Shohei Iwamoto

Career

Starting his sports career as a swimmer, Iwamoto was recruited to modern pentathlon in 2008. He won his first Japanese national championship in modern pentathlon in 2012, and further won the Japanese championship three times. He also won a silver medal in men's team with the Japanese team at the same games. He represented Japan at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where he won the initial show jumping event but placed 29th overall in the men's event. In November 2017 Iwamoto won the 57th Modern Pentathlon All Japan Championship, which was held in the Chiba Prefecture. Being somewhat behind after the first event (swimming), he advanced to second place after the second event (fencing). After the laser run and equestrian event he finished with the highest score, two points ahead of Ono who finished second. Competing in the Modern Pentathlon World Cup, his best achievement in 2018 was sixth place in the competition in Los Angeles in April. In an interview from April 2020, Iwomoto tells about his sports career so far, explains the competition format of modern pentathlon in detail, and answers questions about his goals for the Tokyo Olympics. Being featured in a presentation ahead of the 2020 Summer Olympics, he expressed hope for better achievements than in Rio. A courtesy visit by Iwamoto to Governor Shioda of the Kagoshima Prefecture ahead of the Olympics attracted enough interest to merit media coverage. Competing for Japan at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2021, he placed 28th in men's individual.