2016 Rio Olympics marathoner 39-year-old Suehiro Ishikawa will retire from competition at the end of March

Japan's 39-year-old Suehiro Ishikawa, 2016 Rio Olympics marathoner announced that he will retire from competition at the end of the month.

At the time of the Rio Olympics Ishikawa was 36 years and 11 months old, surpassing 1996 Atlanta Olympics marathoner Hiromi Taniguchi's record of 36 years and 3 months to become Japan's oldest-ever Olympic marathoner. He finished 36th.

"Since I started running high school it's been 24 years," said Ishikawa at the press conference. "I've been with Honda for 17 years, and I made it all the way to the top, the Olympics. I'm glad that I've kept going this long.

Ishikawa ran the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon on March 10 but dropped out after only 10 km. It will be his last race of his career.

"It was the first time in my career that I'd ever DNFd, and I thought, 'OK, this is where it ends,'" said Ishikawa. Shortly after the race he made the decision to retire.

Beginning in April he will become an assistant coach with the Honda team. 

posted Friday March 22nd