Kayoko Fukushi (Photo courtesy of Wacoal)
Off of her pair of second place finishes at this weekend’s Japanese national championships, the JAAF announced today that Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal/adidas) has been selected to represent Japan in both the 5,000m and 10,000m at this summer’s London Olympic Games. On Friday night, Kayoko ran 31:43.25 for second place behind Panasonic’s Mika Yoshikawa. Kayoko brought a qualifying mark of 30:54.29 from last year’s Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational. She is the second-fastest Japanese woman ever at 10,000m, with a PB of 30:51.81
In yesterday’s 5000m, Kayoko, who is the national recordholder in the event with a 14:53.22 mark, took second in 15:25.74 behind Universal Entertainment’s Hitomi Niiya’s 15:17.92.
Over the past year, Kayoko has also been building her road resume, with an impressive 3rd place finish at the 2011 Bank of America Chicago Marathon, and a 4th-place finish at last month’s Dick’s Sporting Goods Bolder Boulder 10K. She did the bulk of her training for this year’s Japanese championships at altitude, spending most of April and May in Boulder, Colorado, with head coach Tadayuki Nagayama and coach Yukio Mihara.
Although Boulder Wave does not officially represent Mika Yoshikawa or Hitomi Niiya, who also were both selected today to represent Japan in both the 5,000m and 10,000m, we are annually hired by their clubs to support their altitude training. Panasonic head coach Toshiaki Kurabayashi has brought his team to Boulder for altitude training camps each of the past four years, including this Spring to prepare for the national championships; while Niiya trains under Coach Yoshio Koide, who annually brings his athletes to Boulder for several months in the late summer and autumn.
Kayoko is the 9th Boulder Wave athlete so far to become a 2012 Olympian.
