Career
Fukushi was fourth over 5000 m at the 2000 World Junior Championships in Athletics and had a breakout year two years later. After a fifteenth-place finish in the senior section of the 2002 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, she broke national junior records (over 3000 m, 5000 m and 10,000 m) and then went on to record an out-right national record of 8:44.40 minutes in the 3000 m that July. At the 2002 Asian Games she took a silver medal double in the 5000/10,000 m, finishing behind Sun Yingjie on both occasions.
Continuing to focus on track running, she ran at her first senior global track competition in 2003. She was eleventh in the 5000 m at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics, but had less success on her Olympic debut as she finished 26th in the 10,000 m at the 2004 Athens Games. She doubled up at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics, coming near the top ten in both long-distance track events.
On February 5, 2006 at the Kagawa Marugame Half Marathon she broke the 15-kilometre road running record by running the distance in 46:55 minutes. Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia improved the record to 46:28 minutes in 2009. During the race in Marugame she also set the Asian record in the half marathon. She had more success on home turf soon after with a win at the Fukuoka International Cross Country. She competed at the 2006 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, also held in Fukuoka, and took sixth place in the long race – one of only two non-East African runners to make the top ten. Her finish also led the Japanese women to the bronze medal in the team competition. She claimed a bronze on the track at the 2006 IAAF World Cup, coming third over 5000 m and took the 10,000 m gold medal at the 2006 Asian Games – her first major championship win.
Despite her continental success, she failed to break through on the global scene, just finishing in (or near) the top ten at the World Championships in 2007 and 2009, and an eleventh-place finish at 2008 Beijing Olympics. She made her marathon debut at the 2008 Osaka Ladies Marathon and led the race up to the 30 km mark. However, her pacing collapsed soon after that point and she ended up in 19th place with a time of 2:40:54 hours, over fifteen minutes adrift of the winner.
She came back to the half marathon in July 2010 and won at the Shibetsu Half Marathon, although her time of 1:12:25 was below her best. Fukushi's track form deteriorated somewhat that year – she attempted to defend her Asian title at the 2010 Asian Games but came fourth over 10,000 m and fifth in the 5000 m. She anchored the Kyoto team to victory at the Inter-Prefectural Women's Ekiden in January 2011, increasing her team's lead in the final 10 km leg of the race.
Her 2011 season began with a third career win at the Marugame Half Marathon. Her main competition that year was the 2011 Chicago Marathon, where she was among the leaders at the halfway point and went on to take third place in a new personal best time of 2:24:38 hours. In her first race of 2012, she was the pre-race favourite for the Osaka Ladies Marathon but finished seventh after a slow second half.
Read more about this topic: Kayoko Fukushi
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