Ikuko
Tamura and Miho Sugimori set Asian records
K. Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
28 June 2002 - In the newly established middle distance circuits
in Japan, three national records were established in the first three races. Although the
Japanese are quite competitive in the distance events like the 10000m and marathon, that
is not the case for the middle distance events, which have stagnated for some time.
The men’s 1500m and 2000m records are the oldest in the record book, not having made any progress since 1977.
To amend the situation and to stimulate the stagnated events, the middle distance racing circuits were established this year and the program has been quite successful so far.
In the first race of the series, in Amagasaki on June 15, Ikuko Tamura, a national 1500m champion, covered the one mile in 4:34.81. This was not only a national record; it was also an Asian record.
In the second race on the circuit, in Yokohama on 19 June, the 1000m was contested. In this race, just before 800m after the pacesetter was gone, Tamura who had announced that she would also have a shot at the 1000m record, took over the lead. Only Miho Sugimori, who finished second at the Osaka GP 800m with the fourth fastest time in history, was able to stay with Tamura. They ran together for the next 100m at which point Sugimori moved ahead of Tamura, and went on to win in 2:41.08, a new Asian record. Tamura who finished second in 2:41.84 was also under the old officially ratified Asian record of 2:41.96.
In the third race of the circuit, in Odawara on 23 June, the race was contested over the standard Olympic/World Championships distance of 1500m. Tamura who was really on a record streak was under the national record for the third straight race in nine days. She covered the distance in 4:10.39, and promptly told reporters that she was disappointed for not breaking 4:10.
Miho Sugimori, who started as a short sprinter in junior high school, moved up to 400m in her senior year in high school. She won the national inter-high school championships and later national inter-collegiate championships (twice) at the 400m, which promptly established her as one of the best long sprinters of her age group in Japan.
A member of the national record setting 4x400m-relay team, Sugimori ran the lead off leg in the World Championships in Edmonton. During the past winter, she has been concentrating on her training for the 800m and this has paid her handsome dividends. During the spring track season, she twice established personal bests at the 800m. Her second personal best moved her up to the fourth fastest Japanese in history.
“My goal for the year is the Asian Games,” Sugimori recently told Track & Field Magazine of Japan. After finishing second at the 800m in the recent national championships, she was selected for the Asian Games team in Busan, Korea. “If I can improve my personal best to sub 2 minutes, I can think about running (individual event) in the World Championships and the Olympic Games. That is my long range goal,” said Sugimori who has an ven longer-range goal of eventually moving up to the 5000m.
Ikuko Tamura on the other hand was a relatively unknown runner in high school. A teammate of Mizuki Noguchi, a world half marathon silver medallist, Tamura has slowly moved up in the ranks and now firmly established herself as a premier 1500m runner in Japan. She has won three consecutive national titles at 1500m. Coming into this year, she was already the second fastest 1500m runner in Japan. After winning the 1500m for the third time in the recent national championships, Tamura was also selected to run in the Asian Games.
Ikuko Tamura is twenty-three while Miho Sugimori just turned twenty-four.
They are the future of the middle distance running in Japan.
