Japanese Nozomi Tanaka missed the national record by miscounting her laps just misses national 3,000m record less than four seconds

This track season has seen a strange amount of mishaps. It started with Hagos Gebrhiwet miscounting his laps at the Lausanne 5,000m and was followed by Jonathan Jones missing the false start at the Monaco 400m and finishing the race.

The latest is from Japanese runner Nozomi Tanaka, who miscounted the laps in her national 3,000m record attempt on Wednesday. Japan Running News reported that with 800m to go (two laps) Tanaka broke away and opened up a sizable lead.

The runner said post-race, “It’s kind of embarrassing, but I lost count of the laps and thought I was on the last lap when I kicked. I didn’t have anything left after that.”

Tanaka finished in 8:48.38, under four seconds off of the national record of 8:44.40 set in 2002.

Jenny Simpson, one of the all-time greatest American runners, made a similar mistake in 2014 when she miscounted the laps in an indoor 2-mile, but still managed to come close to breaking the American record in the event.

World Championship finalist Lopez Lomong also fell victim to the lap miscount in 2012 at Payton Jordan, when he kicked too early but still held on to take the win in 13:11 over 5,000m.

posted Saturday July 20th
by Madeleine Kelly