Catherine Ndereba of Kenya, silver medalist in the Athens Olympic marathon race, won the Kobe women's half-marathon Sunday with a time of 1 hour, 12 minutes, 10 seconds.

Ndereba, who finished behind Japan's Mizuki Noguchi in Athens, pulled away with 2 km left in the 21-km race and crossed the line ahead of Japan's Maya Nishio and Mika Okunaga.

Runnerup Nishio clocked 1:12:25, eight seconds ahead of Okunaga.