FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Takahashi, 2000 Olympic marathon champion, donates winning bib
to Heritage Collection
Naoko Takahashi, the first woman to run a marathon in under two hours 20
minutes, has become the latest athletics star to generously donate a
competition item from their career to the World Athletics Heritage
Collection.
Takahashi clocked an Olympic marathon record of 2:23:14 on 24 September
2000 to win at the Sydney Olympic Games. It was the first Olympic victory
at the marathon by a Japanese woman and her Games record was not broken
until 2012.
Takahashi moved to the front of the race at the 20-kilometre point along
with her compatriot Ari Ichihashi and Romania's Lidia Simon. Ichihashi
dropped off the pace five kilometres later, leaving Takahashi and Simon to
battle for the title. The two ran together until 35 kilometres when
Takahashi broke away, quickly establishing a 30-metre lead. She extended it
over the next five kilometres and although Simon narrowed it slightly over
the waning two kilometres, Takahashi, wearing bib number 2338, went on to a
comfortable victory.
It is that bib which she has very kindly donated today.
"I am happy to see my Sydney bib join the Heritage collection," said
Takahashi. "I would like the bib's donation to help increase interest in
the marathon, and the challenge and beauty of distance running. It might
also help motivate more people to take up running for fitness and fun, or
perhaps even competitively, picturing themselves in my shoes."
Daughter of the Wind
There was no underestimating Takahashi's national popularity and fame after
her Olympic triumph. She was the subject of a comic strip entitled
"Kazekko," or "Daughter of the Wind". Launched in May 2001, the strip told
Takahashi's life story and at its height attracted 700,000 readers weekly.
Takahashi's career was inspired by the legend of Ethiopia's two-time
Olympic marathon champion Abebe Bikila. As she developed as a runner,
Takahashi was also impressed by the running of Japan's Yuko Arimori, who
raced to Olympic silver in 1992 and bronze in 1996.
Yet it was only when her training partner Hiromi Suzuki won the 1997 world
title in the marathon that Takahashi, who had debuted with a seventh place
finish in 2:31:32 in Osaka in January of that year, truly believed that her
future lay in the marathon.
Audience of 55 million
Takahashi, who was coached by the late Yoshio Koide who last year was
posthumously awarded the World Athletics Plaque, won the first of her two
Berlin Marathon titles in September 2001 with a landmark 2:19:46
performance, a world best and the first time in history that a woman had
broken 2:20 for the distance.
Estimates vary but it is believed that 55 million Japanese, nearly half of
the country's population, watched Takahashi's Berlin race on television.
"I am really happy about the (Berlin TV audience)," Takahashi told The
Japan Times in 2003. "It's an honour that people still remember me, and you
can tell that people's awareness of the sport is big."
"There are so many different sports these days and the level of viewership
is a tribute to the people who came before me and built the marathon up and
made it as popular as it is now. Being a part of that is amazing and I am
grateful."
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