Reiko
Tosa, a profile of a consistent marathon runner
Ken Nakamura for the
IAAF.
11 April 2002 - Japan’s Reiko Tosa, the 2001 World Championships marathon silver
medallist, has not run a bad marathon. In her four attempts at the distance, she
has finished no worse than second. In London on April 14th she will
contest her fifth event and the question now is can she advance to the top step
of the winner’s rostrum?
After winning her first marathon in the 1998 Matsuyama race with 2:54:47, which was not a serious attempt, Tosa finished second in her next three marathons. In what was effectively her marathon debut, the 2000 Nagoya International Women's marathon, Tosa finished second to Naoko Takahashi. Then eight months later in November of 2000, at the Tokyo International Women's race, Tosa finished second to Joyce Chepchumba. Finally, in her last marathon, the World Championships in Edmonton, Tosa finished second to Lidia Simon.
It should be noted that the winners of these marathons where Tosa finished second - Naoko Takahashi, Lidia Simon and Joyce Chepchumba – were the gold, silver and bronze medallists respectively in the Sydney Olympics.
Since January, Tosa has been training mostly in Kunming China, her regular high altitude training site for the winter. She has run one race this year, in the Yokohama Ekiden as a member of the medallist's team; she ran a 6.195Km stage in 19:20.
Before leaving for London last week, her coach Hideo Suzuki told Tatsuo Terada, "Yesterday's training went well. I think Tosa can run a sub 32 minutes 10,000m right now." Explaining why she had chosen London, Suzuki continued, “If she was going after a fast time, Rotterdam perhaps would be a better choice, but London has prestige."
Reiko was born on June 11, 1976, the youngest daughter of Toshio and Hinako Tosa, in Ehime prefecture, which is located in the smallest of the four major islands of Japan. The family house overlooked the Seto-inland sea and Tosa swam there quite often. However, the sport of running was in her family genes, for both her parents in their youth had participated in athletics. Her father, Toshio was a distance runner, having run in the national high school ekiden championships. Her mother Hinako, threw javelin and was a member of school's sprint relay team.
The sprinting gene on Tosa’s mother's side seems only to have been inherited by her older sister Nozomi, of whose sprinting ability she has always been in awe. In an interview with the monthly Track & Field, Tosa jokingly said, "Had my sister been dueling with Simon in Edmonton, she could have out-sprinted her!"
Tosa played basketball in junior high school, again influenced by her older sister who also played the sport, but eventually turned to track in high school. However, she was a mediocre runner in high school, never making a final at the national inter-high school championships. Her personal bests in high school were also not exceptional, 9:41.05 for the 3000m and 17:29.24 for the 5000m.
She did not improve much in college either. Her personal best at 5000m improved but only to 16:35. She did run in the national inter-collegiate championships, but her records were undistinguished, and her best finish was 12th at the 5000m when she was a senior.
Tosa first distinguished herself as a runner after joining a corporate track team, Mitsui Kaijyo. In her first year with the team, after a 40 days stint of high altitude training at Boulder, Tosa finished sixth in the 1999 Sapporo half marathon with 1:10:59. With this performance Tosa was selected for the Japanese team at the 1999 World half marathon championships, where she finished fifth with 1:09:36.
The moment had arrived to make a serious marathon attempt. Although she was virtually ignored at the 2000 Nagoya Women's marathon because Naoko Takahashi (Olympic champion) was the centre of attention, Tosa ran 2:24:36 for the second place. This would have been a national marathon debut record, had she not run in the 1998 Matsuyama marathon for fun. In her next marathon, Tosa ran 2:24:47 in the 2000 Tokyo Ladies event. There Tosa led from the start until caught by Joyce Chepchumba at 22km, and although, she was left behind by Chepchumba after 27Km, this performance led to Tosa’s selection for the Edmonton World Championships.
It should be noted that
in each of the global championships since the 1991 Worlds, except for the 1995
edition, Japanese women have won a medal in the marathon, and it was Reiko
Tosa’s silver medal, which kept the streak alive in Edmonton.
In Edmonton, Tosa was often seen leading the pack that was chasing Constantina
Dita (ROM) who was alone in front during the early stages of the race. The day
before Tosa's coach Suzuki had told her, "after 10Km, run your own race. Your
run better that way." So she did.
On the long downhill part of the course, Tosa was at the rear of the chasing pack. "No, I did not have any problem with running downhill. I was just running with my own rhythm," said Tosa after the race.
By 37Km the race for the gold was between Tosa and Lidia Simon of Romania but on the ramp down to the stadium, Simon attacked and eventually won by five seconds. "I knew that I could not beat Simon in the sprint finish on the track. So I tried to surge away several times during the race, but I could not shake her off. I usually run strong downhill but at the end Simon was stronger," said Tosa, who was quite content to be the first Japanese home.
Tosa had had a few problems leading up to race day. "On the day before the race Tosa, who had lost a contact lens earlier tripped over a speed bump at the front of her house. She fell hitting both of her knees as well as her hip quite hard. I think she has done very well considering the circumstances," said Suzuki who was one-time a protégé of Yoshio Koide. After the race Tosa was asked if there had been any effects from the previous day's accident during the race, to which she replied, "I had forgotten about the pain from the accident, for the race was so hard for me. Now that the pain from the running is gone, the pain from the fall is back!"
Complete Marathon
Performances by Reiko Tosa:
2:54:47 1st 1998 Matsuyama Marathon 22 Feb 1998
2:24:36 2nd 2000 Nagoya Women's Marathon 12 Mar 2000
2:24:47 2nd 2000 Tokyo Ladies Marathon 19 Nov 2000
2:26:06 2nd 2001 World Championships 12 Aug 2001
