Skip to main content

London Olympics Women's Marathon and Athletics Day Three Japanese Results

by Brett Larner

photos by Horst Milde

Japan's results in the London Olympics women's marathon gave a fair account of the state of the sport in the country, an improvement over Beijing with all three women finishing and two under 2:28 versus one finisher in 2:30:19 four years ago, but where Yurika Nakamura (Team Tenmaya) was 13th in Beijing the highest finisher this time, autumn 2011 Yokohama International Women's Marathon winner Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu), was only 16th.  Despite a fall at a drink station just past halfway, former Team Denso runner Tiki Gelana (Ethiopia) won gold to continue the legacy of Japan-trained African Olympic marathon medalists, outkicking 2011 Daegu World Championships silver medalist Priscah Jeptoo and Russia's Tatyana Petrova Arkhipova, a top-five finisher at both the 2011 and 2012 Tokyo Marathons.

2012 Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya) was among the early pacesetters, running in the front line of the dense pack throughout the early kilometers despite training setbacks as Kizaki and 2009 Berlin World Championships silver medalist Yoshimi Ozaki (Team Daiichi Seimei) sat back in the pack.  One of Shigetomo's predecessors as Osaka champ, Mara Yamauchi (U.K.) was among the earliest casualties, dropping out before 10 km.  Abruptly falling off the lead pack, Shigetomo rallied to return to the front with Ozaki at 15 km to push the pace but within a few minutes had fallen off again, this time for good.

By 20 km Ozaki was also having trouble maintaining contact with the leaders, and by the halfway mark, 1:13:13, she was a few seconds adrift.  Kizaki soon followed suit, and from there it was something of a see-saw, with Ozaki and Kizaki trading places and alternately moving up on the lead pack and falling behind again.  When the big move came from the three Ethiopian and three Kenyan women before 25 km it was all over for Japanese hopes.

As the six African leaders pushed on toward the Olympic record some began to struggle and fall off.  Chasers including Arkhipova, 2012 Osaka International Women's Marathon runner-up Tetyana Gamera-Shmyrko (Ukraine), Japanese-coached Xiaolin Zhu (China) and 2012 Nagoya International Women's Marathon winner Albina Mayorova began picking off stragglers including 2011 Daegu World Championships gold medalist Edna Kiplagat (Kenya) and Ethiopian half-marathon national record holder Mare Dibaba.

Arkhipova's addition to the lead group increased the pressure, and when Gelana made her move gold medal favorite Mary Keitany (Kenya) was the one left unable to respond, falling behind to fourth as the three medalists sped away.  Gelana's winning time of 2:23:07 broke Naoko Takahashi's long-standing Olympic record of 2:23:14 from the Sydney Olympics, with Jeptoo also under the record in 2:23:12.  Arkhipova took over a minute and a half off her best for bronze in 2:23:29.  As in Yokohama last fall, Kizaki prevailed over Ozaki, across the line in 16th in 2:27:16 to Ozaki's 19th-place 2:27:43.  Shigetomo managed to finish in 2:40:06 for 79th.

In other results on the third day of track and field competition, 2011 men's hammer throw world champion Koji Murofushi (Mizuno) showed obvious disappointment with his bronze medal placing, Japan's first medal of the games in a track or field event.  Sprint sensation Ryota Yamagata (Keio Univ.) ran 10.10 in the men's 100 m semi-final, but, up against the likes of Yohan Blake (Jamaica) and Tyson Gay (U.S.A.), he did not advance to the final.  Women's 400 mH national champion Satomi Kubokura (Niigata Albirex AC) went on to the semi-finals on time after finishing 5th in her heat in 55.85, joining Murofushi and Yamagata as the only Japanese athletes to make it out of the opening rounds of their events thus far.

2012 London Olympics Athletics Day Three
London, England, 8/5/12
click here for complete results

Women's Marathon
1. Tiki Gelana (Ethiopia) - 2:23:07 - OR
2. Priscah Jeptoo (Kenya) - 2:23:12
3. Tatyana Petrova Arkhipova (Russia) - 2:23:29 - PB
4. Mary Keitany (Kenya) - 2:23:56
5. Tetyana Gamera-Shmyrko (Ukraine) - 2:24:32 - NR
6. Xiaolin Zhu (China) - 2:24:48
7. Jessica Augusto (Portugal) - 2:25:11
8. Valeria Straneo (Italy) - 2:25:27
9. Albina Mayorova (Russia) - 2:25:38
10. Shalane Flanagan (U.S.A.) - 2:25:51
-----
16. Ryoko Kizaki (Japan) - 2:27:16
19. Yoshimi Ozaki (Japan) - 2:27:43
79. Risa Shigetomo (Japan) - 2:40:06

DNF - Mara Yamauchi (U.K.)
DNF - Lornah Kiplagat (Netherlands)
DNF - Liliya Shobukhova (Russia)
DNF - Desiree Davila (U.S.A.)

Men's Hammer Throw Final
1. Krisztian Pars (Hungary) - 80.59
2. Primoz Kozmus (Slovenia) - 79.36
3. Koji Murofushi (Japan) - 78.81

Men's 100 m Semi-Final Three
1. Yohan Blake (Jamaica) - 9.85 - Q
2. Tyson Gay (U.S.A.) - 9.90 - Q
3. Adam Gemili (U.K.) - 10.06
-----
6. Ryota Yamagata (Japan) - 10.10

Women's 400 mH Heat Five
1. Perri Shakes-Drayton (U.K.) - 54.62 - Q
2. Melaine Walker (Jamaica) - 54.78 - Q
3. Hanna Yaroshchuk (Ukraine) - 54.81 - Q
4. Hayat Lambarki (Morocco) - 55.58 - Q
5. Satomi Kubokura (Japan) - 55.85 - q

(c) 2012 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

photos (c) 2012 Horst Milde
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

yuza said…
I watched all of the marathon and all I can write is that the Japanese women (excluding Kizaki) were disappointing.

Shigetomo was obviously out of form (possibly unfit)and Ozaki did not have a good day. If Shigetomo and Ozaki had run to their potential they would have been close to the medals.

I was surprised by how slow the race was, which goes to show that if you are fit and ready to go at the Olympics you are still a chance, a la Arkipova.

Great run by Yamagata! If it was a thirty metre sprint he would be in with a shot at gold.
August 7, 2012 at 2:58 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Heisei Mountaineering Stops Takigahara SDF Base From Scoring 10-Year Streak at Mount Fuji Ekiden

by Koichi Iwasa of DogsorCaravan On Aug. 2 the 51st Mount Fuji Ekiden took place, starting and finishing in Gotemba, Shizuoka and covering 11 stages up to the peak of Mount Fuji and back down. Teams of 6 runners tackle the tough course, each running handling one uphill and one downhill leg with the 6th runner reaching the peak before turning around to head back to the exchange zone where they started. The Heisei Mountaineering Club team took the overall win in 3:50:39, beating 9-time winner Takigahara SDF Base by 2:07 and stopping them from achieving a 10-year victory streak. The independent team division and SDF team division were separated in 2005, and this was the first time that the winning independent team outran the fastest SDF team to take the overall title. The roster that Heisei Mountaineering put together for this year's race raised eyebrows among everyone familiar with the Japanese trail running scene. Handling the 5th and 7th legs was Ruy Ueda , winner of the Fuji M...
Post a Comment
Read more

Komazawa University One Step Away From Perfect Season With Hakone Ekiden Day One Win

Already the course record-breaker at the Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden this season, 2021 Hakone Ekiden champion Komazawa University came one step away from its first-ever triple crown of single-season ekiden wins as it won a highly competitive 2023 Hakone Ekiden Day One over defending champ Aoyama Gakuin University and last year's 6th placer Chuo University . Things got off to an unexpected start when Select Team runner Hayate Nitta of non-qualifier Ikuei University decided to take his one and only Hakone shot and run it up to his ability on the 21.3 km 1st leg even though the rest of the field opted to jog. At one point Nitta had a lead of almost a minute and a half, but as beautiful as it would have been for him to pull it off, Meiji University 's Shunpei Tomita and Komazawa's Kensuke Tsubura still managed to run him down in the final kilometer. Tomita took the stage win in 1:02:44, 1:02:08 half marathon pace vs. his 1:02:10 PB despite the slow s...
4 comments
Read more

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...
54 comments
Read more