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Tokyo Olympic Marathon Team Member Suzuki Withdraws From Nagoya With Injury

On Mar. 5 the organizers of the Mar. 14 Nagoya Women's Marathon announced that invited athlete Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post), a member of Japan's marathon team for this summer's Tokyo Olympics,  has withdrawn due to inflammation of a tendon in her left leg. Nagoya was to be Suzuki's first marathon since finishing 2nd at the September, 2019 Marathon Grand Championship Olympic trials race. Suzuki suffered injury last year as well but was able to run the 5th Stage at November's National Corporate Women's Ekiden, helping lead Japan Post to a second national title.

Translator's note: The other two members of the Tokyo Olympics women's marathon squad, trials winner Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) and women-only marathon NR holder Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) both ran Osaka in January. On the men's side trials winner Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) withdrew from last weekend's Lake Biwa Marathon with injury and 2nd placer Yuma Hattori (Toyota) withdrew from December's Fukuoka International Marathon, while third team member Suguru Osako (Nike) hasn't run a marathon since breaking the national record at last March's Tokyo Marathon.

source article: 
translated by Brett Larner

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Stefan said…
That's very bad news. I hope she can recover quickly enough to train and put in a good performance at the Olympics. I wonder what will happen if she cannot compete ... who would take her spot? Rei Ohara or Mizuki Matsuda? I really feel bad for Mizuki Matsuda because her time 2:21:47 in Osaka last year was tremendous. But I believe she is 2nd alternative after Rei Ohara. I guess there is a big lesson to be learnt and that is, you need to perform on the given day and she couldn't quite do that during the MGC race in 2019. I know it's not fair but I personally would prefer to see Mao Ichiyama, Honami Maeda and Mizuki Matsuda at the Olympics as I think these 3 athletes could post the fastest times given their most recent performances. I will be very interested to see how Mizuki Matsuda and Rei Ohara perform at Nagoya next week to see if this belief of mine holds any water. Also wanted to see if Sayaka Sato can continue to improve. She has been on my radar as a quiet achiever for a little while now.
March 6, 2021 at 2:42 PM
Brett Larner said…
Yes, Ohara is the 1st alternate for the women's Olympic team.
March 6, 2021 at 8:14 PM
Stefan said…
Thanks for confirming Brett. Great article again.
March 7, 2021 at 3:18 AM
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