Tulu
wins Tokyo international women’s
marathon
AFP
18 November 2001 – Tokyo - World
Champion and Olympic
two-time 10,000-metre champion Derartu
Tulu of Ethiopia made a sparkling
breakaway at the 39 kilometre (24 mile)
mark to win the Tokyo international
women’s marathon on Sunday.
The 29-year-old, running shoulder to shoulder with Irina Timofeyeva of Russia, moved ahead on an uphill stretch and gradually outdistanced her rival to finish in two hours, 25 minutes and eight seconds.
Timofeyeva came in second in 2:25:29, breaking her personal best of 2:27:46 when she finished in the runners-up spot in Paris in 1999.
Third place went to Bruna Genovese of Italy -- 10th in the world championships in August—who was left behind at the 37km mark to clock 2:25:35, also her personal best.
“It was an easy win for me, but I’m very tired. I don’t know the reason why I’m so tired. It was really a tough race. I couldn’t run as well as I usually do,” said Tulu, this season’s winner of the London marathon.
“This is one of the races I wanted to win. I challenged before and I couldn’t do well at all, so I’m really happy that I won today,” added Tulu, who also took the 10,000m gold in Edmonton.
Tulu started out among the front runners with Timofeyeva, Genovese, Dita Constantina of Romania, as well as Barcelona Olympic silver medal winner Yuko Arimori.
As the race went on, runners fell away leaving Tulu, Timofeyeva and Genovese in a three-women group ahead of Japan’s Ikuyo Goto, Junko Akagi and Yoshiko Ichikawa at the 31km point before the Italian started to slow down.
In the end, Constantina recovered her deficit to come in fourth in 2:26:39, followed by Malgorzata Sobanska of Poland in 2:27:01.
Goto was the best local finisher in sixth place with a time of 2:28:13, while Arimori, who has announced she will take a one-year sabbatical next year, ended in 10th in 2:31:00.
“This is not a good record at all as the last race before taking a break,” said Arimori, now 34. “I hope that when I come back I will not disappoint them."
Leading
results:
1. Derartu Tulu, Ethiopia, 2:25:08.
2. Irina Timofeyeva, Russia, 2:25:29.
3. Bruna Genovese, Italy, 2:25:35.
4. Dita Constantina, Romania, 2:26:39.
5. Malgorzata Sobanska, Poland, 2:27.01.
6. Junko Akagi, Japan, 2:28:13.
7. Ikuyo Goto, Japan, 2:28:22.
8. Yoshiko Ichikawa, Japan, 2:29:18.
9. Naomi Sakashita, Japan, 2:30:29.
10. Yuko Arimori, Japan, 2:31:00.
