Nozomi Tanaka, age 24. Insane improvement from this Japanese athlete over the past few years from relative obscurity to super elite world class. She was hovering around 15 minutes just a couple of years ago (and 32:+/10,000), and now she's down to 14:29.18, finishing 3rd in Brussels tonight (hot conditions).
How far will her ceiling take her? Sub 14:20 next year? Can she challenge Hassan, Gidey, Taye, et Al?
I love how often she races and how she puts herself in it, I really hope she medals one day
(didn’t she triple 800, 1500, 5000 in Eugene?)
Ghost, you can’t tell the story of Tanaka without mentioning she was a World Junior champ at 3000 in 2018. She is a big-time talent, and it seems the 5,000 is her event. She ran 3:59.19 in 2019 and I think wanted to explore the 800-1500. As far as potential, it’s completely loaded but she can improve considering just how often she races and how broad a focus she’s had thus far. Narrow in a bit, and who knows…Hassan might leave the event and it’s unclear what Tsegay will race. Chebet, Kipyegon and Rengeruk seem like a tough trio from Kenya though.
THOUGHTSLEADER wrote:
Ghost, you can’t tell the story of Tanaka without mentioning she was a World Junior champ at 3000 in 2018. She is a big-time talent, and it seems the 5,000 is her event. She ran 3:59.19 in 2019 and I think wanted to explore the 800-1500. As far as potential, it’s completely loaded but she can improve considering just how often she races and how broad a focus she’s had thus far. Narrow in a bit, and who knows…Hassan might leave the event and it’s unclear what Tsegay will race. Chebet, Kipyegon and Rengeruk seem like a tough trio from Kenya though.
Thanks for the update. Yes we should pay more attention to former world junior champions even though many of those former world junior champions from African countries often don't improve significantly their great runs (from Juniors) at Senior level.
Flo’da boy wrote:
I love how often she races and how she puts herself in it, I really hope she medals one day
(didn’t she triple 800, 1500, 5000 in Eugene?)
Yes she did
She is a MONSTER and tonight she is doing the mash!
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uwu
THOUGHTSLEADER wrote:
Ghost, you can’t tell the story of Tanaka without mentioning she was a World Junior champ at 3000 in 2018. She is a big-time talent, and it seems the 5,000 is her event. She ran 3:59.19 in 2019 and I think wanted to explore the 800-1500. As far as potential, it’s completely loaded but she can improve considering just how often she races and how broad a focus she’s had thus far. Narrow in a bit, and who knows…Hassan might leave the event and it’s unclear what Tsegay will race. Chebet, Kipyegon and Rengeruk seem like a tough trio from Kenya though.
She ran 3:59.19 in the Olympic semifinal in 2021.
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Here is the "secret" behind her improvement. Lots of faltrek with Kenyans.
Nozomi's parents are both successful runners, and her dad is her coach (sound familiar?). As of 2021, she is quoted "...we fight all of the time." LOL
"Secret"?
Japanese female athletes are often phenomenal marathon runners but they seem to lack the power to run fast on the track in middle and long distances up till now but this athlete, Tanaka, is changing the picture in a good way and maybe she will inspire other Japanese females to follow suit. On the other hand, if it's a physical thing then nothing much will change. Typically in international championship 10,000 meter races you will see a Japanese female leading the race for the first few laps with bravado and then fade away to be a total non-factor at the end of the race. This has been repeated time and again for decades with few exceptions and the same goes for the men participating in championship 10,000 meter races - they are never in the mix by the final lap. This despite the fact that there are plenty of Japanese male athletes who run between 27 40 to 28 minutes in home competitions during the lengthy season which almost spans 12 months a year. There are more 10,000 m series races in Japan than any other country or continent. It's continuous. I get the impression some of these guys are burnt out by the time they get to championship races like the Olympics and world championships and I get the impression also that they have a psychological problem in those championships thinking that the gaijin are simply more powerful.
