Yoko Shibui crosses the line to win in Berlin (© Victah Sailer)
The 2005 Nagoya International Women’s Marathon, the final Japanese qualifying race for their women’s marathon team for the World Championships in Helsinki, will be held on 13 March. The Nagoya Women’s Marathon is an elite marathon, where runners must qualify by running either 3:15 marathon, 2:13 30km, 1:30 half marathon, 1:25 20km or 38 minutes 10,000m.
Nagoya is known for its windy days in March, but when the wind fails to materialise, the course can be fast. The course record is 2:22:19 by Naoko Takahashi in 2000, the year when she won the Olympic gold. Furthermore, the second half of the course is faster than the first half. In the 2000 edition, Takahashi covered the second half in 1:09:39 after a first half of 1:12:40. In 1998 she ran the second half in 1:11:41 when she set her first national record of 2:25:48.
Takahashi not ready
The race was originally billed as the showdown between the current and the former national marathon record holders, Yoko Shibui and Naoko Takahashi. Sadly, Takahashi was unable to recover from an injury in time and thus could not be in shape for this weekend.
Thus Shibui, the fastest marathon runner as well as the fastest 10,000m runner in the field, is a prohibitive favourite. She set a national marathon record, 2:19:41, in the 2004 Berlin Marathon, a World marathon debut best ever time of 2:23:11 at the 2001 Osaka Ladies Marathon, and a national 10,000m record, 30:48.89, at the 2002 Cardinal Invitational in Stanford.
If Shibui wins with a sub 2:26 clocking, she would qualify for her second World Championships Marathon. Four years ago, despite falling ill a few days before the race, Shibui was fourth at the 2001 World Championships Marathon.
Course record is the target
Having surpassed Takahashi’s national marathon record last year, Shibui’s goal in Nagoya is to erase Takahashi’s course record. Shibui just returned from a high altitude training in Kunming, China and suggested that she might ignore the pace setter. She is ready to run fast.
Shibui’s main challenge was supposed to come from Masako Chiba, marathon bronze medallist at the 2003 World Championships. However, Chiba also withdrew at the last minute citing knee problem. Thus Shibui’s main challenge now comes from Takami Ominami and Megumi Oshima, the next two fastest runners in the field behind Shibui.
Oshima and Ominami only real threats for Shibui
Megumi Oshima, formerly Megumi Tanaka before her marriage to Kenta Oshima (10,000m best of 27:53.95), led from 31.5km to 37.4km last year before being passed by Reiko Tosa, who went on to finish fifth in Athens. Oshima still finished second with a personal best, 2:24:47. It was Oshima’s third marathon of her career, having recorded 2:28:10 at her debut in the 2002 Nagoya Marathon, and 2:29:57 in the 2003 Osaka Ladies Marathon.
Oshima is a premier track runner in Japan, having represented Japan at 5000m in Sydney and 10,000m in Athens. She also finished tenth at 5000m in the 1999 World Championships in Sevilla.
Having run the marathon in Edmonton and Paris, Takami Ominami is attempting to make her third World Championships marathon team, especially because both of her runs at the Worlds were very disappointing. She was 37th in Edmonton and 27th in Paris.
A resident of Nagoya, Ominami has run the Nagoya race almost every year since 1999 when she made a marathon debut. She was fifth in 2:33:05 in 1999, improving to third in 2000 with 2:26:58 and second in 2001 with 2:26:04. After setting a personal best, 2:23:43, in the 2002 Rotterdam Marathon, she won the 2003 edition with 2:25:03. However, she was only sixth with 2:30:15 in 2004 and thus failed to make the Olympic Marathon team.
Yasuko Hashimoto’s breakthrough came at the 2003 Berlin Marathon, when she won with a personal best of 2:26:32. However, her last marathon was very disappointing. She was only twelfth with 2:35:01 at the 2004 Nagoya Marathon. Hashimoto has run better in Nagoya though; in 2003 she was fifth in 2:29:37. Hashimoto is a good half marathon runner, for she was a close second with 1:09:34 in the 2005 Marugame Half Marathon, the race she won in 2003 (1:09:32) and 2004 (1:10:46).
Outsiders
Historically the Nagoya women’s marathon concentrates on high quality Japanese field and thus the invited oversea runner field is a little weak. The two fastest runners from oversea are Irina Timofeyeva of Russia and Irina Bogacheva of Kyrgyzstan.
Timofeyeva recorded her personal best, 2:25:29, when she was second at the 2001 Tokyo Women’s Marathon. A year later, she was third in Tokyo with 2:26:45. More recently, Timofeyeva was seventh at the 2004 World Half Marathon Championships with 1:11:17, and second in Novosibirsk Half Marathon in 1:10:42.
Bogacheva’s personal best, 2:26:27, was set at the 2000 Boston marathon, when she was second. This is not Bogacheva’s first marathon in Nagoya, for she was third in 2003 with 2:28:17 and 14th last year with 2:35:56.
Three runners who might surprise are Takako Kotorida, who is running her second marathon and marathon debutantes Yumiko Hara and Kiyomi Ogawa.
Kotorida, who won the 2005 Marugame half marathon in 1:09:34, was eighth with 2:32:15 in her marathon debut at the 2004 Osaka Ladies Marathon. Her personal best at the half marathon, 1:08:35, was recorded when she finished close second to the Olympic marathon champion, Mizuki Noguchi in the 2002 All Japan Corporate team half marathon championships.
Kotorida is also one of the fastest 10,000m runners in Japan, having recorded sub 32 minutes 10,000m in each of the last four years. Her 10,000m personal best is 31:41.32.
Hara has a half marathon personal best of 1:09:28, which was recorded in the 2002 Miyazaki Half marathon, when she finished third. Furthermore, Hara was second behind Catherine Ndereba in the 2003 Sapporo half marathon in 1:09:37 and 19th at the 2003 World Half Marathon Championships in 1:12:21.
Ogawa was a close second at the 2002 JPN corporate team half marathon championships with 1:09:39. Furthermore she was 21st in the 2002 World Half Marathon Championships with 1:11:27.
Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
Invited Runners
Irina Timofeyeva (RUS) 2:25:29 2001 Tokyo
Irina Bogacheva (KGZ) 2:26:27 2000 Boston
Monika Drybulska (POL) 2:29:58 2003 Berlin
Tadelech Birra (ETH) 2:31:44 2000 Torino
Jackie Fairweather (Gallagher) (AUS) 2:32:40 2004 Nagoya
Rose Nyangagha (KEN) 2:34:19 2004 Koln
Japanese
Yoko Shibui 2:19:41 2004 Berlin
Takami Ominami 2:23:43 2002 Rotterdam
Megumi Oshima (Tanaka) 2:24:47 2004 Nagoya
Yasuko Hashimoto 2:26:32 2003 Berlin
Ryoko Eda (Kitajima) 2:29:20 2002 Osaka
Mai Tagami 2:29:43 2004 Hokkaido
Maya Nishio 2:30:16 2004 Nagoya
Kaori Tanabe 2:31:31 2001 Boston
Takako Kotorida 2:32:15 2004 Osaka
Yumiko Okamoto 2:32:21 2004 Tokyo
Yumiko Hara Debut 1:09:28 2002 Miyazaki half marathon
Other notable elite runners
Kaoru Nishi Debut 1:11:02 2004 Sanyo half marathon
Chieko Yamasaki Debut 1:11:32 2004 Sanyo half marathon
Kiyomi Ogawa Debut 1:09:39 2002 JPN Corporate half marathon
Pace setters
Restituta Joseph (TAN)
Lidia Grigoryeva (RUS)
