Nakamura 3rd, Simon 7th, Ominami 9th, Shimahara 12th at Bolder Boulder 10K

Yurika Nakamura Leads Japan to Women’s 2nd Place in International Team Challenge

May 16, 2009

Arriving less than four days before the race, Tenmaya’s Yurika Nakamura ran a brilliant race at altitude to finish 3rd in 33:29 at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Bolder Boulder 10K. Nakamura, who debuted at the marathon last year in 2:25:51 to win Nagoya, was Japan’s top finisher at last summer’s Beijing Olympic Games marathon, has been running very well on Japan’s Spring track circuit, with a 15:23.99 for 2nd at the Oda Memorial meet in Hiroshima and 32:13.89 for 2nd at the Hyogo Relay Carnival 10,000m. She also earlier this year secured a spot on Japan’s team for this year’s IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships. “The two Ethiopian women [eventual winner Mamito Daska and runner-up Teyba Erkesso] got away early, about one or one-and-a-half kilometers. I had some women with me. I didn’t really increase the pace, but just maintaining the pace I could feel them drop off one by one. After about halfway, I felt I was running on my own, and this felt much easier.” Yurika finished nearly 40 seconds clear of 4th place finisher Dulce Maria Rodriguez of Mexico, picking up $1,500 for her 3rd place finish and a $750 bonus for breaking 33:30. 

Combined with Hiromi Ominami’s 9th place run of Toyota Auto Body’s Hiromi Ominami and the 12th place finish of Kiyoko Shimahara of the Second Wind AC, Team Japan finished with 24 points, good for the $10,000 team prize for 2nd place between the winning Ethiopians and 3rd-place Kenya.

Coming off 6th place last weekend at the Bupa Great Manchester 10K in the UK, Lidia Simon came home 7th, add to her string of Top Ten finishes at the event. “From now I will take a bit of a rest and probably not race this summer. I hope to make a very good race at the world championships in Berlin, and I find that I race the championships better each time when I am concentrating only on training without racing.”