Yuki Kawauchi

Yuki Kawauchi (川内優輝) is a Japanese marathon runner.

He finished third at the 2008 Ageo Half Marathon in a time of 1:03:22 and began to compete in marathons the following year.

He gradually improved his times in 2009.

In his debut at the Beppu-Ōita Marathon, he finished 20th in 2:19:26.

He began to break into the upper echelons of the national scene at the 2010 Tokyo Marathon, where he claimed fourth place in a personal-best time of 2:12:36.

Despite this improvement, he was further down the field at the Fukuoka race, finishing tenth in 2:17:54.

He came to prominence after running the 2011 Tokyo Marathon in 2:08:37, finishing as the first Japanese citizen and third overall.

He was known as the "citizen runner" given that he used to work full-time for the government of Saitama Prefecture and trained in his time off with his own expenses without any sponsorship.

Kawauchi improved his half-marathon best to 1:02:40 at the Kagawa Marugame Half Marathon in February 2011, finishing in the top 10.

He set his sights on a top-eight finish at the Tokyo Marathon later that month but exceeded his own expectations by running a time of 2:08:37 and taking third place.

As the best Japanese performer, he earned selection for the 2011 World Championships in Athletics.

In June, he entered the Okinoshima Ultramarathon and led the 50 km race right up to the last 600 metres, at which point he collapsed due to heat stroke.

He failed to finish.

At the World Championship Marathon held in Daegu he finished 18th-–a performance that helped the Japanese team including Hiroyuki Horibata and Kentaro Nakamoto to a silver medal in the 2011 World Marathon Cup.

He competed extensively toward the end of the year and his form held: he managed fourth at the Osaka Marathon, then took third at the Fukuoka Marathon.

The latter was an Olympic qualifying race, and he was the highest-finishing Japanese.

The Japan Association of Athletics Federations played down his selection choices, saying that his time of 2:09:57 was not fast enough, but Kawauchi upturned tradition by saying the race was a warm-up for the second qualifier in Tokyo.

(Japanese runners rarely enter both selection races due to their proximity in the running calendar.) Only two weeks later, Kawauchi entered the Hofu Marathon and was runner-up behind Mongolia's Serod Bat-Ochir.

He remarked that the fatigue from the previous race had hurt his chances of winning.

At the start of 2012, Kawauchi ran a half-marathon best of 1:02:18 in Marugame, but his unorthodox decision to race frequently ruined his chances of Olympic selection, as he finished fourteenth with a time of 2:12:51 at February's Tokyo Marathon.

He called his own performance "disgraceful" and shaved his head to make amends for disappointing his supporters.

This did not deter Kawauchi from following his own running plan, however, and he entered nine marathons that year, winning five of them.

He took the top honors at the Kasumigaura Marathon, Hokkaido Marathon, Sydney Marathon, Chiba Aqualine Marathon and Hofu Marathon.

Kawauchi's return to Okinoshima produced a course-record victory in 2:51:45 at the 50 km race.

On top of his marathon running, Kawauchi ran six half-marathons, including top-three finishes in Shizuoka and Ageo as well as 21st place at the 2012 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships.

Following the advice of the late New Zealand running coach Arthur Lydiard, he said that focusing on distance work would improve his speed, rather than the inverse speed training favored by his contemporaries.

Kawauchi won the 2018 Boston Marathon.

He bettered this with a time of 2:18:18 for 19th at the Tokyo Marathon a month later, then managed 13th at the Fukuoka Marathon in December in a time of 2:17:33.

In 2020, he left his job in local government and became a full-time professional runner.

Kawauchi is a frequent competitor, entering many races each year (averaging a marathon per month) ranging in distance from the 1500 m to the 50 km ultramarathon.

Among his better performances are victories at the Boston Marathon, the Hokkaido Marathon and the Beppu-Ōita Marathon and top-three finishes at the Tokyo Marathon and Fukuoka Marathon (the two most important marathons in Japan).

His personal best for the distance is 2:07:27 (Lake Biwa 2021).

Guinness World Records has recognized Kawauchi for becoming the first person to run more than 100 sub-2:20 marathons.

In spite of being an amateur, he has represented Japan internationally at the World Championships in Athletics and the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships.

He has two younger brothers, Yoshiki and Koki Kawauchi, who are also marathon runners.

Born in Setagaya, Tokyo, Kawauchi began running from a young age: first he practiced with his mother and later with the track teams at high school.

While he was there, the combination of an injury and the premature death of his father limited his running.

Nevertheless, he continued to enjoy the sport at a lower level while studying at Gakushuin University.

After graduation, he did not receive much interest from corporate running teams–-the typical route to professional running in Japan.

He decided to continue running for pleasure, entering races and paying his own expenses.