Kayoko Fukushi en route to 2:24:38 career best at the 2011 Chicago Marathon (© Getty Images)
The 31st edition of the Osaka Women’s Marathon, the race which doubles as the second of the three domestic Olympic Qualifying race for Japanese runners, will be held on Sunday 29 January.
So far, the candidates for the London Olympic marathon team are Yukiko Akaba who was fifth in the last year’s World Championships Marathon, and Ryoko Kizaki who won the Yokohama Women’s Marathon last November, the first of the domestic Olympic qualifying race. After Osaka, an IAAF Silver Label Road Race, one more Olympic qualifying race remains – the Nagoya Women’s Marathon in March - so it is important to not just win with fast time, but to impress the selectors: for example by running the final 2.195Km under seven minutes. Incidentally, the fastest ever recorded for this portion of a Marathon in 6:36 by Liliya Shobukhova from the 2009 Chicago Marathon.
Originally the race was billed as the showdown between 2004 Olympic Champion Mizuki Noguchi and Kayoko Fukushi, the national record holder at 3000m, 5000m and the Half Marathon. Noguchi will be running her first Marathon in more than four years. She won the Tokyo Women’s Marathon in November of 2007 to qualify for the 2008 Olympic team but was unable to run due to a last minute injury. Since then Noguchi has run sparingly due to repeated injuries. For Osaka, she has been training at high altitude in Colorado and her training has been going well until the final days in Colorado, when she came down with an injury to her left thigh. So Noguchi has announced that she will instead run in Nagoya, not yet willing to give up her Olympic dream.
Fukushi, of course, is the best track runner in Japan, but has failed to make any impact in the world scene. So it is only natural for her to move up the distance to the Marathon, especially in Japan. Fukushi’s Half Marathon debut was an impressive one, clocking a 1:07:26 Asian record at the 2006 Marugame Half Marathon. In the process she soundly defeated Noguchi. She then ventured into the Marathon in Osaka in 2008 hoping to make the Olympic team, a race which ended in disaster. She went out at an ambitious pace (1:10:32 at the half) but hit the wall hard after 30Km and finished a dismal 19th in 2:40:54. Her Olympic dream was shattered, but she returned to the track and represented Japan at 5000m and 10,000m in Beijing. She did not run another Marathon until 2011 Chicago where she was third with 2:24:38, perhaps not the race fans expected from Fukushi, but fast enough that she decided to give the Olympic Marathon team another shot. After Chicago, Fukushi said, “I am only thinking about making the Olympics at the marathon. I am not thinking about track at all.”
Besides Fukushi, several others have a realistic chance to make the Olympic team. In fact anybody who finishes ahead of Fukushi will have a very good chance. The best candidates are Azusa Nojiri, who has a 2:25:29 best from London last year; Chika Horie, whose 2:26:11 best was set in Hokkaido in 2002; Madoka Ogi, who has a best of 2:26:55 from Osaka 2008; and Risa Shigetomo, who recorded the best of 2:31:28 in London 2011. Among them, Nojiri, a former cross country skier, has championships experience, having finished 19th in Daegu. All of them except Shigetomo have run in Osaka before, however, since the course changed in 2011, in reality only Horie, who finished third last year, has experience with the exact course they will be running on Sunday.
Kiyoko Shimahara, who has a best of 2:25:10 from 2009 Hokkaido, should be a candidate to make the team, however, she has indicated that Osaka will be her last race. She and her husband Masaru Takamizawa, a former Hokkaido marathon champion, are ready to start a family.
The invited runners from abroad are not as strong as the domestic elites. Although sub-2:26 marathoners such as 2008 Olympic champion Constantina Dita, Lidiya Grigoryeva and Mihaela Botezan are invited, their personal bests date back more than five years. Dita has not broken 2:30 since 2008, while Grigoryeva has not done so since 2009. Incidentally, Grigoryeva is also entered in the Tokyo Marathon scheduled four weeks later.
More is expected from Tetiana Hamera-Shmyrko and Irene Mogaka, instead. Shmyrko was 15th at the 2011 World Championships, and recorded her personal best of 2:28:14 in the 2011 Krakow Marathon. Mogaka’s personal best is a quite modest 2:30:10 recorded in Los Angeles in 2009, but her credentials include a silver medal from the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
The pace makers are scheduled to lead the race at about 16:50/5Km pace until the 25th kilometre. Presumably Fukushi will take off at 25Km. Who will try to stay close to Fukushi after that?
Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
Invited Athletes:
Constantina Dita (ROU) 2:21:30 2005 Chicago
Lidiya Grigoryeva (RUS) 2:25:10 2006 Los Angeles
Mihaela Botezan (ROU) 2:25:32 2003 London
Tetiana Gamera-Shmyrko (UKR) 2:28:14 2011 Krakow
Irene Mogaka Kemunto (KEN) 2:30:10 2009 Los Angeles
Domestic
Kayoko Fukushi 2:24:38 2011 Chicago
Kiyoko Shimahara 2:25:10 2009 Hokkaido (Sapporo)
Azusa Nojiri 2:25:29 2011 London
Chika Horie 2:26:11 2002 Hokkaido (Sapporo)
Madoka Ogi 2:26:55 2008 Osaka
Risa Shigetomo 2:31:28 2011 London
Pace makers:
Aniko Kalovics (HUN) 2:26:44 2006 Carpi
Julia Mumbi (KEN) 2:26:00 2008 Osaka
Chizuru Ideta (JPN) 1:12:34 2010 All JPN Half Champ
Kumi Ogura (JPN) 1:12:21 2011 Marugame
2:53:18 2008 Nagoya
