Skip to main content

Ozaki Silver! World Championships Women's Marathon



by Brett Larner

Yoshimi Ozaki (Team Daiichi Seimei) scored the silver medal in the women's marathon at the 2009 World Championships in a thrilling three-way battle against eventual winner Xue Bai (China) and bronze medalist Aselefech Mergia (Ethiopia), Japan's first silver medal at the World Championships since Mizuki Noguchi finished second to Catherine Ndereba in the 2003 Paris World Championships.

Holding the fastest qualifying time on the Japanese team, 2:23:30 at last year's Tokyo International Women's Marathon, Ozaki was a question mark coming into Worlds after a spring of injury and an absence from media coverage, but her powerful, efficient form was clearly operating at 100% right from the start. When Russian Nailiya Yulamanova attacked after a moderately-paced first 30 km Ozaki was one of only three athletes to follow. Men's steeplechase national record holder Yoshitaka Iwamizu came to the rescue when Ozaki missed her special drink shortly afterwards. In the final 5 km after Yulamanova dropped away Ozaki pushed to break her Chinese and Ethiopian rivals, but the race came down to a sprint over the final kilometer with Bai taking gold in 2:25:15. Ozaki was 10 seconds back in 2:25:25 and Mergia another 7 seconds behind in 2:25:32. Japanese-coached Chunxiu Zhou and Xiaolin Zhu took 4th and 5th to give China the team gold medal by a wide margin. Japan-based Julia Mumbi Muraga, coached by the legendary Yoshio Koide, was the top Kenyan finisher, 12th overall in 2:28:59.

In an interview immediately after the finish Ozaki was fresh, energetic and full of laughter. Her hair did not even look wet despite the heat. "Up until the 30 km point I just ran my own pace," she said of the back-and-forth pacing of the main pack throughout much of the race. "The real race was only over the last section." Ozaki's silver ties that of her coach Sachiko Yamashita, who was second at the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo. As in the 2007 World Championships, where the great Reiko Tosa scored bronze, Ozaki's medal is thus far the only Japanese medal in Berlin and a significant achievement for Yamashita, one of the only female professional coaches working in Japan. It also extends Japan's legacy of medaling in the World Championships, with at least one medal in every World Championships since 1991 with the sole exception of 1995.

Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC), a teammate of Ozaki's older sister Akemi, was the second Japanese finisher at 7th overall in 2:26:57, her best race of the year. "In the morning my coach told me to be ready for tough conditions," she told journalists afterward, "I wanted to place better than this, but in the back of mind I had 'top eight at worst.' I'm glad I at least made my minimum goal." Kano's former teammate Yoshiko Fujinaga (Team Shiseido), running in her first World Championships in ten years, was a surprise third on the Japanese team, giving Japan the team silver medal, its seventh straight team medal, with a 2:29:53 finish. The only team member to cry during her post-race interview, Fujinaga said, "After ten years since my last World Championships I'm just glad I could make it all the way to the finish."

The shock of the race from the Japanese perspective was the underpar performance by Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren), who finished 31st in 2:37:43 after struggling to maintain contact with the pack from early on in the race despite being a pre-race favorite for medal contention. Fujinaga waited for Akaba at the finish line with an ice pack, and Akaba could later be seen bent over holding her left forefoot in evident pain.

Ozaki's medal, the team medal and Kano's top ten finish combined with Atsushi Sato's 6th place finish and the Japanese men's team bronze medal go a long way toward restoring Japanese confidence in the marathon after the failure of the Beijing Olympics. In Ozaki the country appears to have found another great with a bright future.

2009 World Championships Women's Marathon - Top Finishers
click here for complete results
1. Xue Bai (China) - 2:25:15 - SB
2. Yoshimi Ozaki (Japan) - 2:25:25 - SB
3. Aselefech Mergia (Ethiopia) - 2:25:32
4. Chunxiu Zhou (China) - 2:25:39 - SB
5. Xiaolin Zhu (China) - 2:26:08 - SB
6. Marisa Barros (Portugal) - 2:26:50
7. Yuri Kano (Japan) - 2:26:57 - SB
8. Nailiya Yulamanova (Russia) - 2:27:08
9. Alevtina Biktimirova (Russia) - 2:27:39 - SB
10. Kara Goucher (U.S.A.) - 2:27:48 - SB
-----
12. Julia Mombi (Kenya) - 2:28:59 - SB
14. Yoshiko Fujinaga (Japan) - 2:29:53
31. Yukiko Akaba (Japan) - 2:37:43

(c) 2009 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Brett Larner said…
やった!!!!!
Kevin said…
It's crazy that Bai Xue won. She did so horrible in nagoya and lost to Fujingaga.
yuza said…
I thought Ozaki would do well, but not this well. She looked really comfortable during the race and ran smart along with Kano. I was surprised at how quickly everybody got dropped after 30k...I know it was hot, but I thought a few more would have gone with the break.

Also, Yuri Kano seems to be getting cuter with age.
Simon Phillips said…
Given that in July JRN quoted Ozaki as saying "If I make the top eight in Berlin I think that'll be pretty good", I think she deserves a big "Otsukaresama desu!" for a great performance. A real pity that things fell apart for Akaba though.
Anonymous said…
「Mayeroff]と言う方はどちら様でしょうか?
Brett Larner said…
I provide articles in English on this blog, but readers should continue to feel free to leave comments in the language of their choosing. I will do my best to respond to comments written in English, Japanese, French, Spanish or Italian.
Anonymous said…
MARCOS
Que fue lo que le sucedio a Akaba, eela nunca fue en la punta , siempre estaba detras del grupo , estaba Akaba con alguna lesión? cual fué su declaración oficial?
Brett Larner said…
Marcos--

Good timing. I'm about to leave for Canada for two weeks so I haven't had much time, but I'm going to translate something from Akaba's blog. It may take a few days but please check back.


Brett
Anonymous said…
If I got it right her husband/coach basically says that Akaba had problems dealing with the heat and started developing signs of dehydration even before the 20k point which later caused the dramatic drop in pace.
In addition to that it was stated that she has had problems with her right foot since early August which started bothering her towards the end of the race and that the uncertainty as to her foot and high expectations might have put too much stress on her.

Joe
(correctness of information not guaranteed!)

Most-Read This Week

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Takeuchi Wins Niigata Half in Boston Tune-Up

Running in cold, windy and rainy conditions, Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Software) warmed up for April's Boston Marathon with a win at Wednesday's Niigata Half Marathon . Takeuchi sat behind Nittai University duo Susumu Yamazaki and Ryuga Ishikawa in the early stages, then made a series of pushes to pick up the pace. Each time he tucked in behind whoever went to the front, while behind them others dropped off. Before 15 km only Yamazaki and Riki Koike of Soka University were left, and when Takeuchi went to the front the last time after 15 km only Koike followed. By 16 he was gone too, leaving Takeuchi to solo it in to the win in 1:03:13 with a 17-second negative split. "This was my last fitness check before the Boston Marathon next month, and my time was right on-target," he said post-race. "Everything went as planned. I'm looking forward to racing some of the world's best in Boston, and my goal there is to place in the single digits." Just back from tr