Naoki Ichino of JFE Shoji’s Plate Section raced in the sailing competition of the 2023 National Sports Festival in Kagoshima Prefecture representing Kanagawa Prefecture, winning for the third year in a row.

Six races were originally scheduled over four days during the competition, which started on October 8. Due to bad weather, however, the format was changed, and the last day featured four races. Since each race takes about an hour, doing four races in a single day was a challenge both physically and mentally.

Ichino had been doing 2.5 hours of physical training every day since January to prepare. A week before the competition, he was also using weather forecasts to predict wind direction and wave conditions to set a strategy for the competition. He says his efforts paid off because he was physically well prepared on race day and moving his body as he had pictured, leading to his victory.

Ichino was born in Hayama, a sea town in the western part of Miura Peninsula in Kanagawa Prefecture. Many around him were involved in marine sports, and their influence led him to take up sailing when he was six. He has now been sailing for about twenty-nine years. He said, “I want to keep putting the athletic spirit I have developed over those years of sailing to use in both my work and daily life. Sailing is a stimulating sport, so I hope to keep doing it for a long time to refresh myself for my job.”

*Sailing is a sport where sailors harness the wind captured in their boat’s sails as a power source, enabling them to glide across the ocean while competing based on their navigation skills and the speed of their boat.