Kazuhiro Maeda


Kazuhiro Maeda is a Japanese long-distance runner.
Born in Shiroishi, Saga, Maeda made his international debut at the 2000 [World Junior Championships in Athletics], where he ran in the heats of the 5000 metres. He won the Karatsu 10-Miler in 2003. He was part of the Japanese men's team for the short race at the 2006 IAAF World [Cross Country Championships]. At the 2006 Asian Games he ran in the 5000 m and came in fourth place – however, he was the best Asian-born runner in the race as all the medallists were Kenyan emigrants to Qatar and Bahrain.
Maeda competed twice at world level for Japan in 2007: he finished seventeenth in the 10,000 metres at the 2007 [World Championships in Athletics|2007 World Championships] and then came 30th at the 2007 IAAF World [Road Running Championships] in Udine. He made his marathon debut in 2009 at the Tokyo Marathon and he secured second place behind Salim Kipsang with a time of 2:11:01 hours. This automatically gained him a place for that year's World Championships team. He finished well off the pace at the 2009 [World Championships in Athletics – Men's Marathon|2009 World Championships Marathon], taking 39th place and crossing the line some eight minutes behind Japan's best performer Atsushi Sato.
Maeda came third at the 2011 Beppu-Ōita Marathon as the first Japanese home on the 60th anniversary of the race and improved his personal best time to 2:10:29 hours. He was the third Japanese runner to finish at the Fukuoka Marathon later that year, coming sixth overall. A personal best time of 2:08:38 hours came at the 2012 Tokyo Marathon, where his sixth-place finish improved his Olympic selection chances. Ultimately he was not selected for the Olympics and he ran at that year's Amsterdam Marathon instead, although he only managed 15th place.
A new personal best of 2:08:00 came at the 2013 Tokyo Marathon, where he was the first Japanese with his fourth-place finish.

Personal bests