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Previews12 Mar 2004


Nagoya Women’s Marathon – Preview - Last Athens selection spot up for grabs

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The 2004 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, which doubles as the last Olympic Marathon qualifying race for the Japanese women marathon team will start at 12:10pm on Sunday March 14. The race is also the national marathon championships for women.

With Mizuki Noguchi pre-selected thanks to her silver medal performance in Paris, and the selection of Naoko Sakamoto almost a certainty based on her impressive win (covered 30Km to 35Km in 15:47) in the 2004 Osaka Ladies Marathon, it is generally considered that only one slot is left on the Japanese Olympic women Marathon team.

Olympic champion Takahashi must wait and see 

The third slot will go to either Naoko Takahashi, the defending Olympic champion who could only finish second with 2:27:21 (which is why Takahashi has not been guaranteed a spot on the team) in the 2003 Tokyo Women’s Marathon or the winner of this Sunday’s Nagoya Women’s Marathon. 

The task is quite formidable. It is generally thought that in order to be considered for the Olympic marathon team, the runner must run faster than Takahashi’s course record time of  2:22:19, which was recorded in the 2000 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, the race in which Takahashi clinched the Olympic berth four years ago.  Also on any given March day, the wind can be quite strong in Nagoya, so the winning time may depend somewhat on luck. 

Four runners – Reiko Tosa, Takami Ominami, Yasuko Hashimoto, and Megumi Tanaka - have realistic chance of winning the race, and depending on the winning time, may be selected for the Olympic team. 

The fastest runner in the Sunday’s race is Reiko Tosa, World marathon silver medallist in Edmonton, who recorded the personal best of 2:22:46 in the 2002 London Marathon.  Tosa, however, is not in the top shape, for her training was interrupted from late last year to early this year due to an injury to her right heel.  She has not completely recovered from the injury.  Four years ago, in Nagoya, in what was effectively her debut (because her first one was not a serious attempt) marathon, Tosa finished second to Naoko Takahashi with 2:24:36.  Thus Tosa is familiar with the course.

Ominami – favourite?

The runner who is most familiar with the course is Takami Ominami, who ran the course in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2003.  Ominami, who has a personal best of 2:23:43 from the 2002 Rotterdam marathon, is the defending Nagoya Women’s Marathon champion, having won last year’s edition with 2:25:03.  Four years ago in Nagoya, Takami Ominami finished third in 2:26:58, a personal best at the time.  A year later on the same course, she finished second in 2:26:04 to qualify for the World Championships in Edmonton.  Addition to Edmonton, Ominami also ran in the World Championships in Paris, but both times she did not run well.

Yasuko Hashimoto is on a roll lately.  She won the 2003 Berlin Marathon with the personal best of 2:26:32.  Earlier this year, on February 1, Hashimoto also won the Marugame half marathon in 1:10:46.  For Hashimoto, who has improved her personal best in each of her marathon so far, Nagoya will be her fourth marathon.  She too is familiar with the course, having finished fifth in the last year’s race with 2:29:37. 

Former national high school champion at 3000m, Megumi Tanaka is the best track runner in the field, having represented Japan in the 1999 Worlds and 2000 Olympics at 5000m, finishing 10th in the former.  Tanaka made her marathon debut in the 2002 Nagoya Women’s Marathon.  She was third in quite respectable 2:28:10.

Foreign challenge 

Turning the attention to the runners from abroad, the two fastest invited runners in the field are Jelena Prokopcuka, who has the personal best of 2:24:01 recorded in the 2003 London Marathon and 42 years old Irina Bogacheva, who was third in Nagoya last year in 2:28:17.  She has a personal best of 2:26:27 from 2000 Boston Marathon. 

The Japanese marathon team will be announced the day after the marathon on March 15, and if the winning time on Sunday is in 2:22 range, the decision making will be quite complicated. 

List of Invited Runners:
Jelena Prokopcuka (LAT)  2:24:01   2003 London
Irina Bogacheva (KGZ)  2:26:27  2000 Boston
Elena Mazovka (BLR) 2:29:06  1997 London
Tetyana Gladyr (UKR)  2:32:44    2003 Twin City
Rodica Chirita (ROM) 2:32:55  2003 Hamburg
Violetta Uryga (POL)  2:34:44   2003 Nagoya
Jackie Gallagher (AUS)  2:35:46    2002 Boston

Japanese:
Reiko Tosa   2:22:46  2002 London
Takami Ominami  2:23:43  2002 Rotterdam  
Yasuko Hashimoto 2:26:32  2003 Berlin
Aki Fujikawa   2:27:42  1999 Osaka
Megumi Tanaka  2:28:10  2002 Nagoya
Fumi Murata  2:30:15  2003 Berlin
Kaori Tanabe   2:31:31  2001 Boston
Shiho Takai   2:31:51  2003 Nagoya
Eri Hayakawa   2:31:57  2003 Honolulu
Ichiyo Naganuma  2:33:50  2002 Tokyo
Miwako Ueki   2:34:28  2003 Nagoya

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