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Mai Ito

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Mai Ito of Japan at the 2012 World Half Marathon Championships in Kavarna, Bulgaria

Mai Ito (伊藤 舞, Itō Mai, born 23 May 1984) is a Japanese long-distance runner who competes in half marathon and marathon races. She represented Japan in the marathon at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics and competed at the 2012 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, taking the team bronze medal.

She holds personal bests of 70 minutes for the half marathon and 2:25:26 hours for the marathon. Ito was runner-up at the 2011 Osaka Ladies Marathon, won the 2012 Sapporo Half Marathon, and placed in the top ten at the 2013 London Marathon.

Career

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Born in Nara, Nara, she attended Kyoto Tachibana High School then went on to Kyoto Sangyo University.[1] Initially she was interested in volleyball but she gradually focused on long-distance running instead. Injuries blighted her early career but with a 10,000 metres win at the 2006 Japanese Collegiate Championships (in her final year of study) she her begin to establish herself.[2][3] That same year she also won the Kyoto Half Marathon in a personal best of 71:11 minutes.[4]

In 2008, she joined up with the Otsuka Pharmaceutical corporate running team and began training under their director Kono Tadashi.[2] The 2009 season brought results as she ran a string of personal bests, improving to 9:18.69 minutes for the 3000 metres, 15:55.64 minutes in the 5000 metres (coming sixth at the Japanese National Games) and 32:27.04 minutes for the 10,000 m.[5] She also won the half marathon section at the Shanghai Marathon and placed fourth at that year's Sendai Half Marathon.[2][6] She bettered her three track times again in 2010 (9:17.41, 15:48.35 and 32:14.43 minutes).[5] She also made her debut over the marathon distance and surprised more seasoned competitors by taking fourth place with a run of 2:29:13 hours at the Nagoya Marathon.[7]

At the 2011 Osaka Ladies Marathon she led the pack and split away to duel against Yukiko Akaba. Ito managed second place and a new best of 2:26:55 was enough to gain selection for the 2011 World Championships in Athletics.[8] At the World Championships Marathon in Daegu she finished 22nd overall, but was last out of the five-woman Japanese squad.[9] At the end of the year she set a best of 70:03 minutes to come fourth at the Sanyo Half Marathon.[5]

She remained in good form in the 2012 season, running 70:39 for fifth at the Kagawa-Marugame Half Marathon and a best of 2:25:26 hours for fifth at the Nagoya Marathon.[10] A win at the Sapporo Half Marathon followed in July and this led to an appearances at the 2012 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, where she was ninth and helped the Japanese women to the team bronze.[11][12] In a quick field at November's Yokohama Women's Marathon she was the fifth-placer and second Japanese with a time of 2:27:06 hours.[13]

Ito started 2013 with a personal best at the Berlin Half Marathon, taking third place with seventy minutes exactly.[14] A run at the 2013 London Marathon later that month saw her take seventh place in the high-profile race.[15]

Personal bests

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References

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  1. ^ "Mai Ito" (in Japanese). Japanese Association of Athletics Federations. Archived from the original on 2 September 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  2. ^ a b c "世界陸上女子マラソン日本代表に決まった伊藤舞（いとうまい）さん" [Mai Ito selected as Japan's representative for the women's marathon at the IAAF World Championships]. Tokushima Shimbun (in Japanese). 23 April 2011. Archived from the original on 14 May 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  3. ^ "女子10000m決勝結果" [Women's 10,000m Final Results] (in Japanese). The Inter-University Athletic Union of Japan. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  4. ^ Nakamura, Ken (12 March 2006). "Ota, Ito win in Kyoto". IAAF. Archived from the original on 2 October 2018. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  5. ^ a b c "Mai Ito". Tilastopaja. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  6. ^ Nakamura, Ken (10 May 2009). "Berlin-bound Akaba clocks 1:08:50 at Sendai Half Marathon". IAAF. Archived from the original on 24 April 2017. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  7. ^ Nakamura, Ken (14 March 2010). "Kano wins Nagoya Women's Marathon in 2:27:11". IAAF. Archived from the original on 14 November 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  8. ^ Nakamura, Ken (30 January 2011). "Akaba out-duels Ito in windy Osaka". IAAF. Archived from the original on 17 September 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  9. ^ "Mai Ito". IAAF. Archived from the original on 28 September 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  10. ^ Nakamura, Ken (11 March 2012). "Mayorova steals the show in Nagoya, third time a charm for Ozaki - Report". IAAF. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  11. ^ Nakamura, Ken (1 July 2012). "Mathathi and Ito win Sapporo Half". IAAF. Archived from the original on 11 February 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  12. ^ "2012 World Half Marathon Championships Results". IAAF. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  13. ^ Nakamura, Ken (18 November 2012). "Cheromei breaks course record in Yokohama". IAAF. Archived from the original on 18 February 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  14. ^ Wenig, Jörg (7 April 2013). "Kenyan duo Kendagor and Kiprop win Berlin Half in fast times". IAAF. Archived from the original on 20 July 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  15. ^ "2013 Leaderboard". London Marathon. Archived from the original on 12 April 2017. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
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