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MGC Race Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier - Tadashi Isshiki

Tadashi Isshiki

age: 25
sponsor: GMO
graduated from: Toyokawa H.S., Aoyama Gakuin University

best time inside MGC window:
2:09:43, 13th, 2018 Tokyo Marathon

PB: 2:09:43, 13th, 2018 Tokyo Marathon

other PBs:
5000 m: 13:39.65 (2017) 10000 m: 28:23.40 (2014) half marathon: 1:02:09 (2015)

marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019)
11th, 2019 Hamburg Marathon, 2:11:23
10th, 2019 Tokyo Marathon, 2:12:21
17th, 2018 Frankfurt Marathon, 2:14:49
13th, 2018 Tokyo Marathon, 2:09:43 – PB
8th, 2017 Hofu Marathon, 2:15:43

other major results:
20th, 2019 Marugame Half Marathon, 1:02:15
2nd, 2018 Year-End Half Marathon, 1:03:00
4th, 2017 National Championships 5000 m, 13:39.65 – PB
DNF, 2017 Lake Biwa Marathon
3rd, 2017 Hakone Ekiden Second Stage (23.1 km), 1:07:56
1st, 2016 Kanagawa Half Marathon, 1:03:03
3rd, 2016 Hakone Ekiden Second Stage (23.1 km), 1:07:35
11th, 2016 Tokyo Marathon, 2:11:45
2nd, 2015 Gwangju World University Games Half Marathon, 1:04:52
1st, 2015 National University Half Marathon, 1:02:11
13th, 2015 Marugame Half Marathon, 1:02:09 – PB
3rd, 2015 Hakone Ekiden Second Stage (23.1 km), 1:07:45

Isshiki was a high school teammate of 2018 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Yuma Hattori (Toyota), losing to him in every race they ever ran against each other until both made their marathon debuts at the 2016 Tokyo Marathon while still in college. Less than 5 km out Hattori looked to have that one in hand too, but in the last 200 m Isshiki rolled up from behind to take Hattori down for the first time.

In university Isshiki was one of the star runners for four-time Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University, taking 3rd on Hakone’s most competitive stage three times, winning the 2015 National University Half Marathon in course record time and taking silver later the same year in the Gwangju Universiade half marathon. As a marathoner at the GMO corporate team he took a while to match his college debut, not beating it until he ran 2:09:43 in Tokyo last year. He missed qualifying for the MGC Race off that performance, but it gave him a 2:12:17 target for his next time out to qualify off the two-race sub-2:11 average option.

But no matter how easy that looked on paper, it proved harder to execute. He fell two and a half minutes short in Frankfurt last fall, and in Tokyo this year he finished in 2:12:21, an agonizing 4 seconds away from making the Olympic trials. Like Ryu Takaku (Yakult) and others, he opted to try again the next month in Hamburg, and this time it worked out as he ran the second-best time of his career, 2:11:23.

Since then he has taken it slow as he recovers and rebuilds for the Sept. 15 MGC Race. He'll arguably be the best of the four AGU graduates there, but it'll take a big step up for him to run down Hattori, Takaku, or any of the other three Toyo University graduates in the race.

Next profile: Miyuki Uehara (Daiichi Seimei).

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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