Skip to main content

Sairi Maeda Scratches From Final Rio Olympics Selection Race With Injury

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20160204-00000096-mai-spo

translated and edited by Brett Larner

A member of last summer's Beijing World Championships women's marathon team, Sairi Maeda (24, Team Daihatsu) has withdrawn from the Mar. 13 Nagoya Women's Marathon Rio de Janeiro Olympic team selection race, with a leg injury.  With Nagoya serving as the final selection race for the women's marathon team her withdrawal means that Maeda will miss the Rio Olympics.

After setting the national university record of 2:26:46 in her 2014 debut at the Osaka International Women's Marathon Maeda ran 2:22:48 in Nagoya last year, at the time making her the all-time 8th-fastest Japanese woman.  Heading to Beijing as the star of the Japanese team she finished only 13th, missing a chance to score a place in Rio by finishing in the top 8.  Following Beijing Maeda planned to run Osaka in January but was forced to change plans after an injury.  Nagoya became her target, but according to a team spokesperson Maeda was unable to do sufficient serious training due to the lingering effects of her injury.

Comments

TokyoRacer said…
The Japanese are obsessed with "finishing in the top 8". In every running and field event, as well as in other sports, commentators _always_ mention whether the Japanese athlete made the top 8. There's a word for it in Japanese, nyusho, meaning placing. But as far as I know, the top 8 is meaningless in the Olympics and in other sports as well. Prizes are never given for the top 8. I think it's only Japanese who care about this. Am I correct?

Most-Read This Week

'Kobe 2024: Aitchison, Athmani Lead Record-Breaking Thursday'

  https://www.paralympic.org/news/kobe-2024-para-athletics-world-championships-aitchison-athmani-lead-record-breaking-thursday Complete results and daily schedule from the Kobe World Para Athletics Championships are here .

'Kobe 2024: Monday Sees Shocking Wins on the Track and the Field'

  https://www.paralympic.org/news/kobe-2024-para-athletics-world-championships-monday-sees-shocking-wins-track-and-field Complete results and daily schedule from the Kobe World Para Athletics Championships  are here .

Summary of Japanese Medalists at Asian Athletics Championships

Overall:    gold: 4   silver: 6   bronze: 10 Men:    gold: 1   silver: 3   bronze: 4 Women:    gold: 3   silver: 3   bronze: 6 20th Asian Athletics Championships Pune, India, July 3-7, 2013 click here for complete results Men's 200 m Final   +0.7 m/s 1. Xie Zhenye (China) - 20.87 2. Fahad Mohammed Alsubaie (Saudi Arabia) - 20.912 3. Kei Takase (Japan) - 20.918 Men's 400 m Final 1. Yousef Ahmed Masrahi (Saudi Arabia) - 45.08 2. Ali Khamis (Bahrain) - 45.65 3. Yuzo Kanemaru (Japan) - 45.95 Men's 110 m Hurdles Final   +0.1 m/s 1. Jiang Fan (China) - 13.61 2. Abdulaziz Almandeel (Kuwait) - 13.78 3. Wataru Yazawa (Japan) - 13.88 Men's 400 m Hurdles Final 1. Yasuhiro Fueki (Japan) - 49.86 2. Cheng Wen (China) - 50.07 3. Satinder Singh (India) - 50.35 Men's 3000 m SC 1. Tarek Mubarak Taher (Bahrain) - 8:34.77 2. Dejene Regassa Mootoma (Bahrain) - 8:37.40 3. Tsuyoshi Takeda (Japan) - 8...