Skip to main content

Fukushi Bronze on First Day of Moscow World Championships

by Brett Larner

The day Japanese marathon fans have been waiting for for years finally arrived as half-marathon national record holder Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) finally stepped up to inherit the legacy of Olympic gold medalists Naoko Takahashi and Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex) with a bronze medal in the women's marathon on the hot opening day of the 2013 Moscow World Championships, tough in the heat as the favorites faded. Noguchi, making a long-awaited comeback to world-level competition, was a DNF in the rough conditions, but third team member Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu) ran a solid and steady race to take 4th.

Both Fukushi and Noguchi went with the fast early pace set by Italy's Valeria Straneo, but by 10 km Noguchi, running her first world-level marathon since her 2004 gold in Athens, could not keep up.  Fukushi stayed at the back of the lead pack as the numbers dwindled from eight to seven to four.  Kizaki stayed in the second pack for the first quarter of the race before making a move with defending gold medalist Edna Kiplagat (Kenya) to join the lead group.  The pair passed Noguchi just past 12 km, but while Kiplagat went on to the front Kizaki stalled and was stuck running most of the race alone.  By 30 km Noguchi had slowed to a walk, alternating brief periods of running before stopping again, and ultimately dropping out near 33 km.  Kizaki continued to push on, picking up the casualties one by one and moving up to 5th place.

Back in the lead pack Fukushi was biding her time against Straneo, Kiplagat and Ethiopian Meselech Melkamu, but after 25 km she began to show the faintest signs of strain, at times falling a meter or two behind the rest of the group.  Just before 30 km a true gap suddenly appeared, and very quickly Fukushi was out of the lead trio and medal contention.

But, marathons are long and much can change.  As Straneo continued to apply pressure Melkamu dropped off at 33 km, making it a two-woman race for gold up front.  Fukushi could see Melkamu starting to come back and refocused, picking up the pace and catching her just past 35 km.  Melkamu tried to go with her, but after catching her breath a brief surge from Fukushi was all it took to put the Ethiopian away.  Seconds later, a defeated Melkamu dropped out of the race, leaving Fukushi free to run in alone for bronze and moving Kizaki up to 4th.

Fukushi ran strong over the final 5 km, losing some ground to Kiplagat and Straneo but continuing to wave to supporters and smile.  Kiplagat predictably had the finish she needed to become the first woman to defend a World Championships title, dropping Straneo to win by 14 seconds in a Russian all-comers' record 2:25:44.  Straneo and Fukushi, who came onto the track nearly two minutes back, also cleared the all-comers' record, Fukushi crossing the line in 2:27:45.

Fukushi earned Japan's first World Championships medal since Yoshimi Ozaki's silver in Berlin in 2009, showing strength over the final stages of the marathon for the first time in her five races to date.  In seventeen starts on Japanese national teams at the Olympics, World Championships, World XC Championships and World Road Running Championships it was also the first individual medal of her career.  It would have been hard to imagine her reaching this stage just after her now-legendary debut in 2008.  In a hilarious post-race interview she was all smiles and laughs, saying, "This was the first time in a long time that I felt like my old self.  I thought I had a shot at gold, but forget about it.  That's it for me and the marathon.  I'm done running them."  Combined with Kizaki's 4th the race hearkened back to the Japanese women's era of strength after five years of relative decline, and with Noguchi falling short of her dream of a successful comeback it feels like the transition from that era is complete.  It's now up to the Japanese men, with five sub-2:09 runners making up their marathon team, to follow Fukushi and Kizaki's examples next weekend.

Moscow World Championships Women's Marathon Top Results
Moscow, 8/10/13
click here for complete results

1. Edna Kiplagat (Kenya) - 2:25:44 - ACR
2. Valeria Straneo (Italy) - 2:25:58 (ACR)
3. Kayoko Fukushi (Japan) - 2:27:45 (ACR)
4. Ryoko Kizaki (Japan) - 2:31:28
5. Alessandra Aguilar (Spain) - 2:32:38
6. Emma Quaglia (Italy) - 2:34:16
7. Madai Perez (Mexico) - 2:34:23
8. Hye-Gyong Kim (North Korea) - 2:35:49
9. Deena Kastor (U.S.A.) - 2:36:12
10. Susan Partridge (GBR) - 2:36:24
-----
DNF - Mizuki Noguchi (Japan)

Comments

TokyoRacer said…
Fukushi is a real character, has long been my favorite Japanese runner. I've liked her ever since a long ago interview in which the announcer asked her, after winning a race, so what are you aiming for next? It's an annoying question, when you've just finished a big race, but Japanese always say something like: The Olympics is 2 years away, so I'll start training for that. Fukushi said: I'm aiming to see how much beer I can drink tonight.
Anonymous said…
Yup, remember the beer comment well. But my personal favourite Fukushi memory was in about 2005(?), watching her do a Takamisakari impersonation on the start line of the Nat Champs 5000 or 10000 (which she duly won). Great to see her medal at Moscow.

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Sprinter Shoji Tomihisa Retires From Athletics at 105

A retirement ceremony for local masters track and field legend Shoji Tomihisa , 105, was held May 13 at his usual training ground at Miyoshi Sports Park Field in Miyoshi, Hiroshima. Tomihisa began competing in athletics at age 97, setting a Japanese national record 16.98 for 60 m in the men's 100~104 age group at the 2017 Chugoku Masters Track and Field meet. Last year Tomihisa was the oldest person in Hiroshima selected to run as a torchbearer in the Tokyo Olympics torch relay. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the relay on public roads was canceled, and while he did take part in related ceremonies his run was ultimately canceled. Tomihisa recently took up the shot put, but in light of his fading physical strength he made the decision to retire from competition. Around 30 members of the Shoji Tomihisa Booster Club attended the retirement ceremony. After receiving a bouquet of flowers from them Tomihisa in turn gave them a colored paper placard on which he had written the characters