Kiyonari Shibata ( ja, 柴田清成; born 27 March 1973) is a Japanese former

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete and

middle-distance runner Middle-distance running events are track races longer than sprints, up to 3000 metres. The standard middle distances are the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run, although the 3000 metres may also be classified as a middle-distance event. The 1 ...

. He is the current Japanese record holder for the

mile run The mile run (1,760 yards or exactly 1,609.344 metres) is a middle-distance foot race. The history of the mile run event began in England, where it was used as a distance for gambling races. It survived track and field's switch to ...

, with a personal best of 3:58.89 minutes. His time, set on 11 May 1996, made him the second Japanese man to run a sub-

four-minute mile A four-minute mile is the completion of a mile run (1609 m) in four minutes or less. It was first achieved in 1954 by Roger Bannister, at age 25, in 3:59.4. As of April 2021, the "four-minute barrier" has been broken by 1,663 athletes, and is n ...

, after Takashi Ishii, who had done so nearly twenty years earlier in 1977. Shibata's

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

best of 3:39.45 minutes is also among the best times for the event by a Japanese, behind

Fumikazu Kobayashi is a Japanese athlete who competes primarily in the 1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the ...

and Ishii. Despite his breaking a long-standing national record, Shibata only won at the

Japan Championships in Athletics The is an annual outdoor track and field competition, organized by Japan Association of Athletics Federations. Currently it takes place in June or July. The competition is also for the qualifying trial for the Japanese national team of internatio ...

on one occasion, taking the 1500 m title in 1997. That same year he won a

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

in the event at the

East Asian Games The East Asian Games was a multi-sport event organized by the East Asian Games Association (EAGA) and held every four years from 1993 to 2013. Among those who competed included athletes from East Asian countries and territories of the Olympic C ...

in a then games record time of 3:49.90 minutes. The following year he won the second and final international medal of his career at the

1998 Asian Athletics Championships The 12th Asian Championships in Athletics were held in Fukuoka, Japan in July 1998. Medal summary Men Women Medal table See also *1998 in athletics (track and field) External linksGBR Athletics {{asian athletics champs Asian Athlet ...

by finishing as runner-up behind multiple Asian champion Mohamed Suleiman. He also ran at the

1998 Asian Games The 1998 Asian Games (), officially known as the 13th Asian Games and the XIII Asiad, was an Asian multi-sport event celebrated in Bangkok, Thailand from December 6 to 20, 1998, with 377 events in 36 sports and disciplines participated by 6,554 ...

and placed seventh in the 1500 m final. He represented his home region,

Toyama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Toyama Prefecture has a population of 1,044,588 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,247.61 km2 (1,640.01 sq mi). Toyama Prefecture borders Ishikawa Prefecture to the ...

, twice at the

All-Japan Interprefectural Ekiden Championships The All-Japan Interprefectural Ekiden Championships are two annual ekiden (road running relay) competitions between the 47 Prefectures of Japan. The championships are both held in January and are divided by gender. The Empress Cup - Interprefectural ...

.柴田清成シバタキヨナリひろしま男子駅伝出走履歴
Hiroshima Ekiden. Retrieved on 2014-01-01.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shibata, Kiyonari Living people 1973 births Sportspeople from Toyama Prefecture Japanese male middle-distance runners Asian Games competitors for Japan Athletes (track and field) at the 1998 Asian Games Japan Championships in Athletics winners 20th-century Japanese people