Salina Kosgey, Mara Yamauchi and Svetlana Zakharova with the Japanese Marathon contenders at the Tokyo Marathon Press conference (© Freelance)
The 2008 Tokyo Women’s Marathon, the 30th edition, is scheduled to be held on November 16 in Tokyo for the final time. Next year, the marathon will move to nearby Yokohama.
For the Japanese, the race doubles as a selection race for the marathon team for the Berlin World Championships.
Yamauchi and Kosgei up for the challenge
Seven runners from abroad are invited. The fastest of all is Svetlana Zakharova, who has a marathon best of 2:21:31, recorded at the 2002 Chicago marathon. She was a bronze medallist at the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton. Zakharova knows the course, for she was fourth with 2:26:55 at the 2005 Tokyo Women’s Marathon.
“Since I finished fourth three years ago, I hope to finish in top three this time,” said Zakharova in the pre-race press conference where she also expressed gratitude to the organizer for inviting her to the final edition of the race. She also hopes to run faster than three years ago. In her most recent marathon, Zakharova was only 22nd at the Beijing Olympic Games. However, since she was second at April’s London Marathon with 2:24:39, she still has fast marathon in her leg.
Her personal bests might not be as fast as that of Zakharova, but Salina Kosgei and Mara Yamauchi may be the two best runners in the field. Yamauchi was sixth at the Olympic Marathon, while Kosgei was tenth in Beijing. In her youth Kosgei was a middle distance runner with an 800m best of 2:03. She surprised everyone when she won the 10,000m in the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. Kosgei has 10,000m best of 31:27.83 from 2002 and the half marathon best of 1:07:52 from 2006, which means she has a lot of room to improve her marathon best, 2:23:22, recorded in the 2006 Berlin Marathon.
Kosgei knows the course, for she was second in the 2007 Tokyo Women’s marathon with 2:23:31, near personal best. It was also third fastest time in history of the race. Although the course gains 30m of elevation from 36 to 39km Kosgei sees the course as “flat and fast.” She hopes to improve her personal best on Sunday.
“I will run as fast as I can. If everything goes well, I hope to crack 2:23,” said Kosgei in the pre-race press conference. In her most recent race, Kosgei was third in the Lisbon half marathon on Sept 28 with 1:11:10.
Like Kosgei, Yamauchi also knows the course, for she ran the 2005 Tokyo Women’s Marathon and finished fifth in 2:27:38.
“I hope to win with the personal best,” said Yamauchi, who is not concerned with the short interval between the Olympics and Sunday’s race. “In 2005 I finished fifth here with a personal best three month after the World Championships,” assured Yamauchi. Yamauchi, who is currently based in Japan, has the marathon best of 2:25:10, recorded in 2008 Osaka Ladies marathon.
Joyce Smith, the inaugural champion of the first women’ only marathon is here in Tokyo to serve as a starter on Sunday. “Joyce Smith is a pioneer in the women’s marathon. Since the British runner won the inaugural edition of the race, it is definitely a motivating factor for me to win on Sunday,” said Yamauchi in the pre-race press conference. In her most recent race, Mara was third at a 10,000m race in Kobe on October 11th with 32:14.88.
Derartu Tulu, 2001 champion, is invited. However, Tulu has not run a fast marathon since November of 2005, when she was third in New York. More recently she was second with 2:36:32 in Madrid.
Other invited runners from abroad are Magdalene Chemjor, who has the marathon best of 2:28:16 and Tetyana Filonyuk, who has the best of 2:28:40.
Japanese team selection
Yoko Shibui and Yuri Kano are the best among the five invited Japanese runners. Shibui, the only sub 2:20 runner in the field, is also the only sub-31 minutes 10,000m runner in the field. On paper, Shibui is the favourite for her marathon best is 2:19:41, which was recorded in the 2004 Berlin marathon. However, Shibui failed to win any of the four marathons since the 2004 Berlin marathon and furthermore in her last two marathons Shibui even failed to crack 2:30.
However, historically, Shibui ran well every four years or so. She won 2001 Osaka Ladies Marathon in 2:23:11, the fastest debut marathon in history and 2004 Berlin Marathon with sub 2:20 clocking (2:19:41).
Shibui’s marathon career started auspiciously. After winning 2001 Osaka Ladies marathon, she finished fourth in the World Championships in Edmonton. She, then, improved her best to 2:21:22 in the 2002 Chicago Marathon. But then she hit the stumbling block. Shibui failed to make the 2004 Olympic marathon team. Although she cracked 2:20 marathon barrier in Berlin, Shibui again failed to make the marathon team in 2008. However, there is a sign that her performance at big pressure race may be changing recently. Shibui won the 10,000m at the national championships this year to qualify for her first Olympics. She was 17th in Beijing.
“I want to win, but not thinking about the winning time,” said Shibui in the pre-race press conference. She has been training hard after the Olympic in Nagano and then in Kunming. “Since I did not taper much this time around, I feel more comfortable,” concluded Shibui. Since she ran the Tokyo Women’s Marathon last year, she also knows the course.
Many people think that Kano may be the hottest Japanese at the moment, for she is very consistent at the shorter distance. Kano won the Sapporo half marathon in June, finished third at the New York City half marathon in July, and then won the Rock n Roll half marathon in October. However, some observers point out that Kano does not know how to win the marathon. In her last four marathons, Kano was third in Nagoya (2008), dropped out of Osaka (2008), first in Sapporo (2007), and third in Osaka (2007). Other than 2008 Osaka Ladies Marathon where she dropped out with an injury, Kano consistently finishes near the top but only won one of the four marathons she started.
“I decided to run this race in spring. Everything I have done since then was for this race,” said Kano who hopes to win with personal best.
Other Japanese contending for the World Championships team are Yoshimi Ozaki, who ran 2:26:19 in her marathon debut, Ayumi Hayashi, who has the marathon best of 2:29:59 and Yukiko Matsubara, who has the best of 2:34:05. Among them Ozaki is most promising, for her only marathon of her career was quite auspicious. Among three Japanese who attended the press conference, Ozaki is the only runner who explicitly expressed her desire to make the Berlin World Championships marathon team.
“Unlike other two (Shibui and Kano), I have very little pressure, for I am essentially a novice marathon runner and thus I have nothing to lose. I have a race plan in my mind, but I would like to keep it a secret,” said Ozaki in the pre-race press conference.
Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
List of Invited Runners
Svetlana Zakharova (RUS)
Salina Kosgei (KEN)
Derartu Tulu (ETH)
Elfenesh Alemu (ETH)
Mara Yamauchi (GBR)
Magdaline Chemjor (KEN)
Tetyana Filonyuk (UKR)
Japanese
Yoko Shibui
Yuri Kano
Yoshimi Ozaki
Ayumi Hayashi
Yukiko Matsubara
