A very happy sub-2:30 woman!
The Yokohama International Women’s Marathon is a done deal. The weather gods weren’t particularly friendly, with temps at 23C (71F) and humidity near 50%. But the starting gun was going to go off at 12:10 pm, regardless.
With a Japanese Olympic berth at stake, Yoshimi Ozaki (Daiichi Life Insurance/adidas) gave it her all, but came up just short in the final kilometer. Today’s heat made the race a classic race of attrition, and by 35K the lead pack was down to three: Yoshimi, the UK’s Mara Yamauchi (who ran a brilliant race of patience, only pulling even with the leaders at about 23K), and Daiuhatsu’s Ryoko Kizaki. Right at 39K, Kizaki threw in a big move that dropped Mara, but Yoshimi stayed right on her. With about 1500m remaining, Yoshimi threw in her own surge, seeking to repeat her winning move in the last edition of this race. After opening about 10 meters, the gap grew no more. Kizaki stayed tough, drew even with a K to go, and then surged away to win by 2:26:32 to Yoshimi’s 2:26:49.
Yoshimi will almost certainly have to come back for next March’s Nagoya International Women’s Marathon to fight again for an Olympic team spot.
Meanwhile, Rene Kalmer (Nedbank/adidas) was having a phenomenal break-through day. After checking the weather, Rene decided before her warm-ups that it would be a day for racing for place rather than trying to put up an impressive mark. In the end, she got both. Backing away from an earlier plan to target 74:00 for the first half, she instead came through in a very solid and contained 74:58 at 10th place. As planned and hoped, Rene then began taking down other runners throughout the second half, with some impressive running. Her 17:27 split from 20K-25K was the fastest of any of the eventual top ten runners, and her 17:22 for the next 5K was better than all but the lead pack. By 30K she had moved up to 7th, and five minutes later Russian Alevtina Ivanova and Ethiopian Robe Guta were suddenly within range and Rene was up to 5th. The 1:35 gap to 4th looked fairly insurmountable at that point, but Rene continued coming on like a freight engine and was just 16 seconds out of 4th by the finish .
Nevertheless…2:29:59, a nearly five minute improvement over her PB this Spring of 2:34:47. Incredible stuff in today’s conditions. We have to check the stats, but we’re fairly certain this makes Rene only the 4th woman in South African history to break 2:30, and the first to do it in quite a few years. More important, her spot on the South African marathon team for next summer’s London Olympic Games is pretty much locked in. Post race comment: “Now I’m a marathoner. Let’s get some ice cream.”
Louise Damen (adidas) had a very rough day, with a DNF. “We rarely have temperatures like this back home, and I wasn’t at all ready for this kind of weather. There isn’t much that could be done about it and by 10K I was already feeling out of it.”
Next up: off to the awards ceremony and post-race party at Yokohama’s Pan-Pacific Yokohama Bay Hotel.
