K. Ken Nakamura for IAAF
14 March 2001 - Kazumi Matsuo, the training partner of Sydney Olympic marathon runner Eri Yamaguchi, won her third consecutive 2001 Nagoya women’s marathon on 11 March. Prior to her Nagoya victories, she had won the 1999 Hokkaido marathon, her debut in 2:32.14, and at her second marathon in 2000, she won in Berlin with 2:26.15, making the cover of Leichtathletik.
Mainly because of the prevailing head wind, the Nagoya course is reputed to be fairly slow since its inception in 1984. The course record remained a modest 2:27.29 set by Kamiel Gradus of Poland until 1998 when Naoko Takahashi set a national record of 2:25.48. Two years later, Takahashi returned to Nagoya and improved the course record to 2:22.19, thus destroying the myth that the course is slow.
With the flurry of fast times recorded in Japanese marathons lately (2:24.02 by Joyce Chepchumba in the Tokyo Ladies marathon, 2:06.51 by Atsushi Fujita in Fukuoka, 2:23.11 by Yoko Shibui in the Osaka Ladies marathon, 2:08.45 by Takayuki Nishida in Beppu, and four sub 2:08 performances in Lake Biwa ), it was hoped that the 2001 Nagoya Women’s marathon would be another fast race. Although the assembled field was better than both the Tokyo and Osaka Ladies’ marathons, perhaps because this event was the final qualifying race for the World Championships team, the race started cautiously.
In the pre-race interview, Yutaka Taketomi who coaches Matsuo as well as Eri Yamaguchi said that "Matsuo is ready to run a 2:23 marathon," reports Tatsuo Terada. The statement induced the question, "Is Matsuo going to set a fast pace like Yamaguchi did in 1999 Tokyo?" to which Taketomi replied "No, Matsuo is not a front runner. Following the pace suits her personality better."
As is often a case when runners of similar ability are assembled in the field, the race started slowly as the competitors summed up the opposition. Although most had expressed desire to go through the half marathon point in around 1:12, the pacesetter passed 5Km in a pedestrian 17:17. Yet, some of the pre-race favourites still lost contact with the leaders early. At 4.5Km, Midori Fumoto, a 2:27.55 marathoner fell behind the lead pack and eventually finished 42nd. By 7Km, Junko Kataoka, a 2:28.20 marathon runner, was the next casualty, and finished 17th in 2:31:58. Hiromi Ominami, a 2:28.32 performer, fell behind the leaders at 9Km, who passed 10Km in 34:37, a modest pace.
When the leaders went through the half marathon in 1:13.01, the pacesetters were gone by 22Km, and Matsuo found herself at the front. She said after the race: "Since I was running with runners I had lost against in track and ekiden races before, I was not thinking about winning. My goal was to run a 2:24 marathon. But I was disappointed with the slow half marathon time (1:13), so I dropped my time goal and decided to concentrate on winning the race’"
Then at 25Km, Tomoe Abe (world best performer at the 100Km) and a marathon debutante Naomi Sakashita collided and fell. From the 26Km, for the next 5Km, Ikumi Nagayama another marathon debutante found herself in the front; where she stayed until 30Km. During this phase several runners including Valentina Yegorova, Naomi Sakashita, Tomoe Abe and a former Nagoya marathon champion Mayumi Ichikawa all fell behind in succession. However, when Nagayama dropped back into the lead pack as instructed by her coach at 30Km, four runners - Yegorova, Sakashita, Abe and Ichikawa - rejoined the lead pack. After passed through 35Km in 2:02.02 (17:40 for the last 5Km), the real racing finally started with Matsuo in the front.
During the next 2Km, the lead pack reduced steadily. At 37Km, Yukiko Okamoto became a casualty of the faster pace, and the duel between Matsuo and Takami Ominami was on. They passed 40Km in 2:18.49 (16:49 for the last 5Km); the 5Km split became sub 17:00 for the first time. "I did not know which of Ominami twins was staying with me," said Matsuo as she started to think about winning the race with 4Km to go. They came in the Mizuho stadium together and with 150m to go, Matsuo surged. With 50m to go, Matuo thought she could win, and she did by three seconds, the narrowest winning margin in the history of the Nagoya marathon.
Yukiko Okamoto, a teammate of Yuko Kawakami (the national 10,000m record holder) was third. Okamoto was surprised with her third place finish. After the race, Okamoto who covered 1100Km in January and 1000Km in February said, "Since I only trained for two months for the race, I was not confident on finishing. I am surprised to find myself in the third place with so little training." In all, twelve runners broke the 2:30 barrier.
Cloudy, 8C, 46% humidity, NNE wind 2.1m/s
1) Kazumi Matsuo 2:26:01
2) Takami Ominami 2:26:04
3) Yukiko Okamoto 2:26:21
4) Nark Geji 2:27:01
5) Tomoe Abe 2:27:02
6) Ikuyo Goto 2:27:16
7) Mayumi Ichikawa 2:27:22
8) Ikumi Nagayama 2:27:44
9) Naomi Sakashita 2:28:09
10) Aki Fujikawa 2:28:27
11) Valentina Yegorova 2:28:41
12) Tomoko Kai 2:29:19
13) Yukari Komatsu 2:30:30
14) Ai Sugihara 2:30:50
15) Junko Akagi 2:31:00
Splits for Kazumi Matsuo
5Km 17:18
10Km 34:39 (17:21)
15Km 51:53 (17:14)
20Km 1:09:22 (17:18)
Half Marathon: 1:13:03
25Km 1:26:47 (17:36)
30Km 1:44:22 (17:35)
35Km 2:02:02 (17:40)
40Km 2:18:49 (16:47)
The Nagoya marathon was not the only race in Japan over the weekend. Three top class half marathons took place in Sendai, Kyoto and Yamaguchi.
At the Japan Corporate Half marathon championships in Yamaguchi, Yuki Mori won the men’s competition in 1:01.27, a new meet record, followed home by Kazuo Ietani. In the women’s race, Mizuki Noguchi, 2nd and 4th at the last two editions of the World Half Marathon Championships, won in 1:08.45, another new meet record, ahead of Guixia Zheng of China and Takako Kotorida.
At the Sendai half marathon, South Africa’s Elana Meyer broke away from the pack of four in the middle of the race, to finish more than a minute ahead of Chiemi Takahashi making her half marathon debut. On the men’s side, Ken-ichi Takahashi, a national half marathon record holder won by leading from wire-to-write in a slow 1:03:35.
Finally in Kyoto, Koichiro Nagata won the men’s race in 1:01.09, the fastest collegiate time on the standard course. In the women’s division, Fatuma Roba won in 1:09.19, twenty-two seconds ahead of Harumi Hiroyama who is in the middle of marathon training.
Japan Corporate Half marathon in Yamaguchi. Weather: 6C, 55% humidity, East South East wind of 0.6m/s
Men
1) Yuki Mori 1:01:27
2) Kazuo Ietani 1:01:30
3) Naotaka Takahashi 1:01:32
4) Tomoo Tsubota 1:01:33
5) Nobuya Matsunaga 1:01:33
Women
1) Mizuki Noguchi 1:08:45
2) Guixia Zheng 1:08:58
3) Takako Kotorida 1:09:04
4) Naoko Sakamoto 1:09:27
5) Mami Kusunoki 1:09:34
Sendai Half marathon in Sendai on March 11. Weather: Cloudy, -0.2C
Men
1) Ken-ichi Takahashi 1:03:35
2) Masahiro Fujita 1:03:39
3) Masafumi Hayashi 1:03:52
4) Satoshi Irifune 1:03:57
5) Takahiro Sunada 1:04:18
Women
1) Elana Meyer (RSA) 1:10:12
2) Chiemi Takahash 1:11:18
3) Yukiko Akaba 1:11:23
4) Esther Wanjiru 1:11:58
Kyoto Half marathon in Kyoto on March 11
Men
1) Koichiro Nagata 1:01:09
2) Faustin Baha (RSA) 1:01:53
3) Yoshitaka Iwamizu 1:02:29
Women
1) Fatuma Roba (ETH) 1:09:19
2) Harumi Hiroyama 1:09:41
3) Iulia Olteanu (ROM) 1:09:52
