Tōru Terasawa

Tōru Terasawa

Tōru Terasawa ( Japanese 寺 沢 徹 , Terasawa Tōru ; born January 4, 1935 in Toyama Prefecture ) is a former Japanese marathon runner .

In 1962 he won the Fukuoka Marathon in the Japanese record time of 2:16:19 h, and the following year he broke the world best time of Abebe Bikila at the Beppu- Marita Marathon with 2:15:16 h . In 1964 he won again in Ōita and was considered one of the favorites in the marathon of the Olympic Games in Tokyo , in which he only came in 15th place, while Abebe Bikila defended his title from Rome and achieved another world best time of 2:12: Ran for 12 h.

In December of the same year Terasawa improved his Japanese record to 2:14:49 with a win in Fukuoka. He set two more records in his victories in Ōita in 1965 and 1966 with 2:14:38 and 2:14:35. In 1965 he achieved his personal time of 2:13:41 in the Polytechnic Marathon (on a point-to-point route that does not meet today's requirements for a record) as second behind his compatriot Morio Shigematsu , who with 2:12: 00 was faster than Bikila in Tokyo.

In 1966 Terasawa was third in the Boston Marathon .

Terasawa helped the Japanese shoe manufacturer Kihachiro Onitsuka (from whose company today's Asics emerged) to design running shoes that prevented the formation of blisters (a major problem for long-distance runners at the time).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ arrs.run: JPN Record Progressions - Road
2. ↑ Intro : Kihachiro Onitsuka - The Man Behind the Tiger Stripes ( Memento of the original from April 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . March 26, 2007