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Showing posts with the label Svetlana Zakharova

Akaba Wants the Win and the Time - Osaka International Women's Marathon Preview (updated)

by Brett Larner

Update: Yumiko Hara (Team Univ. Ent.), Tomo Morimoto (Team Tenmaya), Adriana Fernandez (Mexico) and Tetyana Holovchenko have withdrawn with injuries.

The 30th anniversary Osaka International Women's Marathon takes place this Sunday, Jan. 30. With a new course which aims to be flatter and faster by eliminating the old course's most famous feature, the twisting and hilly turn through the ground of Osaka Castle, organizers are hopeful of seeing outstanding times in the first of the major domestic selection races for this summer's World Championships. 2009 World Championships marathoner Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) says she is going to deliver.

Akaba, one of Japan's top track and half marathon runners in the last few years, came to last year's Osaka with a knee injury, but despite being less than 100% she led the race through a 1:10:45 in cold rain. Akaba ultimately DNF'd but said afterwards that she had just wanted to see what she could do in the shape…
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Osaka Announces 2011 Elite Women's Field

by Brett Larner
 On Dec. 20 the organizers of the Osaka International Women's Marathon announced the field for the 2011 edition. Celebrating the event's 30th anniversary with a new, faster course eliminating the famous hilly, twisting section through Osaka Castle and with the addition of female pacemakers, the field features a competitive cross-section of current top Japanese women and several aging overseas elites.
Osaka is the first major domestic selection race for the 2011 World Championships team. The top Japanese woman meeting Rikuren's time goals will be automatically named to the team. If the race is slow then the top domestic finisher will have to wait until mid-March for the final selection announcement. It doesn't look likely to be slow, however. Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) is the favorite, coming fresh from a sub-32 road 10k in Sunday's National Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden in the midst of her marathon training. Akaba says she will be shooting for a fast…
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'Zakharova Wins 3rd Women's Title at Age 39' - Honolulu Marathon (updated)

http://www.honolulumarathon.org/?s=raceweeknews#st_7






Kiyoko Shimahara approaching the finish in Honolulu. Photos by Dr. Helmut Winter.







After not breaking 2:30 since 2006 Kiyoko Shimahara (Second Wind AC) has now done it three times in the last three and a half months, running a PB and CR of 2:25:10 to win the Hokkaido Marathon on Aug. 30, finishing 2nd in 2:28:51 on Nov. 15 in the inaugural Yokohama International Women's Marathon, and now four weeks later a 2:29:53 runner-up spot in the Dec. 13 Honolulu Marathon.






Third sub-2:30 of the season.











2009 Honolulu Marathon - Top Women's Finishers
click here for complete results with splits

1. Svetlana Zakharova (Russia) - 2:28:34
2. Kiyoko Shimahara (Second Wind AC) - 2:29:53
3. Pamela Chepchumba (Kenya) - 2:32:41
4. Kaori Yoshida (Amino Vital AC) - 2:35:46
5. Eri Hayakawa (Amino Vital AC) - 2:44:33
6. Satoko Uetani (Kobe Gakuin Univ.) - 2:45:19
7. Akemi Ozaki (Second Wind AC) - 2:50:20
8. Mina Ogawa (Japan) - 2:50:20
9. Kozue Saito (Japan) - 2:51:…
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Shimahara, Ozaki, Yoshida Top Honolulu Marathon Field

by Brett Larner

The Honolulu Marathon is one of the biggest draws for the average Japanese runner. Prior to the Tokyo Marathon it was the race for those who wanted to say they had done a marathon in their life. It's still a major attraction, and in recent years Japanese runners have consistently been on the podium in at least the women's race thanks in large part to the Second Wind AC team. Second Wind runners are back again in force, with defending champion Kiyoko Shimahara, 2007 runner-up Akemi Ozaki, and former club member and 2008 runner-up Kaori Yoshida (Amino Vital AC) on the line. Second Wind runner Yuko Manabe, a 1:09:36 half marathoner, is also acting as pacemaker in the women's race.

Shimahara and Ozaki went 1-2 in the heat of August's Hokkaido Marathon, Shimahara setting a course record in a PB of 2:25:10 and Ozaki likewise recording a new PB of 2:27:33. Ozaki went on to win the Athens Classic Marathon in November in a controlled effort, while a week late…
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The Final Tokyo International Women's Marathon - updated

by Brett Larner

The 30th and final edition of the Tokyo International Women's Marathon takes place this Sunday, Nov. 16, starting and finishing at Tokyo's National Stadium. TIWM was the world's first women-only elite marathon at the time of its inception in 1979, a time when Japan's male marathoners were among the most dominant in the world and there were no world-class Japanese women in the marathon scene. 30 years, two Olympic gold medals and a world record later, Japan's women are its most respected distance runners both domestically and worldwide. The list of TIWM winners contains many of the sport's great names, historical and modern. Joyce Smith, Katrin Doerre, Rosa Mota, Valentina Yegorova, Joyce Chepchumba, Derartu Tulu, Elfenesh Alemu, Naoko Takahashi, Reiko Tosa and Mizuki Noguchi all won. The birth of the Tokyo Marathon in 2007 brought the big city major marathon to Japan; with the addition of an elite women's field for the 2009 Tokyo Marathon, th…
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