Inga Abitova won the inaugural Yokohama International
Women’s Marathon
Breaking away from the
lead pack at the beginning of the third and the final loop, with 13Km to go in
the race, Inga Abitova of Russia, 2006 European Champion at 10000m, won the
2009 Yokohama International Women’s Marathon by more than a minute and half
from Kiyoko Shimahara, 2009 Hokkaido Marathon Champion. Abitova’s winning time
was relatively slow 2:27:18, but it was because the day was quite warm and
windy. The temperature raised above 20C and wind was gusting from time to time.
“First, I would like to thank the marathon organizer and fans along the
course,” said Abitova after the race. When asked “What was it like to beat the Beijing
Olympic gold and silver medalist?” Abitova answered, “To me, it was more like
winning the inner battle against myself.”
Shimahara, 2006 Asian
Game’s Marathon silver medalist, was second with 2:28:51, while two-time
Olympic silver medalist Catherine Ndereba was third with 2:29:13.Ndereba was followed by Bruna Genovese,
2004 Tokyo Women’s Marathon champion, in fourth and Miki Ohira in fifth. Ohira,
who finished fourth thrice in her last three marathons, was hoping to finish
anything but fourth.She was not
fourth, however, unfortunately she was fifth, not third or better.The defending Olympic champion Constantina Dita, who lost
contact soon after the half way, finished disappointing 11th place
in 2:36:06.
Because of the advent of
Tokyo Marathon, the first big city marathon in Japan, the Tokyo International
Women’s Marathon was held for the final time last year.The sponsors moved the race to
Yokohama, and the inaugural race was held on Sunday. The course in the
inaugural marathon race in Yokohama consists of mostly three 13.18Km loop.It was the first multiple loop marathon
race in Japan.It is also one of
the flattest marathon courses in Japan. The highest point on the course is 12m
above sea level while the lowest point is 1.5m below sea level.Shimahara agrees that the course is
flat. “I did not notice elevation change. Although there were some bridges and
tunnels, it did not bother me a bit.” Naoko Takahashi, 2000 Olympic Champion,
has ran the course and in her opinion, it is a fast course if the weather cooperates.Unfortunately, the wind was far from
calm on Sunday. However, as Kiyoko Shimahara said after the race, “Yes, wind
was quite strong at some point, but it was not a constant wind. The wind
constantly changed its direction. We had some head wind as well as tail wind.
The wind speed also changed often.However, it did not really bother me.”
How the race unfolded:
The distinct lead pack of
ten runners including all but one invited runner (Takami Ominami) has formed
soon after the start of the race.In the early stage of the race, the Beijing Olympic Champion Constantina
Dita and 2006 Asian Game’s silver medalist Kiyoko Shimahara pushed the pace,
while two-time World Champion Catherine Ndereba trailed the field.The pace was not very fast, passing 5Km
in 17:12 and 10Km in 34:35 (17:23 from 5 to 10Km).However, while Dita, Shimahara, Bruna Genovese, Miki Ohira,
Zivile Balciunaite, Inga Abitova, Robe Guta, Hiromi Ominami, and debutante
Hiroko Miyauchi formed the lead pack, Ndereba ran 10-15m behind them.Around 17Km Ndereba caught up with the
lead pack, only to fell behind again.After passing the half marathon in 1:14:02, when Shimahara started to
push the pace, Dita was the first to fall behind. Before the race, Dita said
she was not 100%, so this was not unexpected. Soon, Miyauchi also fell off the
pace. After the race Shimahara explained the reason for leading the race: “I
didn’t want to run slow, so I decided to run at my own pace.” Shimahra
continued to push the pace and Hiromi Ominami and then Balciunaite also fell
behind.The real racing started
when Abitova, sixth in the 2008 Olympic 10000m, went into the lead with 13Km to
go in the race. “The pace picked up dramatically,” recalled Shimahara who was
leading up until that time. The pack stretched out almost immediately.The 5Km segment between 25 to 30Km was
covered in 17:34, up from 18:02 for the previous 5Km segment. Ndereba tried to
cover the move by Abitova, and she was able to stay with Abitova for a while,
however, by 32Km Ndereba was eight seconds behind Abitova.
Ndereba was followed by
Shimahara, Ohira and then Guta.Abitova
was increasing the pace steadily thus extending her lead over the second place.
Abitova covered 30 to 35Km in
17:12. The next 5Km was covered in 17:05.However, the position was changing behind Abitova. Soon Genovese passed
Guta to move into fifth.Five Km
later Shimahara passed Ndereba. Ndereba tried to stay with Shimahara, however,
she slowly fell behind.Genovese
also passed Ohira to move into fourth.“Abitova is in total control of the race. She is not running all out,
and can go faster anytime if she needs to,” was the description of Abitova’s
run by Masako Chiba, 1997 World 10000m and 2003 World marathon bronze medalist,
who was commentating the race for the radio broadcast.With every stride Abitova extended her
lead over Shimahara.By 40Km
Abitova was minute and 16 seconds ahead of Shimahara, which was extended to
minute and 33 seconds by the finish.
Weather (at the start):
Sunny; temperature: 19.8C; humidity: 38%; wind: 3.1m/s South West
