Japanese runners eyeing marathon golds
Japan's top runners are determined to sweep the marathon events in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.
Kiyoko Shimahara and Yuri Kano will see action in Saturday's women's race while Tomoyuki Sato and Yukihiro Kitaoka will represent the country in the men's race, which will follow the women's event.
Shimahara is aiming to get the gold after settling for the silver medal at the 2006 Doha Asian Games.
"China's Zhou Chunxiu will run again. Four years ago, I allowed her to pull away early and run alone for the gold medal," she told
Kyodo News.
"This time I'm ready to challenge her. I can't imagine what kind of race I'm going to face. I'll keep my eyes on fast runners in the race," added Shimahara, who placed sixth at the 2007 World Athletics
Championships in Osaka.
Kano also assured Japanese fans that she will give her best in the endurance event.
"I know there are a lot of ups and downs on our marathon course. But I've trained hard on a course like that in Albuquerque (New Mexico). I'm sure I won't have any problems with the Guangzhou course,"
she said.
Kano placed seventh in last year's world championships in Berlin.
Like their female counterparts, the Japanese men are also out to win the gold.
"I believe we have a chance to outperform the Chinese runners (Dong Guojian and Ren Longyun)," Kitaoka said.
"I came to Guangzhou in mid-October to check the course. There are ups and downs for five kilometres from around the 28km mark. That's going to a crucial point of the race."
The spotlight in the men's competition, however, will be on defending champion Mubarak Hassan Shami of Qatar. The Kenyan-born runner formerly known as Richard Yatich is a silver medallist at the 2007 world
championships.
The last Japanese man to win the Asian Games marathon was Mineteru Sakamoto in 1978 while the last Japanese woman to achieve the feat was Naoko Takahashi in 1998.
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