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| Nationality | Japanese | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1970-01-29)29 January 1970 (age 55) Kobe city,Hyogo prefecture,Japan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 180 cm (5 ft 11 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sport | Track and field | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event | Sprints | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Tokai University, Fujitsu | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personalbest | 100 m: 10.00 200 m: 20.16 400 m: 46.11 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Koji Ito (伊東 浩司,Itō Kōji, born 29 January 1970 inKobe) is a retiredJapanesetrack and fieldsprinter and Japan's fourth-fastest record holder of 100m sprint with a time of 10.00 seconds. He held the 100 metresJapanese national record between December 1998 and September 2017.He is a formerAsian record holder in the100 metres and200 metres, and still holds the indoor record as well as the4×400 metres relay record.
He is married to former long-distance runnerHiromi Suzuki.[1]
He started out as a400 metres runner and after winning a bronze at the1991 Asian Athletics Championships, he was selected for the relay at the1991 World Championships in Athletics and represented his country on home turf. In 1993 he won a bronze medal at the1993 East Asian Games and the1993 Asian Athletics Championships. He managed to reach the quarter-finals of the 200 m of theWorld Championships that year. His 1994 was highlighted by asilver medal at his firstAsian Games inHiroshima.
He represented Japan at the1996 Atlanta Olympics and managed to reach the semifinals of the 200 m and helped the 4×400 m relay to secure fifth place in the final in an Asian record time. He won his first major championship title in 1997, winning the 200 m gold at theEast Asian Games, but he did not get past the heat stages at either theIAAF World Indoor Championships or theWorld Championships in Athletics.
The following year marked his career peak: he started with a win in the 200 m at the1998 Asian Athletics Championships and went on to win a sprint double at the1998 Asian Games inGames record times. In winning the Asian Games 100 m crown on 13 December 1998 (Bangkok) he ran a time of 10.00 seconds, during a semi-final heat.[2] This time had beenJapanese national record for 19 years untilYoshihide Kiryū shaving 0.02 off in 2017. He was theMost Valuable Player of the 13th Asian Games.[3]
Ito also clocked a personal best of 20.16 s in the 200 m on 2 October 1998 atKumamoto,Japan. He put in a strong performance at the1999 World Indoor Championships, just missing out on the60 metres final and running an Asian indoor record time for fifth place in the 200 m competition. At the2000 Sydney Olympics, Ito finished seventh in the semi-finals in both the 100 m and 200 m events (10.39 s and 20.67 s respectively) ; the Japanese men's4 × 100 m team (Nobuharu Asahara, Koji Ito,Shigeyuki Kojima,Shingo Suetsugu) finished sixth in 38.66 s. Suetsugu later went on to follow in Ito's footsteps as Japan's top male sprinter. Ito never again matched the form of his high-water-mark 1998 season and retired in 2002.
Asian Games champions in men's100 metres | |
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