Ukraine’s Tetyana Gamera-Shmyrko won the Osaka Women’s Marathon on Sunday, pulling ahead of Japan’s Kayako Fukushi with just over one kilometre remaining.
Gamera-Shmyrko, who was second in last year’s Osaka race, clocked a personal-best time of 2 hours, 23 minutes, 58 seconds to finish 23 seconds ahead of Fukushi. Japan’s Yuko Watanabe was third with a time of 2-25-56.
“I didn’t think I could catch up,” Gamera-Shmyrko said. “But I was able to find strength and increase the pace over the last two kilometers.”
The 29-year-old Gamera-Shmyrko, who was fifth at the London Olympics, pulled ahead of Fukushi near the 41-kilometer mark and finished close to a minute faster than her second-place time of 2-24-56 in last year’s race.
Mizuki Noguchi, the 2004 Olympic champion and Asian record holder at 2-19-12, was scheduled to run in Osaka but pulled out due to stomach problem.
Mari Ozaki of Japan was fourth while Australia’s Lisa Weightman finished fifth ahead of Poland’s Karolina Jarzynska.
