Skip to main content

MGC Race Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier - Kengo Suzuki

Kengo Suzuki

age: 24
sponsor: Fujitsu
graduated from: Uwajima Higashi H.S., Kanagawa University

best time inside MGC window:
2:10:21, 19th, 2018 Tokyo Marathon

PB: 2:10:21, 19th, 2018 Tokyo Marathon

other PBs:
5000 m: 13:57.88 (2016) 10000 m: 28:30.16 (2016) half marathon: 1:01:36 (2017)

marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019)
13th, 2019 Hamburg Marathon, 2:11:36
DNS, 2019 Tokyo Marathon
19th, 2018 Tokyo Marathon, 2:10:21

other major results:
4th, 2018 Hakone Ekiden Second Stage (23.1 km), 1:07:26
3rd, 2017 Taipei Universiade Half Marathon, 1:06:56
1st, 2017 National University Half Marathon, 1:01:36 – CR
1st, 2017 Hakone Ekiden Second Stage (23.1 km), 1:07:17
3rd, 2016 Hakone Ekiden Qualifier 20 km Road Race, 58:43
3rd, 2016 National University Half Marathon, 1:03:08

Suzuki’s breakthrough to the top level of Japanese distance running came early in 2017 with a win on the Hakone Ekiden’s most competitive stage and two months later with a 1:01:36 to win the National University Half Marathon Championships. He followed up with a bronze medal at the 2017 World University Games and another stellar Hakone run before capping his university career with a 2:10:21 debut at last year’s Tokyo Marathon.

Since graduating and moving to the Fujitsu corporate team he has had his share of setbacks, including a DNS in Tokyo this year, but with two days until the MGC Race qualifying window Suzuki got it done at the Hamburg Marathon. With his 2:10:21 debut falling inside the qualifying window Suzuki needed to run 2:11:39 in Hamburg to hit the two-race 2:11:00 wildcard standard for MGC qualification. He ran 2:11:36. That last kilometer must have been pretty stressful.

From the way he ran his last two years of university Suzuki looks to have a lot of potential in the marathon. Whether he’ll be ready to take things up a level come Sept. 15 is a bit doubtful, which isn’t to say that he’s not preparing. On Aug. 2 JRN saw Suzuki out on the Olympic and MGC marathon course with teammate Kohei Ogino running exactly a year and a week out from the Olympic marathon. But at only age 24 he still has plenty of room to develop for Paris 2024 even if he misses out here.

Next profile: Kensuke Horio (Toyota).

© 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