MGC Race Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier - Kayoko Fukushi

Kayoko Fukushi

age: 37
sponsor: Wacoal
graduated from: Goshogawara Kogyo H.S.

best time inside MGC window:
2:24:09, 8th, 2019 Nagoya Women’s Marathon

PB: 2:22:17, 1st, 2016 Osaka International Women’s Marathon

other PBs:
5000 m: 14:53.22 (NR, 2005) 10000 m: 30:51.81 (2002) half marathon: 1:07:26 (NR, 2006)

marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019)
8th, 2019 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2:24:09
DNF, 2019 Osaka International Women’s Marathon

other major results:
5th, 2018 National Corporate Women’s Ekiden Third Stage (10.0 km), 35:15
1st, 2018 National Corporate Women’s Ekiden Qualifier Sixth Stage (6.695 km), 21:22 – CR
14th, 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics Marathon, 2:29:53
1st, 2016 Osaka International Women’s Marathon, 2:22:17 – PB
4th, 2015 Chicago Marathon, 2:24:25
3rd, 2013 Moscow World Championships Marathon, 2:27:45
1st, 2013 Osaka International Women’s Marathon, 2:24:21

What’s there to say about Fukushi? She’s got more national records than she knows what to do with. She’s the oldest person in the MGC Race. She’s always seemed like a reluctant marathoner, from her unforgettable faceplanting debut to her bronze medal at the 2013 Moscow World Championships always seeming to have the vibe that it wasn’t really what she wanted to be doing.

After three Olympics on the track Fukushi made the Rio Olympic marathon team, but in the years after that she didn’t race much and marathons not at all, taking time out to live her life a little. She rocked back onto the scene last fall with a stage record on the anchor stage of the National Corporate Women’s Ekiden qualifier and looked like her old self again. Hopes were high that that’s how she’d be in Osaka in January, but some bad luck saw her fall hard, trying to get back in it but eventually stopping. Luckily Nagoya was still on the horizon and she regrouped to get the job done with the second-fastest time so far this year by a Japanese woman.

Can she do it again at the MGC Race? If she does it’ll be her fifth Olympic team, definitely something special. If not, the 2:22:22 needed during the upcoming winter season to steal the third spot on the Tokyo 2020 team is probably still within her ability. She’s not one of the three favorites for the team, but anyone who discounts her will probably regret it.

Next profile: Ryo Hashimoto (GMO).

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved