Watch moment Maeda cleans facilities before training with ex-club
Read more:
He returned to the club over the summer and was pictured classily helping to clean facilities before training, as is tradition.
Daizen Maeda is training at Mito Hollyhock, the club where he played in 2017.
Today the striker took part in the traditional cleaning of the club's CT, helping the players prepare the environment before the start of activities.
A man who never forgot his roots💚🍀 pic.twitter.com/2JWxdk0TEq — The Parkhead Faithful (@TheParkheadF) July 2, 2025
"I was able to train in a great environment with a good team who are currently at the top of the league," said Maeda.
"I don't know what the new season will bring for me, but first, I want to get in shape at their training camp.
"I felt ok, but I think I still have a long way to go.
"It was an enjoyable session. Mito are a great team and there is a good atmosphere in the camp. I really hope they win promotion."
And the manager of his old club, Naoki Mori, was clearly impressed with Maeda's condition.
He observed: "Daizen was as fast as ever.
"His sense of speed is just what we all expected."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scottish Sun
5 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Oisin Murphy confirmed for ride on 66-1 outsider with ‘a great turn of foot' in Arc de Triomphe
Could he give Japan their first Arc winner? MURPHY'S LAW Oisin Murphy confirmed for ride on 66-1 outsider with 'a great turn of foot' in Arc de Triomphe Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) FOUR-TIME champion jockey Oisin Murphy has been confirmed for the ride on a 66-1 outsider with 'a great turn of foot' in the Arc de Triomphe. Murphy rode the four-year-old colt to a £1.2million victory in Saudi Arabia earlier this year and will also ride him in September's Prix Foy. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 1 Oisin Murphy will be licking his lips at the prospect of two huge pay cheques aboard Byzantine Dream Credit: Getty Murphy will renew his partnership with Japanese raider Byzantine Dream for two mega-money races later this year. Trained by Tomoyasu Sakaguchi, Byzantine Dream has won more than £2.1million in his short career. He is available at 66-1 for October's Arc de Triomphe with several firms while others go as short as 20s. Andrew Balding's four-year-old filly Kalpana remains the 6-1 favourite for the Longchamp blockbuster. More to follow. FREE BETS - GET THE BEST SIGN UP DEALS AND RACING OFFERS Commercial content notice: Taking one of the offers featured in this article may result in a payment to The Sun. You should be aware brands pay fees to appear in the highest placements on the page. 18+. T&Cs apply. Remember to gamble responsibly A responsible gambler is someone who: Establishes time and monetary limits before playing Only gambles with money they can afford to lose Never chases their losses Doesn't gamble if they're upset, angry or depressed Gamcare – Gamble Aware – Find our detailed guide on responsible gambling practices here.
Rhyl Journal
18 hours ago
- Rhyl Journal
Keely Hodgkinson won't rule out making attempt at new British record in Lausanne
The Olympic champion marked her return from a 376-day absence on Saturday in Silesia in stunning style, clocking a world-leading one minute and 54.74 seconds, the ninth-fastest women's 800 metres performance in history. It was also the second quickest Hodgkinson had ever run her signature event, behind her own national record of 1:54.61 set at the London Diamond League last year. 'I guess I was pretty close the other day, so I wouldn't rule it out, no,' said the 23-year-old. ⭐️ Keely is BACK ⭐️ 376 days away, no stress 😤 Keely Hodgkinson clocks a time of 1:54.74 in the women's 800m for a new meeting record and world lead.#SilesiaDL | @keelyhodgkinson — British Athletics (@BritAthletics) August 16, 2025 'I think it just depends, like, when you're running those kinds of times you've really got to be on the pace. Point four out can cost you point four later on. So getting the first lap right is really important and coming into that second lap is really important. 'I wouldn't say it's off the cards, but we'll just have to see what the body is feeling.' Just two women – Jarmila Kratochvilova and Nadezhda Olizarenko – have ever recorded times under one minute and 54 seconds. The former set the current world record of one minute and 53.28 seconds in 1983. I have said before that I think 1:53 is possible (but) you've got to really get that right,' said Hodgkinson. 'It's got to be a really good day. It's probably one of those one-off peak days where everything's gone right. It definitely would be an aim of mine. It would be a great achievement to be getting closer and closer to that 1:53. I do believe it's possible, but we'll just have to see what happens.' Hodgkinson has less than a month remaining until the 800 metres heats begin at the world championships in Tokyo, where she hopes to back up her Olympic victory with her first world title. She even has the name of the Japanese capital tattooed on her arm, in commemoration of the place where she made her Olympic debut – and collected a silver medal – in 2021. Presser done ✔️ Athletes have given their thoughts and views. It's all eyes on the competition to come now 😮💨#LausanneDL 🇨🇭 #DiamondLeague 💎 — Wanda Diamond League (@Diamond_League) August 19, 2025 Hodgkinson's injury-plagued post-Olympic year began with a recurrence of a knee issue before she sustained a left hamstring tendon injury in February, then injured her right hamstring in May, though it was 'supposedly not as bad as the other one'. The Atherton athlete and her team are now building speed back into her training – the injury, she revealed, is known as a 'sprinter's injury' – ahead of the global showdown. She added: 'Things have gone really well. The body's a lot stronger, all I've done is train all year so I'm definitely in a really good place physically. It's just all about things coming together now and hopefully putting those mental blocks and barriers behind me.'
Rhyl Journal
18 hours ago
- Rhyl Journal
Sparks flew at York when Electrocutionist made it an Italian job
The last international raider to win the highlight of York's season, Electrocutionist – rather fittingly ahead of the latest renewal – had a Japanese star a neck in arrears as daring trainer Valfredo Valiani enjoyed the crowning moment of his career at a place he will always hold dear. 'They are great memories and I love York, it is a gorgeous racecourse,' said Valiani, who also enjoyed Group One success on the Knavesmire with Super Tassa in the 2001 Yorkshire Oaks. 'Coming from Italy we don't have up and downs, we have flat tracks and flat training centres, so York was just perfect. 'The welcome we got from the racetrack was great and everyone was so nice to us. I can't help but love York, as it is a place that has been so lucky for me. 'I have won Group races in Italy and France and England, but those wins at York are definitely the best achievements of my career.' With Electrocutionist a champion in his native Italy, Valiani had long held ambitions of sending his nation's flagbearer on the long raid from his base in Pisa to Yorkshire. However, it was while the colt was lodging with the Italian's compatriot and mentor Luca Cumani in the build up to his York date that excitement hit fever pitch, after Electrocutionist turned up the voltage under big-race pilot Mick Kinane with a scintillating piece of work on the Newmarket gallops. Kinane would prove the final piece of the puzzle and after being given in-depth guidance on the eve of the Group One showpiece, Valiani's gladiator was ready for his showdown with Kazuo Fujisawa Japan Cup hero Zenno Rob Roy in the white-hot atmosphere of York's equine Colosseum. 'In May he won a Group Two in Italy and then he won the Gran Premio di Milano and straight after I said we're going to run in York and I was pretty sure he would do very well,' said Valiani. 'We went there with a lot of confidence because I sent the horse to England about a month before the race and he did a very nice piece of work in the lead up under Mick Kinane on the Al Bahathri. 'I spoke to Mick at the Bedford Lodge Hotel the night before the race showing him all the videos of his previous races. 'I was talking him through them, showing him where I thought the jockey was doing well or doing wrong. I think we probably spent an hour talking and I just told him to to wait as long as he could, but then during the race I couldn't help but think he had got him a bit too far back. 'He showed his class and won by a very short distance and when Mick jumped off he said 'I knew I was going to win coming round the bend' and I told him he should have called me as I have almost had a heart attack! 'He was a hell of a horse and it gave me great satisfaction.' Valfredo Valiani, former trainer of the British Group 1 winners Super Tassa and Electrocutionist, studying the catalogue at the SGA Sale in Milan. — Emma Berry (@CollingsBerry) September 21, 2018 With a mid-race health scare avoided and his greatest racing accomplishment secured, the Tuscan trainer's thoughts immediately turned to conquering Europe's most prestigious middle-distance prize, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Parisian dreams would ultimately be vetoed, with Electrocutionist instead heading to Woodbine's Canadian International for what would be his final start for Valiani in a spell that yielded six heroic victories and only two defeats. Valiani said: 'After York I wanted to run in the Arc, I was pretty sure he would have been in the first two and I still don't think I was wrong, he could easily have done that. 'There were big discussions that lasted days and I ended up running him in a race in Canada and that is the only regret I really have with him that he didn't get to run in the Arc. 'The only race he ever lost in Italy, he was beaten a nose by Shirocco, and the ground was slightly soft that day and he didn't like that, he was a fantastic racehorse.' Arc regrets will never diminish the Italian's achievements on the Knavesmire and a love affair that had begun four years prior to Electrocutionist's finest hour in Valiani's care, when outsider Super Tassa silenced the swarming grandstands with her shock 25-1 triumph in the Yorkshire Oaks. That would be Italy's first Group One triumph in Britain since Marguerite Vernaut's successful sortie on the Champion Stakes in 1960, with the exploits of both Super Tassa and Electrocutionist ensuring Valiani's place in both Italian and Yorkshire racing folklore. 'I think I have the best strike-rate at York in Group One races,' quipped Valiani. 'Super Tassa was 25-1 and I chose Kevin Darley to ride her as she was a filly who liked to come from behind and having watched a few races at York thought he was the perfect man. He did a hell of a job. 'I remember when Super Tassa won there were only four people shouting – my great friend and my teacher Luca Cumani, the owner Cyril Humphries, myself and my vet. Everyone else wasn't talking at all because she caused such a shock. 'I love being a bloodstock agent, but I will never forget my training career which went on for 25 years and those days at York which were so lucky and so great.' As for Electrocutionist, he would further advertise his class after Godolphin purchased him, winning the Dubai World Cup for Saeed bin Suroor and Frankie Dettori, before finishing second in both the Prince of Wales's Stakes and the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
