Skip to main content

MGC Race Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier - Tomohiro Tanigawa

Tomohiro Tanigawa

age: 30
sponsor: Konica Minolta
graduated from: Kumamoto Kogyo H.S., Takushoku University

best time inside MGC window:
2:12:02, 3rd, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon

PB: 2:11:39, 2nd, 2015 Nagano Marathon

other PBs:
5000 m: 13:51.09 (2013) 10000 m: 28:24.31 (2013) half marathon: 1:02:18 (2013)

marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019):
3rd, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon, 2:12:02
28th, 2018 Beppu-Oita Marathon, 2:18:33

other major results:
5th, 2019 New Year Ekiden Seventh Stage (15.5 km), 46:28
4th, 2018 East Japan Corporate Ekiden Seventh Stage (12.9 km), 38:12
1st, 2016 Sydney Marathon, 2:12:13

Tanigawa is the only athlete male or female in the MGC Race to have never broken the 2020 Olympics marathon qualifying time standard. He did win the gold label Sydney Marathon in 2016, equivalent to having cleared the standard, but his PB of 2:11:39 from 2015 is just shy of the 2:11:30 time standard. Tanigawa graduated from Takushoku University, alma mater of two of the three members of Japan’s 2012 London Olympics marathon team, Arata Fujiwara and Kentaro Nakamoto.

Injured for most of 2017, he came back with a 3rd-place finish at last August’s Hokkaido Marathon in 2:12:03 to qualify for the MGC Race, a run that put him into the category of proven performers in heat and humidity. Since then he’s run a strong 46:20 PB for 10 miles in December and was 5th on the 15.5 km New Year Ekiden anchor stage in 46:28 in January, but was an only decent 1:03:58 for 16th at July’s Hakodate Half Marathon and 14:32.16 for 5000 m a week later in Shibetsu.

Next profile: Yuka Ando (Wacoal).

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Sprinter Shoji Tomihisa Retires From Athletics at 105

A retirement ceremony for local masters track and field legend Shoji Tomihisa , 105, was held May 13 at his usual training ground at Miyoshi Sports Park Field in Miyoshi, Hiroshima. Tomihisa began competing in athletics at age 97, setting a Japanese national record 16.98 for 60 m in the men's 100~104 age group at the 2017 Chugoku Masters Track and Field meet. Last year Tomihisa was the oldest person in Hiroshima selected to run as a torchbearer in the Tokyo Olympics torch relay. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the relay on public roads was canceled, and while he did take part in related ceremonies his run was ultimately canceled. Tomihisa recently took up the shot put, but in light of his fading physical strength he made the decision to retire from competition. Around 30 members of the Shoji Tomihisa Booster Club attended the retirement ceremony. After receiving a bouquet of flowers from them Tomihisa in turn gave them a colored paper placard on which he had written the characters