Makoto Iijima

Makoto Iijima
Personal information
Full name	Makoto Iijima; Japanese: 飯島誠;
Born	12 February 1971 (age 53); Hino, Tokyo, Japan
Height	1.69 m (5 ft 6+1⁄2 in)
Weight	63 kg (139 lb)
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Road; Track;
Role	Rider
Professional teams
2005	Sumita Ravanello Pearl Izumi
2008–2010	Bridgestone–Anchor
2013	Gruppo–Acqua–Tama
Major wins
	Japanese National Time Trial Championships (1998, 2004, 2005)
Medal record
Representing Japan
Men's road cycling
Asian Games
Asian Championships
Men's track cycling
Asian Games
Asian Championships

Makoto Iijima (飯島誠, Iijima Makoto, born February 12, 1971) is a Japanese former professional road and track cyclist.^[1] Considered one of Japan's most successful cyclists in his decade, Iijima has claimed a total of nine track cycling medals (two golds, three silver, and four bronze) at the Asian Championships, two silvers at the Asian Games (1998 and 2002), and three national time trial titles at the Japanese Championships (1998, 2004, and 2005). He also represented his nation Japan in three editions of the Olympic Games (2000, 2004, and 2008). He announced his retirement from professional cycling in October 2010 as a member of the Bridgestone–Anchor team.^[2]^[3]

Racing career

Iijima was born in Hino, Tokyo.

Amateur years

Despite earning his first career medal in road racing at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand, Iijima made his official debut, as a 29-year-old, at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, where he finished sixteenth in the men's points race with a total score of six sprint points.^[4]

At the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, Iijima paired up with Shinichi Fukushima to grab a silver medal in the men's madison on 11 points, trailing behind the South Korean duo Suh Seok-Kyu and 2000 Olympian Cho Ho-Sung by an ample, twenty-seven point margin after ten intermediate sprint laps.^[5] In the same year, he outsprinted his brother Noriyuki Iijima and Hong Kong's Wong Kam Po to take the men's points race title at the Asian Championships in Bangkok, Thailand.

When he competed for the second time at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Iijima managed to finish the men's points race successfully in sixteenth place with 13 points, matching his position from Sydney four years earlier in the process.^[6]

Professional career

Iijima turned professional as a road rider in 2005, and eventually stayed with Sumita Ravanello Pearl Izumi for one cycling season, before he left himself without a contract. He was also crowned the winner Japanese National Time Trial Championships in the same year.

As a two-year free agent, Iijima redrafted his efforts to edge out Iran's Hossein Askari and Hong Kong's Cheung King Wai for his second career gold in the men's point race at the 2006 Asian Cycling Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, adding a bronze in the men's time trial to his career resume. Later that year, at the Asian Games in Doha, Iijima narrowly missed the podium with a fourth-place finish in the points race (a total of ten) and sixth in the men's road race (3:45:05).

Eight years after his first Olympics, Iijima qualified for his third Japanese squad, as a 37-year-old and a cycling team captain, in the men's points race at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing by receiving a berth from the UCI Track World Rankings. Iijima picked up a total of 23 points, and lapped the field once to score a career-high eighth place in a 25-kilometre (16-mile) sprint race.^[7]^[8] Strong results on his third Olympic bid landed him a spot on the Bridgestone–Anchor pro cycling team for three annual seasons.^[9]

At the 2009 East Asian Games in Macau, Iijima delivered the Japanese foursome of Kazuo Inoue, Kazuhiro Mori and Hayato Yoshida a gold-medal time of 1:38:38.84 in the men's team time trial, finishing ahead of the Chinese team by more than two minutes.^[10]