Skip to main content

MGC Race Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier - Yuka Ando

Yuka Ando

age: 25
sponsor: Wacoal
graduated from: Toyokawa H.S.

best time inside MGC window:
2:26:47, 13th, 2019 London Marathon

PB: 2:21:36, 2nd, 2017 Nagoya Women’s Marathon

other PBs:
5000 m: 15:32.67 (2015) 10000 m: 31:58.71 (2016) half marathon: 1:09:47 (2019)

marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019)
13th, 2019 London Marathon, 2:26:47
3rd, 2018 Osaka International Women’s Marathon, 2:27:37
17th, 2017 London World Championships Marathon, 2:31:31

other major results:
2nd, 2019 Hakodate Half Marathon, 1:09:47 – PB
1st, 2019 Niigata Half Marathon, 1:10:34
3rd, 2017 Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon, 1:12:12
10th, 2016 World Half Marathon Championships, 1:10:36

Another star runner from Toyokawa H.S., after graduating Ando bounced around through a series of corporate teams before landing at Suzuki Hamamatsu AC. There she found a coach who encouraged her to run the way that felt natural to her, with her arms almost straight down at her sides. The results spoke for themselves, with Ando dropping a Japan debut marathon record of 2:21:36 at the 2017 Nagoya Women’s Marathon.

Just after that the coach left the team, and after that Ando and training partner Mao Kiyota struggled to regain the same level. Last year she qualified for the MGC Race with a 2:27:37 for 3rd at the Osaka International Women’s Marathon, but near the end of the season she decided she needed another change in environment and transferred to the Wacoal team. In her first marathon in the Wacoal uniform she ran 2:26:47 for 13th at this spring’s London Marathon, still far off her best but a step back in the right direction.

Since then she’s run a 1:09:47 PB for the half marathon at July’s hot and humid Hakodate Half, a promising sign that she’s taken a few more steps. As the fastest woman in the field Ando should be a favorite, but it’s going to take getting back a little closer to her best for her to compete with her junior teammate Mao Ichiyama and the other front-end contenders.

Next profile: Kentaro Nakamoto (Yasukawa Denki).

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Japan Post Holds Off Sekisui Kagaku to Win Queens Ekiden National Title

  Japan Post  was back on top at the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championships Sunday in Sendai, holding off last year's winner Sekisui Kagaku  over the second half of a race that came as close as 1 second to take 1st with a final margin of victory of 27 seconds. Sekisui Kagaku was out fast with a win on the 7.0 km opening leg by Erika Tanoura  and a new CR for the 12:56 second leg by Yuma Yamamoto , 17 seconds better than her own CR from last year. Last year's 4th-placer Shiseido  briefly led on the 10.6 km third leg with an excellent 33:17 stage win from Rino Goshima , but behind her Japan Post's Ririka Hironaka  returned from her latest injury problems to pass Sekisui Kagaku's Sayaka Sato  and hand off 6 seconds ahead. New recruit Caroline Kariba  ran Shiseido down on the 3.6 km fourth leg and put Japan Post 22 seconds ahead of Sekisui Kagaku, but a duel of marathoners between JP's  Ayuko Suzuki  and Sekisui's Hitomi Niiy...
1 comment
Read more

Saku Chosei H.S. Makes It 2 In a Row - National High School Ekiden Boys' Race

While the girls' race was a blowout by 2022 champ Nagano Higashi H.S. , the boys' race at Sunday's National High School Ekiden was a tense battle of turnover that saw all of the final top four teams take a stab at leading. 2023 3rd-placer Yachiyo Shoin H.S. handled the first 2 of the 7 stages in the 42.195 km race, with lead runner Rui Suzuki delivering a bold run on the 10.0 km First Stage that produced the fastest-ever time by a Japanese runner on the stage, 28:43, and put Yachiyo Shoin 29 seconds out front. Last year's Fifth Stage CR breaker Tetsu Suzuki ran Yachiyo Shoin down to put 2023 champ Saku Chosei H.S. into 1st on the 8.1075 km Third Stage, but Genta Sugano of last year's 8th-placer Sendai Ikuei H.S. had other plans and took the lead on the 8.0875 km Fourth Stage. Smiling and fist pumping to the crowd almost the entire way, Taketo Tsukada of last year's 6th-placer Omuta H.S. moved up from 3rd to 1st by 2 seconds over Saku Chosei on the 3.0 k...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nagano Higashi Girls Lead Start to Finish to Win National High School Ekiden

2022 National High School Ekiden girls' champion Nagano Higashi H.S. was back in force after a 5th-place finish last year, leading start to finish to win this year's national title Sunday in Kyoto. Lead runner Airi Mashiba kicked it off with a 19:30 stage win on the 6.0 km opening leg, something that head coach Fumio Yokouchi said later that he hadn't been expecting. That ended up being Nagano Higashi's only individual stage win in the 5-leg, 21.0975 km race, but the rest of its team ran well enough to hold a lead that was never less than 11 seconds but never more than 21. Last year's 4th-placer Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. spent most of the race in 2nd, but over the second half of the race Sendai Ikuei H.S. , 2nd last year by just 1 second, came from further back to run Kunei down on the anchor stage thanks in big part to a critical stage win on the 4th leg by Tsubomi Tezuka that put anchor Aoi Hosokawa in position to catch Kunei's Mizuki Oda . Nagano Higashi ...
Post a Comment
Read more