japan, “K-1” has become a real part of New Year’s Eve with millions looking forward to watching it on the last day of the year.    

The main event was a match between the former Sumo Grand Champion (Yokozuna) from Hawaii, Akebono and the King of “K-1” Bob Sapp, who has became the most famous American in Japan in recent times.  Because of this much hyped match up, the event seemed to attract more public and media attention than in previous years. 

Before the match, the famous Japanese singer Yuki Koyanagi sang the Japanese national anthem and Stevie Wonder played the American national anthem on a harmonica. The entire arena went silent so it was quite a heart warming moment for everyone there.  As for the match, the more experienced Bob Sapp knocked out Akebono, but, all of us in the arena were impressed with his fighting spirit.

On New Year’s Day, TBS, one of the official broadcasting partners of the IAAF, aired an innovative sports programme in which top athletes compete in the series of unusual events that are very different to what they are used to.  For example, athletes compete in tug of war, truck pulling, vaulting horse, and log sawing!    

In my opinion, it is a fantastic programme, and because you are competing in a relaxed atmosphere, it is nothing like my usual competitions!  At the end of the competition, I felt better able to understand how multi-event athletes must feel when they finish their final event. 

This year, I took part in the barrel throwing contest, an event to see who can throw a 10kg barrel highest. The competitors are given two attempts to throw the 10kg barrel over the wall which is raised in height.  It started at 6m and then went up like a high jump bar.  It might seem simple, but it is actually quite a challenging event.  As well as myself, the competitors for the event were John Godina, the former World Champion Shot Putter, and five other Hammer Throwers - Ivan Tikhon (2003 World Champion), Andriy Skvaruk (1997 Worlds silver medalist), Ilya Konovalov (2001 World bronze medallist), Zsolt Nemeth (1999 World silver medalist), and Primoz Kozmus (5th in 2003 World Champs).  John, who also competed in the same event in 2002, held the unofficial world record at 7.75m. 

Because they are all fabulous athletes, getting over 6.50m was no problem for anyone.  It was a lot of fun but at the end, the competition came down to John and me.  I won the event at 7.50m and then went on to break the John’s record with an 8.00m throw.  Because the show was watched by the general public rather than traditional track and field fans or even general sports’ fans, I felt that this was a great opportunity for the general public to know and appreciate our sport and its athletes.  I would like to congratulate and thank the programme producer Mr. Higuchi and his staff who made it all happen. 

Finally, I wish that 2004 is a great year for all of you.  I also hope that the world can become a more peaceful place and that we can all work together toward a successful Olympics Games in Athens.  

Koji