Masumi Fuchise

(born 2 September 1986) is a Japanese racewalker. She was seventh at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics and is a two-time Asian Race Walking Champion. In 2009, she set the Japanese record for the 20 kilometres race walk event. She also won the silver medal at the 2009 Summer Universiade.

Career Born in Himeji, Hyogo, Fuchise was originally a runner but switched to race walking after injury. She made her global debut on national turf at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics, held in Osaka. Fuchise finished in 27th place in the women's 20 km walk, somewhat behind compatriot Mayumi Kawasaki who was tenth. The following year she took part in the Asian Race Walking Championships and although Kawasaki won the title, Fuchise reached the podium to win the bronze medal and also achieved the Olympic "A" standard time. She did not compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing that year, missing qualification after a poor tactical race at the 2008 Japanese National Championship, which was also an Olympic qualifying event. She stepped up at continental level also, winning the gold medal at the 2009 Asian Race Walking Championships, ahead of compatriot Kumi Otoshi. She took to the IAAF World Race Walking Challenge circuit and made the top eight at the Coppa Città di Sesto San Giovanni in Italy. In July that year she attended the 2009 Summer Universiade where she won the silver medal in the walk behind Olga Mikhaylova (who broke the Games record). Having qualified through her national win, she competed at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics. She finished seventh overall in the women's race – the second best performance by an Asian walker after bronze medallist Liu Hong of China.

She won the 2010 Asian Race Walking Championships in Nomi City in March, taking her second continental title in a time of 1:29:35. Later that year she placed 24th at the 2010 IAAF World Race Walking Cup. At the 2011 All-Japan Race Walking Championships she was runner-up to Kumi Otoshi, and she was the fastest Japanese finisher at the event in Nomi the following year.

Personal bests

Event Time (h:m:s) Venue Date 5000 m track walk 21:54.07 Amagasaki, Japan 19 May 2013 10,000 m track walk 44:52.90 Tokyo, Japan 10 June 2007 10 km walk 44:23 Kobe, Japan 28 January 2007 20 km walk 1:28:03 NR Kobe, Japan 25 January 2009 All information taken from IAAF profile.