Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Women's marathon

Women's marathon at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
Panathinaiko
Venue	Marathon to Athens, Greece
Dates	22 August
Competitors	82 from 46 nations
Winning time	2:26:20
Medalists
Mizuki Noguchi   Japan Catherine Ndereba   Kenya Deena Kastor   United States
←  2000 2008  →

The women's marathon at the 2004 Summer Olympics took place on August 22 in the streets of Athens, Greece. These streets were recently painted for the event, which provided an excellent road surface for the athletes. Drawing upon the ancient origins of the race, the marathon began in Marathon, Greece, and eventually ended at Panathinaiko Stadium, the venue previously used for the 1896 Athens Olympics. ^[1]

The 42.195 kilometre (26.2 mile) journey began in Marathon and the race over the classic course began with temperatures exceeding 35 °C (95 °F). The top contenders all found themselves in a large leading group that held a modest pace through the half marathon. A few tried to surge ahead, but a pack of five runners had been separated from the rest of the field to maintain at the front as they passed the 20k mark. ^[2]

World record holder Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain, who started out as a pre-race favorite coming into the Games, raised the tempo taking four others, including the Japanese duo Mizuki Noguchi and Reiko Tosa, with her to the front. Past 25k, Radcliffe struggled to keep her pace on an uphill stretch of the course and fell behind, leaving the two runners Noguchi and Ethiopia's Elfenesh Alemu to chase into the front with only half a minute apart from each other. At around 35k, Radcliffe launched a brave charge to recover her pace and challenge the leaders into the medal position, until Kenya's Catherine Ndereba managed to overtake her. Distraught and sobbing, Radcliffe tried to restart with 6k left to the finish, but then slumped on the roadside and quit the race, citing pre-race nutrition problems and injuries for her disappointing performance. ^[3]

Heading to the Panathinaiko Stadium, Noguchi continued to escalate her lead, and edged past the late-charging Ndereba by twelve seconds to win the Olympic gold medal in 2:26:20. Noguchi's victory also marked the second consecutive gold for Japan in the women's marathon with Naoko Takahashi claiming the event in Sydney four years earlier. ^{[4] [5]}

Meanwhile, Deena Kastor of the United States came from behind to easily surpass the fading Alemu, and earn the first Olympic medal by an American female in the event since 1984. ^[2]

Among the 82 starters, only sixty-six were able to successfully finish the race, with two left the track seeking for a medical attention. ^[2]

Records

Prior to the competition ^[update] , the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Paula Radcliffe  (GBR)	2:15:25	London, United Kingdom	13 April 2003
Olympic record	Naoko Takahashi  (JPN)	2:23:14	Sydney, Australia	24 September 2000

No new records were set during the competition.

Qualification

The qualification period for athletics was 1 January 2003 to 9 August 2004. For the men's marathon, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had run the race in 2:37:00 or faster during the qualification period. If an NOC had no athletes that qualified under that standard, one athlete that had run the race in 2:42:00 or faster could be entered.

Schedule

All times are Greece Standard Time (UTC+2)

Date	Time	Round
Sunday, 22 August 2004	18:00	Final

Results

Rank [6]	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
	Mizuki Noguchi	Japan	2:26:20
	Catherine Ndereba	Kenya	2:26:32
	Deena Kastor	United States	2:27:20	SB
4	Elfenesh Alemu	Ethiopia	2:28:15
5	Reiko Tosa	Japan	2:28:44
6	Olivera Jevtić	Serbia and Montenegro	2:31:15
7	Naoko Sakamoto	Japan	2:31:43
8	Lyudmila Petrova	Russia	2:31:56
9	Svetlana Zakharova	Russia	2:32:04
10	Bruna Genovese	Italy	2:32:50
11	Alice Chelangat	Kenya	2:33:52
12	Zhang Shujing	China	2:34:34
13	Nuța Olaru	Romania	2:34:45
14	Živilė Balčiūnaitė	Lithuania	2:35:01
15	Corinne Raux	France	2:35:54
16	Rosaria Console	Italy	2:35:56
17	Małgorzata Sobańska	Poland	2:36:43
18	Luminița Zaituc	Germany	2:36:45
19	Lee Eun-jung	South Korea	2:37:23
20	Constantina Diţă	Romania	2:37:31
21	Jong Yong-ok	North Korea	2:37:52
22	Li Helan	China	2:37:53
23	Chung Yun-hee	South Korea	2:38:57
24	Stine Larsen	Norway	2:39:55
25	Liz Yelling	Great Britain	2:40:13
26	María Abel	Spain	2:40:13
27	Hafida Izem	Morocco	2:40:46
28	Anna Pichrtová	Czech Republic	2:40:58
29	Tracey Morris	Great Britain	2:41:00
30	Kenza Wahbi	Morocco	2:41:36
31	Kerryn McCann	Australia	2:41:41
32	Beatriz Ros	Spain	2:41:51
33	Zhou Chunxiu	China	2:42:54
34	Jennifer Rhines	United States	2:43:52
35	Choi Gyeong-hui	South Korea	2:44:05
36	Sandra Ruales	Ecuador	2:44:28
37	María Dolores Pulido	Spain	2:44:33
38	Margarita Tapia	Mexico	2:46:14
39	Colleen de Reuck	United States	2:46:30
40	Albina Ivanova	Russia	2:47:23
41	Grażyna Syrek	Poland	2:47:26
42	Nili Abramski	Israel	2:48:08
43	Clarisse Rasoarizay	Madagascar	2:48:14
44	Jane Salumäe	Estonia	2:48:47
45	Simona Staicu	Hungary	2:48:57
46	Angélica Sánchez	Mexico	2:49:04
47	Helena Sampaio	Portugal	2:49:18
48	Beáta Rakonczai	Hungary	2:49:41
49	Annemette Jensen	Denmark	2:50:01
50	Georgia Abatzidou	Greece	2:50:01
51	Liza Hunter-Galvan	New Zealand	2:50:23
52	Hafida Gadi	France	2:50:29
53	Gulsara Dadabaeva	Tajikistan	2:50:45
54	Epiphanie Nyirabarame	Rwanda	2:52:50	SB
55	Sandra Torres	Argentina	2:54:48
56	Jo Bun-hui	North Korea	2:55:54
57	Hsu Yu-fang	Chinese Taipei	2:55:58
58	Érika Olivera	Chile	2:57:14
59	Mariela González	Cuba	3:02:20
60	Ida Kovács	Hungary	3:03:21
61	Svetlana Şepelev-Tcaci	Moldova	3:03:29
62	Ana Dias	Portugal	3:08:11
63	Inga Juodeškienė	Lithuania	3:09:18
64	Mamokete Lechela	Lesotho	3:11:56
65	Aguida Amaral	Timor-Leste	3:18:25
66	Luvsanlkhündegiin Otgonbayar	Mongolia	3:48:42
	Paula Radcliffe	Great Britain	DNF
	Margaret Okayo	Kenya	DNF
	Ulrike Maisch	Germany	DNF
	Monika Drybulska	Poland	DNF
	Ham Bong-sil	North Korea	DNF
	Rakiya Maraoui-Quétier	France	DNF
	Nasria Baghdad-Azaïdj	Algeria	DNF
	Márcia Narloch	Brazil	DNF
	Marlene Fortunato	Brazil	DNF
	Asha Gigi	Ethiopia	DNF
	Lidia Șimon	Romania	DNF
	Nadia Ejjafini	Bahrain	DNF
	Banuelia Mrashani	Tanzania	DNF
	Workenesh Tola	Ethiopia	DNF
	Lale Öztürk	Turkey	DNF
	Irina Bogachova	Kyrgyzstan	DNF

References

1. "IAAF Athens 2004: Women's Marathon Final". Athens 2004 . IAAF . Retrieved 17 October 2015.
2. Kepner, Tyler (23 August 2004). "Summer 2004 Games: Marathon: Women, Kastor Survives To Capture The Bronze". The New York Times . Retrieved 19 October 2015.
3. "Marathon agony for Radcliffe". BBC Sport. 22 August 2004. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
4. Patrick, Dick (22 August 2004). "Noguchi claims marathon gold medal". CNN . Retrieved 19 October 2015.
5. "Noguchi – Practice makes perfection". IAAF. 23 August 2004. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
6. "Athletics at the 2004 Athens Summer Games: Women's Marathon". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 30 May 2017.

External links

• IAAF Athens 2004 Olympic Coverage