Previews16 Nov 2007


Noguchi Vs. Shibui – Tokyo International Women’s Marathon Preview

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Mizuko Noguchi of Japan celebrates winning the women's Marathon (© Getty Images)

The 29th annual Tokyo International Women’s Marathon is scheduled to be held on Sunday 18 November on the course which starts and finishes in the National Stadium. The race is the first of three Olympic marathon team qualifying races for the Japanese women marathon runners; the other two are Osaka Ladies Marathon in January and Nagoya Women’s Marathon in March.

Team Selection for Beijing Olympics

With Reiko Tosa, bronze medallist at the recent the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, already selected for the Beijing Olympic marathon team, only two slots are left on the team.

Sunday’s race is expected to be extremely competitive, for with three races to fill two Olympic team slots, winning the race does not guarantee the selection to the team.

Because of the possibility of fast time in the upcoming Osaka Ladies Marathon, winning may not be enough. It is also important to record a fast time on Sunday. However, the runners will not be helped by pace setters. In order to simulate the Olympic condition, Sunday’s race will not have any pace setters.

Olympic champion in top shape

The main protagonists in Sunday’s race will be Mizuki Noguchi, the reigning Olympic marathon champion, and Yoko Shibui, former national marathon record holder and the national 10,000m record holder.

In fact, the race is billed as the showdown between Noguchi and Shibui. Noguchi is running in Tokyo because it will give her nine months to prepare for the Olympic marathon, while Shibui selected to run in Tokyo because Noguchi is running. 

For Noguchi, it will be her first marathon since the 2005 Berlin Marathon where she set a national marathon record of 2:19:12. She had planned to run but failed to start both the 2006 Berlin Marathon and the 2007 London Marathon due to untimely injury problems.

Noguchi, who used to be known as the queen of half marathon, continued to excel at that distance this year. She won the half marathon races in Miyazaki in January with 68:30, Sendai in May with 68:54 and then Sapporo in July with 68:22. After Sapporo, she has been training at high altitude in Kunming (CHN) and St Moritz.

According to her long time coach Nobuyuki Fujita, Noguchi is in excellent shape.  

Shibui ready for the challenge
 
Although Shibui made a spectacular marathon debut in the 2001 Osaka Ladies Marathon (2:23:11), and followed it with a fourth place finish in the 2001 World Championships and recorded 2:21:22 at the 2002 Chicago Marathon, she has been inconsistent in the recent years.

She failed to qualify for the 2004 Olympic team but set the national marathon record of 2:19:41 in September at the 2004 Berlin marathon. She was only seventh in the 2005 Nagoya Women’s Marathon with 2:27:40, but second last year with 2:23:58. In her most recent marathon, Shibui finished dismal tenth with 2:34:15.

However, in her most recent race, Shibui recorded 31:02 for the 10km stage of the East Japan district Ekiden Championships. She is rounding into shape at the most crucial moment of her running career. Shibui sounds very confident and is ready for the showdown with Noguchi. She is reported to have run 2:21 for the 40km long training run recently. 

In an unlikely event in which both Noguchi and Shibui falter, two Japanese - Hiromi Ominami and Akemi Ozaki - have a chance to make the Japanese Olympic marathon team.

Ominami, who recorded the personal best of 2:23:26 in the 2004 Berlin Marathon, won the 2007 Rotterdam marathon with 2:26:37, while Ozaki was third in the last year’s Tokyo Women’s marathon with 2:28:51. It was the second marathon of her career, having run 2:38:04 in the 2006 Nagoya Women’s Marathon earlier. She may be ready for a big breakthrough.     

Foreign runners also in the field

Turning the attention towards the invited runners from abroad, the most promising runners are: Bruna Genovese of Italy, who won in Tokyo three years ago, Zivile Balciunaite of Lithuania, who was second in 2005, and Salina Kosgei, who has the fast personal best (2:23:22) set in the 2006 Berlin Marathon.

Other invited runners are: Alina Gherasim (best of 2:28:17 from 2000 Paris Marathon), Emily Kimuria (best of 2:28:18 from 2003 Berlin Marathon) and Kathy Butler (best of 2:28:39 from 2006 Chicago Marathon). Butler, of course, is a very good track runner, having finished 12th at 10,000m in both the 2006 European Championships and the 2004 Olympic Games. 

Having won the 2002 Nagoya Women’s Marathon and 2003 Osaka Ladies Marathon, Noguchi can be the first Japanese to win Japan’s three big marathons. (note: Katrin Dorre won all three) The course record, 2:22:12 by Eri Yamaguchi in 1999, is expected to be fall on Sunday.     

Invited Runners
Salina Kosgei  (KEN)  2:23:22   2006 Berlin  
Zivile Balciunaite  (LTU)  2:25:15   2005 Tokyo  
Bruna Genovese  (ITA)  2:25:28  2006 Boston 
Alina Gherasim (ROM)   2:28:17   2000 Paris 
Emily Kimuria  (KEN)  2:28:18   2003 Berlin 
Kathy Butler  (GBR)  2:28:39   2006 Chicago 

Japanese
Mizuki Noguchi  2:19:12     2005 Berlin 
Yoko Shibui  2:19:41 2004 Berlin 
Hiromi Ominami  2:23:26    2004 Berlin 
Akemi Ozaki  2:28:51  2006 Tokyo 
Mika Hikichi  2:31:03    2006 Nagoya   

Ken Nakamura for the IAAF

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