JFE Shoji Fukuyama Machinery & Materials Section members competed as the JFE Shoji Team on March 13 at the General Superintendent’s Cup Relay, which took place on the grounds of JFE Steel’s West Japan Works (Fukuyama). The team performed admirably, placing ninth out of the thirty teams competing.

The general superintendent of the West Japan Works has hosted this annual race since 1969, although this year’s event marked the first run in four years due to the pandemic. There were 30 teams competing, each with 11 members, and included 24 teams organized by the various departments of JFE Steel as well as 6 teams formed by JFE Group companies. The eleven-stage relay race covered a distance of three kilometers.

The JFE Shoji Team featured ten employees who made it through a competitive selection process within the Fukuyama Sub-Branch, running with West Japan Machinery & Materials Department general manager Taisuke Sadaoka. In the prestigious first stage, where most teams use their best runners—including former members of the JFE Racing Club—Fukuyama Machinery & Materials Section’s Ryo Hasegawa finished fifth, getting the team off to a great start. The remaining team members all ran tenaciously, doing their best to maintain position until the baton was passed to the team’s anchor, Sadaoka.

JFE Shoji employees who ran expressed their great satisfaction with the event, as well as their desire to compete at next year’s race. “It was so fun seeing the entire West Japan Works (Fukuyama) abuzz with excitement,” said one, while another remarked “sprinting all-out for hundreds of meters was incredibly hard, but I hope to improve our finishing position next year.”