Skip to main content

The Tasks Ahead for Noguchi to Reach London

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/news/f-sp-tp0-20081024-422297.html

translated by Brett Larner

Athens Olympics women's marathon champion Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex), who withdrew from the Beijing Olympics after sustaining an injury to her left thigh, plans to make the 2012 London Olympics the main goal over the next few years. In four years she will be 34. "Age doesn't matter," Noguchi believes. "I have to tell my coaches about my condition more often and control myself better from now on." Noguchi will listen more carefully to what her body is telling her in order to catch potential injuries and an early stage.

38 year old Constantina Tomescu-Dita (Romania) won the Beijing Olympic Marathon. Looking at keeping her motivation as time goes on, Noguchi says, "The more I run the marathon the more interesting it becomes." Her 150 cm-tall body has always looked full of power when she runs, the kind of power which won her the gold medal in Athens. After Athens she continued to develop herself, working on improving her form, raising her running to an entirely new level.

Noguchi's coach Nobuyuki Fujita believes, "Wisdom gained from life's experiences is without question important as you advance in years. This is essential for reducing the time lost to injury and fatigue." The tiny Noguchi does "The hardest training of anyone in the world," says Coach Fujita. For Noguchi to remain competitive at the world level they want to maintain her training load, but Fujita admits that along with discipline and "The willingness to do what is necessary to train over a long span of time," Noguchi's team must find a way to include more rest in her schedule.

Thus far in Noguchi's recovery she has only been able to jog. Her next marathon will likely not be until next fall. To build up her confidence on the way to London Noguchi will run her next marathon as a high-speed race. This plan is already in place, but, Noguchi says, along the way, "I want to set new personal best marks on the track and in the half marathon, even by one second, to make sure I'm not losing my speed." As she returns to her throne, the queen of Japanese distance running looks to strengthen both body and mind.

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

Batt-Doyle and Strintzos Break Records at Launceston Half

Australians Isobel Batt-Doyle and Haftu Strintzos turned in record-breaking performances to win the McGrath Launceston Running Festival Peppers Silo Half Marathon in Tasmania. Running with a private male pacer, NR holder Batt-Doyle dusted the field with the fastest half marathon ever by an Australian woman on Australian soil, a 1:08:46 CR that put her 2 and a half minutes ahead of runner-up Genevieve Gregson . Last year's runner-up Yumi Yoshikawa was almost a minute back from Gregson in 3rd in 1:12:03, but was almost run down by club runner Ayaka Shimoyamada . Starting slow in her international debut, Shimoyamada moved up from 7th over the 2nd half of the race to finish 4th in 1:12:06, kicking hard in the home straight to try to catch Yoshikawa and momentarily blacking out after finishing. Kaho Onishi was 7th in 1:12:45 in her own international debut. The men's half had pacing set at 2:53/km to try to deliver the first-ever sub-61 half marathon on Australian soil. CR holde...

CHN and JPN National Records Go Down - Weekend Track Update

There weren't any Japanese athletes in action at the Rabat Diamond League meet Sunday, but 2 lower-tier domestic meets produced new national records. At the Nittai University Time Trials meet in Yokohama, Samuel Kibathi (Toyota) led the top 5 in the men's 10000 m under 28 minutes in 27:39.97. In 3rd, China's Wenjie Wang took just over a second off his own NR from the same meet last year, setting a new record of 27:47.53. His teammate Haoran Tang was 6th in a 28:27.44 PB, with the top Japanese time in the race being a 28:33.39 for 8th from Jin Yuasa (Toyota). Amazingly, Wang and Tang were back the next day on day 2 of the Nittai meet, Wang running a PB of 13:35.58 for 4th in the A-heat and Tang winning the B-heat in a PB of 13:38.80. Isaac Ndiema took the A-heat in 13:26.49, with the fastest Japanese time going to Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu) with a 13:35.94 for 5th behind Wang. Other Nittai highlights: Deborah Chemutai (Univ. Ent.) won a photo finish against Yua Nagamori ...