Olympic marathon champion Naoko Takahashi broke another record Sunday, when she set a new Japanese best in the women's 30-km road race at the annual Ome "marathon" races in western Tokyo.

The pint-sized Gifu native clocked 1 hour, 41 minutes, 57 seconds in her second official race since setting an Olympic record at the Sydney Games last September as she safely negotiated a field of some 15,000 "fun" runners.

Takahashi, known as "Q-chan," was cheered on by thousands of fans lining the roadside. She shaved 1.29 minutes off the previous national 30-km mark, set by Eriko Asai in 1991.

Tokyo Marathon

Japanese half-marathon record holder Kenichi Takahashi won the Tokyo International Marathon on Sunday, but failed to meet the national team qualifying standard set by the Japan Amateur Athletic Federation.

Takahashi, running alone for the final 10 km of the 42.195-km race, hit the tape at Tokyo's National Stadium in 2 hours, 10 minutes, 51 seconds to become the first Japanese runner in four years to win the event.

After setting a world record pace over the first half of the race, Takahashi faded badly over the last 7 km and did not meet the 2:10:00 standard for selection to Japan's team for the World Championships in Edmonton in August.

"My feet just wouldn't move after 35 km," Takahashi explained.

Ethiopia's Tesfaye Jifar, who came into the race with the fastest personal best of 2:06:49, finished runnerup, 16 seconds behind Takahashi while Dmitri Kapitonov of Russia was third in 2:11:09.

Japan wins ekiden

Japan's anchor Akiko Kawashima crossed the finish line in first place to give the Japanese women's team its first victory in six years at the Beijing International Women's Ekiden on Sunday.

The team of Makiko Kawashima, Takako Kotorida, Haruko Yamamoto, Yumiko Suzuki, Remi Yokota and Kawashima completed the 42.195 km in two hours, 16 minutes and 43 seconds.

Ethiopia finished in second place with a time of two hours, 18 minutes and 12 second, while host China had its three-year winning streak snapped and finished third.

Japan also won the men's race.