Paula Radcliffe waves a salute after the 2003 London Marathon in which she ran the fastest marathon ever by a woman (© Getty Images)
This year’s International Chiba Ekiden will be held on Monday 24 November, a national holiday in Japan. In its 15 year history, some of the greatest distance runners in the world have taken part and this year is no exception with the entry of Britain's Paula Radcliffe.
Radcliffe, the world's fastest ever female marathon runner, will follow in the footsteps of former stars like Toshihiko Seko, Naoko Takahashi, Ingrid Kristiansen, Olga Bondarenko, Steve Moneghetti, Haile Gebrselassie, Salah Hissou, Kenenisa Bekele, Catherine Ndereba and Derartu Tulu , who have contested this 42.195Km ekiden.
10k stage for Radcliffe but Ethiopian team will dominate
Radcliffe is scheduled to run the 10Km stage one, a net downhill course, which loses over 20m of elevation from 1Km to 4Km. The stage record is 30:55 by Masako Chiba in 1996, a year before she won a bronze medal at Worlds 10,000m. Based on this time, Radcliffe is expected to dip well under 30 minutes.
Last year, the Ethiopian women’s team of Tulu, Denboba, Kuma, T. Dibaba, Defar, and Kidane broke the 10-year winning streak of the Japanese women’s team. This year, among the 15 teams, the Ethiopian team, which includes Meseret Defar (double World Junior champion), Tirunesh Dibaba (World 5000m champion), Berhane Adere (World 10,000m champion) and Werknesh Kidane (Worlds 10,000m runnerup), is again the favourite.
The Russian team, which includes Yelena Zadorozhnaya (4th at Worlds 5000m), Galina Bogomolova (6th at Worlds 10,000m), and Alla Zhilyayeva (5th at Worlds 10,000m), is also quite formidable. However, the Russian women have never won the Chiba Ekiden.
The Japanese team led by double Asian Games’ silver medalist Kayoko Fukushi will try to return to the top of the podium. However, it will be quite a formidable task against such opposition.
The course record for the women’s six-stage 42.195Km race is 2:13:33, set by the Japanese in 2001. The stage bests for women are 30:55 (10Km) by Masako Chiba, 15:03 (5Km) by Kayoko Fukushi, 31:04 (10Km) by Delilah Asiago, 15:15 (5Km) by Yoko Shibui, 15:12 (4.76Km) by Liliya Volkova, and 23:18 (7.428Km) by Werknesh Kidane. Fukushi, Volkova and Kidane set their stage records last year.
Ethiopia expected to dominate the men’s race too
Among the 16 men’s teams, the defending champions Ethiopia include Markos Geneti (World Youth 3000m Champion), Sileshi Sihine (3rd World 10,000m), Gebre Gebremariam (6th World 5000m), and Hailu Mekonnen (1999 Worlds XC Junior champion), and are the outstanding favourites.
The course record for the men’s five-stage 42.195Km race is 1:57:56, also set last year by the Ethiopian team. The stage bests for men are 27:19 (10Km) by Aloys Nizigama, 13:07 (5Km) by Kenenisa Bekele, 28:16 (10Km) by P Smith, 13:37 (5Km) by Atsushi Sato and 34:29 (12.195Km) for Steve Moneghetti. Bekele and Sato set their stage records last year.
The Kenyan men’s team, which consists solely of Kenyans living in Japan, finished second last year. This year, both Kenyan men’s and women’s teams consist entirely of Kenyans in Japanese corporate teams, and perhaps their women’s team have a chance to improve on their disappointing 14th place finish last year.
