SYDNEY -- The Olympic host nation has taken a break from self-aggrandizement to applaud Naoko Takahashi for raising the standard for all marathons to come with her record-breaking time in the women's marathon Sunday.

Australian track and field head coach Chris Wardlaw on Monday acknowledged Takahashi's 2-hour, 23-minute and 14-second run to win Japan's fifth gold medal of the 2000 Games would go down in history. "I think, having reflected on it for 24 hours, that Takahashi's run was probably one of the greatest we have witnessed," said Wardlaw, a former marathoner.

"The field assembled had the greatest depth on a course that was extremely difficult. She took on the field and just ran so aggressively so early that it is a benchmark race in distance running."

Takahashi awed Sydney with her Olympic-best time on a track that Sydney Olympic organizers have boasted is the toughest championship marathon course ever designed. "After I got back to the (athlete's) village, I told Monna's (Australian marathoner Steve Monagetti, who placed seventh in Atlanta) -- and I should not speculate on how he felt -- I was a bit blown away," Wardlaw said. "I don't think any of us ever assumed she could ever negative split that course off a fast pace, and that is what happened."

In regular parlance, what Wardlaw meant was that he was surprised that Takahashi ran the punishing second half of the 42.195-km course faster than she ran the first half. Takahashi sped through the midway point in 1:11:47, but flew through the hilly home stretch in 1:11:27.

"It is an Olympic marathon. People do inspirational things and that happened. People seize the moment and Takahashi did that yesterday," Wardlaw said.

Takahashi, 28, was not as highly favored to win in pre-race media hoopla in the Olympic city as higher-profile athletes such as Kenya's Tegla Loroupe.

Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper was touting Australia's Kerryn McCann as a possible winner in its Sunday morning edition. And while Stadium Australia rang with cheers as Takahashi crossed the finish line, her victory lap was overshadowed by the roar from the crowd as McCann entered to place 11th.

Preoccupied with their own medal prospects, they had been unaware that Takahashi, Ari Ichihashi and Eri Yamaguchi were so good that two of the world's top 14 runners of 1999 and 2000 -- Harumi Hiroyama and Reiko Tosa -- could not make Japan's team. Only one other of that group -- Germany's Katrin Dorre -- did not line up against Takahashi.

Wardlaw was not surprised at her win. "It is a national sport there (Japan). I was staggered by the amount of Japanese people out on the course from Hyde Park to the top of Oxford St. It was wall-to-wall Japanese flags. That's why we love going to Japan to run in marathons."

Takahashi's run created unprecedented scenes at the Sydney Olympics once it had been realized what she had done. The mixed zone where journalists interview athletes after their competitions was more crowded than the previous night after both 100-meter finals.

The next day, The Daily Telegraph's Mike Hurst wrote, "Arguably the finest women's field assembled turned on the best race so far in the Games, with Takahashi producing perhaps the greatest performance in the history of the classic road race."

Sydney Morning Herald journalist Len Johnson wrote that in 1998, many people had doubted Takahashi's superfast 2:21:47 run at the Asian Games marathon.

"It was a point-to-point course, they said. Perhaps it was short. Maybe the following wind -- moderate as it was -- magically ameliorated the otherwise brutal conditions," he wrote, finishing his article thus: "No one can doubt her. She is the best."

Takahashi flagged

SYDNEY (Kyodo) Women's marathon gold medalist Naoko Takahashi will carry the Japanese flag at the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics next Sunday, the Japanese Olympic Committee announced Monday.

Takahashi, the first Japanese woman to win a gold medal in athletics at the Olympics, has postponed her plans to return to Japan on Thursday in order to take part in the ceremony.

Olympic champion judoka Kosei Inoue, who carried the Japanese flag in front of the Japanese delegation for the opening ceremony, returned to Japan on Monday with the first Olympic contingent from Sydney.

"I'm very honored (to be selected to carry the flag). This is a once in a lifetime honor, so I will do my best to carry out my duty," said Takahashi.