Winner of the 2016 Gold Coast Marathon and 4th in the 3000 m steeplechase at the 2011 Asian Championships, Sysmex corporate team athlete Misato Horie has retired following her run at the Feb. 2 Hyogo Prefecture Ekiden. Born in 1987, Horie's best achievement at Seiryo H.S. was making the Kinki Region championships. But after entering Mukogawa Joshi University and starting to run the 3000 m steeplechase she grew into one of Japan's top athletes with an 8th-place finish at the 2008 National Championships.
After graduating she joined the Noritz corporate team, where she was 2nd at the 2011 National Championships in what was at the time an all-time Japanese #6 mark of 10:02.24. That put her on the team for that year's Asian Championships, where she placed 4th. 2 years later she took 6th at the 2013 Asian Championships.
From 2015 on Horie focused on road racing, winning the 2016 Gold Coast Marathon in a then-CR 2:26:40 and following up with her career PB of 2:25:44 for 2nd at the 2017 Osaka International Women's Marathon. In 2020 she transferred to the Sysmex team, where her achievements including winning the 2023 Kobe Marathon. In her final race at the Hyogo Prefecture Ekiden she anchored the winning team to bring her career to a close in style. Already playing a role on the team's coaching staff, Horie will now shift her focus there.
photo © 2016 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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translated and edited by Brett Larner
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