MGC Race Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier - Miyuki Uehara

Miyuki Uehara

age: 23
sponsor: Daiichi Seimei
graduated from: Kagoshima Joshi H.S.

best time inside MGC window:
2:24:19, 9th, 2019 Nagoya Women’s Marathon

PB: 2:24:19, 9th, 2019 Nagoya Women’s Marathon

other PBs:
5000 m: 15:21.40 (2015) 10000 m: 31:38.80 (2016) half marathon: 1:09:13 (2017)

marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019)
9th, 2019 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2:24:19 – PB
9th, 2018 Berlin Marathon, 2:25:46

other major results:
6th, 2019 Hakodate Half Marathon, 1:12:07
6th, 2019 Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon, 1:11:03
21st, 2018 National Corporate Women’s Ekiden Third Stage (10.9 km), 37:17
5th, 2018 National Championships 5000 m, 15:36.33
2nd, 2017 Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, 1:09:13 – PB
24th, 2017 London World Championships 10000 m, 32:31.58
3rd, 2017 National Championships 10000 m, 31:48.81
15th, 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics 5000 m final, 15:34.99
2nd, 2016 Bolder Boulder 10 km, 34:16

Just 20 at the time, Uehara became only the second Japanese woman to ever make an Olympic 5000 m final when she boldly frontran her way through her heat at PB pace at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. A year later it was the 10000 m at the London World Championships, and a few months after that a 1:09:13 half marathon at the Sanyo Ladies Half.

Her buildup to the marathon complete, Uehara ran 2:25:46 at last year’s Berlin Marathon at age 22, then followed up with a 2:24:19 in Nagoya this year to make the MGC Race. Since then she’s run a couple of decent half marathons, finishing 6th in both Gifu and Hakodate but beaten by most of her MGC rivals. Coached by 1991 World Championships marathon silver medalist Sachiko Yamashita who previously coached Yoshimi Ozaki to a World Championships medal and Tomomi Tanaka onto the Rio Olympic team, Uehara will have to be at her best to do better against them in September when it counts.

next profile: Kohei Ogino (Fujitsu).

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved