Skip to main content

MGC Race Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier - Ayuko Suzuki

Ayuko Suzuki

Age: 27
sponsor: Japan Post
graduated from: Jishukan H.S., Nagoya University

best time inside MGC window:
2:28:32, 1st, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon

 PB: 2:28:32, 1st, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon

 other PBs:
5000 m: 15:08.29 (2015) 10000 m: 31:18.16 (2016) half marathon: 1:07:55 (2019)

marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019):
1st, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon, 2:28:32

other major results:
2nd, 2019 National Championships 10000 m, 31:46.25
2nd, 2019 Kagawa Marugame Int’l Half Marathon, 1:07:55
2nd, 2019 National Women’s Ekiden 9th Stage (10.0 km), 31:08
2nd, 2018 National Corporate Women’s Ekiden 3rd Stage (10.9 km), 34:46
2nd, 2018 National Championships 10000 m, 31:57.82
10th, 2017 London World Championships 10000 m, 31:27.30
2nd, 2017 National Championships 10000 m, 31:41.65
2nd, 2017 National Championships 5000 m, 15:20.50
12th, 2016 Rio Olympics 5000 m H2, 15:41.81
2nd, 2016 National Championships 5000 m, 15:24.47
1st, 2016 National Championships 10000 m, 31:18.73
9th, 2015 Beijing World Championships 5000 m, 15:08.29
3rd, 2015 National Championships 5000 m, 15:24.14

If there were one person female or male we had to pick to definitely make the Tokyo Olympics team at the MGC Race it’s Suzuki. Top 3 in the 5000 m and/or 10000 m at the National Championships every year since 2015 and representing Japan on the track at the Beijing World Championships, Rio Olympics and London World Championships, Suzuki went straight to the marathon last summer with a 2:28:32 win at the hot Hokkaido Marathon in her debut.

That gives her the slowest PB of the twelve women in the MGC Race, but make no mistake, she’s one of the favorites. Suzuki underlined that with a 1:07:55 half marathon debut in February, the third-fastest ever by a Japanese woman on a record-legal course, and a runner-up finish in May’s National Championships 10000 m where she beat every other MGC Race entrant in the field. Along with teammate Hanami Sekine one of two athletes in the twelve-runner women's MGC Race sponsored by Japan Post, she’s also one of only two who graduated from university.

Next profile: Tomohiro Tanigawa (Konica Minolta).

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Khishigsaikhan and Kuira Break Ageo City Half Marathon CRs (updated)

Stellar conditions and a solid fields meant times were going to be fast at the Ageo City Half Marathon , and in both the women's and men's races the front end took full advantage of the day. In the midst of the super-deep men's field Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh , the top Mongolian in this summer's Budapest World Championships marathon and in last month's Hangzhou Asian Games marathon, ran steady and strong, splitting 33:29 at 10 km, 1:10:38 pace, before pushing the 2nd half. Khishigsaikhan crossed the finish line 1:10:32, 1:22 under the old course record, 3:35 ahead of 2nd-place Kana Kobayashi , and a massive 4:16 off the Mongolian women's national record. Khishigsaikhan is currently training in Japan and ran Ageo in prep for next month's Taipei City Marathon, where she was 3rd last year. The men's race went out hard, with Kenyan Brian Kipyegon (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.), NR holder Yusuke Ogura (Yakult) and the ambitious Rei Matsunaga (Hosei) leading the ...
1 comment
Read more

A Few Words on Chicago

by Brett Larner photos by Dr. Helmut Winter Chicago comes at a tough time for Japan's corporate leagues, just before the start of the fall ekiden season's regional qualifiers.  Although just about every team has more than enough people to fill their lineups for these relatively minor events, head coaches will usually not let their better athletes do an October marathon, whether because of the limited recovery time in the event that they decide a big gun has to run in a qualifier, or because it would give them the hassle of explaining to the parent corporation why a star is off doing his or her own thing instead of being there for the team.  As a result you typically only see Japanese runners at Chicago when they are looking to drop something big, as with Yukiko Akaba  (Team Hokuren) and Yoshinori Oda  (Team Toyota) this year, or, like the block of  Japanese men at 2:12~2:13 , as part of a corporate federation junket for promising third-tier men to get the exp...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tanaka and Hashioka Win Gold - World U20 Championships Day Two Japanese Results

Working together to execute an aggressive frontrunning team strategy born from failure two years ago in Bydgoszcz , 2018 Asian U20 3000 m gold medalist Nozomi Tanaka and 2018 Asian Junior Cross Country gold medalist Yuna Wada opened a massive lead over the African Junior Cross Country medalist Ethiopian duo of Meselu Berhe and Tsige Gebreselama in the early going of the Tampere World U20 Championships women's 3000 m. Tanaka took the lead from the gun before Wada went out front at 200 m to set a fast pace. Through splits of 3:00 and 3:03 for the first 2000 m, Tanaka kicked hard from 300 m out to close with a 2:51 for Japan's first-ever gold medal in the event, winning in a PB of 8:54.01. Berhe and Gebreselama caught Wada on the back corner but weren't even close to matching Tanaka, taking 2nd and 3rd in PBs just under the 9-minute mark. Wada just held off Kenyan Jenali Jemutai Yego for 4th in 9:00.50, seeming happy in post-race interviews to have helped a teammate ...
Post a Comment
Read more