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Takahashi to Run Nagoya, Hara for Osaka

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20071213i401.htm
http://beijing2008.nikkansports.com/athletics/p-sp-tp0-20071213-294906.html

translated by Brett Larner

On Dec. 12, Sydney Olympics women`s marathon gold medallist and former women`s marathon world record holder Naoko Takahashi (35, Team Phiten) announced that she will attempt to qualify for the Beijing Olympics at the Nagoya International Marathon next March. Until now Takahashi had not announced whether she would try to make the Olympic team at January`s Osaka International Women`s Marathon or Nagoya.

Reiko Tosa (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) holds one of the three slots on the Beijing Olympic Team thanks to her bronze medal performance at this summer`s Osaka World Championships. The course record 2:21:37 victory by Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex) at November`s Tokyo International Women`s Marathon makes her an almost certainty for the second position on the team, leaving one space to be decided between Osaka and Nagoya.

On the same day as Takahashi`s announcement, Team Kyocera coach Kunio Omori, 63, announced that defending champion and Osaka World Championships women`s marathon competitor Yumiko Hara (25, Team Kyocera) will run in the Osaka International Women`s Marathon on Jan. 27 in a bid to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. Hara suffered an injury to her left thigh just prior to the World Championships and finished a disappointing 18th. She says that she wants to make up for this lackluster performance by making the Olympic team.

Japan`s queen of the track, Kayoko Fukushi, 25, has applied to run her debut marathon in Osaka but will not announce whether she will run Osaka or Nagoya until after the All-Japan Jitsugyodan Women`s Ekiden on Dec. 16. If Fukushi chooses to run Osaka, the race will become exactly the kind of high-pressure rivalry which two-time World Championships runner Hara loves.


A Japan Today article on Takahashi in Nagoya.
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