Sydney Olympic marathon champion Naoko Takahashi ran a half-marathon race in Chiba on Sunday in a comeback bid from an ankle injury.
Takahashi completed the course in 1 hour, 26 minutes, 16 seconds in her first race over 20 km since fracturing her right ankle while training in Colorado last September.
Her best in a half-marathon is 1:08:55, but for Takahashi the race in which she jogged the entire way was a success.
"I was aiming for about 1:30:00. The best thing is that I completed the race and I didn't have any pain (in my ankle)," Takahashi said.
It was Takahashi's first appearance in a competitive race since she finished second in the Tokyo International Women's Marathon in November 2003 -- the result that eventually cost her a place in last summer's Athens Olympics.
The 32-year-old is hoping to make a full-fledged comeback to marathon as soon as possible and will begin a one-month training camp Tuesday on Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture.