MGC Race Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier

MGC Race Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier - Takuya Fujikawa

Takuya Fujikawa

age: 26
sponsor: Chugoku Denryoku
graduated from: Sera H.S., Aoyama Gakuin University

best time inside MGC window:
2:10:35, 7th, 2019 Tokyo Marathon

PB: 2:10:35, 7th, 2019 Tokyo Marathon

other PBs:
5000 m: 13:51.40 (2013) 10000 m: 27:58.87 (2018) half marathon: 1:01:46 (2019)

marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019)
7th, 2019 Tokyo Marathon, 2:10:35
12th, 2018 Gold Coast Marathon, 2:15:59
6th, 2018 Beppu-Oita Marathon, 2:11:59

other major results:
5th, 2019 New Year Ekiden Third Stage (13.6 km), 38:29
8th, 2019 Marugame Half Marathon, 1:01:46 – PB
4th, 2018 Hachioji Long Distance Meet 10000 m, 27:58.87 – PB
1st, 2015 Hakone Ekiden Ninth Stage (23.2 km), 1:08:04
3rd, 2014 Hakone Ekiden Ninth Stage (23.2 km), 1:09:23

Fujikawa has followed a super-elite path through the Japanese ekiden world for most of his career. Alongside Bedan Karoki (Kenya), he was part of Sera High School’s 2011 National High School Ekiden Championships winning team. Going on to Aoyama Gakuin University, he was captain of the AGU squad his fourth year when it won its first of four-straight Hakone Ekiden titles, winning the Ninth Stage en route.

After graduating he followed AGU head coach Susumu Hara’s connections to the Chugoku Denryoku corporate team back in Hiroshima where he’d done to high school. Once the dominant marathon in Japan with its power trio of Atsushi Sato, Tsuyoshi Ogata and Shigeru Aburuya, Chugoku Denryoku had fallen on harder times. For his first three years there Fujikawa didn’t seem to show much progress, his best result. a 2:11:59 at the 2018 Beppu-Oita Marathon.

Then over last winter things began to click, with his first sub-28 clocking for 10000 m and first sub-62 half marathon. At this year’s Tokyo Marathon he was strong til the very late stages, cracking 2:11 in cold and rainy conditions and finishing as the third Japanese man, enough to get him into the MGC Race. But despite his progress it’s still a big jump for him to run with the top-level Japanese men, and his only marathon in even relatively warm conditions, a 2:15:59 at last year’s Gold Coast Marathon, wasn’t encouraging.

Next profile: Hiroyuki Yamamoto (Konica Minolta).

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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