Meet Takumi Oishi and Haruka Yamaguchi, Going for Olympic Trials Qualification in Ottawa Sunday

Running with support from JRN, Takumi Oishi and Haruka Yamaguchi will be making their Canadian debuts at Sunday's Tartan Ottawa International Marathon. Japan's Olympic marathon trials are the hardest marathon in the world to qualify for, and both Oishi and Yamaguchi will be going for times that will help put them in position to make the September 2023 trials race. The auto-qualifier times for races outside Japan, 2:08:00 for men and 2:24:00, are pretty ambitious, but with an option for qualifying via a two-race average of 2:10:00 for men and 2:28:00 for women both Oishi and Yamaguchi will be aiming to get under those times in Ottawa before hitting a second race next winter.

Oishi, a graduate of Josai University, was 4th on the Eighth Stage at the 2018 Hakone Ekiden. He now runs for the Suzuki corporate team alongside 2021 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Michael Githae. His coach at Suzuki is Arata Fujiwara, who won Ottawa in 2010 in 2:09:34, the first man to break 2:10 there.

After a 2021 season where he ran 5000 m and 10000 m PBs of 13:40.23 and 28:33.77, Oishi, 25, made his marathon debut at last December's Hofu Yomiuri Marathon in 2:13:09. "I didn't really do any marathon-specific training for Hofu," he said. "I only ran it to get a qualifying time for the 2022 Tokyo Marathon elite field, and it was pretty hard toward the end. I got a small injury right before Tokyo, though, and couldn't run there, so we decided to try for something else this season. Coach Fujiwara suggested Ottawa."

Although he has trained in Kenya, Ottawa will be Oishi's first race outside Japan. In prep for it he ran a half marathon PB of 1:02:40 at April's Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon. "The training cycle for this marathon was a bit compressed, but everything has been good and I'm pretty confident that I'm in shape to go sub-2:10," he said. Asked whether Fujiwara's 2:09:34, the fastest time ever by a Japanese man on Canadian soil, is one of his targets, he just laughed.

Yamaguchi, 34, is Japan's best-ever female marathoner to never be a part of its corporate team system. Coached by blind marathon national coach Kyohei Yasuda, Yamaguchi is a club runner who ran a best of 2:26:35 at the 2020 Osaka International Women's Marathon, splitting faster than winner Mizuki Matsuda from 30 km to the finish. Yamaguchi was the first Japanese athlete in track and field and road running to compete internationally after the start of the pandemic, 3rd at the 2020 Sofia Marathon in 2:32:49. In 2021 she ran as a torchbearer in the Olympic torch relay, then ran in the Paralympics as a guide for blind marathoner Mihoko Nishijima.

Also in 2021 she started using modern carbon plate shoes, spending half the year in one brand's shoes and then switching to another's in dissatisfaction. But after not getting results she went back to her original shoe of choice, ASICS' Sortie Magic flat. In her first road race back in old-fashioned shoes she ran a PB of 1:09:50 for 3rd at the Gifu half, beating 2:23 marathoner Reia Iwade to take the top Japanese spot and fastest time ever by a Japanese woman on the hilly Gifu course by almost a minute and a half. That would suggest 2:26 potential in Ottawa, but Yamaguchi has clear ideas about what her primary goal is. "My target in this race is to break 2:30 in an overseas race for the first time," she said. "Anything beyond that will depend on the day."

Also running in Ottawa is GMO corporate team athlete Yuta Shimoda. A graduate of Aoyama Gakuin University, Shimoda made his marathon debut at age 19 in 2:11:34 at the 2016 Tokyo Marathon. Since then he's improved to 2:07:27 at the 2020 Tokyo Marathon. With a 2:08:35 in Tokyo in March this year he needs to run 2:11:25 in Ottawa to seal up his trials qualification via the two-race 2:10:00 average route.

Oishi photo c/o Suzuki AC

other photos © 2022 Mika Tokairin, all rights reserved

text © 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved