The athletics team of Recruit Co., known for producing two-time Olympic marathon medalist Yuko Arimori, will be shut down in September as part of the company's cost-cutting effort, Recruit officials said Monday.
The 10-member Recruit team, formed in 1986, will continue its activities as an independent local club based in Sakura, Chiba Prefecture, after its closure on Sept. 30.
"We had to reconsider the significance of running sports teams under a severe economic environment," said a spokesperson of the information and publishing arm of the debt-ridden Daiei group.
Like many other Japanese corporate athletics teams, Recruit put priority on nurturing female long-distance runners and won the national women's ekiden road relay championship in 1993 and 1994.
A leading team member, Arimori won the women's marathon silver medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and the bronze in Atlanta four years later.