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MGC Race Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier - Daiji Kawai

Daiji Kawai

age: 27
sponsor: Toenec
graduated from: Seki Shogyo H.S., Reitaku University

best time inside MGC window:
2:10:50, 11th, 2019 Lake Biwa Marathon

PB: 2:10:50, 11th, 2019 Lake Biwa Marathon

other PBs:
5000 m: 13:45.91 (2018) 10000 m: 28:08.52 (2018) half marathon: 1:02:45 (2019)

marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019)
11th, 2019 Lake Biwa Marathon, 2:10:50
60th, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon, 2:28:25
42nd, 2018 Lake Biwa Marathon, 2:23:13

other major results:
5th, 2019 National Championships 10000 m, 28:43.46
3rd, 2019 Oda Memorial Meet 5000 m, 13:51.56
31st, 2019 Marugame Half Marathon, 1:02:45 – PB
8th, 2019 New Year Ekiden Fourth Stage (22.4 km), 1:05:48
3rd, 2018 Kumamoto Kosa 10-Mile Road Race, 46:15
1st, 2016 Inuyama Half Marathon, 1:03:21

Kawai is a rarity in the MGC men’s field, one of the only men who went to university in the Tokyo-centric Kanto Region but didn’t run the Hakone Ekiden. After graduating from Reitaku University he was supported by 2012 London Olympian Arata Fujiwara for a year before joining the minor Toenec team.

He has a lot of parallels with Fujiwara. Both won the Inuyama Half Marathon and had major jumps in their marathon performances after failed debuts. In Fujiwara’s case he went from 2:38 to 2:08. In Kawai’s, he ran 2:23:13 in Lake Biwa last year, bombed out with a 2:28:25 in Hokkaido in August, then broke through with a 2:10:50 back in Lake Biwa this March to make the MGC cut.

In between he was mostly on, running a 10000 m PB in November, a solid 10-mile PB in December, a decent 8th on the New Year Ekiden’s longest stage, and a half marathon PB in February. Since Lake Biwa he’s been 3rd at the Oda Memorial Meet’s 5000 m and 5th in the National Championships 10000 m.

In terms of quality Kawai is still a level or two down from the favorites to make the Olympic team, but history has shown that the people like him with a big breakthrough performance in the midst of a period of steady improvement can be the most dangerous. Kawai was named alternate for the Doha World Championships team, so in the event that someone cancels he will swap to that instead of doing the MGC Race.

Next preview: Keiko Nogami (Juhachi Ginko).

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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