Takahashi gives Japan first athletics gold

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Sydney: A smiling Naoko Takahashi won the Olympic marathon gold medal on Sunday to become the first Japanese woman to win a track and field title. The 28-year-old won in an Olympic best time of two hours 23 minutes 14 seconds. Lidia Simon of Romania took silver (2:23.22) and Joyce Chepchumba of Kenya the bronze (2:24.45).

Holding bouquets of flowers in both hands and draped in her national flag, Takahashi charmed the packed crowd with one of the biggest smiles of the Games after her win, looking fresh and grinning broadly after crossing the finish.

Takahashi had burst on to the international scene in 1998 when she won the Asian Games gold in 2:21.47, then the fifth-fastest time ever run. Marleen Renders of Belgium, who is also a world-class 10,000 metres runner, broke early on Sunday but the pack shadowed her before hauling her in after 12 kms.

Takahashi made the first serious move just after an hour's racing, injecting an acceleration that whittled the leading group of around 20 runners first to eight, then to five and then three.

Ethiopian Fatuma Roba, the 1996 Olympic champion, was dropped, as was Kenyan world record holder Tegla Loroupe. That left Takahashi, Ari Ichihashi of Japan and Simon edging clear at halfway, with Esther Wanjiru of Kenya and Mexican Adriana Fernandez hanging on grimly.

A surge just after 20 kilometres saw the trio escape, that effort hurting Ichihashi who dropped off the pace after 90 minutes of racing. Takahashi made her winning move just before the two-hour mark, removing her sunglasses and attacking on one of the course's many inclines.

Japan had claimed one previous marathon gold, in the men's event in Berlin in 1936, although that was won for them by Sohn Kee-chung, a Korean forced to run under the Japanese flag while his country was under occupation.

(c) Reuters Limited.