Skip to main content

With No Word on Olympic Status, Fukushi Looking at Running Final Selection Race in Nagoya

A post-race tweet by Fukushi's agent Brendan Reilly.

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/1599606.html

translated by Brett Larner

Despite having won Sunday's Osaka International Women's Marathon in all-time Japanese #7 2:22:17 to seemingly mark herself a lock for the Rio de Janeiro Olympic team, Kayoko Fukushi (33, Team Wacoal) revealed on Feb. 1 that she is considering running the final selection race at the Mar. 13 Nagoya Women's Marathon as well.

Despite having cleared the JAAF's sub-2:22:30 Olympic standard with a win, depending on what other athletes do in Nagoya there is a slight chance Fukushi could be cut out of contention, and with the additional problem of a lack of clarity in the JAAF's Olympic selection criteria Fukushi may make the unprecedented move of running a second selection race.

A day after she shouted, "I gots Rio in my pocket y'all!" from the victory podium in Osaka, her possible change of plans came to light.  Fukushi's coach at the Wacoal team, Tadayuki Nagayama, 55, told reporters, "The JAAF hasn't said a single word to us to indicate, 'You're in.'  We thought she had earned her place on the team, so if she hasn't yet then we have to enter her in Nagoya despite the risks."
Labels:

Comments

yuza said…
Seriously, this has to be a joke!

Two people are going to have to beat her time and even if they do, only one of them can win the race. Maeda is the only Japanese runner who could possibly beat her time and she is running Nagoya, but there really is nobody else, or have I forgotten somebody?

Ideally, Maeda will win Nagoya in a good time and together with Fukushi give the medals a shake in Rio. Of course Fukushi would not be so anxious about her position if Mai Ito (no disrespect to her) had not been given a position for finishing seventh at last year's World Championships.

Good run by Fukushi, though. I think she and her coach have finally figured out the marathon, because she has not run a bad marathon in four years.
February 3, 2016 at 1:50 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...
Post a Comment
Read more

World Marathon Majors Japanese Entries

We're back from a short summer break. A week and a half out from the first race of the season's four World Marathon Majors races, here's a look at Japanese athletes scheduled to run. Everything right now is about qualifying for the MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to be held in the fall of 2027 in Nagoya. The JAAF makes no mistake about wanting to keep its top people racing domestically where it can get a share of revenue from the TV broadcast and race operations, so anyone who decides to race overseas has to do it in a WA platinum label race and hit either 2:06:30 or 2:23:30, regardless of place, course or weather if they want to make the trials. At the same time concessions are make for domestic races, like for example the late-August Hokkaido Marathon where up to 3 men and 3 women can qualify if they go 2:12:00 or 2:32:00. As a result, you get things like last year where amateur runner Yudai Fukuda made the trials by finishing 3rd Jap...
1 comment
Read more

Nakajima Breaks 100 mH NR Twice, Kitaguchi Returns - August Track Roundup

Catching up on what's been happening in track and field this month during our summer break: Men's 3000 m NR holder Nagiya Mori was just off his 5000 m PB at the IFAM Oordegem meet in Belgium on Aug. 1, taking 16th in 13:15.01. Shota Nakano was 26th of 28 in 13:35.02. This year's national champion Ryoma Aoki ran the 3000 mSC but didn't finish. Naoto Hasegawa was the only Japanese athlete at Mutaz Essa Barshim 's What Gravity Tour stop at the Monaco Athletics Festival meet on Aug. 5. Having cleared 2.30 m for the first time earlier this year Hasegawa only managed 2.18 m in Monaco, taking 7th of 10. There were a lot of good performances at the Fuji Hokuriku World Trial meet in Fujiyoshida on Aug. 9, but the one that got the headlines was a 12.62 (-0.2) NR in the women's 100 mH by Hitomi Nakajima . Nakajima actually did it twice, running 12.62 (+2.0) in the heats before repeating in the final. Masumi Aoki also ran big in the heats, with a 12.68 (+2.0) for al...
1 comment
Read more