At the line, though, she had eight seconds to spare over Simon and had slashed 98 seconds off Benoit's Olympic record, set in the inaugural women's Olympic marathon in 1984. It was marathon-crazy Japan's first legitimate Olympic marathon gold medal. Sohn Kee-Chung of Korea won the 1936 Olympic marathon at a time when Japan had annexed Korea. My legs were hurting. The class of this field was undoubted.
Some runners duck the world championships, preferring to run the big-money races.
Few miss the Olympics. Of the top 14 performers in 1999 and 2000, all but three were in this field. 1999 world champion Jong Song-Ok, who retired. The rest were here, although Loroupe suffered from an untimely stomach upset, vomiting before the race and being ill again after finishing 13th. Takahashi surged to the lead at 19 kilometres, taking teammate Ari Ichihashi and Simon with her, leaving Australia's Kerryn McCann and the rest of the leading group strung out behind her.