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Takahashi eyeing history in Olympic women's marathon
TOKYO, Aug 17 (AFP) - The first-ever Olympic athletics gold for a Japanese woman is not the only target for ambitious marathon runner Naoko Takahashi. She has also set her sights on the world's fastest time to make history. "I must win the gold medal in the Olympics and set the best time in the world to etch my name in history. I want to leave proof that I existed in this era," said Takahashi after visiting the Olympic main stadium in Sydney. But the runner is aware that the hilly Sydney course may not present the best opportunity to break the world mark. That may have to wait for another marathon. "The more difficult the course is the greater you feel when you come back to the finishing line," she said. "I'll just be very happy if I return to this stadium ahead of the rest of the runners." Japanese women have won three Olympic golds in swimming, two in volleyball and one in judo, but have never won gold in athletics. Yuko Arimori came close by winning the silver in the women's marathon in Barcelona and bronze in Atlanta, while Kinue Hitomi won the silver in the women's 800 metres at the 1928 Amsterdam Games. In Sydney, the world's best time holder Tegula Loroupe will be among the favourites along with fellow Kenyan Joyce Chepchumba, Atlanta Olympic champion Fatuma Roba of Ethiopia and world bronze medallist Lidia Simon of Romania. But a trio of Japanese women, Takahashi, Tokyo marathon winner Eri Yamaguchi and world silver medallist Ari Ichihashi, could make it an all-Japanese affair. Takahashi ran at a record-breaking pace to mark 2:21:47, the fifth fastest time in the world, to win the Asian Games in 1998 despite temperatures soaring to 32 degrees Celsius (89.6 Fahrenheit) and 90 percent humidity levels. That performance has been hailed as one of the most extraordinary in the history of women's marathon, particularly as Takahashi ran it from the front. When Loroupe set the current fastest time of 2:20:43 at the Berlin marathon in September last year, she benefited throughout the race from four male pacemakers who even handed bottles of water to her. Loroupe is the only runner to have clocked a faster time than Takahashi's, among runners who are competitive at the moment. Simon is fifth in 2:22:54, Roba seventh in 2:23:21 and Chepchumba eighth in 2:23:22. Yamaguchi, 27, emerged as a world-class runner by clocking the third fastest time of 2:22:12 and sixth-fastest in history to win the 1999 Tokyo marathon. Ichihashi defeated Simon and Roba into third and fourth in Seville. "She (Takahashi) is capable of running under 2:20:00," said her coach Yoshio Koide, who also coached Arimori and 1997 world champion Hiromi Suzuki. "With all these runners taking part in the Olympics, it will be a real race to decide who is the best runner in the world." Takahashi missed the world championships due to a left knee injury, and she fractured the back of her left hand when she fell during a marathon in October. But she strongly won the Nagoya marathon in 2:22:19 in March, which served as the last national trial for Sydney, although she was not fully fit.
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