Akemi Masuda ( ja, 増田明美; born January 1, 1964) is a retired

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

female

long-distance runner Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely aerobic in nature and requires stamina as well as mental strength. Within endurance running comes two d ...

. She competed for Japan at the 1984 Summer Olympics in

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, although she failed to finish the race. Masuda set her personal best in the classic distance (2:30:30) in 1983. She rose to prominence with a gold medal on the track over

3000 metres The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000m shoul ...

at the 1981 Asian Athletics Championships and by winning the inaugural 20 km women's race at the Sapporo Half Marathon event. She continued to focus on road events and won at the 1982 Chiba Marathon and the 1983 Nike OTC Marathon. Her 2:30:30 at age 19 in that race was the World Junior Record. She was the runner-up at the 1984 Osaka Ladies Marathon, a result which led to her the starting line of the first Olympic women's marathon. Among her other results, she was third at the 1989 Hokkaido Marathon and took 19th place at the 1990

London Marathon The London Marathon is an annual marathon held in London, United Kingdom, and is the 2nd largest annual road race in the UK, after the Great North Run in Newcastle. Founded by athletes Chris Brasher and John Disley in 1981, it is typically held ...

Achievements

References

sports-reference
1964 births Living people Sportspeople from Chiba Prefecture Japanese female long-distance runners Japanese female marathon runners Olympic female long-distance runners Olympic athletes of Japan Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics Japan Championships in Athletics winners 20th-century Japanese women 21st-century Japanese women {{Japan-athletics-bio-stub