Yuya Yoshida's story is really the kind you love to read. A guy who never got to run the big races at Aoyama Gakuin University until his very last chance his senior year, when he dropped a course record at the 2020 Hakone Ekiden in what he was thinking of as his last race. Then a 2:08:30 marathon debut for 3rd at Beppu on his coach's advice. Then a 2:07:05 win at the Fukuoka International Marathon later the same year after deciding to keep going and joining the GMO corporate team. A few years of setbacks, then a 2:06:37 PB in Osaka this spring. And now this.
A 2:05:16 CR for the win in Fukuoka, 1:02:58 at halfway and a smoking 1:02:18 mostly solo 2nd half, 2 seconds under the old record set back in pre-super shoe days in 2009 by the great Tsegaye Kebede. Really, what else is there to say? Yoshida was great. In the pack through 25 km, then throwing down at dropping 2:06:31 man Yusuke Nishiyama and everyone else except Israeli Tadesse Getahon, who lasted another 5 km before dropping off, then dropping out shattered and broken.
NR holder Kengo Suzuki blasted the last part of the old Lake Biwa course to run the NR of 2:04:56, so Yoshida was up against a pretty hard mark to crack. But 2:05:16 was enough to erase Kebede's CR and moved Yoshida up to all-time Japanese #3 behind only Suzuki and Yohei Ikeda, who ran 2:05:12 in Berlin in September. And it's not like conditions were that easy, windy, sunny, and warm outside the shadows. Only 5 people in the top 25 ran PBs, which makes Yoshida's run all the more impressive. That kind of speed in the 2nd half at the Tokyo World Championships, for which he became the 5th Japanese man to qualify, and it could get interesting.
Nishiyama, who missed the 2:06:30 Tokyo Worlds standard by only 1 second at the Tokyo Marathon in February, was 2nd in 2:06:54, missing out on qualification but pretty much certain to be in on rankings. Former Nihon University star Patrick Mathenge Wambui ran a PB of 2:08:28 for 3rd, with Kenya Sonota and Kohei Futaoka, like Nishiyama grads of Komazawa University, 4th and 5th in 2:08:52 and 2:09:46. Amateur Ryuichi Yoshioka ran a big PB of 2:10:50 for 8th, and further down the field Vincent Lam, coached by Paris Olympian Rory Linkletter, took almost a minute off the Hong Kong NR with a 2:15:31 for 16th.
Along with the small number of PBs, the massive DNF list, including almost every overseas runner on the invited athlete list and two-time Fukuoka winner Michael Githae, and Chinese NR holder Jie He running only 2:18:16 were other signs of how tough the conditions were. All Yoshida's best performances so far have been between December and February, and his two best marathons were both in relatively tough conditions. Let's hope he's got it in him to do the same in heat at the Tokyo World Championships next September if he's named to the team.
Fukuoka International Marathon
Fukuoka, 1 Dec. 2024
1. Yuya Yoshida (GMO) - 2:05:16 - CR, PB
2. Yusuke Nishiyama (Toyota) - 2:06:54
3. Patrick Mathenge Wambui (KEN/NTT Nishi Nihon) - 2:08:28 - PB
4. Kenya Sonota (JR Higashi Nihon) - 2:08:52
5. Kohei Futaoka (Chudenko) - 2:09:46
6. Vincent Raimoi (KEN/Suzuki) - 2:10:18
7. Bedan Karoki (KEN/Toyota) - 2:10:18
8. Ryuichi Yoshioka (Honda Tochigi) - 2:10:50 - PB
9. Kazuya Nishiyama (Toyota) - 2:11:33
10. Asuka Tanaka (RunLife) - 2:12:13
11. Shaohui Yang (CHN) - 2:12:38
12. Daisuke Doi (Kurosaki Harima) - 2:12:53
13. Yusuke Tobimatsu (Hioki City Hall) - 2:12:56
14. Kazuya Azegami (Toyota) - 2:13:17
15. Takuma Kumagai (Sumitomo Denko) - 2:13:29
16. Vincent Lam (HKG) - 2:15:31 - NR
17. Kiyoshi Koga (Yasukawa Denki) - 2:17:39
18. Jie He (CHN) - 2:18:16
19. Tomohiro Kaijo (Kanazawa City Hall) - 2:18:17
20. Jake Barraclough (GBR) - 2:18:28
21. Daigo Tomimura (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) - 2:18:35
22. Takeru Ikka (Jupiter RC) - 2:19:11
23. Naoya Sato (Miraspo) - 2:19:14 - PB
24. Tesfalem Weldu Dejen (ERI) - 2:19:45
25. Tomohiro Ozawa (Tokyo City Hall) - 2:20:26
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61. Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei) - 2:26:00
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DNF - Yitayew Abuhay (Israel)
DNF - Naoki Aiba (Chudenko)
DNF - Tadesse Getahon (Israel)
DNF - Michael Githae (KEN/Suzuki)
DNF - Luka Musembi (KEN)
DNF - Tony Ah-Thit Payne (Thailand)
DNF - Ryu Takaku (Yakult)
DNF - Lemeck Too (KEN)
DNF - Bethwel Yegon (KEN)
DNF - Shuhei Yamamoto (Aichi T&F Assoc.)
DNF - Koki Yoshioka (Kyudenko)
text and photo © 2024 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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