Skip to main content

Rio Olympics Marathoner Fukushi Pulls Out of Sunday's Hakodate Half With Foot Pain, Coach Denies Stress Fracture (updated)

http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASJ6Q3JD3J6QKTQ2006.html

translated by Brett Larner

On June 22 the organizers of the June 26 Hakodate Half Marathon announced that Rio Olympics women's marathon team member Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) has pulled out of Sunday's race due to pain in her right foot.  After returning mid-month from a training camp in the U.S.A. Fukushi went to the hospital to undergo examination before making the decision to withdraw.

The details are not clear, but there is a possibility of a stress fracture and the team has opted to take it seriously.  Wacoal head coach Tadayuki Nagayama was cautious looking toward August's main event, commenting, "We really have to watch our step here, but training will continue."  He indicated that Fukushi plans to race abroad in July as a tuneup for Rio.

Update:

http://www.daily.co.jp/newsflash/general/2016/06/22/0009212045.shtml

In response to reports that Rio de Janeiro Olympics women's marathon team member Kayoko Fukushi (34, Team Wacoal) may have sustained a stress fracture, Wacoal head coach Tadayuki Nagayama, 56, denied the news, telling the press, "It is not broken."  He said that she has some inflammation of the fourth metatarsal in her right foot that led them to pull out of the June 26 Hakodate Half Marathon, that there is no fracture, that they are making necessary adjustments to her training and continuing to prepare for the Olympics.

Regarding Fukushi's condition coach Nagayama said, "She can train, but it's possible some problems may surface during the Olympics.  She can really take a lot of pain, so if we overdo it now there's a potential danger [of a stress fracture], yes.  Rest is critical to a quick recovery."

According to coach Nagayama, Fukushi's right foot started to hurt around the time of the May 15 Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon, but she continued with her training after that.  This month she underwent two medical examinations at her training base in the U.S. and after returning to Japan on the 18th, but although inflammation of the fourth metatarsal on her right foot was found neither examination discovered a stress fracture.

Currently Fukushi is doing 20-30 km training runs.  "The goal is August 14, so we can't take unnecessary risks now," Nagayama said of the decision to pull out of Hakodate.  She will not race again before Rio, stepping onto the biggest stage with no dry run, but, said coach Nagayama, "She's doing race pace in training, so we'll see how she looks during practice."  Emphasizing that there was no problem, he said, "Although there are some changes to the pace of her workouts in the 50 days left [until the Olympic marathon] we don't plan any major changes.  We'll proceed with preparations at that pace.  As long as she doesn't fall during the race I think she'll be fine."

Comments

Wiliam said…
Wow! It sounds that this race is pretty exciting. I like...

Most-Read This Week

Updates on Transfers

April 1 is the start of Japan's new academic and fiscal year, and there's always a wave of transfer announcements to go with it. Some notable ones yesterday: 800 m NR holder Rin Kubo skipped university to go straight to 2023 Queens Ekiden national champion Sekisui Kagaku after her graduation from Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S. Multiple NR holder Nozomi Tanaka rejoined the Toyota Jidoshokki women's team after having left it to pursue a solo pro career as a New Balance athlete. Already on the team for this fall's Nagoya Asian Games in the 10000 m, Ririka Hironaka announced a switch from her longtime home at Japan Post to the Uniqlo women's team. Collegiate marathon record holder Asahi Kuroda joined the 2026 national champion GMO corporate team after graduating from 2026 Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University last week. Hakone Ekdien First Stage CR holder Rui Aoki joins the Sumitomo Denko corporate team after running his final race for 2025 Izumo Ekiden w...

Chien Breaks TPE NR, Iwata Betters ID-Class WR - Weekend Track Roundup

The last weekend of the academic and fiscal year saw at least 5 meets with good results domestically and abroad. Kicking things off Friday was the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne, where Tomohiro Shinno and Naoto Hasegawa took 1st and 3rd in the men's high jump, both of them only clearing 2.18 m along with 2nd-placer Roman Anastasios . 12 other Japanese athletes were in action on the second day of the meet on Saturday, where 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura ran 3:42.84 for 6th in the men's 1500 m. Nagiya Mori had a better one in the men's 3000 m with a 7:45.40 for 4th. Both Yota Mashiko and Rui Suzuki cleared 8:00 too, Mashiko's 7:53.84 the 2nd-fastest ever by a Japanese-born high schooler. Abigail Fuka Ido and Nagisa Takahashi both placed 3rd in their events, Ido going 23.85 (-0.9) in the women's 200 m and Takahashi clearing 1.82 m in the women's high jump. 8 Japanese men were at The TEN in California to run 10000 m. In the B-heat won by Edward Marks in ...

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...