Career Highlights
- Olympic Games: Rio 2016 - Silver - 4x100m
- World Championships: London 2017 - Bronze - 4x100m, Doha 2019 - Bronze medal - 4x100m
- Asian Games: Jakarta 2018 - Gold - 4x100m
- Asian Championships: Doha 2019 - Gold - 100m
Biography
Event(s): 100
Nationality: Japan
DOB: 15/12/1995
Yoshihide Kiryū (桐生 祥秀, Kiryū Yoshihide, born 15 December 1995) is a Japanese sprinter who specializes in the 100 metres.
Born in Hikone, Shiga Prefecture, Kiryū played soccer while at elementary school and became interested in track and field at junior high school, as his brother took part in the sport. In 2011, he won the under-16 national title in the 100 metres at the National Sports Festival of Japan, with a time of 10.58 seconds.
The following year, Kiryū ran in the under-18 category at the same competition and broke the world youth best for the 100 metres by bettering Tamunosiki Atorudibo’s record of 10.23 seconds by two hundredths of a second on 5 October 2012. Less than a month later, on 3 November 2012, Kiryū lowered his own record to 10.19 seconds. His time also eclipsed the Asian junior record.
On 29 April 2013, Kiryū (still a student at Rakunan High School in Tō-ji) ran at the Oda Memorial meet and tied the World junior record of 10.01 seconds co-held by Darrel Brown and Jeffery Demps. The IAAF subsequently rejected the inclusion of the time as an official record due to the use of unapproved wind-speed measurement equipment on the track.
At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Kiryū won a silver medal in the 4 × 100 metres relay.
On 9 September 2017, Kiryu made Japanese athletics history by becoming the first man from his country to break the 10-second barrier in the 100 meters, running a 9.98 (+1.8) at an intercollegiate meet in Fukui and shaving 0.02 off the national record set by Koji Ito in 1998.
