Ken Nakamura for IAAF
At 33 years old, the 2000 Lake Biwa marathon was Kawashima’s last realistic chance to qualify for an Olympic marathon team. As he had promised before the race, Kawashima ran very aggressively, taking most of the initiative from 30km. He challenged the 1995 World Marathon Champion Martin Fiz. Even when Fiz left him with 4Km to go, Kawashima kept on going mumbling "Olympics, Olympics ... this is an Olympic trials" At the end, he improved his PR by more than a minute to 2:09:04. For this effort, he was selected for the Olympic marathon team.
Shinji Kawashima was born on June 4, 1966 in town of Moroyama in Saitama prefecture, north of Tokyo. Like many Japanese boys, he played baseball in his youth. In junior high school, initially he joined the judo team, but he was also running ekiden races for his school. But Judo matches in junior high school were not classified by weight and Kawashima with his light frame was at a disadvantage; it was natural for him to quit the Judo team and join the track team, which he did at the end of his second year of junior high school. However, in junior high school, he was only a mediocre runner with a best of around 10:30 for the 3000m. After graduation, he attended Hannou high school, one of the premier track & field school in the area. He commuted everyday by bicycle on the 50 minute route which climbed over the mountain. He recalled: "It was a good training for me."
Primarily a 1500m runner in high school, he was second at the Japanese high school championships in 1984 (his senior year). In the same year, he set a 1500m Personal Best of 3:52.4. After graduation from high school, following a recommendation of his high school coach Katsumi Uchikawa, he enrolled in Nippon University of Physical Education. Yuko Arimori, a double Olympic medallist at the marathon was his team-mate in the track team. While in college, his best finish at the collegiate championships was a victory at the 3000mSC in his junior year in 1987. His college PR for the 5000m is 14:07.6 also in 1988.
After graduation from college, looking for strong leadership in a team, he joined Asahi Kasei track team. It was 1989. Upon joining the team, the new members were expected to make a statement of their goals. It is a well known story that the Soh brothers upon joining the Asahi Kasei track team back in 1971 said: "We would like to run in the Olympic marathon together," which they achieved in the 1984 Olympic Games. Kawashima had no such ambition. He simply said: "I want to win a marathon once in my life."
It was not much of the goal for him. Although he failed to finish his debut marathon in Hofu in 1990, in his second marathon in Nobeoka in March of 1991 he realised his dream of winning a marathon. He also won his next marathon, the 1991 Gold Coast marathon in Australia. But then his running career took a down turn. For the next few years, his running career was not going anywhere. By August of 1993, he was ready to call it quits and declared that he would retire from competition after the 1993 Beijing marathon. He was planning to pursuit a career in coaching back in his home town in Saitama prefecture.
But since he could not train properly for the Beijng marathon due to injury, he postponed his final race until the 1993 Fukuoka marathon. Totally unexpectedly, he run a huge PB of 2:10:41 and finished fifth. Then he had a dilemma. He had already accepted a coaching job in Saitama, and declared to the Asahi Kasei track team that Fukuoka marathon was his last race. He could not retract his decision. Fortunately the Soh brothers said to him: "You would continue, wouldn’t you?" Takeshi Soh even accompanied Kawashima when he went to Saitama to decline a college coaching job. Recalling the time, he recently said: "If my coach did not suggest me to continue with my running career, I probably would have been forced to quit in 1993."
It was then thought that a sub 2:10 marathon was just around the corner for Kawashima. However, although he became a reliable ekiden runner for the team, for next few years he was unable to improve his marathon PR; his struggle with a marathon distance continued. Finally in 1996 just in time for the Olympics he matched his marathon Personal Best at the 1996 Tokyo marathon. For this effort he was selected as a reserve for the Olympic marathon team.
The following year in 1997, by finishing third at the Tokyo marathon, he was selected for the 1997 World Championships’ team, his first global championships’ team. But in the World Championships in Athens he finished a dismal 25th. As many of the senior members of the team retired, he soon became the most senior member. At the same time, younger team members started running fast. In the 1997 Lake Biwa marathon, Akira Manai (born 1971) became the first Asahi Kasei runner since Koichi Morishita to run a sub 2:10 marathon. Next in the 1997 Fukuoka marathon, Nozomi Saho (born 1973) ran 2:08:47, and in the 1998 Lake Biwa marathon Muneyuki Ojima (born 1975) ran 2:08:43. Inspired by his younger team mates, in 1998 he finally improved his long standing PB to 2:10:07 in the 1998 Chicago marathon.
But 1999 was another down year for Kawashima who was hit by an automobile while cycling in Nobeoka just before the Lake Biwa marathon. Reflecting later, he said that his first thought was: "Am I glad this is not an Olympic year."
In October, an ankle injury forced him to have an operation. His doctor said: "If Kawashima was younger, I would not recommend him to have an operation. But this is do or die situation for him."
He resumed training in November, and for the first time in many years, he completely skipped ekiden races in the winter to concentrate on training. He set a training run PR in the 40Km run (2:06), which was a huge confidence builder. Observing younger 2:08 runners of the team like Muneyuki Ojima, Hiroshi Miki, and Nobuyuki Sato he learned a lot from them. Before the 2000 Lake Biwa marathon, Kawashima promised that he will run aggressively. For their Olympic runners, not only were the JAAF selectors looking for the fastest time, but they were looking for those who fought well. Although Kawashima’s time was only five seconds faster than that of Muneyuki Ojima (Ojima ran 2:09:09 in the 1999 Fukuoka marathon and was considered as the best candidate for the third member of the Olympic team), Kawashima fought well with Martin Fiz and his efforts were rewarded with a place on the Olympic marathon team.
Together with his Asahi Kasei team-mate Nobuyuki Sato, who is also running the Olympic marathon in Sydney, Kawashima ran the Olympic course on April 30. Then from June 25 to July 23, they trained in northern Australia. During this phase of training they did one 50Km run and three 40Km runs. Now they are back in Japan, training in northern island of Hokkaido. Their training is going as well as they can hope for.
Date of Birth: June 4, 1966
Ht/Wt 166cm/55Kg
Complete marathon records
DNF Hofu DNF Dec 16, 1990
2:17:58 Nobeoka 1st Mar 3, 1991
2:14:01 Gold Coast 1st July 21, 1991
2:14:45 Beppu-Oita 10th Feb 2, 1992
2:14:22 Lake Biwa 3rd Mar 15, 1992
DNF Fukuoka DNF Dec 6, 1992
2:20:31 Lake Biwa 42nd Mar 14, 1993
2:10:41 Fukuoka 5th Dec 5, 1993
2:11:53 Hiroshima 4th Mar 6, 1994
2:12:17 Tokyo 9th Feb 12, 1995
2:13:44 Fukuoka 14th Dec 3, 1995
2:10:41 Tokyo 6th Feb 12, 1996
2:17:28 Sapporo 4th Aug 25, 1996
2:11:13 Tokyo 3rd Feb 9, 1997
2:22:33 WC/Athinai 25th Aug 10, 1997
2:15:13 Tokyo 10th Feb 8, 1998
2:10:07 Chicago 8th Oct 10, 1998
2:13:38 Nagano 2nd April 18 1999
2:09:04 Lake Biwa 2nd March 5, 2000
2:17:16 Sydney 3rd April 30, 2000 (training run)
Half Marathon PR: 1:02:07 (1995)
10000m PR: 28:28.7 (1995)
