Asuka Cambridge
 Cambridge at the 2016 Olympics | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Asuka Antonio Cambridge |
| Nickname | Aska |
| Born | 31 May 1993 Spanish Town, Jamaica |
| Height | 1.79 m (5 ft 10 in) |
| Weight | 74 kg (163 lb) |
| Sport | |
| Country |  Japan |
| Sport | Athletics |
| Event(s) | 100 m, 200 m |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Personal best(s) | 100 m – 10.03 (2020) 200 m – 20.62 (2013)[1] 400 m – 52.19 (2009) |
Asuka Antonio "Aska" Cambridge (ケンブリッジ 飛鳥, Kenburijji Asuka, born 31 May 1993) is a Jamaican-born Japanese track and field sprinter who competes in the 100 metres and 200 metres. His personal best of 10.03 in the 100m gives him Japan's 6th fastest time. He is a two-time East Asian Games gold medallist and a relay bronze medallist at the World Junior Championships in Athletics. His mother is Japanese and his father is Jamaican.[2]
In the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Cambridge was part of the 4 × 100 m relay for Japan, which took the silver medal in the final.
Biography
[edit]Cambridge was born in Jamaica to a Japanese mother and a Jamaican father. His given name Asuka generally signifies "flying bird" in Japanese language and has also been a city name and period name in Ancient Japan (see Asuka period).[2][3] When he was 2 years old, his family moved from Jamaica to Osaka, Japan. He played football until the age of twelve. When he was fourteen, he moved to Tokyo from Osaka. Cambridge then focused on athletics, running sprinting events for his high school in Tokyo and later at Nihon University, where he studied literature and science. He was fourth in the 100 m at the 2011 National Sports Festival of Japan.[4] At the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics he narrowly missed out on the 200 m final,[5] but he excelled in the relay alongside Kazuma Oseto, Akiyuki Hashimoto and Kazuki Kanamori – the team ran an Asian junior record of 39.01 seconds in the heats (the fastest of all the qualifiers) and were just one hundredth slower in the final, where they claimed the bronze medals.[6][7]
In 2013, Cambridge improved his personal best to 10.33 seconds for the 100 m and 20.62 seconds for the 200 m.[4] He won his first international gold medals at the 2013 East Asian Games by beating compatriot Shōta Iizuka in the 200 m and then teaming up with his rival to help secure the 4×100 metres relay title for Japan. Their time of 38.44 seconds was a new East Asian Games record – an improvement of nearly half a second.[8]
On 25 June 2016, Cambridge won the 100 m final at the Japan Championships in 10.16 to qualify for the Rio Olympics.[9]
On 19 August 2016, Cambridge won a silver medal in the 4 × 100 m relay for Japan at the 2016 Summer Olympics by setting a new Asian record of 37.60 seconds with teammates Ryōta Yamagata, Yoshihide Kiryū, and Shōta Iizuka.[10]
On 29 August 2020, Cambridge won the 100m final with a new personal best of 10.03 at the Athlete Night Games in Fukui.[11]
Japan's top 10 records for men's 100m
[edit]| Rank | Time (sec) | Wind (m/s) | Athlete | Team | Place | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9.97 | +0.8 | Abdul Hakim Sani Brown | NCAA Championships | Austin | 7 June 2019 |
| 2 | 9.98 | +1.8 | Yoshihide Kiryu | Toyo University | Fukui | 9 September 2017 |
| 3 | 10.00 | +1.9 | Koji Ito | Fujitsu | Bangkok | 13 December 1998 |
| +0.2 | Ryota Yamagata | Seiko Holdings | Osaka | 24 September 2017 | ||
| +0.7 | Japan | Jakarta | 26 August 2018 | |||
| 5 | 10.02 | +2.0 | Nobuharu Asahara | Osaka Gas | Oslo | 13 July 2001 |
| 6 | 10.03 | +1.8 | Shingo Suetsugu | Tokai University | Mito | 5 May 2003 |
| +1.0 | Asuka Cambridge | Nike | Fukui | 29 August 2020 | ||
| 8 | 10.07 | +1.9 | Masashi Eriguchi | Waseda University | Hiroshima | 28 June 2009 |
| +1.8 | Shuhei Tada | Kwansei Gakuin University | Fukui | 9 September 2017 | ||
| 10 | 10.08 | +1.9 | Shota Iizuka | Mizuno | Totori | 4 June 2017 |
References
[edit]- ^ "Aska Cambridge IAAF profile". IAAF. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
- ^ a b Reid, Paul A. (13 August 2016). Jamaica spreading its Men's 100m talent across the globe Archived 12 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Jamaica Observer.
- ^ Nagatsuka, Kaz (4 June 2016). Cambridge dreaming of big future. Japan Times.
- ^ a b Asuka Cambridge. Tilastopaja. Retrieved on 22 December 2013.
- ^ 2098 World Junior Championships Men's 200000 metres semi-final. IAAF. Retrieved on 22 December 2013.
- ^ 2012 World Junior Championships 4x100 Metres Relay – men. IAAF. Retrieved on 22 December 2013.
- ^ JAPAN National Junior Records. JAAF. Retrieved on 22 December 2013.
- ^ Mulkeen, Jon (10 October 2013). Chinese athletes dominate on home soil at East Asian Games. IAAF. Retrieved on 22 December 2013.
- ^ Studying leads Cambridge to Rio. The Japan News. Retrieved on 29 June 2016.
- ^ Mckirdy, Andrew (20 August 2016). "Bolt completes triple-triple with Jamaica's gold in 4×100 relay; Japan makes history by taking silver". The Japan Times Online. ISSN 0447-5763. Archived from the original on 20 August 2016. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
- ^ [1].NHK news. Retrieved on 28 August 2020.
External links
[edit]
- Aska Cambridge at World Athletics
- Aska Cambridge at JAAF (in Japanese)
- Aska Cambridge at Olympics.com
- Aska Cambridge at Olympedia (archive)
- Asuka Cambridge – Rio 2016 at the Japanese Olympic Committee (in Japanese) (in English)
- Aska Cambridge on Instagram
- Official website
- Living people
- 1993 births
- Japanese male sprinters
- Olympic male sprinters
- Olympic athletes for Japan
- Olympic silver medalists for Japan
- Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field)
- Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics
- Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics
- Asian Games gold medalists for Japan
- Asian Games medalists in athletics (track and field)
- Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Asian Games
- Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games
- World Athletics Championships athletes for Japan
- World Athletics Championships medalists
- Japan Championships in Athletics winners
- Japanese people of Jamaican descent
- Sportspeople from Spanish Town