Skip to main content

Shibui To Run Osaka International Women's Marathon (updated)

http://www.asahi.com/sports/spo/TKY200812150157.html
http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/081215/spg0812150503000-n1.htm

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Following the Dec. 14 All-Japan Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden, Beijing Olympics 10000 m competitor and former marathon national record holder Yoko Shibui (29, Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) announced that she will run the Jan. 25 Osaka International Women's Marathon in a bid to make the national team for next summer's World Championships in Berlin. Osaka will come two months after Shibui ran the Nov. 16 Tokyo International Women's Marathon where she finished 4th, missing a spot on the World Championships team.

"Yeah, I'm gonna do Osaka!" Shibui exclaimed. "I'm in great shape so I think I should just keep going with my training." Shaking his head, team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo head coach Shigeharu Watanabe commented, "I kind of think Nagoya [in March] would be better."

In the All-Japan Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden, Shibui scored her first stage best title on the 10 km 3rd leg in 8 years, clocking 31:41 against the stage 5th mark of 32:32 set by fellow Beijing Olympian Kayoko Fukushi (26, Team Wacoal) and the 33:10 time run by Beijing Olympic marathoner Yurika Nakamura (22, Team Tenmaya).

Looking forward to Jan. 25 and her next chance for a ticket to Berlin, Shibui said, "I want to run with a little bit of self-control this time."

Translator's note: Immediately following Tokyo, Shibui announced that she would run March's Nagoya International Women's Marathon to try again for the World Championships team. Her switch to Osaka means she will be competing against Team Hokuren's Yukiko Akaba in Akaba's marathon debut. Shibui narrowly outkicked Akaba in the 10000 m at last summer's National Track and Field Championships to take the 2008 national title and a spot on the Beijing Olympic team.
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
I was in Gifu for the race and I saw Shibui pass by at about 2km in the 3rd stage. She looked extremely fierce, running very aggressively.

However, we all know that there is a huge difference between a 10km and a marathon!
December 17, 2008 at 8:37 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...
8 comments
Read more

Kipyegon Repeats, Toyo Wins Hakone Ekiden Qualifier in First Appearance in 21 Years

Back for the first time in 21 years after a disastrous 14th-place finish at the 102nd Hakone Ekiden this past January, Toyo University hit one out of western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park with a solid win at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, the half marathon that serves as the official qualifying race for the 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The top 10 teams in the Hakone auto-qualify for the following year, with the rest having to run the Yosenkai in October with a squad of 10 to 16 runners out of which the top 10 score on aggregate time, with the 10 fastest schools joining the Hakone field and top individuals from non-qualifying teams names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team to make up the complete Hakone field of 21. Driven in large part by an aggressive run from 3rd-year Yu Miyazaki , one of only 2 Japanese athletes to go with the big African contingent up front, Toyo won in 10:31:30, 1:03:09 or 2:59.6/km per athlete. As the first team to have broken the 3:00/km average pace barrie...
1 comment
Read more

Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...
2 comments
Read more