Japan's Yukifumi Murakami throws the javelin during the IAAF World Championships in the Berlin Olympic Stadium (© Getty Images)
Yukifumi Murakami, bronze medallist at the men’s Javelin Throw in the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, won the Japanese Athlete of the Year award. A forty-four strong panel of experts were asked to vote for top ten athletes by Rikujyo Kyougi Magazine (Track and Field Magazine of Japan).
First place votes are given 10 points, second place 9 points, etc. down to 1 point for the tenth place votes.
Murakami collected 39 first place votes from the 44 panel of experts, while second place Yoshimi Ozaki, silver medalist at the marathon in Berlin, gained 2 first place votes and 29 second place votes. Thus Murakami was a runaway winner. The 21-year-old sprint sensation Chisato Fukushima, who set national records at 100m (11.28 and then 11.24) and 200m (23.14 and then 23.00) and won the Asian Championships, was third.
Murakami, the best javelin thrower in Japan for the last ten years, qualified for the final in Berlin with his personal best of 83.10m. In the final Murakami threw 82.97m, his second longest throw of his life, to win a bronze medal. He thus became only the second Japanese thrower, after Koji Murofushi who won a gold medal at Hammer Throw at the Athens Olympics, to win a medal a global championships. In November, Murakami won the Asian Championships with 81.50m throw. Incidentally, Murakami also won the Japan AAF Athletics Award 2009 back in December.
Yoshimi Ozaki, a protégée of Sachiko Yamashita, who won a silver medal at the marathon in the 1991 World Championships, won the same colour medal at the 2009 World Championships marathon in Berlin. Yamashita won Japan’s first ever medal at the marathon in the World Championships, while Ozaki won the tenth medal for the country at the marathon in the Worlds. Ozaki, who has the personal best of 2:23:30, recorded in the 2008 Tokyo International Women’s Marathon, has run three marathons in her career so far and has never finished worse than third.
Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
Top 10 JPN AOY
1. Yukifumi Murakami JT
2. Yoshimi Ozaki Marathon
3. Chisato Fukushima Sprints
4. Masumi Fuchise Walk
5. Atsushi Sato Marathon
6. Yurika Nakamura Distance
7. Masato Yokota 800m
8. Naoki Tsukahara Sprint
9. Yuri Kano Marathon
10. Masashi Eriguchi Sprints
