Kawauchi last real chance at qualifying for the Olympics

Woddle

He ran 2:12 and as you can see was very disappointed.

Following the race Kawauchi shaved his head in atonement for his performance.

"I felt that I had to give everyone who supported me a sign of my remorse," he said. "It's better that my shame be exposed for everyone to see."

GoHardOrGoHome

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/sports/news/20120227p2g00m0sp084000c.html

Athletics: London bridge has fallen down for me, Kawauchi says
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Yuki Kawauchi missed his water bottle in Sunday's Tokyo Marathon and as a result, the amateur star runner believes he missed the boat to the London Olympics.
"As far as I'm concerned, the Olympics are over for me," Kawauchi said, after finishing 14th in 2 hours, 12 minutes and 51 seconds -- more than four minutes off his time from last year's race.
"I don't think I'll be selected. There are people who can run 2:06, 2:07 and they deserve to be going. If I had a fast time that's one thing, but I don't. It has nothing to do with my training."
Kawauchi, 24, rose to instant national fame after the 2011 Tokyo Marathon, in which he was the fastest Japanese runner despite holding a full-time job at a Saitama high school.
His time in Tokyo a year ago of 2:08:37 was the fastest in the country last season and in December, he posted a Japanese best 2:09:57 at the Fukuoka International Marathon, which served as a qualifier for London. The everyman's runner went into Sunday's race as the favorite to make the Olympic team, but Arata Fujiwara surged past Kawauchi after taking second in a solid 2:07:48.
Kawauchi failed to hydrate twice early in a fast pace set by former world record holder Haile Gebrselassie and last year's winner Hailu Mekonnen. He said he couldn't identify his bottle at the water stations because of his bad eyes.

Kawauchi said his mistakes were mental, not physical.
"For the first 5 km or so, I was really relaxed, running at a good pace," he said. "But at 5 km and 10 km, I missed my water and it rattled me.
"The same thing happened to me at last year's world championships at the 15-km mark. I shouldn't have let it get to me. I'm just not strong enough mentally."
Fujiwara, on the other hand, came on strong late, overtaking Gebrselassie with a kilometer left to move up to third before passing Uganda's Stephen Kiprotich just ahead of the 42-km mark.
"It was tough trying to catch up to Haile, but the thought of getting my picture in the papers kept me going," Fujiwara said. "After that, I got into a good rhythm and then I started thinking about the prize money (2 million yen).
"The money's going straight to my wife's account. I still have a few bills to pay off."
With one more qualifying race still remaining -- the Lake Biwa Marathon on March 4 -- the Japan Association of Athletics Federations did not definitively say which three it was taking to the Summer Games.

The JAAF's reviews of Kawauchi and Fujiwara, however, were night and day.
"He ran a very good race, showing Japanese runners can keep up with some of the world's best," Mitsugu Ogata, the JAAF general secretary, said of Fujiwara, whose time on Sunday ranks seventh all-time in Japan.
"His time was good, too. He looked really loose throughout, and turned it up when he had to in the second half."
On Kawauchi, JAAF marathon team manager Yasushi Sakaguchi said, "He had been targeting the Tokyo Marathon all long, but he looked a little uptight and didn't show his usual resilience.
"We know he has talent, but..."

(Mainichi Japan) February 27, 2012

Krusty_Clown

Kawauchi wrote:

I shouldn't have let it get to me. I'm just not strong enough mentally.

Jaysus. If he lacks mental strength, where does that leave the rest of us?!

shels4ever

he seems to over race also. How many Marathons is that in the last 12 months?

ecoli

shels4ever wrote: »

he seems to over race also. How many Marathons is that in the last 12 months?

Here is his last 6 months anyway:

2:16:11 18th Daegu 4 Sep
2:14:31 4th Osaka 30 Oct
2:09:57 3rd Fukuoka 4 Dec
2:12:33 2nd Hofu 18 Dec
2:12:57 12th Tokyo 26 Feb

And he is lined Dusseldorf up in April

TFBubendorfer

shels4ever wrote: »

he seems to over race also. How many Marathons is that in the last 12 months?

That's of course easy to say now. But he has always done things differently and up to now it has worked very well.

He's old school. If you look how much the likes of Bill Rodgers used to race in the 70s (5 in 1976, 6 in 1977, all at ferocious pace, and others raced even more still), you can see the similarities.

TheRoadRunner

TFBubendorfer wrote: »

That's of course easy to say now. But he has always done things differently and up to now it has worked very well.

He's old school. If you look how much the likes of Bill Rodgers used to race in the 70s (5 in 1976, 6 in 1977, all at ferocious pace, and others raced even more still), you can see the similarities.

True but if you look at the one marathon that really counted in 1976, the Olympic final he had a stinker. There is a lesson there. Can't run full tilt over that distance that many times in a year.

shels4ever

TFBubendorfer wrote: »

That's of course easy to say now. But he has always done things differently and up to now it has worked very well.

He's old school. If you look how much the likes of Bill Rodgers used to race in the 70s (5 in 1976, 6 in 1977, all at ferocious pace, and others raced even more still), you can see the similarities.

Yep true, there were a lot of people saying that back in November when he ran a couple of marathons and in a short period, it was questioned if that was the best way to do it. I do like the guy and was hoping he would go well. There is no problem racing lots of marathons it will work for some, I think there was one kenyan last year with 7-8 2:15's ( i could be wrong on the exact number but was some running) but when you have an olympic place on the line maybe a slightly different approach would have been more apt. But its all well and good me saying that now after the fact.