Skip to main content

MGC Race Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier - Shohei Otsuka

Shohei Otsuka

age: 25
sponsor: Kyudenko
graduated from: Oita Tomei H.S., Komazawa University

best time inside MGC window:
2:10:12, 3rd, 2018 Beppu-Oita Marathon

PB: 2:10:12, 3rd, 2018 Beppu-Oita Marathon

other PBs:
5000 m: 13:55.41 (2018) 10000 m: 28:25.42 (2019) half marathon: 1:02:32 (2014)

marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019)
11th, 2019 Tokyo Marathon, 2:12:36
4th, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon, 2:12:07
3rd, 2018 Beppu-Oita Marathon, 2:10:12

other major results:
34th, 2019 Marugame Half Marathon, 1:02:53
25th, 2019 New Year Ekiden Fourth Stage (22.4 km), 1:07:05
8th, 2018 Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler, 46:21
1st, 2018 Kyushu Corporate Ekiden Seventh Stage (16.3 km), 46:26
16th, 2017 Lake Biwa Marathon, 2:15:10
1st, 2017 Hakone Ekiden Fifth Stage (20.8 km, ~800 m uphill), 1:12:46
4th, 2015 Kumanichi 30 km Road Race, 1:31:29
2nd, 2015 Hakone Ekiden Eighth Stage (21.4 km), 1:05:45

Otsuka made an early debut in the marathon while still a student at Komazawa University where he was one of the heavy hitters on its ekiden team, winning the Hakone Ekiden's famous uphill Fifth Stage his senior year. After joining the Kyudenko corporate team he took almost five minutes off his debut time with a 2:10:12 for 3rd in his hometown Beppu-Oita Marathon, then qualified for the MGC Race with a 2:12:07 for 4th at last August’s Hokkaido Marathon.

Strong during ekiden season, Otsuka struggled a bit at its peak race in January. He seemed to get it back together, just off his PB at the Marugame Half, but at the Tokyo Marathon he wasn’t able to execute the kind of breakthrough to the level of former Komazawa teammate Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) that he’s been hoping for. Siince then he’s run a PB for 10000 m, combined with his performance in Hokkaido last sumer a definite plus heading into the MGC Race.

Next profile: Ryu Takaku (Yakult).

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...
82 comments
Read more

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .
77 comments
Read more

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...
54 comments
Read more