On the road to full fitness, Noguchi wins Sendai Half Marathon

Monday 14 May 2007

The reigning Olympic Marathon champion, Mizuki Noguchi won yesterday’s Sendai International Half Marathon (13) in a time of 1:08:54, which was minute and half faster than second place Constantina Dita-Tomescu of Romania.

The 17th annual race started in the Miyazaki track & field stadium and finished at the Sendai city Hall.

For Noguchi it was the second fastest time in the history of the Sendai Half Marathon, behind 1:07:59 by Esther Wanjiru of Kenya, which was recorded eight years ago.

Noguchi, who missed the Berlin Marathon last autumn and then last month’s London Marathon with a left Achilles injury, missed one month of training early this year. Recently, as an injury preventative measure Noguchi was careful to balance her training for the right and left side of the body during her weight training programme.

Noguchi ran the Sendai race with only one and half month of training, yet she completely dominated the race, leading the race from wire-to-wire. The course is quite hilly from 12Km to 20Km.

“I did not feel the effect of an injury, and so I was able to run with a good rhythm especially in the uphill portion of the race,” said Noguchi for whom it was her 11th career sub 1:09 half marathon, easily a national record. Her next big goal is the 2007 Tokyo Women’s marathon, where she will attempt to qualify for the Japanese Olympic marathon team.

The men’s race was won by Ombeche Mokamba of Kenya with 1:02:29, while another Kenyan John Kanyi was second 31 seconds behind.

Ken Nakamura for the IAAF

Results:

Men
1. Ombeche Mokamba (KEN) 1:02:29
2. John Kanyi (KEN) 1:03:00
3. Kenji Noguchi 1:03:04

Women
1. Mizuki Noguchi 1:08:54
2. Constantina Dita-Tomescu (ROM) 1:10:24
3. Yuko Machida 1:12:30

Reference: http://www.iaaf.org/WRU07/news/Kind=2/newsId=38684.html