MGC Race Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier Profile - Mizuki Matsuda

Mizuki Matsuda

age: 25
sponsor: Daihatsu
graduated from: Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S.

best time inside MGC window:
2:22:23, 5th, 2018 Berlin Marathon

PB: 2:22:23, 5th, 2018 Berlin Marathon

other PBs:
5000 m: 15:46.40 (2016) 10000 m: 31:39.41 (2017) half marathon: 1:10:25 (2016)

marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019)
5th, 2018 Berlin Marathon, 2:22:23 – PB
1st, 2018 Osaka International Women’s Marathon, 2:22:44

other major results:
10th, 2019 National Championships 10000 m, 32:37.13
2nd, 2019 National Women’s Ekiden Fourth Stage (4.0 km), 12:56
7th, 2018 National Corporate Women’s Ekiden Third Stage (10.9 km), 35:28
1st, 2018 National Championships 10000 m, 31:52.42
19th, 2017 London World Championships 10000 m, 31:59.54
3rd, 2017 Bhubaneshwar Asian Championships 10000 m, 32:46.61
1st, 2017 National Championships 10000 m, 31:39.41 – PB
17th, 2016 Cardiff World Half Marathon Championships, 1:11:00
4th, 2016 National Corporate Half Marathon Championships, 1:10:25 – PB

Matsuda was part of the Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. team along with Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) during its rise to becoming a legit contender to win the National High School Ekiden. She graduated before they got there but went on to make an impact on the corporate ekiden scene at the Daihatsu team.

Matsuda’s big breakthrough came at the 2017 National Championships, where she won the 10000 m in a PB of 31:39.41 and made the London World Championships. In January last year, she made her marathon debut with a 2:22:44 win in her hometown Osaka. That put her among Japan’s all-time best, and she had no trouble defending her 10000 m national title a few months later. In Berlin last year Matsuda took 21 seconds off her best with a 2:22:23, the fastest women’s inside the MGC Race qualifying window.

But since then she hasn’t had the same kind of spark, only 7th on the National Corporate Women’s Ekiden’s longest stage and 2nd on a minor short stage at the National Women’s Ekiden in January. At Nationals in May she was unremarkable, finishing 10th in 32:27.13 almost 45 seconds behind MGC Race favorite Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post).

If she’s back to the kind of fitness she had in Berlin last summer in time for Sept. 15 Matsuda will be hard to beat. But if she hasn’t picked things up since Nationals then there’s not much chance she can make top three. In that case she’ll have to go 2:22:22, one second better than her best, in one of the big three domestic women’s marathons this winter to hit the JAAF’s standard for stealing the last place on the Tokyo 2020 team from the 3rd-placer at the MGC Race.

Final profile: Dreams unfulfilled.

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved