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MGC Race Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier - Rei Ohara

Rei Ohara

age: 29
sponsor: Tenmaya
graduated from: Kojokan H.S.

best time inside MGC window:
2:25:46, 2nd, 2019 Osaka International Women’s Marathon

PB: 2:23:20, 3rd, 2016 Nagoya Women’s Marathon

other PBs:
5000 m: 15:39.47 (2016) 10000 m: 31:48.31 (2015) half marathon: 1:09:17 (2015)

marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019)
2nd, 2019 Osaka International Women’s Marathon, 2:25:46
10th, 2018 Berlin Marathon, 2:27:29
8th, 2018 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2:27:44

other major results:
2nd, 2019 Sendai International Half Marathon, 1:10:25
4th, 2018 National Corporate Women’s Ekiden Sixth Stage (6.795 km), 21:54
3rd, 2018 Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, 1:10:37
5th, 2017 Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, 1:09:26
1st, 2017 Osaka Half Marathon, 1:10:02
1st, 2016 Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, 1:10:04
3rd, 2016 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2:23:20 – PB
2nd, 2015 Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, 1:09:17 – PB
22nd, 2015 Beijing World Championships 10000 m, 32:47.74
3rd, 2015 National Championships 10000 m, 32:08.59
124th, 2015 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 3:05:21

Ohara has been one of the unluckiest women in Japanese marathoning the last four or five years. Part of the powerhouse Tenmaya corporate team, Ohara was expected to be a contender for the 2015 Beijing World Championships team in her debut at the 2015 Nagoya Women’s Marathon. 15 km into the race she and Sairi Maeda (Daihatsu) collided at a water station and fell. Maeda picked herself up and ran on to take 2nd in 2:22:48, but Ohara struggled to get back up and shuffled on to finish 124th in 3:05:21.

Back again in Nagoya a year later she ran 2:23:20 but was outkicked by one second by Tomomi Tanaka (Daiichi Seimei) and left off the Rio Olympics team. Tenmaya has had better national team representation than any other corporate women’s team, but equally has a history of its women running around 2:23 in their first couple of marathons and then never matching it. Ohara’s absence from marathoning after Nagoya wasn’t encouraging, and while she ran a pair of 2:27s last year in her return, the rise of her junior teammate Honami Maeda seemed to suggest that she might have missed her window of opportunity.

But a 2:25:46 runner-up finish in Osaka this January was a big step in the right direction, and another runner-up placing at the Sendai Half in May further indicated that she’s going okay. Ohara and Maeda have spent much of the summer training together at altitude in the U.S. Ohara isn’t among the favorites, but with Tenmaya’s track record of success behind her and unfinished business from the last time around she’ll be a threat in a race slower than 2:24.

Next profile: Kengo Suzuki (Fujitsu).

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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