Sairi Maeda likely sealed a spot on Japan's team for this year's world athletics championships with a strong third-place finish at Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon, won by Asian Games champion Eunice Kirwa of Bahrain.
Kirwa won in a race-record time of 2 hours, 22 minutes, 8 seconds. She picked up speed after the 30-km mark to pass Maeda and defending champion Mariya Konovalova, who finished second. Maeda, who fell at the 15-km water tables, finished in 2:22:48, the eighth-fastest time by a Japanese woman.
"I'm surprised (about the time)," said Maeda, who fell when she came into contact with another runner, hurting her left wrist. "It hurts quite a bit.
"I was aspiring to win the championship, so I can't be satisfied with this."
Maeda is now in the driver's seat to race in the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, with Nagoya being the last of three qualifying races. Compatriot Mai Ito finished fourth in 2:24:42, a time that might be fast enough to send her to Beijing as well.
The race was the final qualifying event for Japan's team for the worlds. The fastest times posted so far in the other qualifying marathons, in Yokohama and Osaka, were Tomomi Tanaka's race-winning time of 2:26:57 in Yokohama, and Risa Shigetomo's 2:26:39 in Osaka, where she was third.
Japanese runners finishing in the top eight in Beijing will punch their ticket to next year's Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
