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MGC Race Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier - Yuji Iwata

Yuji Iwata

age: 32
sponsor: MHPS
graduated from: Fukuoka Kogyo H.S.

best time inside MGC window:
2:09:30, 6th, 2019 Beppu-Oita Marathon

PB: 2:09:30, 6th, 2019 Beppu-Oita Marathon

other PBs:
5000 m: 14:08.35 (2014) 10000 m: 28:53.82 (2010) half marathon: 1:03:38 (2011)

marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019)
6th, 2019 Beppu-Oita Marathon, 2:09:30 – PB
7th, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon, 2:15:09
46th, 2018 Lake Biwa Marathon, 2:24:00

other major results:
22nd, 2019 Shibetsu Half Marathon, 1:06:44
3rd, 2019 New Year Ekiden Seventh Stage (15.5 km), 45:50
8th, 2017 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon, 2:12:15
4th, 2015 Hokkaido Marathon, 2:17:29

One of the things about Japanese marathoning, especially on the men’s side, is that the depth makes it so that there’s usually going to be some random guy who busts a 2:08~2:10 out of nowhere. Put Iwata into that category. One of only three men in the field who didn’t go to university, at age 32 Iwata has been in the corporate leagues for 14 years and has long since passed the window of opportunity for a breakthrough. He had an OK 4th-place finish at the 2015 Hokkaido Marathon and ran an above-OK 2:12:15 in Beppu-Oita in 2017.

With no progress since then there hasn’t been any reason to think he was ever going to do anything. Except that he’s part of the MHPS corporate team, home to 2:08 marathoners Kohei Matsumura and Ryo Kiname and 2:06 man Hiroto Inoue. At the New Year Ekiden this January he was one of the stars of the show, coming just two seconds short of stopping two-time national champion Asahi Kasei from making it three in a row on the anchor stage. He was obviously really fit, and the motivation of seeing Kiname and Inoue make the MGC cut seemed to make something click.

At Beppu-Oita a month after the New Year Ekiden Iwata raced hard against the best field that marathon had ever hosted, taking almost three minutes off his PB for 6th in 2:09:30. Guys like this pop up all the time here and few every repeat. The ones that do often turn out to be some of Japan’s all-time best. Which side of that line will Iwata come down on? His only notable race since Beppu-Oita was the July 21st Shibetsu Half Marathon, where he was 22nd in 1:06:44. Not exactly encouraging, but there's only one way to tell where he'll land.

next profile: Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal).

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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