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The 2005 Nagoya International Women’s Marathon, the final. The Nagoya Women’s Marathon is an elite marathon, where runners must qualify by running either 3:15 marathon, 2:13 30km, 1:30 half marathon, 1:25 20km or 38 minutes 10,000m.

Windy days

Nagoya is known for its windy days in March, but when the wind fails to materialise, the course can be fast. The course record is 2:22:19 by Naoko Takahashi in 2000, the year when she won the Olympic gold.

Furthermore, the second half of the course is faster than the first half. In the 2000 edition, Takahashi covered the second half in 1:09:39 after a first half of 1:12:40. In 1998 she ran the second half in 1:11:41 when she set her first national record of 2:25:48.

Takahashi not ready

The race was originally billed as the showdown between the current and the former national marathon record holders, Yoko Shibui and Naoko Takahashi. Sadly, Takahashi was unable to recover from an injury in time and thus could not be in shape for this weekend.

Fastest marathon runner

Thus Shibui, the fastest marathon runner as well as the fastest 10,000m runner in the field, is a prohibitive favourite. She set a national marathon record, 2:19:41, in the 2004 real,- BERLIN-MARATHON, a World marathon debut best ever time of 2:23:11 at the 2001 Osaka Ladies Marathon, and a national 10,000m record, 30:48.89, at the 2002 Cardinal Invitational in Stanford.

If Shibui wins with a sub 2:26 clocking, she ...