Hello everyone, how are you？
I would like to introduce a great athlete from Aso city, today.
Koji Morimoto, a trail runner, he was born and grown up in Aso.
He won a lot of races held in Japan and joined 2019 trail world championship in Portugal as a top runner from Japan.
When he was a little boy, he thought this great nature in Aso was nothing special.
He became a high school kid, he wanted to get out and see the world outside of Aso caldera.
Since he left Aso, he made a lot of great records, and got married, became a father, had a lot of experience, then now his interest came back to Aso, his hometown.
Now he belongs to a company in Kumamoto which holds sports events to help local areas.
Since his mind came back to Aso, he realized how beautiful his hometown was and also noticed the problems such as the difficulties of keeping the grassland.
Now he would like to use his experience and network for Aso, He thinks if he can bring more trail runners here, they can help the maintenance of grassland as well.
He is hoping he can be a bridge between the people wants to do the activities in the grassland and the people wants to preserve the grassland.
If you like running especially in nature, Aso will be a great choice for you!
I can see Mr. Morimoto will pioneer more fun trails to run in future.
Even if you don’t run just hike, the trails he will find must be interesting for hiking as well!
He is not only bringing more trail runners to Aso, he is also still the very top trail runner.
He got the 1st place at the championship held at Miyazaki in July, 2022, and he is almost promised to go to 2023 trail world championship in Austria again!
We are proud that Aso has somebody like him. We are all looking forward to his success at his career.
Kana
