Masakazu Fujiwara

[4] He represented Japan at the marathon at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics, but he could not complete the event due to a knee injury.

Highlights of this period include a runner-up finish at the 2005 Ome 30 km Road Race and a fourth-place finish at the Asian Cross Country Championships in 2007, where he led Japan to the team bronze.

[6] He started well at the 2008 Lake Biwa Marathon but faded in the second half to ninth place.

That year he won the Tokyo Marathon with a time of 2:12:19 hours, beating his namesake Arata Fujiwara in wet conditions.

His run of 2:08:51 was enough for fourth place and as the first Japanese he won his first national title in the marathon.