by Brett Larner After heavy pre-race favorite Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) faltered soon into the second half of the Jan. 29 Osaka International Women's Marathon , second-time marathoner Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya) was there to pick up the pieces as she took eight minutes off her debut time from last year's London Marathon to win in 2:23:23, the fastest time by a Japanese woman since Mizuki Noguchi 's 2:21:37 course record at the Nov., 2007 Tokyo International Women's Marathon. Shigetomo's performance puts her as the leading contender for a spot on the Olympic team with one selection race to go, and barring a slew of spectacular runs at the Mar. 11 Nagoya Women's Marathon she is likely to become the fourth-straight Tenmaya runner to make an Olympic team. Ukrainian Tetiana Gamera-Shmyrko and former pro XC skiier Azusa Nojiri (Team Daiichi Seimei) also ran well, both running new PBs under 2:25 to take 2nd and 3rd after Gamera-Shmyrko ran a solid ne...
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