Giovanna Epis showed up at the Nagoya Marathon with great ambitions, but she wasn’t able to express herself as she would have liked. The Italian, already qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympics, has finished with a time of 2h28:24, almost five minutes above his personal best signed last year in Hamburg (2h23:46, third Italian ever over the distance). The Venetian had at least defended herself in the first part of the race, moving on to the half in 1h12:22 (she had expected a transit in 1h12:00) after partial times of 17:00, 34:01 and 51:22 every five kilometres. The carabinieri then struggled more as time passed, during a morning characterized by clear skies and a temperature of 6 °C: transit in 1h26:05 at the 25th km, 1h43:59 at the 30th, 2h02:05 at the 35th .
The most attended women’s marathon in the world (around 20,000 athletes at the start) was won by Japan’s Yuku Ando, who celebrated at home with a personal best of 2h21:18 after reaching Eunice Chumba three kilometers from the finish line and breaking away from her at the end (the athlete from Bahrain then finished in second place in 2:21.25). Third place for the other Japanese Ayuko Suzuki (2h21:33), while the Ethiopian Gotytom Gebreslase (world silver) retired at the end, after having been in the lead with Chumba until the 37th kilometre.
Giovanna Episa then declared through federal channels: “The day was tough because at the beginning there was little wind but then the gusts became quite strong and even the work of the hares, who proceeded in fits and starts, didn’t help. I found myself in a group with several Japanese athletes, to stay with them until the thirtieth kilometre, then they changed pace and I found myself alone. I was definitely hoping for better from a chronometric point of view, but I wanted to finish, even when I realized that the personal was no longer possible, because you learn something from every marathon and this one taught me a lot.”.
The focus shifts towards the next events of the season: “It was the best preparation of my career, but I will analyze the race and I am convinced that all the work done will come through. The focus is on the marathon of the Paris Games and the half marathon of the European Championships in June in Rome, then I will aim to run strong at the end of the year“.
2024-03-10 11:03:41
#hoping #time #Ando #wins
