Mizuki Noguchi

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mizuki Noguchi ( Japanese 野 口 み ず き Noguchi Mizuki ; born July 3, 1978 in Ise ) is a Japanese long-distance runner and Olympic champion .

Noguchi began running during her school days, in the first grade of secondary school. At first she ran 3000 meter races and marathon relays (Ekiden) . In 1997 she was accepted into the company team of the clothing manufacturer Wacoal . In 1999 she joined the team at the futures trader Globaly . In Japan it is common for large companies to have their own teams for long-distance runners, including the entire support staff (similar to cycling in Europe). The athletes are then legally considered as employees.

After Noguchi 1999 the half marathon of Inuyama had won, she decided to specialize in this discipline. That year, Noguchi was ranked second in the world. In 1999 she finished second at the World Half Marathon Championships and fourth in the following two years. In 2001 she won the Japanese company championship. Until 2004 she took part in 24 half marathons, of which she won 14, so that she was referred to as the "Queen of the Half Marathon". She was only beaten twice by a Japanese woman. In March 2002 she contested the full distance at the Nagoya Marathon for the first time and immediately won the race in 2:25:35 hours. A year later, as the winner of the Osaka Women's Marathon , she improved this mark to 2:21:18 h.

At the marathon of the World Championships 2003 in Paris / Saint-Denis , she finished second behind Catherine Ndereba . At the Olympic Games in Athens she won the marathon in a time of 2:26:20 h ahead of Catherine Ndereba and Deena Kastor . In 2005 she ran at the Berlin Marathon , where her compatriots Naoko Takahashi and Yōko Shibui had already stayed under 2:20 hours, with 2:19:12 h, both track and Asian records.

In November 2007, she made an impressive return to the marathon route when she set a course record of 2:21:37 h in the Tokyo International Women's Marathon .

Mizuki Noguchi is 1.50 m tall and has a competition weight of 41 kg.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Noguchi, Mizuki
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 野 口 み ず き
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese marathon runner
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd July 1978
PLACE OF BIRTH Ise