Nobuyuki Fujita , 81, coached women to 16 Japanese national records at the junior and senior level, from 400 m to the marathon. He led Mizuki Noguchi to Olympic marathon gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Given his deep knowledge of the track and roads, we talked to him about the current state of women's long distance. You're most well-known for Noguchi's gold medal, but as a corporate league coach athletes you developed kept breaking national records. At the Unichika team Nobuko Kono got the 400 m, 800 m and 1500 m records. At Wacoal , Mariko Ikeda got the 800 m record, Masako Matsumoto and Miho Ishibashi both broke the 1500 m record, Atsuki Ri got the 3000 m, Tsukumi Fukuyama the 10 km, Megumi Fujiwara the 20 km, Kaori Kumura the half marathon, Rika Ota the 5000 m Asian record, and, before she went to the marathon, Izumi Maki got the 20,000 m world record along with the 5000 m and 10,000 m. There were also Ikuko Tamura 's 1500 m national record and mile As...
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