A steely display of marathon running on a tough course brought Japan’s Hiromi Suzuki the women’s marathon gold medal in a course record time of 2:29:48. With her teammates, Takako Tobise and Nobuko Fujimura in 4th and 10th respectively, she led Japan to a World Marathon Cup team title
Suzuki’s strength on the hills was the key to her success. She outran the defending champion and 1993 silver medallist, Manuela Machado of Portugal on the hardest part of the course, between 25 and 35km, killing off her rivals with a decisive break. It never looked like she would be caught over the final 12km and ran faster and faster as she headed for the finish in the Panathinaikos stadium. Machada was over a minute behind at the finish at 2:31:11. Romania’s Lidia Simon survived sickness at the half way stage to finish strongly in third place, clocking 2:31:55.
The early pace on one of the few flat sections of the course was swift and a large group of 20 headed the field through the first 10km in 35:08. The first significant move came from the Olympic champion, Fatuma Roba, who accelerated from the front and quickly reduced the group was to nine - Roba, four Japanese, Suzuki, Fujimura, Tobise and Mariko Hara, two Romanians, Anuta Catuna and Simon, Machada, and Estonia’s Jane Salumae.
On the first climb, between 10 and 15km, Fujimura and Salumae began to lose touch. Shortly after 15km (53:05) two Germans, Biba and Oberem caught Fujimura and dragged her back to the leaders. At 20km (1:11.23) Fujimura lost touch again, but the biggest shock came at the half way stage (1:15.42) when Roba dropped out clutching her side.
The lead group was now down to seven - Oberem, Machada, the two Romanians and three Japanese - although Oberem and Hara also began to struggle. By 25km (1:30.23) the group was five and within the next kilometre it was down to three - Tobise and Simon slipping back.
Suzuki made her decisive move just after 26 kilometres. Working hard on the climbs, she gained 15 metres on her two rivals. By the 28km mark she had extended her advantage to 50m and was still moving away. Machada gave chase in second but at 30km (1:48:18 for Suzuki) the gap to second was 11 seconds, Catuna another 6 seconds behind in third. A 5km split of 17:13 by Suzuki on the hardest part of the course confirmed her superiority. She passed 35km in 2:05.31 and headed into Athens, speeding up still further on the descent to the finish.
Machada maintained her position but Catuna was caught first by Tobise, then by her teammate, Simon, who fought back to claim the bronze. Romania was second in the team competition, Italy third.
