Taku Fujimoto
age: 30sponsor: Toyota
graduated from: Takamizu H.S., Kokushikan University
best time inside MGC window:
2:07:57, 8th, 2018 Chicago Marathon
PB: 2:07:57, 8th, 2018 Chicago Marathon
other PBs:
5000 m: 13:38.68 (2010) 10000 m: 28:08.30 (2018) half marathon: 1:01:31 (2015)
marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019)
DNS 2019 Hamburg Marathon
8th, 2018 Chicago Marathon, 2:07:57
15th, 2018 Lake Biwa Marathon, 2:15:30
other major results:
6th, 2019 Gold Coast Half Marathon, 1:03:44
15th, 2019 New Year Ekiden Fourth Stage (22.4 km), 1:06:15
2nd, 2018 Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler, 45:57
1st, 2018 Chubu-Hokuriku Corporate Ekiden First Stage (12.0 km), 34:58
4th, 2017 National Corporate Half Marathon Championships, 1:01:53
8th, 2016 Marugame Half Marathon, 1:01:51
8th, 2015 National Corporate Half Marathon Championships, 1:01:31 – PB
3rd, 2012 Hakone Ekiden Third Stage (21.5 km), 1:03:08
1st, 2011 Kanto Region University T&F Championships 5000 m, 13:49.69
1st, 2010 Kanto Region University T&F Championships 5000 m, 13:38.68 – PB
Fujimoto didn’t get the credit he deserved when he ran 2:07:57 in Chicago last year, lost in the aura of light around Suguru Osako’s national record in the same race. But not many Japanese men have ever run under 2:08 outside Japan, and the ones who have are among some of the country’s all-time greats. As a relative unknown at the minor Kokushikan University Fujimoto stunned the Hakone Ekiden stars when he beat them all to win the 5000 m at the 2010 Kanto Regionals, Japan’s most competitive collegiate meet, in 13:38.68. It’s still his PB. Post-race he memorably said, “I feel like I woke up in someone else’s life.”
Ever since then there’s always been the hope that he would have the same kind of breakthrough performance again. As a corporate leaguer with #1-ranked marathon team Toyota he has been reliably good over the half marathon and in the ekiden, but when he finally took a shot at the marathon in Lake Biwa last year he ran only 2:15:30. After training alongside teammate Yuma Hattori his 2:07:57 seven months later in Chicago was exactly the kind of breakthrough Fujimoto had pulled off eight years earlier, surprising even his coach Nobuyuki Sato. “I thought he’d go sub-2:10, but 2:07?” a giddy Sato told JRN post-race.
Fujimoto immediately followed Chicago with a stage win at November’s Chubu Region Corporate Ekiden and a sub-46 minute runner-up placing at December’s Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler, but it proved too much and he sustained a stress fracture that forced him to cancel plans to run the Hamburg Marathon this spring. As a comeback from that injury he ran July’s Gold Coast Half Marathon against a field of MGC qualifiers, taking a decent 6th in 1:03:44. With two and a half months from then until the MGC Race he has had enough time to have a chance of being on the starting line fully healed and fit. Outside the big four favorites he’s the top-ranked man in the field, and with one more breakthrough run he could pull off another upset.
Next profile: Yuma Hattori (Toyota).
© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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