Kiyoko Shimahara
Japanese long-distance runner
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Kiyoko Shimahara (嶋原 清子; born 22 December 1976) is a Japanese long-distance runner who competes in marathon races. Her personal best time is 2:25:10 hours, achieved in August 2009 in Sapporo. She is a member of the Second Wind running club in Japan.[1] She represented her country at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics and at the Asian Games in 2006 and 2010 (winning the silver medal at the former edition).
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Native name | 嶋原 清子 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Full name | Kiyoko Shimahara | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Japanese | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | December 22, 1976 Suō-Ōshima, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.54 m (5 ft 1 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 43 kg (95 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Track and field | ||||||||||||||||||||
Event | Marathon | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Born in the Ōshima District in Yamaguchi Prefecture, she attended Kokushikan University and graduated in 1999 with a degree in physical education.[2] She made her debut over the marathon distance at the Japanese student championships in 1997.[3] Her first marathon victory came at the 2003 Katsuta Marathon, where she ran a course record time of 2:31:10 hours.[4][5]
She came third at the Tokyo Marathon in 2003, then improved to second place behind Bruna Genovese at the same competition the following year, setting a personal best of 2:26:43 hours in the process. Shimahara improved further at the 2005 Hokkaido Marathon, running 2:26:14 and taking the runner-up spot. In 2006, opened her season with a personal best of 1:10:16 hours at the Miyazaki Half Marathon, then came third at the Osaka Ladies Marathon.[2] She made her foreign debut at the Boston Marathon, where she finished in fifth place.[6] She gained her first international call-up for Japan at the 2006 Asian Games and she was the marathon silver medallist behind China's Zhou Chunxiu.[7][8]
These performances led to her being selected for the Japanese women's marathon squad at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics. She finished sixth at the World Championships Marathon in Osaka.[9] At the 2007 London Marathon, she withdrew mid-race for the first time, pulling up just after the halfway point due to breathing difficulties.[3] At the start of 2008 she came eleventh at the Nagoya Marathon, but rebounded at the Chicago Marathon with a third-place finish to reach the podium.[6] Shimahara ended her year with a win at the Honolulu Marathon in a time of 2:32:36 hours.[10]
Despite a sixth-place finish at the Tokyo Marathon, the 2009 season proved to be one of Shimahara's most successful. She won the Osaka Half Marathon then set a course record and personal best of 2:25:10 hours to win at the Hokkaido Marathon in Sapporo.[11][12] She was the runner-up at both the Yokohama Marathon and the Honolulu race that year.[6] Shimahara was fourth at the 2010 Nagano Marathon and was selected to compete for Japan at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou. However, she did not win a medal on her second performance at the Games, finishing fifth overall.[13]
In 2011, she was the runner-up at the Hokkaido Marathon and the inaugural Osaka Marathon.[14] She also ran at the Tokyo Marathon that year but placed fifteenth in that race. She had only one outing in 2012: at the Osaka Marathon she came fifth in a time of 2:29:51 hours. A year passed before she returned to competition, again in Osaka, and she managed third on that occasion.[15]
Achievements
| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Representing  Japan | |||||
| 2008 | Honolulu Marathon | Honolulu, Hawaii | 1st | Marathon | 2:32:36 |
| 2009 | Hokkaido Marathon | Sapporo, Japan | 1st | Marathon | 2:25:10 |
