Kazuhiro Maeda

Kazuhiro Maeda (Japanese: 前田 和浩; born 19 April 1981) is a Japanese long-distance runner.

Born in Shiroishi, Saga, Maeda made his international debut at the 2000 World Junior Championships in Athletics, where he ran in the heats of the 5000 metres.[1] He won the Karatsu 10-Miler in 2003.[2] He was part of the Japanese men's team for the short race at the 2006 IAAF World Cross Country Championships.[1] At the 2006 Asian Games he ran in the 5000 m and came in fourth place – however, he was the best Asian-born runner in the race as all the medallists were Kenyan emigrants to Qatar and Bahrain.[3]

Maeda competed twice at world level for Japan in 2007: he finished seventeenth in the 10,000 metres at the 2007 World Championships and then came 30th at the 2007 IAAF World Road Running Championships in Udine.[1] He made his marathon debut in 2009 at the Tokyo Marathon and he secured second place behind Salim Kipsang with a time of 2:11:01 hours. This automatically gained him a place for that year's World Championships team.[4] He finished well off the pace at the 2009 World Championships Marathon, taking 39th place and crossing the line some eight minutes behind Japan's best performer Atsushi Sato.[5]

Maeda came third at the 2011 Beppu-Ōita Marathon as the first Japanese home on the 60th anniversary of the race and improved his personal best time to 2:10:29 hours.[6] He was the third Japanese runner to finish at the Fukuoka Marathon later that year, coming sixth overall.[7] A personal best time of 2:08:38 hours came at the 2012 Tokyo Marathon, where his sixth-place finish (the second Japanese home) improved his Olympic selection chances.[8] Ultimately he was not selected for the Olympics and he ran at that year's Amsterdam Marathon instead, although he only managed 15th place.

A new personal best of 2:08:00 came at the 2013 Tokyo Marathon, where he was the first Japanese with his fourth-place finish.[9]

Personal bests
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References
  1. Kazuhiro Maeda at World Athletics
  2. Karatsu 10 mile. Association of Road Racing Statisticians. Retrieved on 2011-02-06.
  3. Asian Games 2006, Doha (Qatar: 7-12 Dec) Final Results Archived 2011-07-25 at the Wayback Machine. Asian Athletics Association. Retrieved on 2011-02-06.
  4. Nakamura, Ken (2009-03-22). Battling winds, Kipsang and Nasukawa take Tokyo Marathon victories. IAAF. Retrieved on 2011-02-06.
  5. Marathon - M Final Archived 2012-08-16 at the Wayback Machine. IAAF (2009-08-22). Retrieved on 2011-02-06.
  6. Nakamura, Ken (2011-02-06). Baday wins 60th annual Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon. IAAF. Retrieved on 2011-02-06.
  7. Nakamura, Ken (2011-11-04). Running in his debut, Ndambiri triumphs in Fukuoka. IAAF. Retrieved on 2011-12-04.
  8. Nakamura, Ken (2012-02-26). Kipyego wins Tokyo Marathon, Gebrselassie fades to a disappointing fourth. IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-02-27.
  9. Nakamura, Ken (2013-02-24). Kimetto clocks course record 2:06:50 at Tokyo Marathon. IAAF. Retrieved on 2013-03-02.
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