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Wednesday 13 April 2005 The seventh annual Nagano Olympic Memorial Marathon, one of the only two mass-elite combination marathons in Japan (the other being the Hokkaido Marathon in Sapporo each August), will take place on Sunday 17 April. The race runs from Nagano Sports Park to the Nagano Olympic Stadium, the site of the opening ceremony of the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic Games. >From the first to the fifth edition of the race, the Nagano Marathon was run over a course with steep downhill in the first 5Km, however, since last year the race now has a new route without the steep downhill in the beginning. WOMEN: a Two-way tussle in prospect The fastest entrant is Romania's 2001 World Marathon champion Lidia Simon who has a national record best of 2:22:54 from winning the Osaka Marathon in 2000, the year she won Olympic silver. Simon who came back from the maternity leave in 2003 is slowly but surely getting faster. She ran 2:40:54 in the 2003 Chicago Marathon, followed by 2:30:40 in the 2004 Vienna Marathon. Although Simon dropped out of the 2004 Olympic Marathon, in her last outing at the Osaka Ladies Marathon in January, Simon was fifth with 2:27:01. Ethiopian Derartu Tulu, with a marathon best of 2:23:57, is the next fastest. Tulu perhaps is the greatest women's track runner of her generation, having won three Olympic medals and two World Championships medal at 10,000m (gold in 1992, 2000 and 2001, silver in 1995 and bronze in 2004), and has a 10,000m personal best of 30:17.49. Although she won the 2001 London Marathon with 2:23:57 and also took the Tokyo race the same year (2:25:08), Tulu has yet to fulfill her true potential at the marathon. In her last three races, she was eighth with 2:30:21 in the 2004 Chicago Marathon, 10th with 2:26:33 in the 2003 London Marathon, and 9th with 2:28:37 also in the British capital in 2002. The third fastest runner in the women's field is Albina Ivanova of Russia, who has a Marathon best of 2:25:35, which was recorded in the 2003 London race. Albina is a prolificrunner. Last year, in addition to finishing third in the Honolulu Marathon, Albina was fourth in London with 2:27:25 and fifth in Chicago with 2:28:22. Two other invited runners from abroad, Tatina Borisova and Gladys Asiba, whose marathon bests, 2:30:39 and 2:35:13 respectively were both recorded in 2004 are another two major contenders. Asiba was also 15th in the 2003 New York Marathon with 2:37:47, while Borisova recorded 1:12:30 for the Half Marathon in 2004. MEN: Defending champion returns Moges Taye of Ethiopia, the defending champion who won the last year's edition with 2:13:09 is back to defend his title. In 2004, besides his Nagano victory, Taye was also fourth in the Prague Marathon with 2:12:51, and holds a PB of 2:09:21 (1998 Vienna marathon). However, John Nada Saya of Tanzania is the fastest overseas runner. Saya has a personal best of 2:08:57 from the 2001 Milan marathon but his last six races have been much slower – 2:13:01 Fukuoka (2002), 2:11:10 Turin (2002), 2:10:13 Seoul (2003), 2:25:49 from the 2003 World Championships, 2:21:08 Beppu (2004), and a DNF from the Olympic Games. The fastest runner in the field is 'local' Ryuji Takei, who recorded 2:08:35 in his victory at the 2002 Lake Biwa Marathon. Takei was once one of the most promising distance runners in Japan. He was the first high school runner in Japan to break 14 minutes for the 5000m and was a double champion at both the national inter-high school championships and national inter-collegiate championships. Takei won a silver medal at the 10,000m in the World University Games and also a bronze medal at the marathon in the 2002 Asian Games. Takei's most recent marathon was the 2004 Lake Biwa Marathon, where he was tenth with 2:11:42. It is reported that the Nagano Marathon will be the last marathon of his career, for he has announced his retirement from elite competition. As with many of the elite marathon runners in Japan, he will move onto coaching. Two other invited runners from abroad, Isaac Macharia and Grigory Andreyev have personal bests of 2:11:26 and 2:11:53 respectively - both from 2004 - and thus there may be a lot of room for improvement. Also in 2004, Macharia recorded 1:01:52, 1:02:01 and 1:02:05 for the Half marathon, while Andreyev was 19th at the Olympics with 2:16:55. Ken Nakamura for the IAAF Invited Runners: Men John Nada Saya (TAN) 2:08:57 2001 Milano Moges Taye (ETH) 2:09:21 1998 Wien Isaac Macharia (KEN) 2:11:26 2004 Berlin Grigory Andreyev (RUS) 2:11:53 2004 Hamburg Ryuji Takei 2:08:35 2002 Lake Biwa Seiji Kushibe 2:11:22 2002 Hofu Koichi Inagaki 2:12:25 2003 Beppu Tomonori Michikata Debut 1:03:13 2001 Marugame Half Women Lidia Simon (ROM) 2:22:54 2000 Osaka Derartu Tulu (ETH) 2:23:57 2001 London Albina Ivanova (RUS) 2:25:35 2003 Chicago Tatiana Borisova (KYR) 2:30:39 2004 Austin Gladys Asiba (KEN) 2:35:13 2004 Frankfurt Taeko Terauchi 2:28:10 1999 Osaka Yukako Goto 2:34:12 1996 Nagoya Yoshimi Hoshino 2:37:48 2004 Nagano Hiroko Watanabe Debut 1:12:44 2004 NG ENDS
